Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: It’s tough not to worry while so much is going on

Saturday, April 25, 1998 | 4:30 a.m.

Don't worry, be happy.

Ever since the big screen made that phrase a household endeavor, I have been trying to live those words. But to little avail. Just when I think there is a chance that worrying might give way to an unexpected degree of happiness, it is time to worry again.

Is there a cure for what ails me and, I'm sure, most Las Vegans who pay attention to anything and care about a great deal? I don't know. But, until the answer becomes clear, the game of golf will have to suffice.

As I write this stream of consciousness, the Las Vegas Senior Classic is well under way. Who the leaders will be when this newspaper arrives at your door Sunday morning may well be different names than those who filled the leader board on Friday. What is important, though, is that those men who are vying for the title of champion senior this week know what is really important. At least, that's what those who love the game of golf would have everyone else think.

I played my first round on Thursday with Las Vegas' senior golfing pride, Jim Colbert. And if ever there were a man who could concentrate on the more significant aspects of life, it is Jim. He started out this tournament in a rather ugly way, at least for him. He made a few bogies which don't do much for any longer term plans that include winning on Sunday. And yet, there was no "give up" in that man. While maintaining a wonderfully cheerful spirit which he spread amongst his amateur partners, he found a way to play himself back into the game, an accomplishment that is not easily achieved.

I know how difficult it is to focus on the matter at hand, especially a reluctant golf game. While Jim was working his way down the fairways at TPC trying to figure out how to re-take control of his game, my mind was swimming in thoughts that had nothing to do with golf. That ability to concentrate, of course, is one reason why Jim is a very successful professional and I am still a fledgling and flailing amateur. Another reason has something to do with talent!

For instance, as our pro thought of how he was going to place a long iron shot within a few inches of the cup, I was trying to figure out what Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was trying to do to his new found friends in Nevada. Lott was out here recently for some wining, dining and money-raising. His benefactors in the gaming industry were only too happy to oblige. Nothing wrong so far.

But, within a few weeks of his journey west, the Majority Leader was promising to bring a very loathsome nuclear waste bill up for a vote in the U.S. Senate. That's the legislation that the nuclear waste industry thought it had bought and paid for last year which would shove a nuke dump into Nevada long before any kind of scientific evidence could justify such ill-treatment. Sens. Harry Reid and Dick Bryan, both D-Nev., successfully garnered enough votes to sustain a promised veto by President Bill Clinton the last time out and that should have been the end of any effort to do the nuke industry's bidding.

Apparently not for Lott. Flush with Nevada's cash, he couldn't wait to help turn us into a nuclear waste nightmare. It was how Harry and Dick were going to stave off this latest attempt to bury us under the nation's nuclear garbage that weighed on my mind as I promptly smashed a drive into oblivion.

And, if that weren't enough to be worrying about in the middle of a golf tournament, the desire of some members of society to continuously vilify our elected officials vied for equal time in my addled brain. I thought of Jan Jones being cleared again of ethical wrongdoing when there was little or no reason to challenge her in the first place. That's because there is a climate in this country that encourages citizens with nothing else to do to deride well-intentioned public servants. Couple those efforts with a judiciary and other institutional apparatus unwilling or unable to say, "hold, enough," and we continue to move our democracy toward a place no thinking person should want to travel.

For certain, I didn't want to think of such nonsense. I wanted to play golf. Especially when my volunteer caddie, Stu Engs, kept questioning my inability to hit the ball in the direction he was pointing. I wanted to tell him that he should worry while I tried to hit the ball but he's a nice fellow so there was no reason to burden him so.

It really doesn't matter what kind of troubles burden us in our daily lives as long as there is an outlet to try to find some happiness. If those of us nutty enough to look on the fairways and greens for such relief think it will happen, that may be enough to justify the effort. Others may find their happiness in a bowling alley or on a soccer field or, believe it or not, surfing the Internet. Whatever the outlet, the pursuit is what counts.

I don't know if I'll ever overcome my inability to concentrate on that golf ball when there other matters of great moment to attend to but I do know that I'll not quit trying. And for the dozens of senior pros who are trying to finish at the top of the leader board today at the TPC -- those are the guys who can really focus when they have to -- there is no such thing as quit in them.

Jim Colbert showed his team members what that meant on Thursday. And it isn't too late for Las Vegans to get a feel for what I am talking about today. The final round at the TPC is underway. Take the time and the family to go watch some of golf's great names strive for perfection. They can do it.

The rest of us can only watch -- and worry!