Oddsmakers calculate that the chance of an amateur golfer making a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1. Thus, when one happens the lucky golfer feels she or he has touched the edge of the sport's Holy Grail.

   Many avid golfers (including my three partners) go their whole lives & never make one. In fact, it has taken my whole life to arrive at the moment in the picture. 

   After decades of trying & countless swings I finally scored an ace. Yes, I know it does not really matter – especially when compared to the life-and-death struggles caregivers face each day. 

   The reason for the reference here is that one swing generated one of life's most elusive feelings: pure elation. As you know, those feelings do not last long & thus are to be savored, even when it involves playing a game many think is (like all games) silly. 

   Everyone knows that this has been a nightmare year. Celebrations of all kinds have been shadowed by fears of disease (each of us in picture has been vaccinated), so many caregivers have been over-taxed & millions have lost loved ones & jobs. 

   A pall has hung over not just America but the world. Maybe this explains why so many offered such unusually exuberant congratulations over this simple event.

   For a moment, the subject was not the pandemic or politics or war. It was that something happy happened to somebody, anybody. Something they could celebrate as well. 

 -Erie Chapman