As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my wife and I hosted our annual family reunion this past weekend; and as one might imagine, lots of family have been around over the past week. My parents have been staying with us, and my sister and her husband have also been in town from Arizona, staying with one of my brothers. While I'm about the only golfer in my immediate family, my brother-in-law enjoys golf almost as much as I do, so we try to play whenever we're together.
During the 5-6 days that he's been visiting, we've managed to get out to play 3 times, including today. It's been my pleasure to host him at my club each of those times. While it's not inexpensive to do, it's nice to be able to invite a friend (or relative) to enjoy a great round of golf and not have them pay anything. It truly is one of those times where it's better to give than to receive.
I find that trying to keep a strict accounting of who pays for what or trying to make sure that everyone has paid his fair share is tiring and no fun. It feels much better to be generous and to know that it all evens out in the end. A great example of this philosophy, on an admittedly small scale, is the way we handle food and snacks at the "halfway house" at our club.
Sitting at the counter is a cup with 5 die in it. Members will typically agree to "roll" to see who pays. Each member rolls the cup of die and the member who rolls the lowest total number pays for everyone's snacks that day. No one worries about who got a hot dog and who only got a Powerade. And no one worries about who paid the last time. It's much simpler this way, and we all figure that at the end of the year we each will likely have paid for an appropriate amount.
In all of these areas, I'd rather err on the side of generosity.
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