Greetings Golfers,

I’m reading a fun book called: AMERICAN NATIONS by Colin Woodard. It’s about how America is way more divided than most people realize, and what the roots of those divisions are.

Throughout the book, Woodard is always referring to how areas settled, and that’s why those areas vote the way they do. He’s pretty obsessed with politics. At the end of the book he goes on a wild rant where he “explains” why we’d be better off if the country broke apart – he really hates some parts of the country.

It’s great history and great sociology… I don’t agree with all of it, but I learned a lot, and that stuff really interests me. People really interest me. Why people are different is fascinating. Obviously, climate and natural resources greatly influence how a culture develops. People of different countries moved to similar physical areas in America, and brought their culture with them. The “melting pot” never really melted.

But not only are people different, they’re also similar… of course, but it gets forgotten. We make friends with people we feel comfortable with, and usually that’s on socio-economic ground. That’s understandable – but can be pretty limiting.

Being in the people business, I meet a huge variety of people. I enjoy most of the people I meet – you can’t fake it in my business, you’d be dead after a week. But, there are people I don’t like because they’re jerks (I would use another term, but this is a family column. If fact, I wanted our club logo to be a picture of that term, and have a line drawn through it – “no a-holes”).

How do you define a jerk (or that other term)? It’s sort of like the judge who defined pornography by saying “I know it when I see it”. I think we all know them when we get to know them. Here’s the defining characteristic: we all sometimes act like jerks, but we usually realize it and feel bad about it. The jerk, realizes it, and doesn’t care, or even enjoys being a jerk!

So, America is made up of many peoples. Deer Run welcomes them all – except the jerks.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com