Books

​I did something really dangerous thing this morning.  I visited a bookshop.  I know if I do that I will walk out with books. Or cd’s.  Today it was books.
I still know this holiday thing is the right thing.  Today I was in the supermarket and went to get a trolley.  Two were stuck together.  Blowed if I could sperate them.  So I moved them aside to get one that was not stuck.  When I turned around there was an elderly lady separating the two trolleys and making it look so easy.  I was incredulous.
Still Merril and I are birds of a feather.  On the way to the bookstore we went though an underground car park.  I thought it was weird we had to go that way if we wanted to get to the bookstore. 
Turned out she had forgotten we were going to the bookstore.  I found it strangely reassuring the carpark visit was not necessary to get to the bookstore.
I entered the bookstore wanting to order a book we had seen online that was available in Penrith.  But I had forgotten the name of the book.  By the very end I remembered and told the attendant.  They looked it up and informed me it was not even available in Penrith.  I said that was ok I would wait.  She then told me it was out of print.  I would be waiting forever.  I decided I should not talk to her any more as every time she spoke it was worse news.  If I kept at it she was likely to say that it says here the world will end right about now.
I ended up getting three books.
One was called “Play the Man.”  That really seems to be the emphasis for me lately.  Sporting analogies.    I just read something in another book that made me chuckle and I thought was so pertinent.  The coach of a football team was asked at a press conference why football was good for the country.  He said it’s terrible for the country.  His reason was that football is 80,000 men desperately in need of exercise watching 22 guys (it was American) desperately in need of a rest.  Anyway I bought “Play the Man” as I am into the sports analogies right now.
Another book I bought was “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect.”  To me that is so true.  We (especially guys) seem to be really good at communicating surface stuff, but terrible at declaring what might be real issues we are facing.  I have found real friends are so hard to find.  To me a real friend is one I trust and who can tell me the way it is.  I know I can take it.  My bottom lip does not quiver for long.
The last book I bought was a bit different.  Often what I get is good for instructing.  This one I bought because I needed to hear it.  I know the back of books are designed to make a person think, “I need to buy this book.”  In this case that really worked.  There was a sentence there that was memorable to me “…minor setbacks preceding a major comeback.”  I really love that.  So many seem to think they have reached their use by date, yet potentially the best is yet to be.
Anyway, some of these titles are for a future date.  Right now, I am reading a book by a former coach.  I read bits of others when I have spare moments, but holidaying keeps me happy busy.