I felt like vacation well and truly began a day early, Tuesday morning, when I joined my friends Keith, George, and Rick at the Wakefield Plantation Club to participate in the We Care Golf Classic, raising donations and awareness for several military charities.

Our foursome, along with an active military service-member, Kyle, enjoyed a fun day on a spectacular golf course. For me, especially, it was amazing to be together with some of my Wake Forest Presbyterian friends. Such good people.

Between us we pieced together a respectable 68, but we were all too inconsistent to put ourselves in position to convert more than a handful of birdies.

Best of all, though, was breathing the cool fall air and just being with great people supporting a worthwhile cause. “Look around,” I thought to myself, “how is it possible to be anything other than optimistic about life when it is obvious that so many people care for others and want nothing more than peace and goodwill in this world.”

It’s a good thing to remember. We all find it too easy to get caught up in all the negative press and the meanness of politics and the angry rhetoric that gets over-amplified in the media.

I am blessed and privileged.

A special shout out to our sponsor, the Lonnie and Carol Poole Family Foundation. May your spirit of generosity be amplified. – DEREK