Dragon Boat Racing

(This post is actually yesterday's post. I lost the internet last night and so was delayed in posting this.)

Today I went out in a Dragon Boat. It was for work, so we had 8 young people in the boat plus a couple of workers and I was at the back steering the thing. We went out on the Yarra, at the boat sheds and it was quite busy on the water.

Now Dragon Boating is a team sport. Someone sits at the front and bangs the drum to get everyone to row in time. The weight of the crew needs to be balanced on either side of the boat for stability. If people start moving around the boat can tip over. If everyone doesn't paddle at the same time the boat becomes unstable. If someone decides to stop paddling then the boat starts to turn.

It got me thinking about teamwork. Sometimes there is time for democracy. "Who has had enough for the day and wants to get out?" Sometimes there is no time for democracy and you just have to knuckle down and follow the leader. "Watch out for the cruise boat about to ram us!" There is no time for people to panic, stand up and scream "We're going to tip over." Usually if someone does that, that is when the boat tips over.

The problem with good teamwork is knowing what is appropriate for the time. Most teams are autocratic for long periods of time because they either have a controlling leader, lazy team members or decide that democracy is too hard. For most people our default setting seems to be 'tell me what to do.' Good leaders overcome this by encouraging groups to work together to set goals and then implement strategies for achieving them.

How's your dragon boat going?

What I read today:

Service vs Devotion to Jesus

Obama and Gen Y: When the Honeymoon ends

Practice makes perfect

Today I went and watched the Melbourne Victory open training session. It was a good way to spend the morning, sitting in the shade, watching my team run around. After their warm up and a few drills they got into a practice game and we were able to watch them working hard to prepare for a must win game on Friday night. While the team was practising there was very loud music emanating from the ground's speaker system. I was forced to wonder if it was to prevent us hearing the tactical discussions happening on the pitch.

Of course today's practice session was a good bit of public relations. The fans turned up. We sat and watched. We oohed and we  ahhed. The players even turned the tables and gave us a clap for coming out to watch them run around.

It makes you wonder if professional sporting clubs use a practice session as a publicity exercise how much do we use our daily practices as one too. The religious practices we do, turning up to church, playing in the band, praying in public, etc. Are these things a mere publicity exercise? I have to challenge myself a lot. If I commit to do something, what are my real motives? If I do it out of obligation, then am I not just publicising my practice?

Publicity is a double edged sword. Today the Victory built up some good will with their supporters. But their training session could also have been infiltrated by spies from Wellington, our opposition on Friday night. By their openness the club could have displayed their tactics for all to see. This too is true for our Christian practice. If we are in the public eye then we are open to both praise and ridicule, positive and negative judgement.

What I read today:

Russians strengthen their faith with an icy plunge

A motto for the people

Attitude

Today I went and saw the Australian Open tennis. What struck me about the sport is just how much the player's attitude affects their performance. Of course you see Lleyton Hewitt yelling 'come on' to himself to give himself a lift. But until I was metres away from the players I didn't get it.

We arrived as a player was leading the set 5 games to 1 after losing the first set. But we arrived at the turning point of the set. As his opponent started to win games, this player started to loose his cool. His attitude went from one of cocky self confidence to aggravation. After his opponent won the set 7 to 5 he threw his racquet across the court and stormed out of the arena. When he arrived back for the third set he was constantly arguing with the umpire and grumpy with himself. He lost.

It got me reflecting on my own attitudes. I recognise that I have bad attitudes at times. Now it would be easy to say that we should all just switch our attitude, but that would be a glib, unhelpful platitude. I admit that I don't have an easy answer. I struggle to change my attitude. Sometimes I am forced to challenge my attitude by spending time with people or a situation towards which I have a bad attitude. As I have suggested before, if we can learn to understand our differences and embrace our diversity then we can move forward together. For me this is usually the only way that I can change a bad attitude. But of course it takes a commitment to challenge myself. Sometimes I just couldn't be bothered with the challenge. But when I can be, I find that I do move forward and 'win the match.'

What about you?

What I read today:

Under Obama the radical religious conservatives could become more dangerous than ever

Giving Blood

Today I gave blood. Every couple of months I go into the city and donate 470ml of my O+ blood to the Red Cross. I think it is a great thing to do and everyone who is eligible should get in there and give it a go. And for those who don't like needles, neither do I.

Here's why I think giving blood is such a good thing to do.

1) It is easy. You just sit there and it flows right out of you. It's almost as if your body is designed to do it, bleed that is.

2) It makes a difference. Just ask anyone who has received blood or a blood product. Think of people in emergency wards across the state, people receiving treatment for cancer, etc.

3) It is an anonymous, random act of kindness. I don't know what the blood bank is going to do with my donation today. I don't know if they are going to send it to an operating theatre to put into someone who has had a workplace accident. I don't know if they are going to split it into various parts and in a months time 5 different people will be walking around with a bit of me pumping around inside them.

4) It is egalitarian. My blood could go to an AFL footballer, a high flying businessman or a homeless guy who got beaten up by some idiot. It doesn't matter. I don't give to receive, although I do hope if I ever need blood there will be enough for me.

5) It reminds us that on the inside we really are all the same. We all bleed the same colour. My blood is the same blood as everyone else. It is all interchangeable (within blood type compatibility's obviously).

When are you going to give?

What I read today:

The forgotten victims of the Middle East

Rick Warren: Political and Moral Agendas

My name is Earl

Yesterday I watched the comedy show 'My name is Earl'. Earl is a bad boy who the law finally caught up with. While in goal he was introduced to the idea of karma. Earl's life is forever changed and upon release he writes a list of all the bad things he has done to people. He then sets about righting the wrongs on his list so as to avoid bad karma. He has a very simplistic understanding of karma, which adds to the laughs.

What happens every episode is that Earl goes to make up for his wrong doings. He expects it to be a simple case of righting the wrong. However every episode shows the ongoing consequences that his actions have had on his victims.

Now obviously I don't believe in karma, but the show highlights that even small actions have very large impacts on the lives of the people involved.

When I reflect back on my own life I realise that who I am today is because of the thousands of little incidents that have happened over my life, rather than 4 or 5 'life changing moments'. I realise that how we handle the small things really does matter in the long term. My life has been impacted by small decision others have made about themselves, my interaction with them has been a by-product of their decisions.

Social Justice is a labour of small incidents. Choosing which tea to buy. Reading an article on sexual trafficking. Marching in an anti-war rally. Writing a letter. In and off themselves these are small acts, but they can have huge impacts.

Just like Earl we need to realise that if we do one small thing, good or bad, the flow on effects are huge.

Got any examples?

What I read today:

A peace rally where they wanted the soldiers to fight on

Communication quotes

Inclusion

How do we include people in what we do? How do we invite others to include people they find it hard to include?

I think that community should be a place of inclusion. We invite people into community so that we can share with them and they with us. Community therefore is inclusive by nature. But problems always arise. We have groups within our communities. One group is included in the whole community but struggles to be inclusive of an individual or another group within the community. What is worse is when those who are not included do not realise they are not included. People with mental health issues, or lacking the social skills to recognise that other people seek to not include them.

I do think there is a difference between excluding people and not including them. It is a fine line. It would be easy to say that exclusion is when we actively seek to stop people from being involved. But what about excluding people by not being sensitive to their needs? Holding a meeting in a building with a flight of stairs stops people in wheelchairs from attending. The choice wasn't made actively to exclude those people, but the choice of venue is certainly not inclusive of people with varying needs.

I believe in Christian community we should provide an inclusive environment for people who struggle to be included elsewhere. But how do we handle people who feel included themselves but wish others to not be included? It is not as easy as saying 'You should include them because they have no friends, just like you have no friends.' It is the challenge of creating real community rather than just a group of people who gather together to receive something (friendship, acceptance, etc.)

What is your experience?

What I read today:

The audacity of hope

A rational world

The end of an era

Today I attended my 91 year old grandfather's funeral. My grandfather was a true gentleman. To hear him acknowledged as such by a wide variety of people, people his own age, people who work with people his age and people of younger generations, suggests the truth of the statement.

He was a gentleman and as I reflected on his passing I was forced to reflect on the passing of the idea of being gentleman. The ideals that I think of when I remember his life are not the ideals that I see in society around me. The little things, like opening a door for a lady and always walking on the roadside of the footpath (to get hit first by a wayward car) that reflected his understanding of his role in the world. He was far from a servant, but he did serve. He was also a gentle man. As far as I understand he swung the belt when needed (he was a man of his time), but it was a role he filled rather than a role he loved. He served his country in a time of war. He served his community and his family in times of peace.

He was an 'Aussie battler' of the real variety, rather than the A Current Affair kind. He worked on a dairy farm, when the land was cleared by hand. He drove a milk truck, when the milk crates were lifted onto the truck rather than the milk being pumped. He drove trucks and towed the caravan around Australia in a time before airconditioning, powersteering, ABS brakes and tinted windows.

I reflected today on the place of the gentleman in Australian society. Is it a quaint ideal? Does it belong to a bygone era, when men were Men and women stayed at home, cooked the dinner and did the washing? But again that isn't what I hear of my grandfather's life story. He was a man who loved the farming lifestyle. The hard work, the outdoors, the mateship. But he also loved his family, and they couldn't endure the farming life. So he moved into town and raised his family, still doing hard physical work.

I don't think the idea of the gentleman is a quaint ideal. I don't think that it belongs in a bygone era. I do see in some of my male friends a flicker of that gentlemanly spark. The virtues of hard work, service, commitment to family, simplicity, humility and dependability are ones I wish to emulate.

Here is a poem that my grandmother wrote about her husband:

Les

He stands tall among me:

Outstanding!

Because of his simplicity;

Expecting little from life

for himself

And yet

He gives freely of his skills

His time, his love

To others

Never one to blow his own trumpet

Though he has plenty to blow

his trumpet about ...

Always read for a laugh

For his ready wit he is valued

He sees in simple things

The larger picture;

Not obscured by wealth

Or the need to perform

to other's standards

He is always there when needed

He is strong, reliable, kind,

His name is Les.