D’ruther eat dirt
We have often heard a sports announcer say of an athlete “she has lost her concentrationâ€.
Anyone who has played both party bridge and duplicate bridge will recognize the great chasm separating the two forms of bridge; playing duplicate bridge is for serious players and party bridge is what the phrase implies. Party bridge is fun and games and discussions and eating cake and drinking coffee or wine.
The individual who has struggled to improve her golf swing or tennis serve can comprehend that the duplicate bridge player is like the person who is determined to improve her game.
It appears to me that few of us have learned in our schooling how to improve our intellectual game of reading, listening, and thinking. Our schools have seldom provided any of us with the experience of reading, listening, and thinking with determination and concentration. Our schooling has aided us in becoming sleep-readers, sleep-listeners, and sleep-thinkers.
If we adults are ever to correct this deficiency we must do it on our own. The major barrier to correcting this deficiency is our ego. No vigorous self-respecting ego is going to stand idly by while its brain accepts this as being true.
How can adults correct this deficiency? Like a good golf swing; if we have never experienced it can we recognize it without a coach? I think we can but it is a pain in the brain.
It appears to me that it is basic human nature not to change our views without a struggle. The ego is generally a force for the status quo. When faced with having to change my image of myself ‘druthereat dirt’.