Racquetball and the Liberal Arts

The following is a personal parable about "why a liberal arts education":

For Valentine's Day, my honey and I tried out a free membership to Gold's Gym for one reason: racquetball. Quinn is quite the natural with racquetball as he is with other sports, and so the two of us together is somewhat laughable. The first game, I scored a miraculous 5 as he got back into the groove, and then the next game was more normal with a 21:1 finish, followed by a game of 21:0. (There was actually a game that was 21:13 or 14, but that is definitely the anomaly :)...)

I am okay with this. It is really quite impressive to watch Quinn's z-serve zap back and forth faster than I can respond to, and sometimes I actually return his serves (very rewarding, I assure you :)...) He even let me in on the "secret" of how to know what kind of serve he is doing to do based upon where he bounces the ball before he serves it...as if my brain is going to work fast enough to see where he bounces it, translate that to a serve, and then make my old-mom body respond fast enough to actually return it?! Funny :). As I told him, it is all I can do to hit the ball when I can, let alone plan where it is going to go when I hit it, or try to figure out where it is going to end up after bouncing all over.

Towards the end of our second day playing racquetball, part of me kind of gave up. I mean, my overall score was maybe in the twenties (thinking optimistically), and he was in the 100's--literally :). What was the point, I thought briefly. Is he really having fun? Am I really getting better?

Well, last night, playing basketball with my women, I was in a situation where I was dribbling up to half court with one woman in hot pursuit on the side, and another fixed at the half-court side line, ready to trap me. As I raced towards the second one and the one on my left closed in, I saw in my mind in a flash what I needed to do, stopped quickly, zipped the basketball across to the left, cut across behind the woman who had been on my side, and dashed left, leaving the two of them to crash together.

I don't know if I described it well or not, but the point is, I was actually able to see a situation ahead of time, and act quickly to respond to it--just like I had been practicing in that racquetball game! I am very much a thinker and a planner, hesitant to quick action, weighing out every possibility in my brain before acting: good in some situations, not good in racquetball :). Yet, my time on the racquetball court helped train my brain to think and act in a pressure situation.

So--relevance--as I am going through my notes from previous seminars, etc, I came across this quote from an article written by Robert Harris, "On the Purpose of a Liberal Arts Education" (my copy is from March 14, 1991). It is under the heading: "The more you learn, the more you can learn" (which goes against my old belief that my brain would just fill up and run out of room--not logical, but real to me :).)

"Good learning habits can be transferred from one subject to another. When a basketball player lifts weights or plays handball in preparation for basketball, no one asks, 'What good is weightlifting or handball for a basketball player?' because it is clear that these exercises build the muscles, reflexes and coordination that can be transferred to basketball--building them perhaps better than endless hours of basketball practice would. the same is true of the mind. Exercise in various areas builds brainpower for whatever endeavor you plan to pursue."

So is that why Yale was content with "Celtic Archaelogy" as a credit towards fulfilling my generals for graduation? :) [We learned about the "evolution" of the safety pin from the dawn of time, and I wondered how that was going to help in my overall education--now I know :)!]

(For full article, see: Robert Harris: "On the purpose of a liberal arts education" at http://www.virtualsalt.com/libarted.htm)

It just showed me how we cannot underestimate the value of learning certain skills and core leadership principles... and what they can do for the rest of our education!