April 2021 Newsletter
“Everyone on earth knowing that beauty is beautiful makes ugliness.”
-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (Le Guin, tr.)
What I love about tennis is that we call our own lines. The first rule in the Code is “Courtesy is expected. Tennis is a game that requires cooperation and courtesy.” That means that when I am at match point; ad out; winner goes to Sectionals, loser stays home, and I see a close line call. I call it in – even if I don’t like my opponent, don’t agree with them and think that they make terrible line calls.
This could just as easily be, “Life is a game that requires cooperation and courtesy.” We have all been made aware of the degeneration of this principle to truly horrific levels over the past year. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery – these are names we should not know but that we cannot (and should not) forget. Now we can add eight more names from Atlanta in a brutal crime that can only be seen as targeting Asians and women.
It may seem trite to suggest that courtesy and cooperation can help us solve these problems, and it is not enough – that is true. But it is a necessary first step. We can take these lessons that we practice in tennis and apply them in our lives. Courtesy leads to listening, which leads to dialog, which can lead to a change in thinking, and more importantly, a change in fearing.
Asian American culture is not damaging to American culture. In fact, it has been a part of our culture since before the Gold Rush of 1849. Likewise, the contribution of African Americans to American culture is so fundamental that rather than damaging our heritage, it would be destructive to excise it. The same can be said for all ethnic groups that have emigrated to this continent–English, Irish, Eastern Europeans, Catholics, Jews, Muslims . . . the list goes on. Rather than repeat the mistakes of the past, the Houston Tennis Association rejects violence as a tool to resist social change (or indeed, in any context) and calls for courtesy, open hearts and minds, and the acceptance that we cannot individually or as distinct societies mandate what is universally good, beautiful or right. It is when we think that we can, that ugliness has fertile soil in which to grow. Douglas Pritchett