Monday Musings (on Tuesday...) - the impact of sport?

As I mentioned in my last post, we had a great time in Vancouver and Whistler.  Vancouver really seems like a great city (I was only there for a week...) - I couldn't live there because of the rain, but aside from that, it has an awesome feel - very creative, well thought out...

In some ways, Vancouver reminds me a lot of Sydney.  Part of that is them both being harbour cities, part of it being cities that have recently hosted Olympics - which has a big impact on infrastructure - but there's also a sense of being focused, strategic, thinking ahead, with room for people to experiment and a big focus on public art.

Many people have commented that Toronto (where we live) and Melbourne are also very similar cities and I would agree.  They are culturally diverse cities, lots of distinct neighbourhoods, different emphasis on culture - food, music, cafes, ...

As I walked around Vancouver, one thought started to percolate in my mind... the impact of a sporting culture on a city.  Again, Melbourne and Toronto are very similar in that sport is front and centre.  For Toronto, it starts (and for some, ends...) with the Leafs, but there's also the lesser impact of the Raptors, the Blue Jays, the Rock, ...  In Melbourne, the glorious colosseum that is the MCG and the place of the AFL is at the heart of the sporting and city landscape.

Sure, Vancouver and Sydney have sporting culture as part of them - the Canucks, the NRL - but to me, the city doesn't live and die on the basis of the success or failure of their teams (riots after losing the Stanley Cup aside, of course...)

The question that I really mused on was whether sport, if it has too big a place of influence in a city, actually becomes a distraction from other things - art, in particular.  I'm not at all saying that there is no public art in Toronto or Melbourne, but it certainly doesn't have the same level of prominence as it seems to in Vancouver.  I'm also not saying sport is inherently evil - anyone who knows me knows I definitely don't have that perspective...!  And as I said, I absolutely want to acknowledge that I have not lived in 3 of those 4 cities and the one I have lived in, I've only been here for 2.5 years.  However...

What impact do you think that sport has on a culture (positive or negative)?
Do you think it's possible for people to be so distracted by sport that it takes away from other priorities - other forms of culture (art, in particular), strategy, forward thinking, ...
Does sport in any way act as a (negative) distraction for you - taking you away from other things you should be giving attention to?

Monday Musings - from the top of Whistler...

Right now, I'm actually on top of (or half way up...) Whistler - ah the wonder of technology these can come out at the same time each week.

I'm here with my family and my parents and we're having an incredible time.  I've never really seen mountains, so to see the Canadian Rockies has been an unforgettable experience.  The views from the plane as we flew over them were a great first taste, but nothing has compared to being here, driving through them, walking amongst them.  It's been nothing short of spectacular - the grandeur, the majesty, the snow-capped trees... wow.

It took me a number of weeks to decide whether I would do what I'm doing right now or not - snowboarding at Whistler.  It's mighty expensive to snowboard (or do anything...) up here, I've only snowboarded once before, I was terrified about taking a double-black diamond run by mistake, was it all going to be worth the risk...?

However, after much research and some coaxing from others, I reached the decision that I knew was inside me...  If I didn't do it, I would always wish I had.

A number of years ago, Ali and I took a trip along the Great Ocean Road in Australia and as part of it, we went to Bells Beach.  Same deal - terrifying, not really that good a surfer, (not the same issues about cost, though...!).  However, I plucked up enough courage to head out, paddled out, sat there for a while ... then caught one wave back in - it was terrifying!  There's a huge reef there, the waves are incredibly powerful, I knew I was out of my depth, but it's something I'll always be able to hold on as an amazing experience to and I have an even greater respect for people who can surf beaches like Bells.

As you read this, I may well have had lived out the same reality - terrified, caught the lift up, one run down and I was done (hopefully not!), but I know this will be something I'll always hold on to.

My reflections are about what held me back and in the end, a lot of it came down to fear.  Fear of not knowing what I was doing, fear of getting lost, fear of the unknown...  It's been an interesting journey through that and I know, having made this decision, I will be in a better position to be more confident when other opportunities come up.  Otherwise, who knows what I'll miss out on...

What are your greatest fears?
What might you be missing out on because of those fears?
What is one thing you'd like to do this year that is outside your comfort zone?

Monday Musings - discipulus

Take a quick browse of my blog and you will very quickly establish that one of the things I've always struggled with is discipline.  I see it as something that is super important, but I've never been able to crack it - it always feels so restrictive, so mundane, so "I just have to be more disciplined..."

A few days ago, for no apparent reason, I had this question pop into my head...

"I wonder if disciple and discipline come from the same root word...?"

Digging around led to a discovery that yes, in fact both do come from the same word - discipulus - which in general means "to learn" (you can do further research into the full meanings of both words if you like - I was excited and had enough thoughts from my initial discovery that they were linked...)

I have heard others talk before about different ways we can understand discipline - being disciplined as it relates to getting priorities in order; being disciplined by someone else as punishment; a particular area of learning (the discipline of science, mathematics, ...).  In general, though, I've always come back to my short fall of not being disciplined enough, meaning "I need to get my habits in order, set up my schedule and be disciplined in sticking to it, so that I get to the gym the number of times per week I want to, spend time with God, read books, ..."

Disciple, on the other hand has always been a very rich term for me - a lifelong learner, someone under someone else's guidance, not just about learning from an intellectual stance, but learning experientially as well.  I love that Jesus uses that as the term to describe the sorts of people he wants us to be.

To recognize that these two are in fact linked is fascinating to me.  Is there a possibility that rather than feeling the need to be more disciplined, I need to recognize that in order to continue to learn, to grow, to be a fuller disciple, that's what I'm aspiring to?

It's not about getting my week in order for the sake of being a disciplined person, it's about being a disciple, a learner and setting myself up to keep learning by being in places where I can grow.  Maybe I need to invent a new word to help me understand it - disciple-ability; discipline-ness; obviously disciple-ship is out there, too... (but interestingly often has different connotations...)

If I step back and ask the question "In which areas of my life do I want to grow/learn?", that should provide me with some ideas about how I can grow/learn, which then sets priorities and choices... = discipline.  Interesting to keep thinking about...

Which word do you resonate with more - disciple or discipline?
Which areas of your life do you feel most excited about learning and growing?
How can you focus more on those areas to grow in your disciple-ability?

Monday Musings - Why does extended excellence bore us?

I was fascinated with the response leading up to and during the Super Bowl last night.  It was amazing to me the number of people who wrote comments along the lines of "I couldn't care less about the Super Bowl this year", often followed by a rationale about why they hate and/or are bored by the Patriots and/or (less so) the Giants.

In the end, it was a fantastic game of football, though I am obviously gutted about the result...  Sorry to those who missed out because they were taking a stance on not wanting to watch teams they don't like... it will absolutely go down as one of the great Super Bowls - that catch by Manningham was incredible.  

However, my fascination about those comments stems more from why it is that we get so bored by teams and people who live out extended excellence.  Let me list a few names... what's your response?

Patriots.
Lakers.
Yankees.
Federer.

Now before you get all steamed up and say "I can't stand the Patriots because they're cheats"; "the Yankees just buy World Series victories"; "Bryant is a jerk"; "Federer is boring"... I want to challenge how many others do the same thing or have similar traits, but we don't care anywhere near as much - we only focus on these teams/people because they excel.  A lot.  Take a deep breath and really think about whether there is someone you can point to that has been highly successful for a long time and you are happy for them.  If so, I'd be interested to know why that's different.

The angst against the Patriots comes from 2 sources - Belichick is a cheat (because of the whole spygate thing) and because Brady is too arrogant/a pretty boy/cheat/his hair is too nice/...  As I've mentioned before, I am a Patriots fan, so I'll admit I have some bias.  However, the Brady stuff to me is crazy - love him or hate him, he's a guy who was picked 199th, is only as good as he is because he has worked so hard - by his own admission, he's really not that athletic - and it's not like he's had superstars around him every year.  In terms of the taping scandal, I can't believe the Pats were the only ones who did it, but even if they were, they were severely punished and now look at what Belichick has done with this year's team of cast-offs and undrafted players.  Unpack it with most people and eventually, they'll admit he is actually a pretty good coach.

The reality is that we just get bored when the same team/person is successful all the time and I'm interested in why that is.  Sure, most of us want to cheer for the underdog - we love a good story and that's understandable.  But there's something in us that starts to believe that people's success is undeserved once they've been at the top for a while.  Never mind that they need to keep working just as hard as others to maintain that success (or harder - they suddenly have a target on their back) - we're bored with them winning and look for ways to pull them down.  Using Brady as an example again, he was absolutely an underdog when he entered the league, but now he's resented because he's been at the top (or near it...) for so long.

Being perfectly honest, I know this plays out in my own life, too.  Rather than cheering on those around me, I can look at ways of tearing them down (even if it's only in my own mind) or getting resentful about why they have all the luck, why they get all the breaks and success while I continue to work away with my head down...  As I do that, I miss the incredible blessings that are present in my own life and fail to recognize the sacrifices, discipline and dedication that others have probably put in to get to where they are.  To be honest, a lot of the time, I'm just not willing to do the same...

Who are you cheering on to succeed?
Who are you cheering to fail?
What's really at the core of why?