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?

Monday Musings - Why I love the NFL

[I thought about titling this "Why I love Football", but I knew there would be an uproar from my friends south of the Equator, so NFL it is... and let's not even get started on those who say only the roundball game is truly Football...]

Before we moved to Canada, I had some interest in the NFL.  Mostly, that had consisted of watching the Super Bowl, because we didn't really get much access other than that.  However, when OneHD launched, suddenly we had the opportunity to watch multiple games each week (fortunately my DVR allowed me to not have to get up at 4 am to watch them...)

Over the last couple of years, watching an NFL game on a Sunday has became a big part of our weekly rhythm - I have certainly enjoyed having Sunday Night Football (or a recording of an earlier game) to help me unwind at the end of a weekend.  I have finally become an unabashed Patriots fan (I take quite a bit of criticism for that, but what can you do...?), and so obviously I'm excited about next Sunday's big game... hoping for a reversal of the last time these two teams met on the big stage.

A couple weeks ago I had an opportunity to teach at our site and as part of my message, I mentioned where my love of the NFL has come from.  I believe it is one of the greatest examples of a true team sport - where each person who's part of the team needs to play their role for the team to be successful.  Sure, there are other sports which have that element (basketball still remains No 1 in our house...), but in many other sports, it's easier for one person to dominate and make a huge difference.  In the NFL, each person needs to play their role or there is no chance of team success.  Yes, a great QB makes a difference, yes, having incredible TEs can change things, but every player needs to be ready to contribute, no matter their role.  The results of last weekend prove the value of a kicker...

Far too often though, we find ourselves thinking about how important we are.  Whether that is in our career, our friendships, our churches... if we're honest, a lot of the time, our focus is on ourselves.  While it is certainly true that we need to continue to play whatever role we have been given to the best of our ability (particularly if we're in a leadership position), I wonder how much difference it would make if we focused on our role in the context of the team we're playing on - and how we encourage our teammates to be the best they can be as well.

I need to prepare as best I can... for the sake of the team.  I need to take care of myself so I'm in good condition... for the sake of the team.  I need to be focused on the right things... for the sake of the team.  I need to encourage the other people on our team to do their best... for the sake of the team.

I wonder how much difference it would make if we all approached life from that perspective - certainly I'm sure it would mean our motivation would go up at different times (instead of the consequences just being about me, I realize if I make a wrong choice, that affects us all...).  At the very least, we would shift the focus from ourselves to those around us and our communities and that in itself is always a good thing.

What teams are you part of?
How much are you performing at your peak for your team?
What can you do this week to increase the contribution you make to your team(s)?

the death of the mega-band?

I was on my way home this morning and a U2 song came on the radio. I'm not a massive U2 fan - I have been at different times, but I'm not one of those crazy "U2 is the best band in the world" people. However, hearing the song took me back to my teenage days and one of my youth leaders, who loved them and was partly responsible for introducing me to them.

I remember him being super excited and playing their tape (!) over and over again and it's only now, on reflection, that I realise how amazing it was for him to discover them. I don't know if he knew they were going to be as big as they became, but I can vividly remember how passionate he was about them and looking back now, I understand.

What got me thinking on the way home, though, was whether the idea of mega-bands/artists is something that we're not going to see again. By that, I mean those bands that basically everyone was in to - bands that were global phenomenons - The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, U2, Queen. Those types of bands that would sell out 100,000 seat stadiums across the world.

Part of that is the change in the way we interact with music - there is so much music now, so many bands and so many different ways to access it, that we now have greater ability to pick and choose. Some people are even proud to say they only have bands on their ipod that no-one has heard of (you know who you are...) Everything has diversified so much, that I can't see think of any band or style of music in the last 10-15 years that has captivated a massive percentage of the population, the way some of those bands in the 60s-90s did. Yes, those bands are still huge, but most of that is because of those of us who encountered them during that time - which mega-bands do you know of that have people under 40 in them?

It is also because we get bored so easily, though - we consume so much music, and it's so easily available to us, that we feel like we need new music far more regularly. Yes, there are bands/artists that have made a global splash, but how many of them have continued on for the long haul?

However, I'm also not sure which bands/artists from the last 10 years would have had anywhere near the same impact, even if the playing field was the same...

For current artists, then, their goals and aspirations - as well as the ways of achieving those goals and aspirations - must have shifted also. The question I ponder is whether there are areas of my life/work that I'm trying to do the same as I would have in the 80s/90s, and whether I have made the shift, recognising that the game has changed.

tail-lights

Apparently, our right-hand tail-light wasn't working. Not sure how long that had been the case, and it wasn't until someone followed us home one night (that we knew... not a stalker...) that we found out about it.


It's all fixed now, but I noticed a lot more tail-lights that were out on other people's cars in the days that followed (and was a lot more paranoid about the police potentially following me!) I did start to think about how that relates to our own lives, though, in terms of our "tail-lights" - the areas of our lives that we can't see, for whatever reason.

I need to have people who are "following me" (and not in the sense of me following Jesus - perhaps "tailing me" would be better), and helping me know when my tail-lights are out. There are certainly blind spots in all of our lives - parts of our character, attitudes, thought processes, belief systems - which we don't really know about. This can be because they're either so familiar to us because they are habits that have been around so long, or we're simply not aware of them due to lack of exposure to alternative ways of thinking. Without someone else pointing them out, we have no clue that they aren't working. I know I need to have people in my life who are telling me it's time to replace a globe or two, for my safety and the safety of others...

inspiration

Last weekend was a massive weekend in Canada. For those who didn't hear the shouting, Sidney Crosby scored a goal in overtime to win Canada the gold medal for the hockey at the Winter Olympics... and the crowd went wild (across the country).

I said to a lot of people that I'm not aware of another sport that a country expects or wants to win in as much as hockey at the winter games for Canada. Maybe basketball for the US at the summer games, or the World Cup for England (I'm leaving out sports like cricket that not many countries play), but there are very few. It's Canada's game, and they want to win it more than anything.

When Crosby scored the goal Sunday night, the response was incredible - this clip from Vancouver being an excellent example... That win, added to the record number of gold medals Canadians won at these games gave a swagger to a nation that has, for a long time, sat in the background, going about their business, trying not to get in the way.

It was fascinating, because even with the wins, there wasn't a hint of arrogance, just a genuine "we did really well" attitude, and an awareness that they do belong on the world stage - an even fuller self-confidence that they can do things their way and be successful... very successful.

The question for me is what does Canada do with it? Is it just euphoria that lasts for a few days/weeks, then goes back to normal or is it something that causes a genuine change in attitudes? If so, what does that look like? It'll be interesting to watch...

[no alarms and] no surprises

Each week, I have a 45-60 minute (each way) drive to some bi-weekly meetings. I actually really enjoy it - some good alone time, and most of all, a great opportunity to listen to some tunes.

Last week, I forgot to take my iPod, though, and was at the whim of the many radio stations here in Toronto. I've got a few favourites - won't name them for fear of judgement... - and flicked between them.

One of which was playing mainly the same songs they've been playing for the last couple weeks, so didn't get much opportunity. However, there were times when I was pleasantly surprised as I surfed the [radio-]waves, and it got me thinking. When I have my iPod on, generally, I'm using playlists that I've created, or, at times, I'll throw on an album or an artist that takes my fancy. When I listen to the radio, I'm at the mercy of what they choose, and at times, that can be rubbish. At other times, though, the surprise of hearing a song I haven't heard for ages, or a new song I didn't realise had been released means the payoff is more than worth it.

How often do we do the same with our choices in life - safely sticking to our existing playlists, living with albums and artists we know are safe and will give us some joy. But in doing so, we miss out on the joy of opportunities that catch us completely by surprise - bumping into someone or somewhere we haven't been for ages, finding ourselves somewhere that brings back strong memories, discoveries of new pleasures or places.

When was the last time you switched off your iPod and changed channels?

stories

Been reading some Hemmingway over the last week or so, and also read The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger.

To be honest, I'm not sure what the fuss is about Catcher, but I have been blown away by Hemmingway. I borrowed a book of his short stories, and am astounded that in 2-3 short pages, he can tell a story so rich and engaging. At the same time, I'm also reading The Old Man and The Sea, and am loving the simplicity of the way in which he tells that story.

Catcher, on the other hand, I just found to go nowhere - partly because I felt it had too much detail at times, plus I didn't really enjoy the style of writing - personal preference. Possible also that reading it for the first time when teenage angst seems some time ago causes some loss of power...

Got me thinking, though - as I've mentioned before, one of the reasons comics are so powerful is because we have to engage our minds to read them. Reading Hemmingway's short stories is a similar experience - his ability to engage the mind in a few short pages is nothing short of brilliant.

That then led me to ponder about how we read and unpack The Story - God's story. Too often, I think we explain everything away, every last detail, and then wonder why people don't engage with it. We need to get better at allowing the space in the story to breathe, allowing the Spirit to engage our minds and challenge, inspire, encourage us. Or do we not trust that the stories are powerful enough...?