Not
long ago, I wrote about rowing, how it taught me a lot about trust, and how it
has taught me a lot of life lessons that aren’t normally advertised as “join
your local crew team – where you learn to row and tackle life’s most pressing
issues.”
Rowing is a sport filled with lessons and growth.
Discipline. Dedication. Teamwork. Leadership. How to keep a boat on top
of the lake instead of at the bottom. Just when I started thinking that I
was done with learning lessons from this team, a few smacked me in the face –
the second is below, and I’ll try to keep ‘em comin’.
Second – teams, nations, and diversity of thought
If I’ve learned anything about the weather here in Birmingham,
it’s that the name of the seasons has no power over the acts of nature. This means that morning practices in
March can get down below freezing.
The sun hasn’t always woken up before us, making it nearly impossible to
keep warm while out on the water…and beyond impossible to keep warm if you’re
forced into the water.
A few weeks ago we had two different boats out on the water one
especially cold morning. While I
was waiting out on the water for the other boat to dock, something strange
happened – the cox of the other boat called us over, asked us to dock on the
other side so that we could help them.
We had no clue what had happened until we pulled up next to an
ice-covered dock. The other boat
had flipped, the four girls in that boat had fallen in the lake in the
less-than-ideal temperature, and the other boat – the only boat our team actually
has ownership over – was filled with water and too heavy for the four girls to
lift.
Naturally, after putting away the unharmed boat, we decided that
all eight rowers should be able to lift the water-filled-boat with no
problems. The other cox guided the
boat while I made the usual calls in an attempt the turn the boat enough to
drain the lake water. What seemed
like a seamless plan turned out to be fruitless efforts when the dock started
sinking under the weight of all eight rowers and a boat filled with lake
water. With eight o’clock classes
and tests quickly approaching, we only had one option left and that was for
everyone to get in the freezing cold lake and to lift the boat while standing
in water. This may not have been
the most popular idea, but it’s the only one that could work with our time and
resources.
When all eight of the rowers – both the boys’ and the girls’
boat – finally had the boat lifted out of the water, there was a moment of
beauty despite the freezing cold water pouring out onto them.
The way our team’s
scheduling works out, most team members only spend ample time with their
boat. Our crazy schedules aren’t
the only thing that divides our team.
As my roommate affectionately said last semester, “The crew team is
really just a bunch of really weird people who have nothing really in common
and just kind of found each other.”
I think that this statement is what made the victorious, terrible
experience of lifting and draining the boat on that freezing morning so
beautiful.
We don’t necessarily know the entire team very well, nor do we
share interests with each and every teammate or have similar values or shared
belief systems. We’re all very
different people with very different interests, goals, and values – and when we
accomplish things as a team it isn’t because we all put aside our own thoughts
to accommodate another teammate, it’s because somewhere in our random
collection of interests, goals, and values we have a loyalty to and passion for
the well-being and success of our team.
As I’ve found myself as a bystander in many conversations about
the right or privilege or whatever you want to call same-sex marriage, I’ve
found that this country could learn from the functionality of my small
Christian school’s crew team – in every issue, not just the hot topic of
marriage equality. America, from
its earliest stages, has been a melting pot – a collection of all sorts of
people. These people are not soft
spoken, and they are all always right.
Laws stomp on beliefs, beliefs define religions, and religious organizations
charge at the capital whenever they feel slighted.
But what if we took a moment to look at this team that we are a
part of as a country. We can
accomplish more, and provide a more loving community were we not so dependent
on lawmakers guiding our actions.
It isn’t our place to outlaw beliefs that contradict our own, but
instead to partake only in actions within our own control that support the
mission we feel called to. Laws
don’t necessarily change people, but love can make a world of difference.
That’s what makes the opening and closing ceremonies of the
Olympics so beautiful. So many
different people, beliefs, and interests are all in one place peacefully. They aren’t worried about the laws of
the nations surrounding them supporting actions out of line with their beliefs.
They’re all just there to compete in a beautiful world-wide, all-inclusive
event. If they didn’t include
countries with certain beliefs, then eventually all competition would be lost.
And that’s what made this moment with these eight very different
rowers lifting and draining this boat so beautiful. In the most important moments, it doesn’t matter what the
person next to me in a boat believes – all that matters is that we’re working
together for the success of the team as a whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment