Musings over a cuppa 'round the corner from the old 'hall'... PART -1-

What has become of my life since…….?

So much can be written about what has transpired since that day when I became a former. I have lived with the ‘what if’s’ for many years and the pain and disappointment that I have caused to so many people. People who made up my life; my YPSM, and Songster Leader, fellow Bandsmen and Songsters, eventually people I ministered to, and yes of course there were those who ministered to me; my family and friends and colleagues. Nothing new here and I am sure many readers will also be remembering and reminiscing like me. I have the photos, some I still chose to display, and one that is of the Corps' band that I played in as a young Salvationist. It was the photo taken when we bought a new set of instruments and there I am proudly holding the EEb bass that was the pride of my life and which I valued more than my ‘wheels’. Yes of course the photos are good memories, but there are still times when they almost reach off the wall and mock me to my very core and yes there are the tears and it really is easy to allow the pain to take over and color all that I now have and am.

I have recently returned from an extended ‘Geriatric Gap’ year in the UK. I was fundraising for a Hospital in the Midlands and just loved getting around and seeing so much of the country. I now wish that I had been able to catch up with some of the 'formers' in that part of the world but it was not to be. Being an extrovert who just loves public speaking I developed a minor reputation as someone who would go anywhere to present at conferences. I would not claim to be an expert in very much at all, but I think that my accent and Aussie heritage were quite a novelty and so off I went into all places to speak about fundraising, to try and be motivational and even inspirational. People were usually very generous and I did get invited back on couple of occasions; however one of the evaluations had the comment “not bad for an Aussie”. I took this as a great compliment seeing as we had just won the Cricket Ashes Test Series 5 zip in Australia.

One day I had a phone call to meet with someone who was running a fundraising conference for her rather large national organization, would I meet with her. Of course I am always up for a coffee, as that is where most meaningful conversations take place. Maybe we should have had a regulation that said all CO and DC interviews should be in Starbucks. When I met this woman I was astounded; here was a beautiful woman from northern Africa who towered over me, dressed in her very, very colorful national costume with a matching turban style headdress, and absolutely beautiful presentation with English that was far better than mine will ever be and she was asking me if I would speak at her conference; yes even I am sometimes lost for words. I stammered out one of those inane questions about what did you want me to speak about, and she looked me in the eye and told me that she wanted me to do the same presentation that I did at the Cardiff Fundraising Conference the year before where she was a delegate. It did ring a bell because I really enjoyed doing that gig, but what I struggled to comprehend was the fact that she then proceeded to tell me what I had spoken about, and she related it almost word for word. Now as I said I do not consider my presentations to be world changing but here was this extremely articulate woman, remembering every detail of my presentation. In thinking about it after I had this powerful, almost overwhelming sense of responsibility to be careful what I say because there are always people listening and taking note. Nothing you ever say goes unheard.

Fletch
Peter Fletcher
Former
Australia
Peter Fletcher