CONVERSATION NECESSARY

I would welcome the opportunity to talk soon. Not to one individual but the whole of the Northern Territory Government Cabinet. I would also like to include our Department of Education’s Chief Executive Officer together with the heads of sub-departments.

Sadly, that conversation will never become a reality and will remain a wish to happen in my head.

The reason I would like to talk with these people is to ask them to reflect upon the past. Look in the rear vision mirror where the Northern Territory Government and Education have come from.

Life and organisation are all about the past, the present, and the future. I do believe that informing what happens in “the President” should take into account what has happened in “the past”. However, they do sell them the case.

Policies and processes defined as “new“are often far from that. They are, in essence, revisiting what has happened in previous years, been implemented and then discarded because of problems. A lot of the new policies coming into vogue (and this has happened over time) are simply revisitations of what has been trialled and then discarded.

This on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again, on-again is tantamount by to revisiting the wheel with organisations including the government, going around in circles. I’m not saying that we don’t need to move forward – we do! But in moving forward we need to take account of what has gone before.

I would very much like to talk with the people nominated, in order to point out numerous instances of revisitation based upon the above methodologies since the 1970s the 1990s.

But as I said, that conversation will never take place because nobody in high places is interested in thinking about past successes and failures: Through trial and error they would prefer to find out for themselves.

PRECIOUS POSSESSION

Over the years one accumulates a lot of material and many possessions. They all have value.

But in singling out just wanted to one in terms of my own personal self and not taking into account family (the most precious of all associations in life), my most precious possession would have to be an A5 folder containing plastic sleeves in which materials can be placed.

In that folder I have copies of awards, appreciations, academic records, life memberships, and several photos remembering particular events of importance throughout my life.

It’s a simple folder and one in which I store precious memories. From time to time I take this folder go through it and reflect upon its contents.

Self-reflection in a private way is important and this folder with its contents is my reference point for these reflections.

THE BOWER BIRD

Metaphorically speaking, when it comes to collecting and collections, I am a bit like a bower bird. I hang onto things for a long, long time and create frustration in others when I won’t tidy up, throw out, or give away items that I have collected.

Among the collectables I have kept are the following:

All my annual diaries from 1970 onward – there is a gap here in there but they’re mostly intact.

Copies of letters that I sent to people over the years as we were working in rural and remote parts of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. They are a good record.

The various trip diaries I compiled when we were travelling overseas and interstate.

Albums of coins, especially those appropriately cast for commemerative reasons.

Chronicles of teaching and administrative materials that I acquired over the years, in order to assist others and also to stimulate writing on educational subjects, something I do in retirement.

Collections of slides and photographs of places that we have seen, worked in, and lived in, over the years. (These need to be converted).

In terms of collection I have given a great deal of material to the Northern Territory Archives, because as I get older it becomes of less used to me and if it’s not given a way where it may be useful for research purposes in years to come, it may well finish up at the rubbish tip when our house is cleared

out.

Copies of articles I have contributed to publications over many years. Included is the volume of 300 columns I wrote for the Northern Territory News in a weekly column “ Gray Matters” for nearly 6 years after my retirement. (I have never written for remuneration .)

I also have a great deal of material that is saved online, including photographs, written materials and so on.

I really use LinkedIn as a source where by written material is retained in a collectible manner.

I blog and have over 2000 pieces of written and .saved material.

Collectibles ultimately translate into a trove of quite wealthy information.

LEGACY ON LEAVING

I enjoy life, but I am a realist. As a 77-year-old man I know that I am on the downhill stretch, heading towards the sunset of life. At one stage as a younger person I used to be frightened about passing over, but that is no longer the case.

Life has four phases in terms of the mortal stage.

You get born.

You grow up.

You become old.

You go dead.

I am well aware of the phase of life I now occupy.

The overarching legacy of life that I want to be leaving behind, relate to the first aspect of my mission statement which reads “to fulfil and be fulfilled in organisational mode, family, work, recreation“. If my legacy is an affirmation of positive fulfilment of this position, I will be well satisfied. Those three elements (a tripod if you like) have been my focus and concentration for a very long time. I want to depart this mortal coil leaving behind memories and indeed a legacy so show that this checked it has been fulfilled.

I want people to remember Henry Gray as a person who was a man of integrity.

Finally, I want to be remembered as a person who “ worked with a smile in his heart“. I want to be remembered as somebody who enjoyed what he did and with that enjoyment lifted others up, helping them along pathways of life.

Leaving behind a lot of money and assets doesn’t worry me particularly, but I will die satisfied knowing that there is a reasonable asset base that can be drawn upon by our children and their children.

In short, when I go, I want to be remembered as a person who left the world or the areas of his involvement enhanced and enriched by his presence.

COLD WEATHER

I love cold weather. Living in Darwin means that cold weather is often very scarce in terms of happening. Right now, this May, we are having some coolish nights, with the temperature getting down on two occasions to an overnight low of 17°. During the day, it rises into the low 30° area. What helps to make the cooler weather cool and keeps the maximum temperature during the day tolerable is the fact that the humidity is way down into the 20 and 30% mark.

The humidity is a real stifler, often making it seem hotter than it may well be. I survive the heat but much prefer the relative cold of the dry.

In 1996 June and July, my wife and I went to the UK for six or seven weeks. This was during a period of extended service leave. I wouldn’t say I liked cautions to ensure I wore enough warm clothes. When we were away, I never once put on a jumper; on a couple of occasions, of thick shirt but not a jumper.

We toured or visited all over England, from London up the East Coast to John-O-Groats in Scotland, across the top of Scotland including the Isle of Skye, then down the West Coast into Wales before finishing up in South West England at Lands End in Cornwall. We toured Ireland and spent several days on a narrowboat on the Midlands canal system.

And all the time without feeling cold.

How am I coping with Darwin’s ‘chill’ as winter begins to threaten Australia’s south? I am LOVING it.

BONES INTACT

Spinal curvature

Fortunately, to this stage of my life, I have managed to avoid any bone breaks. I have had a litany of medical issues over the years, but have managed to avoid broken bones.

I had what might well have been a near miss when I was about 10. My Dad was a wheat farmer and has just transitioned from bagged wheat to bulk harvesting.

He was moving out on the whole Dodge truck with a full week been on the back, the truck towing the auger that was used for ordering the wheat from the header into the bulk bin. I was in the bin which is full of wheat with my back to the cab of the truck, looking out over the auger.

Unbeknownst to me dad drove under a tree that had a hanging branch. It’s cleared the truck, but as the truck moved forward it caught me from behind. It came in contact with the back of my neck, tip me up and I fell out of the bin, more or less headfirst down onto the back of the tray of the truck and from there bounced into the hopper of the auger.

I was knocked out cold and did not come to for some distance.

But I got out of that was a terribly terribly stiff neck and a very sore back but fortunately nothing was broken. That may have been the cause of headaches I suffered for many years and I do have a curved spine in the upper regions of my back – which may or may not have been caused by the fall.

But broken bones – not to date.

A QUESTION OF BALANCE

Balancing home life and work life was always very important to me. I write in the past tense because I’ve been retired for 12 years. However, even in retirement, my postwork activities mustn’t take on a disproportionate significance.

In 1984, I developed a mission statement and this was during a leadership program. The top criteria reads as follows:

“To fulfil and be fulfilled in terms of family, work, and recreation.“ It was important to me to have a balance and I never would work – or tried not to – over and above the importance and significance of my family. This has certainly helped because as a family of five, we are very close together. Neither did I neglect work but it needed to be kept in its place. I am reminded of the fact as has always been that “nobody on their deathbed ever regretted not having spent more time at work.“ I got that from somewhere and it always stuck in my mind.

As a leader, I tried hard to convince staff that Balance in work-life terms was very very important. So to come I was recreation getting away from work and relaxing.

I always tried hard not to take Work home and was advantaged in that way because I never lived more than 3 km from my place of work. If it was necessary to go to work early or late then it was at my workplace that I operated. Taking Work home was something I avoided.

Balance in life is ever so important and priorities need to be carefully established. Once they have been set, they need to be maintained.

Getting the balance right was, is, and will continue to be important.

SACRIFICING

STUDY FOR WORK

As a teacher who became a principal, I desired to complete doctoral studies during my career.

I’ve done or completed several degrees at postgraduate and masters level and was Deadset keen to undertake a doctorate.

I was also a school principal and in that context became aware of the fact that a good number of my colleagues were taking time off work to complete study programs. Thinking the matter through, I decided it would be far better for me from the viewpoint of my job and my work with children, staff and community not to leave and undertake study because it just seemed unfair to those with whom I was working.

so I didn’t pursue doctoral studies and am not particularly sorry about that. What I had was a full-time professional life and what I did was to spend my time as a principal in my schools. I also worked around the school teaching children and getting to know them.

How happy I am in retirement to reflect upon my career. Part of that is to be glad that I took the course of action I did and prioritised my work over study.

As a corollary, I also sacrificed 106 weeks of accumulated sick leave when I retired. Some of my colleagues and others, approaching the end of their working lives, used to take time off for medical reasons and for basically cutting out The sick leave that was owed to them.

To my way of thinking that was not right and I was quite happy to sacrifice my 106 weeks of sick leave to stay the course in my school and work with students and community and of course staff.

Last evening, I was invested with an Order of Australia Medal for my services to Education. I felt ever so proud and humble in receiving that award and feel ever so blessed to have prioritised as I did – even though that meant the sacrifices I have described. Those sacrifices were nothing compared to the joy and satisfaction I got from my work.

USUALLY OLD

I usually wear very old clothes I like wearing old, years and years old, T-shirts shorts sand shoes socks and so on. But today May 19th 2023 and with license, I just wanted to turn this topic on to something that I wore for the very first time.

It’s also the first time in over 20 years that I have worn a full dress suit, white shirt, tie and the trimmings. I even had new shoes.

The occasion? Tonight along with 15 other Northern Territorians, I went to Government House to be invested with an Order of Australia Medal for services to Education.

My family was there with three children and one of our grandsons

It was a great night – but guess what? Tomorrow it will be back to the wearing of old clothes and the suit will be put away after dry cleaning, probably for another 20 years.