Reflections By The Bay

Friday, April 13, 2012

COACHING

He always wanted to be a coach,

even when he was a player ….

Then when he made it, when

he was hired, he began to feel

the tough of it - the decisions -

to cut players - to bench ego’s -

to field the best - realizing this

meant the wrath of parents -

the nasty chanting of fans -

when the team was going

through a slump - yet he hung

in there - with Harry Truman’s

words on his office desk. “If you

can’t stand the heat, get out of

the kitchen.” That helped, but

what really helped was a poem

his wife read to him from Mary Oliver:

FARM COUNTRY*

I have sharpened my knives, I have

Put on the heavy apron.

Maybe you think life is chicken soup, served

In blue willow-pattern bowls.

I have put on my boots and opened

The kitchen door and stepped out

Into the sunshine. I have crossed the lawn

I have entered

The hen house.