Boys and their balls

Since humans partake in the creation of the world in relation with each other as well as all the other entities, bits and pieces, energy and all that ... and since the male of the species is less evolved emotionally than the female, he finds special games to play to ease the pain of having to emote with other chaps (emoting with the other gender is a far more complex subject for another post and possibly another blogger) ...

Lots of these more obvious games involve balls, mostly round, of different sizes ... the games played with each particular ball indicate national and class preferences ... and as humanity has evolved temporarily to be spectators more than players, the games are played by taking sides and talking endlessly about the details of the games watched either at the games or on the mind conditioning machine. Sometimes the spectators get bored just watching and commentating and have a good old fight with the supporters of the other team ... actually there was even a small war in South America sparked by a football match (in 1969 between El Salvador and Honduras)... on the plus side one of the few redeeming features of the horror show which was the 1st World War (known for a brief period as the war to end all wars), were the widespread Christmas truces of 1914, including football matches .... this was strongly discouraged in subsequent years, since it was deemed rather early for sentiments of peace and goodwill, Christmas or no Christmas ... and yes, since you ask, the main protaganists were mostly signed up to various branches of the eponymous religion ... Jesus must have been most confused who he was supposed to be supporting...

Back to the balls and the Costa ... known also as the Costa del Golf ... this has been commented on during the Algarve walk last year and for any readers unaware involves walking or riding a milk float round a manicured piece of countryside, taking it in turns to hit a small hard, ball into a small hole with a big stick. Of course, as with all the ball games, the real reasons are multi-layered ... golf being one of the preferred locations for business talk, complaining about the other gender and a known hang-out for freemasons ... at the end of the ball holing (usually 18 times each) is the clubhouse, where the drinking happens...

Down at this end of the Costa is a posher ball game which requires horses and humans (mostly blokes again) recklessly rushing about swinging big sticks to hit hard, small (but not as small as golf) balls into goals. They call it polo and it is apparently popular with royalty ... and Argentines ...

In case any readers are interested, your blogger's preferred ball playing involved football and squash, both far too active for a pensioner (well this one anyway) ... more leisurely games like golf and snooker never appealed, which may explain my rather asocial nature ...