This is one of my all time favorite movies.  It's a story about an amateur golf player Rannulph Junuh who reluctantly ends up in the golf tournament of his life playing the two top pros Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen.  The three day match turns out to be a spiritual journey that changes his life and the life of his caddy Harvey Greaves forever.

Rannulph Junuh was the darling golfer of the south and the town hero until he was sent off to war.  While he was in the war the entire unit under his command was killed - all except for him.  This tragedy left him scared with no more swing.  This included his golf swing and his swing for life.  Sometimes bad things have to happen to get our attention and make us open to things we were not open to before.

When the tournament came up, the people of the town pressured Junuh to play.  It became evident they were depending on him, and he was a symbol of pride.  He did not want to play but could not let them down.  Many times although we may not like it, we have to be pushed into our adventure.

When Junuh was struggling to get back his swing, just the right caddy appeared out of nowhere saying just the right things to let him know there was something magical to that meeting.  When the student is ready the teacher appears.  But we must pay attention to the signs.

In the meantime young Harvey, a kid who had looked up to Junuh and loved golf, was about to enter into his own adventure with Junuh, and more importantly his soon to be mystical teacher Bagger Vance.  Once again, when the student is ready the teacher appears.

Harvey had been studying golf; wanting to be a part of something big and imagining being in a golf adventure his whole life.  His enthusiasm helped bring Junuh in the game and ultimately Bagger into both of their lives.   Great imaginations and guts bring about incredible and spiritual transformations.

Bagger showed Rannulph what he called the field.  This was a magical place that one enters when he gets his mind off everything else.  This includes: Will I win? Will I lose? How will they think of me?  In the field it's just you and what you are doing no worries or concerns.

The field was glowing and shining.  This is not some imaginary place.  This is real and can be seen just like in the movie, if we learn how to let go of everything else.

When you are in the field you become one with what you are doing and perform marvelously just as Junuh did once he learned how.

Adele Embegordan, Junuh's ex-girlfriend lost almost everything in the depression and was being pressured to sell the failing golf course.  Instead of giving up she sold almost everything she owned to finance the golf tournament that at the time was simply just an idea that came to her.  Then after saying whatever she had to say to get in to see them, she creatively convinced Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones to participate in the golf event.  It turned out to be marvelous, drawing a very large crowd and many visitors from out of town.  Sometimes we have to stake everything on our dream.  Then we must be creative as we move forward on our faith not looking back for a second. 

Rannulph Junuh was struggling so much that Bagger asked him if he wanted to just quit and go home.  Rannulph replied, "You know I can't quit with all these people depending on me."   Bagger replied, "I Know.  I just wanted to make sure that you didn't forget."  We all are in the big game right now whether we realize it or not.  And there are people waiting and depending on us to come to some realizations, enter the field and play our game to the fullest.   Once again this is going on whether we realize it or not.

While Junuh was struggling and playing terribly, people asked Bagger what did he plan to do about it.  "Bagger answered saying, “ Oh!  You want to know my strategy.   Well you see right now my player is a little confused about who he is.  You see he still thinks that he's Rannulph Junuh."  One man replied "He is Rannulph Junuh you twit."  Bagger then looks back with a smile and says, "Well he is and he ain’t."  The man and Adele both looked confused and astonished by his answer.  Bagger's job was to get Junuh to realize that he was one, one with the ball, the club, the game, the universe, and forget about all the concerns that come with being Rannulph Junuh.  “Will I win?  Will I lose? Why is Adele mad at me?   The biggest challenge in life is to let go of all our egotistic concerns: Will I let them down? Will they be happy with what I did?  I hope all this works out.”  This is what keeps us from having the performance of our life, the performance in which the universe comes through.   But the funny thing is, this is the reason we were placed in the big game that is beyond us; so that we can move to that place way beyond us , and become one.

Bagger explained to young Harvey that Junuh can win if he can find his authentic swing.  He explained that we all have an authentic swing, something that we were born with, that is ours and ours alone - a way of doing things that no one else can do.  He also said some people don't remember what their authentic swing is like.  This is what I call your dharma, the way the universe would like to express itself through you.  But first you must get yourself out of the way in order to remember.  This is the purpose of the meditation process to get us to the authentic swing and allow us to become one. 

Rannulph learned to look at a difficult lie on the green and see a path of light telling him the exact direction the ball needed to be putted in order to go into the hole.  This is not far fetched at all.  We can have the same experience in life.  We can be so in tune that we can literally see before hand all the twists and turns of a particular path.  We can see this in dream and while awake.  The more we are in tune and at one the more this happens.

It took young Harvey Greeves (a kid) to remind Rannulph how incredibly well he played in the past.  He told him how they even had to stop play just to measure how far his ball had gone in the North South championship.  It’s easy to forget how great we can be, and what it’s like to be in our proper place.

Bagger Vance was the perfect mystical teacher for both Harvey and Junuh.  He taught Junuh by being his friend and caddy, serving him, and giving him just the help he needed at the time.  He taught Harvey by helping him learn to serve Junuh and be a good caddy.  In both cases he took the opportunity to teach them the mysteries of the world and their own being. The teacher takes opportunities to teach when they come up – and only as they come up.

There were times when other people were frustrated with Bagger.  There were even times when his students, Rannulph and Harvey were frustrated with him, also.  Bagger didn't even seem to care. He remained in good spirits and continued on with his mission.  His focus was on helping his students achieve enlightenment.  We have to be like Bagger focused on our mission.

Junuh asked Adele what she liked about them being together.  She replied, “I liked the way we danced.”  No relationships are perfect.  The question is how do you dance?

Sincerely,

Craig Kimbrough

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