THE PHILOSOPHY OF ENOUGH

How finding satisfaction is the secret to happiness

They call him The King. Arnold Palmer once was and always will be the king of golf. He took a sport that had been largely shut up behind stone gates and made it appeal to the common person. He came by this honestly.

Arnie’s father, Deacon (a preacher’s got to like that name, don’t you know?), was the greens superintendent at the Latrobe Country Club in western Pennsylvania. He was Arnie’s first teacher. He taught him how to get the right grip on the club to play the game. He taught him how to get the right grip on ambition to play the game of life.

Deacon once was offered the position of greens superintendent at the neighboring, famed and exclusive Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh. When he told young Arnold of the opportunity, his son was proud and began to dream of being there. Deke turned down the job. He told his boy this: “Arn, I’m staying at Latrobe. We’re going to make it happen here. I can’t drink any more, I can’t eat any more, and I can’t love my business any more, so I’m staying right where we’re at.”

Arnold Palmer has lived long enough now (he’s 84) to judge that to have been his greatest life lesson. The Latrobe club hasn’t changed much over the years, but to Arnold it’s still got everything he needs. It’s home and I love it, he says.

The recent Super Bowl commercials reinforced what has become conventional wisdom among us: having “more, better or different” is the secret to happiness. We will be satisfied when we get the next job, house, car, spouse, child or thing. But the truth is, getting the next thing doesn’t cure the insatiable desire that undergirds every change.

We become what we practice. If we practice want, we will want forever. If we prac- tice satisfaction, we will be satisfied.

We would all profit from adopting the “philosophy of enough” exemplified by Deacon Palmer. When you cultivate a sense of fullness rather than emptiness, you can experience satisfaction in life and practice gratitude.

St. Paul testified to this very thing: “I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

That last line about being able to do all things through “him” who strengthens us has been taken in all sorts of well-meaning but ill-advised directions. Football players wear it as an eye-black amulet to draw strength from on the field. Spiritual motivation speakers beseech aspirants to prosper by letting God give them the promised edge. The context teaches us just the opposite: God strengthens us spiritually beyond our natural capacity so that we may accept the circumstances of want or plenty and learn contentment.

This may be bad for the economy, but it’s good for the soul of society. Jesus promised abundant life. He didn’t promise abundance of things. Like Deke Palmer, we can know the good life if we learn the adequacy of all that is already ours.

Enough already, then.

Community

Andres Properties, which owns several stores along Lowest Greenville, recently installed two wifi towers on top of Crisp Salad Co. so guests can have free public wifi. To use, access the username “attwifi.” No password needed. The range only reaches a couple of the nearby buildings, but Andres says it is considering installing more towers along the street.

Presidium Group, LLC, hosted a commissioning ceremony in January at the Grove at White Rock Lake to cut the ribbon on its recently installed Microturbine Combined Heat and Power (MCHP) technology, which will provide roughly 18 percent of the power demand of the property as well as produce excess heat for the property’s hot water system.

People

Swiss neighbor Harryette Ehrhardt, a retired state legislator, was honored twice in February. The League of Women Voters honored Ehrhardt as the Susan B. Anthony Award winner for this year because of her determined efforts in obtaining equal rights for all citizens. The ceremony was held at the Lakewood Country Club on Feb. 13. Ehrhardt was also honored by IGNITE, a group that encourages young high school and college women to become involved in local politics and seek elected leadership positions, during its 2014 Young Women’s Political Leadership Conference on Feb. 22. Because of Ehrhardt’s experience and commitment to the IGNITE mission, she is a role model for young women, IGNITE says. IGNITE awarded her the Trailblazer of the Year Award.

Ultra-running is a fringe activity that is gaining popularity, and women from the Dallas and White Rock area are proving to be leaders in the sport. An ultra-marathon refers to anything longer than the 26.2 miles that is a regular marathon — 50k, 50 miles, 100 miles and beyond — and they are typically run on dirt trails (and frequently over mountains and other grueling terrain). We wrote a year ago about White Rock-area resident and White Rock Running Co-op member Nicole Studer when she won the Huntsville Rocky Raccoon 100-mile race. This year’s Rocky Raccoon 100 served as the USA Track and Field 100-mile Trail Championship, and Studer defended her title against an even tougher field of women. She won again; she ran under 16 hours and beat second-place Kaci Lickteig from Nebraska by just three minutes. Another neighborhood woman, Shaheen Sattar — who also improved last year’s time by more than an hour — placed third. Claudia Zulejkic, who you’ll find most days working at Bikram Yoga Dallas on Mockingbird-Abrams, ran all day and night, completing the 100-mile ultramarathon in a little more than 25 hours and placed in the top 25 women out of more than 100 who started the race.

HAVE

AN ITEM TO BE FEATURED?

Please submit news items and/or photos concerning neighborhood residents, activities, honors and volunteer opportunities to editor@advocatemag.com. Our deadline is the first of the month prior to the month of publication.