I am a 43 year old white African male from Pretoria, South
Africa. I have been under “lockdown” since March and without any tourism clients
since February. But I played the game. Usually
I write about my experiences in the wild with tourists from around the globe
but today I will write about my experience as part of a team.
“O here we go again” you might think. “Another sad story and
financial victim of COVID-19!” But no this is not about me nor my age the
colour of my skin or where I am from! This is about the game of life and more importantly human life.
As if the COVID virus was not enough to deal with we as
humans made our current situation even more difficult by dragging racism back into
our world too. First in our beloved South Africa where government allocated
COVID Relief grands according to your company’s Black Empowerment status and
now recently the horrible death of George Floyd in the USA.
In South Africa we are a sport crazy nation especially when
it comes to the game of rugby. Now I might not support rival teams when they
play against our local team, the Blue Bulls from Pretoria. I might not agree on
the way they play the game or the way they won or lost the match. I will often
get upset and emotional when they are better at how they play the game and the
way the other team benefited from some decisions made by the referee on the
day. But at the end when the final whistle is blown and one reflect back on the
game we all respect and love the same game of rugby. We will return to our
television sets and stadiums as friends or supporters no matter what happened
the week before. Not because we necessarily agree on the rules but because we all love the game.
Now for me the game of life is almost the same as the game
of rugby. We will never agree on certain rules or decisions. We will never
support the same things or walk off the field feeling the same as the other
team that just won or lost the game. We
will leave the sport field of life with different types and levels of scars but
if we do not participate in the game and give it our all we will never be able
to sit back and give advice to future players of the game of life based on our
own experiences.
No rugby player reached the top in his sporting carrier without
failure, set backs and disappointment. No world cup trophy was lifted without
tears, sweat and sacrifice. As a team the Springboks decided that they will win
the Rugby World Cup of 2019 years before the first ticket was sold to the
opening match of that event in Japan. They had a goal they had a vision and
they had a dream. Not as a white player or a black player or an individual but
as a team. Each one had a role to play and each one knew they will not be able
to do this without the support and insurance of the player next to him.
In our human team in the biggest game on earth we need team
mates around us to reach our goals. You need the insurance that your team mate
will be there at the right place at the right time to pick up the ball when you
dropped it. We need to realise that our skills alone will not be enough to end
this game in victory. Just as in rugby
team everybody can not run equally as fast or jump equally as high but together
they can reach a common goal without the skills they might lack.
You can either give it your all during this match on earth and
walk off the field knowing that you left everything you had on that field or
you can be a spectator trying in vane to change the outcome of the match from
the pavilion. Choose your team mates carefully and make use of your bible as
your sporting manual, have long team talks in the form of prayer and remember you have already been carefully selected as part of the
team by our Coach – GOD.
#BeTheDifference
Photo by: Evotia Tamua
