About 15 years ago I was visiting one of my oldest and closest guy friends. By old, I mean pre-birth. His mother and my mother have been friends since they were six years old; he & I have been friends since he was 8, because that was his age when I was born...
Anyway, I was visiting him in San Diego on spring break, a rather perfect place to visit during Minnesota’s “spring,” which is really just winter plus, or winter, the extended version. My birthday’s in the end of March and we could still have sledding parties – there was that much snow in the northern tundra I called home for the first 18 years of my life. Truly, I loved growing up there, as my winter-sports skills are testimony to, but San Diego was an easy choice for spring break, especially knowing I’d have a friend to stay with.
But comparing Minnesota and southern California weather is not the intended topic of this blog. While visiting my SoCal friend in San Diego, I discovered a tangible fact about men. This is something I was exposed to prior to my visit, but I think it really anchored that spring week.
Guys can make a game out of anything. Or maybe “competition” is just as apt a word as “game.” Look at fantasy football. Only guys could make a game out of watching football. I’m not even going to bother doing an internet fact-check on this one, because only the male species could invent a game out of game-viewing.
My hosts in San Diego, my friend and his roommate, would spend hours – I’m not exaggerating here, they literally spent hours playing this game they invented that basically consisted of the following rules:
- From a seated position on the couch
- Throw a hacky-sack (about an 8-9 foot toss if memory serves)
- Make said hacky-sack land atop a triangular-shaped speaker that stood about 4 feet tall, of which each side was approximately 7-8 inches (making the area approximately 12-16 square inches)
It’s harder than I describe, because a) The hacky-sack has a tendency to roll off the top of the speaker – no matter if the thrower bounced it off the wall first or tried for a direct landing; and b) It required a certain arc and delicacy that took a while to master. Once you got the feel, you still were only batting less than 500 (again, if memory serves).
Now I’m making fun a little of my male counter-parts here, but I must admit, I sort of like this about men. It comes in very handy when on long road trips, flights, camping, hiking or stranded somewhere.
But it makes me wonder – are men like this because they spent so many years of human evolution hunting, or were they good at hunting because they’re like this? Also, in today’s world, where hunting is no longer required for survival, are men just creating these games, competitions...even wars, because they don’t know what else to do with all of those subconscious hunting instincts that are still inherent in them? That seems to disregard our conscious minds, though. And unfortunately, I can’t think of any way to prove or disprove this half-baked theory.
What I do know is this: If medals were awarded, I would’ve received a bronze medal in the tri-hacky-tournament. Too bad there were only three of us playing, or I might’ve had bragging rights for the bar.
- I had to learn SIGN LANGUAGE when I moved to Los Angeles
- Guys can make a game out of anything
- Hello? The power of CONNECTING and how technology has changed
- Popping the question is better than porn!
- Bravo, Stephen Colbert & Co! and your Olympic Vancouverage
- Songwriting is like SEX
- Born To Run by Christopher McDougall - Inspiring a inspiring all of us to be more in the FLOW
- A moment of silence for all the plastic surgery ca...
- Ricky Gervais should be the new Simon on American Idol
- Muscle SURPRISE! The key to physical, mental & emotional fitness
- I think my boyfriend's a snake...
- Release... Sweat & Power
- MY FAVORITE THINGS! - Vibram's Five Fingers
- Dick Morris... How do you sleep at night?
- Rusty DePass, Gorillas, and Obama, oh my!
- Michael Jackson - Troubled Genius
