As i was hurling my ball down the lane little did i know...

Decent game of 111 in the 7th frame and with confidence and trust I flung my ball down the narrow alley as i had done a hundred times before expecting to come back with my spherical companion to smash another set of stalwart whites. It was almost with impunity that I forgot the void that lay just beyond those pins within whirling mechanical hate and uncertainty. Minutes passed and impatience festered into an agitation but was suddenly met with relief when my rolling comrade came back but this time changed and with each rotation bringing it closer, a consistent eerie wobble brought a perspective that comes only from utter unbelief and entered my veiw with long white gashes encircling the circumference impeding and slowing my injured friend. Rolling to a silent stop, I saw what i could not imagine before, deep powdery gouges criss crossed with uneven jaggedness into the once innocently pure and glassy smooth surface and where once the shine of beauty was now oil and powder mixed to grout permanent scars in a sort of cruel haphazardness. The chaos of the image was too much and I could not reflect or ponder how or what this totally new thing was. Holding back my unbelief I reluctantly ran my fingers across the hurt and cradled my orbed shell of a companion into my arms and took the long walk to face the progenitors of this chaos. Noise, smell, sight and sense were held captive by the focus upon the permanence and severity of the occurrence. Walking back to my car without the weight of my sphered friend added a weight and reality that comes when you leave the past to move into an uncertain future that is troubled by unreconciled feelings. But it is that weight of reality that creates momentum and hurls me into what i know not, prepared or not, with the next and only thought being to take that next step.

Its only a ball but a person is only flesh and bones without the essence of value and meaning from which we may know ourselves and grow.