h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, yesterday, Sunday the 21st July 2006 was really a heday for the U S of A.
In the epic battle of the British Open Golf Championship,
three out of the first four golfers were Americans, and an American won the Tour de France.

Although this week has been very difficult and sad because K. was so unwell, i have been able to go and "lose" myself watching both the tour de France and the British Open.

I am totally captured/enraptured with the dedication and care which Tiger Woods gives to his golf. He is such a perfectionist and so correct and precise in what he does that he is a joy to watch. I was just sooo happy that he won it in the end. I was intrigued and fascinated to learn that during the "off" season he enjoys bungee jumping, white water rafter and absailing.

It was interesting to note that the commentators called him ruthless, focussed, had a game plan, etc. etc. Of course he was, but he showed what a truly great person he was by literally "exploding" with grief at the loss of his father who had died two moths previously after he had holed his last putt on the 18th. HOw refreshing and wonderful to see this basic human emotion and realise that it was his father who had been such a driving force in his career. and that he had been able to harness his emotions until he had paid him the tribute he deserved.

I have been following his career for a long time and I was concerned because he appeared to have "gone off the boil" so to speak. I had not realised that his father had been so ill, - I think I had known tht he had died. But what a wonderful thank you he gave him. The American who came second, came up from nowhere yesterday. Chris DiMarco had just lost his mother . Both these great players paid tribute said how they felt that their parents(father in the case of Tiger) and mother in the case ofChris DiMarco)) had been by their side throughout the tournament.What a a wonderful testimony to the parents. Boy are the Americans going to walk away with the Ryder Cup.

And then the wiry American from Pennsylvania -Floyd Landis - he was so determined and so charming and so fit and so ... well everything one can think that a great athlete should be.

These fine achievements were a wonderful inspiration and what was so wonderful was that not one of these sportsmen denigrated anyone or gave any exhibition bad sportsmanship if they missed a shot, or in the case of Floyd Landis had a really bad day on the Wednesday.

The joy was that in both these two sports a classic example is given to all about wht sport really is I thank the country that has produced such wonderul ambassadors for the USA.

all round
ChristianeAR1

Floyd Landis grew up just a few miles north of where I live in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. The whole county is all a-twitter over his big win!

Nice to hear from y9ou Lady Scott. I was very interested because somewhere during one of the broadcasts I heard that he was brought up in Amish country? I am not sure what that means.

But I have never seen a man riding with such joyful determination. It was quite magnificent.

Sincerely,

Christiane ARR1

Yes, he was brought up in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, which is considered to be "Amish country", since it's where the Amish first settled when they came to the US.

His parents are not Amish though, but Mennonite. However, they are very conservative Mennonites, and don't own a TV or radio, so they had to go to a neighbor's house to watch the race each day. They actually missed seeing his final race day and podium speech live though, because they went to church. The neighbors videotaped it for them to watch later though. From what I can gather from the news stories I've read, his parents also must not have a telephone in their home, so the neighbors are also taking calls from well-wishers for them.

Or they could be fairly private people *shrug*

Not having a telephone in the house goes right along with the whole Mennonite thing of not having a TV or radio. From the articles in the paper about Floyd's family, it sounds like they fully expect lots and lots of messages from people (and have already had lots of visitors, including French reporters), but they've asked that people send notes instead of leaving phone messages, because they want to be able to read them. Again, that's a Mennonite thing, because it's kinda hard to keep phone messages in a scrapbook to listen to again and again, whereas notes can be tucked away to read over and over, and shared with Floyd when he visits.

Thank you so much Lady Scott for giving me those details about both the Mennonites and the Amish religions.

They certainly are true to thie beliefs if they had to go and watch the race on a neighbour's TV and missed the presentation because they were obliged to go to Church. That is obviously what gives Floyd his dedication to his sport and his Faith in himself. I do not think that I would have had the moral strength to do it.

Thank you also Amy for your comment.
t
I would be interested in trying to understand where Tiger gets his total dedication from. He is obviously a man of deep Faith as well, and that was one of the wonderful things about both his and Chris DiMarco successes. Both of them were able to stand up and be counted - both for their Faith and for what their parents had done for them.

Wonderful.

By the way, I would love to write anote to the parents of Floyd = I suppose that I could address it to the the town where they live.
Thank you both for explaining some of the details of these religions and how they give one the strength to accept the problems and difficulties of life

Thank you again.

Christiane AR1

Oh, I'm sure Floyd's family would *love* to have a note from you!

Here's a link to an article about his family from the local paper:

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/24261

Just in case you can't access the article for some reason, they put his parents' address in the article:

>>The family, which lives at 49 N. Farmersville Road, encourages well-wishers to write instead, he said. “We’d like to read about other people’s victories and dreams” and include them in a scrapbook.<<

I looked on the postal service website, and it appears to be an Ephrata address, so the next line in the address would be "Ephrata, PA 17522-8734".

Of course you'd need to add USA to the address too.


[In case anyone is considering yikesing this post, the address has been published in a newspaper story, so it's not exactly personal information any more]