Earning respect, trust and support
OPINION: A big ‘shout-out’ from me to Wairarapa sheep farmer Hamish De Lautour for his excellent article Just answer the damn question! published in the last edition of Rural News.
Like many others did, we made the trip to Mystery Creek. Yep, I very much enjoyed the day. I always enjoy watching fencing competitions – rather impressive stuff I thought! What appears to me to be a small error, or miscalculation, can mean losing a place in the top 3, or even the championship itself. To me, that’s a tough price to pay!
Another rather random thought I had was: ‘crikey, for a “sunset industry” we are doing more than just okay’.
I do remember the old days when the Clydesdales were part of the show. I still think something like these magnificent horses would go down well today too. Yep, bring back the Clydesdales, I reckon!
By the time this edition of Rural News gets to your mailbox, the Super Rugby season will be all done and dusted for another year as well. One of our regions will be celebrating, the other probably doing something more closely resembling crying in their coffees!
My hope is that it’s the players that decide the outcome and not a bad call from the ref or the TMO.
When the officials make mistakes, have you noticed it never seems to be the winning team that calls them out? Hmmm.
Again, I think folks need to be reminded the refs are humans too. And all humans will make mistakes. Good refs just make fewer mistakes than the others.
It’s just the same with the players too.
I did learn many years ago that most of the ‘experts’ are on the sidelines or laying back in their Lazyboy chairs. I’ll leave that one there!
Now, when it comes to making brain-fade decisions, my favourite quote would have to be this one from 94-yearold Thomas Sowell: “It’s is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
Wow, what a cracker! When I hear that quote I do not immediately think of our sports men and women, the coaches, or the refs. Nor do I think of our hard-working farming communities. None of them ever come to my mind.
My first thoughts of where this is so evident is with the political class. And not just locally either, but internationally. They and their ever-fawning army of bureaucrats, enthusiastically supported by their lapdogs in the media, of course, surely take out the prize for this one, in my opinion.
There are many examples, from both history and more current, where such “decisions” should have resulted in prison time. But that has not happened, and it won’t, because they “pay no price for being wrong”.
Again, and yet again, the price is ultimately paid by “we the people”. Unjust, indeed!
Families that manage to stay together in today’s world don’t enjoy that ‘miracle’ because, somehow, by pure luck, they’ve managed to live mistake free! Not at all. Luck just won’t cut it when it comes to family and the complexity of family relationships. Obviously, there is much deeper stuff involved.
Somewhere in their story you will discover some archaic value called unselfishness. And forgiveness will be right in the mix as well. Forgiveness is a powerful thing – it allows you to successfully move on, free from the shackles.
And yes, I surely am grateful I know the one who is the ultimate forgiver! I’ve been able to move on!
Take care and God bless.
If you want to contact Colin Miller email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
