From a Full Life Enriched by Sport
A
Book written
by John Henderson
Dedicated to his parents
James Nicoll Kerr Henderson (1908-1989)
and
Nancy (Telfer) Henderson (1905-1990)
‘Recount your blessings,
Name them one by one,
And it should not surprise you
What the Lord has done.’
(With apologies to Johnson Oatman Jr., 1897)
People’s lives are sketched out within the moving pages of history from
the various ways in which they have been influenced by heredity, the
march of time, people encountered, places lived in or visited, and
events experienced. On reflection each of these facets of living in
detail can be judged as blessing or curse. I am indeed fortunate that so
many of the particulars of my own journeying have been dominated by the
word ‘blessings’ and thus recalled by me today as having been God’s gift
to me to enjoy, not just from the potential of personal achievement that
they provided, but also from what ‘blessings’ others may have had the
opportunity to gain from any of our fleeting and more lasting
interactions at various times.
The theme of this book is sport, and particularly its
influence on my life as an enriching blessing as time passed, as some
key people offered support, as suitable environments encouraged progress
and as events organised by my elders provided the stages for
participation – all helping me come to realize the benefits that being
‘a good sport’ can bring to the quality of life. Indeed the realisation
that the thrill of winning is impossible to appreciate fully without
experiencing the depths of disappointment of a loss, helps one become
magnanimous in victory and genuinely congratulatory of opponents in
defeat. It is, to parody Burns, ‘a gift gean us tae see result as ithers
see it’!
Chronology provides the framework of the book.
Significant people and/or places and/or events are the subjects of its
episodes that are mostly expressed in prose and/or verse but at other
times in photographs.
John Henderson, 15.05.2004
