Tag Archives: Coach Carter

2014 and Beyond – Part 2

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Good morning Tash Appreciators!

Welcome to the last TF of 2013.

Last week, we looked back at this year and I said that adversity drew out our true character. This week, I’m going to challenge everyone (especially myself) to take our experiences of 2013 and use them to make 2014 count.

In order to look ahead to 2014, and beyond, I’d like to pose one question:

 Tash Friday 20:12:13

My honest answer to that question is that I haven’t got a clue.

Not having an answer to that question doesn’t mean that I’m not ambitious or that I don’t care, it just means that there is a wide world out there and I don’t yet know where my place is within it. I hope I’m not the only one who feels like that; I suspect I’m not.

I also don’t mean that I feel lost or down about life – quite the opposite, in fact.  It’s just that, for too long, TF has been about “keep going”. Keeping going is all well and good, if you know where you want to go but, if you keep going without a thought as to where the final destination is, are you not lost? From now on, I’ll be thinking to myself: what’s next, what’s next, WHAT IS NEXT?

This week’s Tash (Samuel L Jackson in “Coach Carter”) was a leader: he  was able to encourage those around him to listen to their better angels. In order to draw out a member of his team, he kept asking him “what’s your deepest fear?”

Tash Friday 20:12:13 2

For a long time, the young man had no response until, one day, he came up with a secularized variation of a quote from Marianne Williamson. I’ll give you the full quote and you can choose to take the word “God” as meaning whatever makes sense to you:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

In 2014, and beyond, I’ll work out what’s next and TF will shine. Consider yourselves liberated to do the same.

Have yourselves a thoroughly wonderful Christmas and hopeful, happy, New Year.

What’s next?

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Don’t ever let them see you coming

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Hola Tash Appreciators,

Some of you will no doubt have seen Barcelona’s superlative performance against AC Milan on Tuesday night. For those who didn’t, Barca were two-nil down following the first of a two-leg tie but then won four-nil on Tuesday to go through to the next stage of the Champions League. 

Football fans love to talk about the Barcelona team’s skill and style of play (Tuesday was a shining example of both) but TF is more interested the manner of their win rather than the method. 

After David Villa scored Barcelona’s third, crucial, goal, he celebrated like this:

The picture perhaps doesn’t do it justice but as I was watching it live I thought that it was the celebration of a man who just loved the game. He’s not celebrating with the fans and he doesn’t really acknowledge the 96,000 Catalans who are cheering their approval; he just seems delighted to have scored an important goal for his team after a long spell of poor form and injury.

The differences between AC milan’s players and the Barcelona players are interesting. Many of the Milan players have outrageous haircuts and obviously care a great deal about how they look on the pitch. For example, the worst look of the season goes to Milan’s El Shaarawy:

On the other hand, Barcelona seem to be more about substance. Lionel Messi doesn’t have a fancy haircut. More than that, he looks like (and seems to genuinely be) just like any other guy you’d see walking down the street. 

I’m reminded of Al Pacino in Devil’s Advocate when he’s telling his young protege how to act in the big city:

“Don’t get too cocky my boy. No matter how good you are don’t ever let them see you coming. That’s the gaffe my friend. You gotta keep yourself small. Innocuous. Be the little guy.”

I’ve got a lot of time for that attitude. If you’re out and about these days, you’ll see many people wearing expensive clothes and driving flash cars. You’ll see folk spending huge amounts of money on champagne in clubs (or, as TF calls them, discotheques) and buying bottles of over-priced vodka with sparklers attached. All, presumably, in an effort to make themselves look more successful, smarter etc than they perhaps are. If it were me, I’d rather be under-estimated than fail to live up to the hype. Ask the AC Milan boys – “style” only gets you so far. 

I’m also reminded of this week’s Tash. In one of his many movies, he played the role of a high school basketball coach. When talking to his team about having a bit of class and not being too showy on the court, he said this:

“Since when is winning not enough, playing hard not enough?”

This week’s Tash is Richmond High’s very own Coach Carter:

Have a great weekend folks! 

Keep going.