Jan 22 2008
A little flyball
So on Saturday, skittles and I headed off to Irvine to check out the OC Flyball Winter Games. You can check out information about flyball here (ocregister.com) and here (ocflyball.org). The group describes it as doggie drag racing — 2 teams of 4 dogs and handlers compete to see how quickly each team can have each dog in series jump over a series of obstacles, jump on a special box which ejects a ball and take the ball back across the finish line. Only one dog per team can be across the line at a time and missing or going around obstacles or going over to the other team’s run is grounds for disqualification for the run. From what I saw as well, the competitions are based on the best of 3 runs for each team and the dogs and handlers all get into it. I’ve never heard such a cacophony of barking in my life but it was a lot of fun.
As I was trading emails with someone today, I realized that Flyball can be an illustration of how we go about life:
I think in life there are some of us that are very pleased just to run around with the chew toy and our handler. Some of the dogs at the show looked the happiest when they had a ball or toy they were carrying around.
Some of us just sit on the sidelines and bark at what we feel like barking at or squeal because we can’t get out and play with the others.
Some of us get into the race, jump the obstacles and at the last minute decide that the other ball in the other box looks more interesting and so we’ll go over there, which unfortunately interferes with the other team and gets us disqualified from the race.
And then there’s the few that bound with joy over the obstacles to the goal, jump on the box with glee, grab the ball and race home where the handler’s cheering us on the whole way. Not around the obstacles, but over them, not lackadaisical but with speed and with the joy of just going for it. May we be the team who run the race set out for us well, who hop on the box with glee and go exuberantly back to the Master. 