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.

TYPE ‘B’s’ STRANGLE TYPE ‘A’s’

I identify as a leader, undoubtedly a leader and a person with a Type A personality. As a leader, I have tried very hard to generate motivate with others to also look at being Type A persons.

As a leader I can attest to the fact that there are followers – and there are followers! The latter is Type B personalities. Many are laid-back and easy-going and “she’ll be right mate” persons to the point of eternally frustrating and strangling Type A people like myself. You don’t know what to do with them you don’t know how to urge them forward and you think of them as being like unto

stubborn mules.

I like being a leader and I like people who with me forge progressively onward and upward. But the ones that drag their feet, dig in their heels, and won’t budge for quids. These are people who are frustrating to the point of making me want to scream at them to get good i

and do the right thing.

It’s not always easy to be a leader.

FIVE FAVOURITE FRUITS

There are lots of fruit types I do not like and cannot eat. Some of this is probably because it’s a child I was made to eat things I didn’t fancy and therefore, be imaginary or real, I developed an aversion to these fruits.

For several years now I have grown pawpaws from seed and give away the plants and the fruit from trees that I planted in our yard. There is no way that I would eat a pawpaw I just don’t fancy having a go at that particular fruit but others like it so I’m happy to grow them and give them away.

My five favourite fruits from fifths to first go like this:

In fifth place are Pink Lady apples.

Coming in fourth are champagne melons.

In third place are red watermelons.

Granny Smith comes second.

Way, way, WAY out in front are first grade – usually from Tasmania – cherries. In Darwin, the supply of first-grade cherries is infrequent. But I never stop looking out for my favourite fruit.

A SMALL IMPROVEMENT NEEDED

I get frightened of making telephone calls. Putting off calls that need to be made, causes matters needing attention to pile up.

Reluctance to make calls is a weakness of character I need to overcome. This will help me to achieve more, more efficiently.

This is a change I need to make.

Charlie CARTER NUMBER ONE

This particular assignment is one about which I have thought long and hard all day. There have been so many people who have supported and helped me throughout my life that separating them from each other and getting down to only one has been very difficult.

I thought back through the life I’ve had particularly my professional life which began in 1968.

Considering hundreds of people finally brought me down to the one person who I think is A great influence on the way I operated during the last 19 years of my professional life.

His name is Charlie Carter he was our Regional Superintendent for Education when I first came to Darwin.

Sadly, he is now deceased but what he did for me evoked eternal appreciation.

when I first took up the Principal Sheppard Leanyer School they were quite some people who were unhappy about how I started my leadership career at that school. They never came and talk to me but some of them went to Charlie Carter to talk to him, my boss, about me.

Charlie‘s response was to send me a handwritten note. He said in the note that he needed to talk to me about some concerns people had about my style of leadership. He wanted to meet away from the school. He wanted our meeting to be in a private venue and he wanted to talk to me about what people had been telling him.

I appreciated this greatly. We had a very worthwhile meeting. Mr Carter outlined the facts of the concerns that were held about me he did not criticise me but he allowed me to think things through in a way that would enable me to go forward in a corrective way.

I went away from that meeting and took on board his advice. Without a shadow of a doubt, his meeting with me in this way helped me through what became a 20-year career as principal of Leanyer School. I asked people in the aftermath of things to talk with me if they felt there were issues I could be doing differently and better. That invitation over the years was accepted and respectful relationships became the modus operandi between me, staff, parents, and students at Leanyer.

When Mr Carter died I spoke of my appreciation for what he had done for me at his funeral. This included my reading out the note he had written to me all those years ago.

I was blessed by this man who believed in helping me rather than pulling rank and giving me a hard time. He was a genuine, sincere, and committed colleague.

Yes, Charlie Carter is my number one influencer, who helped me in an uplifting manner.

‘ME FIRST’ PUBLIC FIGURES

The public figures I most disagree with and abhor, are those who use their positions for self-promotion over and above their roles in organisations they represent.

A desire for self-aggrandisement means that many public figures’ positions into which they are appointed or voted, are used to big-note themselves. By putting themselves first, they can and often diminish the organisations they work for or represent.

I have little respect for public figures who use organisations in this way. Unfortunately, many people prioritise themselves in this manner.

My respect is for those public figures who are there for others – being representatives true to the roles they fill.

FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD …

“Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose” – the words from the Kris Kristofferson’s song ‘Bobby McGee’ resonate with me in contemplating this question.

Once upon a time, people had personal privacy – perhaps the most valuable and unappreciated of freedoms. It was possible to be anonymous.

Fast forward to 2023 and the lack of privacy available to people makes George Orwell’s “1984” look quite insignificant by comparison with the amount of data that is now recorded on every one of us. Interestingly, there’s lots of talk and hyperbole about our right to privacy – but that’s just all talk; nothing is private and everything is now on file for everyone.

Whenever anyone wants to know about anybody it’s quite possible to get to that information quickly. Often, people who are being investigated have no clue whatsoever about what’s going on. The Internet and social media together with the clandestine operation of some organisations have stripped us of our privacy and exposed us to the world. I no longer worry about privacy because I know there is none.

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose: there is nothing left to lose because everybody can find out anything about anybody at any time.

Nothing left about privacy is all there is for me; so juxtapositionally that offers me freedom.

E

‘ME FIRST’ PUBLIC FIGURES

The public figures I most disagree with and abhor, are those who use their positions for self-promotion over and above their roles in organisations they represent.

A desire for self-aggrandisement means that many public figures’ positions into which they are appointed or voted, are used to big-note themselves. By putting themselves first, they can and often diminish the organisations they work for or represent.

I have little respect for public figures who use organisations in this way. Unfortunately, many people prioritise themselves in this manner.

My respect is for those public figures who are there for others – being representatives true to the roles they fill.