
I play tennis, not too well due to a 26-year gap of not playing, but well enough to enjoy myself and win a game or two. I have decent strokes but rely more on finesse and placement to win points than on power. But sometimes it feels good to just hit - the ball - as hard - as – I – can for 30 minutes. Yesterday, for example. Hitting the ball as hard as you can against the wooden bang board at the courts is terrific, cheap and immediate therapy, good for stress, frustration, disappointment, confusion, tension, anxiety, discouragement, sorrow, sadness and just about anything else that may be messing with your head. Try it.
It also helps, at least it did last night, to follow that up with belly laughs. I have a stack of Marx Brothers movies here, waiting for the weekend, and ended up watching Duck Soup while I wrote. One-liners and slapstick bits fly nonstop. For example:
Rufus T. Firefly, president of Freedonia, his country at war, calling for help during a bombing: "Three men and a woman are trapped in this building. Send help immediately. If you can’t send help, send two more women."





