Ruminations on what matters

Aweh dearly beloved fellow Ruminants & Groupies in day 591 of Re-Modified LockDown Level 1 and with alcohol.

Period as a semi-retired pensioner: 212 days

This week I am going to consider the topic of what matters and who gets to decide what matters. The recent events where the talented cricket batsman, Quinton de Kock, was forced to “take the knee” for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaign by Cricket South Africa (CSA) set me to ruminating. There has been a mainstream media and social media frenzy on this topic. De Kock was subjected to criticism for his actions – some measured and deserved – but he also endured abuse on social media, where he was widely branded as a racist.

Who decides what you as an individual must support? In many employer-employee relationships, the employer holds a lot of power, and they should use that power responsibly. Much of the commentary focuses on the merits of the BLM campaign and how could you be against that? This misses the point entirely. Many issues matter out there. To name just a few, world peace, climate change, gender-based violence, child trafficking and violence against children, animal cruelty and wildlife preservation, and corruption and theft. Each of these issues has passionate advocates and the merits are often compelling. Is BLM more important than any of these and who gets to decide that? Well, it appears that it is the hippo (highest paid person’s opinion) at CSA. https://corporate-rebels.com/hippo-effect/ . The CSA hippo is engaging in some nauseating Pecksniffian virtue signalling. There are some of my groupies who, justifiably, say that I use long words and improve their vocabulary. If nothing else I aim to please. However, I confess that it is one of my groupies who recently alerted me to Pecksniffian, so my vocabulary is still expanding.

So, what matters? Shrek said, “NO! You dense, irritating, miniature beast of burden! Ogres are like onions!” What matters is like an onion with many layers. I would suggest that everyone has their own unique what matters onion. At the centre of your onion is yourself. Every person no matter how charitable has things that matter to them and if you don’t look after yourself then there can be no room for outer layers. Your inner layers need to nourish your own interests and fetishes. If you have a narcissistic personality disorder, then perhaps there are no outer layers.

After yourself, there are your family and friends. Them comes your local community and the organisations in your life including your employer. At what level does your employer matter? At one level one can have a purely transactional relationship with your employer. You are provided with a job description, an employment and performance contract, and work procedures and policies and you can perform accordingly. You can behave like a contractor. Successful organisations go way beyond that and unite people in pursuing an agreed cause. You go to work with both your head and your heart. The last layer of the onion are the global issues like world peace.

Getting people to unite and truly believe in a cause with their head and heart takes a lot of work, patience, collaboration, and consultation. This can often be a slow and frustrating process. Alternatively, if you are the CSA hippos you can simply take a leadership decision and inform the players a couple of hours before an important match that leadership has decided that you will take the knee for BLM. I will leave it to you to judge the quality of CSA leadership.

Finally, I will come to the featured image. In our household All Labradors Matter (ALM). I grew up with a golden Labrador, Donna, in an age where there were no walls or fences, and she roamed the neighbourhood eating other dogs’ food and scrounging for more food. She had stashes of food buried all over our large garden. In 2001 when Oliver was 18 months old, we decided that a Labrador puppy would be good for him. So, we got a black Labrador called Bovril. Bovril was a big shock for me. This was a very boisterous dog, and he was an escape artist. He had an identity tag and was chipped, and we were regularly in search of him and fetching him from many miles away. His happy place was our holiday home in Southbroom and we spent many frustrating hours searching for him. Generally, he took himself off to the beach where he would eat unsuspecting people’s lunch and play in the lagoon with the children.

In 2011 Bovril got liver cancer and collapsed and died abruptly. Oliver was beyond distraught. We had to take him out of school for a week to allow him to mourn Bovril and I think it is fair to say that Oliver is still mourning him.  I was not ready for another Labrador in my life, and we got two miniature Schnauzers, Sparky and Scarlet.

Although I was not ready for another Labrador both Connor and Oliver were extremely ready. And so began a process of attrition over a period of years. Needless to say, I lost and Bailey a golden Labrador arrived in 2017. I put up a good fight though. Apart from food and being boisterous Bailey’s specialty is destruction. Every corner of our leather sofas now has leather patches on them and the plastic conduiting in the garden has been replaced with steel conduiting. All Labradors matter.

As the leader of Ruminank Pink Friday™ I have taken a decision that all my readers and groupies must take the knee for All Labradors Matter (ALM).

Thank you very much for your comments and suggestions and please keep them coming.

Regards

Bruce