Jun
27
Wooooo! Summer finally came to England, in all its HUMID, awesome wonder. Good golly, there are sunburnt people all over the place. (Note to me: It’s time to tan!)
Today was Jenna’s 1st Holy Communion in the Catholic Church. It was a beautiful hot sunny day, a beautiful service and Jenna looked so pretty. She has been preparing for this at catechism classes for a year now. So how do I feel about it? Well this piece of the blog promises to do 1 of two things. It will garner the understanding of those who agree with it and it may anger or alienate those who don’t. Mitchell took his first holy communion in East London, a few months before he turned 12 (and we had held him back 1 year, at that). 
A lot of Catholic churches in South Africa do it at that age. I don’t know if they all do it, or if it was just the Diocese of Port Elizabeth, under which St Patricks fell that did it at that age, but the reality of the situation is this… Mitchell was old enough to try and understand, to question, to make choices, to make up his mind. Jenna and the other little children in her group are only about 7 years old. Many of them didn’t know how to shake hands and receive their certificates in front of the camera, some couldn’t remember where to stand or when to sit, how to kneel, or when to clasp their hands together. So how do children of that age understand what they are doing when they “partake of the body and blood of Christ”? It is my opinion that it makes it seem forced. It makes it feel as if understanding is less important than simply doing. This is one of the sacraments of the Catholic faith which is not taken lightly. It follows on from the promises parents make at baptism and is a precursor for all other sacraments to come. These children are not presented by their parents as at baptism, they walk up to that alter, so how can it be done at a time when most children simply cannot understand it? So the questions I am left with tonight are: Why did we let Jenna partake? Why did we succumb to the pressure? We are certainly old enough to have asked why, to have questioned, to have made up our minds. Someone said to me recently that if you live in a place where people call a “jersey” a “jumper” you should embrace the new vocabulary and say “jumper” too, in other words we should “fit in”. So in SA Jenna would have waited a few more years, she would have attended more catechism classes and grown into an informed understanding, but when in Rome…… !
I am not disappointed that Jenna took communion today. I simply ask…. What did she understand by what she did today?… and when I ask her that question, I am not totally convinced.
This week I want to explain this formula to you [3xA4, 3/60, 24]. I posted it as a status on my facebook profile this week in the hope that someone would question it, and unsurprisingly, nobody did. We tend to shy away from asking things in a public domain when we fear that we might look foolish for not understanding. The truth is, I wanted someone to ask so that I could have explained it there, where people who do not read this blog would have seen it.
Some years back, I went on a team-building function with a selected group of people from the office I was working in at the time. We all went down to the Mpekweni resort on the SE Coast. It was one of those sessions led by an independent facilitator. We walked into the conference room on the first day and lying on each of our desks were 3 pieces of A4 paper [3xA4]. He asked us to roll each of them up into a tight ball and to place them alongside each other in front of us on our desks. He would tell us later what they were for. Obviously it bugged us for the next few minutes as we waited to find out the purpose of those 3 paper balls. The facilitator then said to us that when we convened the following day, we would be able to juggle. All it took was 3 dedicated minutes out of every hour [3/60]. It was imperative that if we just practiced for 3 minutes out of every 60 we would be able to achieve it within 24 [24] hours. (Now you have the formula that I believe in so much). No way were any of us going to believe that we would be able to juggle in 24 hours! We stood up at our seats and he showed us the technique very briefly, and then simply left it there! He had given us the tools we needed to succeed. We broke for drinks and toilet breaks and to stretch our legs every hour of that day (for a reason no doubt) and every hour I would grab those 3 balls, go and stand outside and try to juggle for 3 minutes. At first it was a disaster and I thought that all I would end up with was a sore back from bending down and retrieving the balls that fell on the floor all the time. Even when we met for dinner in the hotel restaurant that night, my 3 white paper balls were in my handbag. When other people were running off the bar to get more drinks, I would sneak out and try again, and again. By breakfast time the next morning I realised that not many people had taken up the challenge to learn to juggle. Most had not practiced once; some had tried with a half-hearted giggle and then thrown in the towel… I knew how far I had come, and all the way through breakfast I relished the chance to show them. We met in the conference room for the start of day 2 and it was time to see who could juggle. Some could throw once or twice, but that was about all. I walked calmly to the front of the room and stood with my back to the group… and… I juggled. 
When I packed my stuff to move to the UK I held those 3 white balls in my hand and decided that I would pack them and take them with me, and tonight as I write this blog, sitting in the living room in England, I have those very same three white balls on the table next to me. They are simply 3 pieces of A4 paper which are scrunched up tightly, but to me they are the belief that when I put my mind to something, I can and will achieve it. For me, [3xA4, 3/60, 24] means that that which seems unattainable is possible.
So, as I set out tomorrow on week-3 of my “couch to 10km’s” of training, I will know in my heart… 3xA4, 3/60, 24!
(That which seems unattainable is possible).
PS: I tried to juggle tonight and although I am a little rusty, I still have it!
June 28th, 2010 at 11:50 am
What a lovely inspirational and thought provoking post – really enjoyed reading it!
xxx
A