How has working so closely with the land shaped your perspective on life?
In Maryland we call Baltimore “Smalltimore” because you always run into people (not only in our state) but around the world who know someone you know, or even knows you!
It’s shocking sometimes how this happens. I was talking to a new young Golf Course Superintendent yesterday at a Genesis Function called “Genesis Links” and started asking the usual questions of where he was from and what schools he went to, then it happened! I soon found out I had dated his mother fifty years ago when we were in high school.
Over the years of working with people and all living things, I have realized that we are all attached in some way.
Things like tree roots letting trees talk to one another, (Do Trees Really Talk to Each Other?) and what makes up everything.
From Atoms to Elements: The Fundamental Building Blocks of Everything.
Its understanding led me to read many books on the makeup of the universe and philosophy. Soon I read much on Dark Matter.
Dark matter | Definition, Discovery, Distribution, & Facts | Britannica
and Dark Energy
I believe working outside most of my life and career has led me to this perspective of “Connectivity” in all aspects of life. This keeps me going as I am aging.
My wife and I are constantly on the go. We attend functions of all sorts and travel to many places. At 68 I am still singing in a cover band! [Facebook] I guess if I had to give people advice on this stuff, it has led me to think that if you sit on the sofa and barely leave your house, your connectivity starts to disappear.
I understand that it is hard sometimes as we get older. My knee replacements remind me of that every day, but you can get a computer, see places, and talk to people… Have friends or relatives drive you places.
There has always been the “Mother Nature” element to my career / life and now a bigger understanding of “Connectivity.”
So, all this happily keeps my belief strong of something supreme out there keeping us all together. Where do your molecules go after you die?
I met a French philosopher once at a party and asked him that question. What he told me was great. “Think of it as you die and release a bunch of balloons. As everyone is dying and releasing their balloons, someone’s life has formed, and they are grabbing balloons out of the sea of balloons to create who they are. Some of those balloons may be yours.”
-Mark S. Merrick, CGCS Retired
Introducing ‘Merrick Mondays’, a segment where we hear from Mark Merrick, our resident brand Ambassador, Chief ‘Cool” Officer, and general source of wisdom and secrets of the universe, to spotlight a dose of interview-style content, weekly.