On The Rauchdy Match – Year Three Preamble

Boys,

Life is made up of infinite moments — literally. You can measure time but you cannot measure the volume of thoughts and actions that happen between two bookends of time. And sometimes, you look back at a specific moment and realize that, if done correctly, that moment can change your life.

We probably forget 99.99% of moments in our own lives. And most of those moments we do remember just live in our memory like little trophies on our mental mantles. But, the most important moments change the trajectory of our lives — they’re linchpins or catalysts for bigger things that are born from those moments that turn out to impact our lives in very, very big ways.

I believe that if you ask most people, they’d misidentify those key moments that matter the most.

For example, you might think the moment when your mom and I said “I do” was one of those pivotal moments. Because surely, without that moment we wouldn’t be the family we are today. We wouldn’t have you two and we wouldn’t have got Oakley (hey first Oakley shoutout in a post! You go girl). But the reality is that there were many smaller moments that led up to your mom and I getting married. The wheels of change were already rolling and we already (thought, at least, that we) had things figured out for how our future would go — two kids, dog, big house, happy home.

The truth is, the moment that mattered for me was this little moment when your mom and I had been dating for three or four months, and she was sitting on the couch in my parents’ house when it was just the two of us there, and she makes this head to toe motion with her hand and said something like, “you can have all of this for a long time if you want.” She was trying to be funny and bless her heart, I tried to make her feel like she was, but the truth is, I think it was that little moment that I began to see that this was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

That moment would probably be a top five answer for biggest moments of my life if we were playing Family Fued. But one moment that might ding above it on the big board would be the moment your mom stubbornly held to the belief that she could beat me in golf if we played from the same tees.

Now, when you boys get married, you will find that some things you have to just let go. She might tell you that you parked crooked and that it’s too tight on her side, and every part of you might want to defend yourself because the big truck on your side parked too close to the line and had you pulled in straight, it would have cause more of an issue, and we’re just going in and out so who cares if the back wheel is a little on the line? But you’ll realize (hopefully sooner than later) that its easier to just back up, pull in to the spot “correctly,” and wedge yourself out and hope that you leave before the truck does because that guy will probably ding your bumper and drive off anyway because people are a**holes.

Too specific?

Anyway, you pick your battles, right? But, on that particular night, after two or three particular glasses of red wine (these are the things you remember about the important moments), I couldn’t let that comment slide.

Now, three years later (and nine or ten posts about it later), we’re still trying to figure out which one of us was right. Well, turns out I was right because I beat her the second year and everyone knows that was the one that counts — nevermind whatever happened that first year. But this year, we’re moving the goalposts a bit and changing how we run things. The argument of who is better from the same tees has been decided, and now we’re playing for who is the better golfer. Period.

This year, we’re changing tees so that it’s a fair fight. When your mom was better than me, she beat me from the same tees and that is something I have to live with. When I got better, I beat her and, frankly, it wasn’t very close. So now, with our skill levels being about the same from our own pertinent tees, we will battle it out for the best golfer in the family. No gimmicks. No excuses (unless she wins). Mental warfare, neighborhood rooting interests…. it’s all on the table.

As I sit here today, we have one week until The Rauchdy Match. I hope that one day you boys can be involved, but until then, I need to get ready for what I have to do…

Dad