A Few More Thoughts About Pool...

The more I think about it, the more I realize part of the reason I enjoy shooting pool so much. I'm not a big sports person. Heh heh. I vowed once I got out of high school that I'd NEVER EVER touch a volleyball again, and I've stayed true to this vow. I don't dig the hyper-competitiveness. I am ridiculously uncoordinated. I am one of those people who ducks whenever a ball comes flying at her head. I hate team spirit and having to do stuff like pass to other people and hit the ball to other people and tackle other people. Competitive sports just do NOT do it for me.

But pool... that's a different story. It takes a lot of thought and understanding of angles and so much control. (*Please note that I am not implying that other sports do NOT require these things. But it's in a different sort of way...) There's no pressure because you don't have someone running at you full-speed trying to knock the ball out of your hands or something. (Note to self and sister, Lesley: it WOULD be kinda fun to have tackle pool sometime, or some other variation where you both are trying to get balls in the pocket simultaneously--must keep this in mind for future pool games.)

There's something beautiful about being able to swiftly navigate the angles and shots for pool, to get to that point where you don't have to use the stick to line up the angle between cue and ball to see where you have to hit it to get it in--you just KNOW. Your mind is able to read and synthesize the table in this miraculous sort of way...

That's why the whole pool/chaos theory thing intrigues me as well. There's such order and yet such disorder on the table each time you play. But it seems so transcendent to be able to make sense of the disorder and order so quickly, so easily, so simply, so gut-reaction and translate it into a sunk shot. It's a beautiful thing to be constantly placing order (and disorder) onto a set of balls like that. Like you're in charge of a constantly shifting set of constellations or something.

I likey pool.

"in the back room there's a lamp
that hangs over the pool table
and when the fan is on it swings
gently side to side
there's a changing constellation
of balls as we are playing
i see orion and say nothing"

--ani difranco ("untouchable face")

-------