It appears that throughout these blogs we, as formers, seem to always be looking at a list of what we want the army to do to stem the tide. Did I read somewhere the other day that talked about the ‘constant laundry list of things to do?’ We want better treatment when we leave, we want people to counsel us before we leave, a Sabbatical would be good, and even three months every 5 years or so, fully funded, of course, and cut down in the pressure Officers are under. Everyone should have a Spiritual Director, and we should train our leaders better so that they understand the problems that we have and our leaders need to be kinder to us than they have in the past.I am constantly troubled by this, what I would call a simplistic answer to the problem and the way in which ‘If only this would have happened then I would not be in the position that I am now in’!
It seems to reflect to me the culture of the age that there is always someone else to blame. I was at a friend’s birthday party yesterday at a well known Chinese Restaurant. We were keen to be there early so that we could put the ‘Birthday Boy’ sprinkles around the table. It was Valentine’s Day and so there were the compulsory red heart sprinkles without which the day just would not happen. Driving into the car park I was first in line to park next to a raised garden bed with heavy sleepers keeping all the plants in order. Now I am of course the world’s best driver and was sure that I could get very close, and there was an almighty bang. When exploring what had gone awry, there was a metal spike sticking out of one of the sleepers, not very far but enough to puncture and ruin the tyre. When relating this to the other people at the party whom were all approaching if not surpassing what some would call old age. There seemed to me that almost all the people there focussed on the fact that it was the restaurants fault and that I should take a picture of it and claim it on my insurance. They were the negligent party in all this and I should immediately claim it against their insurance.
No one focussed on the fact that I drove the car, and in wanting to be smarter than everyone else and get closer to the edge of the car park space that I did not take into account the issues of safety for my vehicle.
You are all smart people and I do not need to highlight the message but somewhere in all of life, so many people have forgotten what Personal Responsibility is all about. In coaching we often use the “Be Do Have” Model. You have to ‘be’ authentic, who are you and when you look in the mirror in the morning do you see a genuine person looking back at you or is it someone else. ‘Do’ all the things that are required of you to the best of your ability for yourself your family and your wider community, and then you will ‘have’ the rewards that you are looking for. It’s not rocket science but if you read it carefully it is all about the individual taking responsibility for themselves.
It was said so well by ‘GenEva’ recently and reported in a response to JoAnn’s “Where is the celebration and Affirmation” Blog of the 12th Feb... It’s worth quoting again and actually printing off and using as a poster.
General Eva Burrows preached to the Cadets last week a day before they were commissioned. Her main points were: “5 Effective Habits of Highly Effective Officers”.
Habit 1 - Keep studying:
Always remain a student of the world around us and a student of the Bible. That way we will understand the context of mission and be able to offer the Word in a relevant way.
Habit 2 - Nurture yourself:
With devotions, with good coaches or mentors or spiritual directors. Defects in spiritual life, affects our leadership more than anything else. So have a plan for our personal spiritual development and follow it.
Habit 3 - Use your uniqueness in your ministry:
God wants us to be who he made us to be. Be who you are and do what you do best. This way you will do wonders for God’s kingdom.
Habit 4 - Exercise competence beyond your gifting:
Don’t use gifting as an excuse for not doing what is our responsibility. Learn about what we don’t know and talk with others and utilise others who can help. Don’t monopolise your ministry, but multiply it.
Habit 5 - Be a spiritual leader:
Cast vision. Have a clear and passionate focus for mission. Be ready to adjust strategies. Above all, like Jesus be a Servant Leader.
Thank you ‘Australia’ (the respondent) GenEva’s words needed to reach a wider audience and have reminded me again of the need for far more than a list of ‘Do’s’ for the Army to put in place so that some of the issues that we all face can be addressed effectively.
Today; my car is getting a gift from me of a new tyre because it really was me who drove into the spike.
FLETCHPeter Fletcher
Former
Australia
19 comments:
'To thine own self be true' Shakespeare
or if you prefer:
"Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else." Judy Garland.
Good to hear from you again Fletch - keep writing - keep challenging - keep inspiring.
Active UKT
'Here here'! Fletch!
GBY real good!
Active UKT
Personal responsibility is very important.It should make an individual reflect if they should ever be part of any group and the consequences. There is plenty of "blame" to go around. I found that it is important to move on and live again and let God bless me where ever I may be.
USA East former
I tried expressing this (not as well as you just did!) but in a very personal way in the privacy of the FB forum. I had done things which caused a lot of the problems. I carried resentment toward the officers who were involved, who to my way of thinking cost me my officership. All these years later I needed to confess my part to them and ask forgiveness. The response on the forum was exactly as you pointed out, "I did nothing wrong. It was all on them!"
former, US central
Fletch......
This is a superb and responsible write-up
I am very content within Officership - warts and all - and willing to apply self-responsibility without necessarily entering the blame game.
This is what I try to instill in my people as I seek to enable and empower them to take responsibility for their own actions and lives
Active UK
Luv it Fletch! I do believe that many former officers and soldiers do have legitimate gripes against the Army. However, they never seem to come to grips with the fact that their "problems" actually had more to do with run-ins with individual people than with the illusive "Army" itself. They often times fail to see their own part in the big picture.(I include myself in this very human failing!)
After recently reading postings from you, Bassett, Major JoAnn and Sven several thoughts have popped into my head. I'm not exactly sure how to put them into one all encompassing idea so maybe I'll just leave each one hanging and allow people to come to their own conclusions at the end of this posting.
1. When I was a corps cadet back in the 1960s Commissioner A. J. Gilliard "discovered"(??!!)me and had me write small articles for the back page of the American WC. One time I wrote him asking about the future of the Army. I told him that ever since I was in Directory Class I'd hear people lament that the Army wasn't what it use to be and that it was on its last leg, etc. etc. He told me not to listen to the doomsayers because the exact same thing was going on in 1920 when he went to training. He told me that he almost didn't go to training because he was working at IHQ at the time and was discouraged by all of the "tired, sick, worn out old men and women officers he bumped into who shocked him by their attitudes toward people and the Army!" The then Commissioner Mildred Duff helped him to see that he was responsible for himself and that his "ministry" as an officer was to transcend all the corporate shenanigans and lift people to the Heavenly Realm in spite of the shenanigans. (Btw, I'm paraphrasing. Shenanigans is my own word!) He told me that in every great religious movement the prophets begin and the priests take over and that this was inevitable.
Since then I've also come to realise upon studying Army history (not just the stuff HQ aprroves of!) that this process was well in place while Booth was still alive and that he actually started the process himself because he was a pretty smart businessman who knew that without institutionalization no movement ever survives!(Take a good look at what happened to the Jesus Movement of the early 1970s. The only groups that survived in any form were eventually absorbed by evangelical denominations---all of whom btw, have their own shenanigans going on!)
2. When I was a young man in the Navy I was talking to a chaplain who told me that the "old salts" didn't understand the younger guys because when they came in they enlisted for "survival" reasons whereas the younger enlistees enlisted to have their "higher" needs met. As a nurse I now realise that he was refering to Maslow's Pyramid of Hierarchical Needs. This pyramid directly relates to what is going on in TSA in the west vs. TSA in the east today!
Though I would never knock anyone's sense of calling the truth is people have always gone to training and still go to training for some very human reasons. (You could correlate this to nuns, priests, and brothers in the Catholic church vs. east and west today and see the same patterns emerging.)
(Because I may be running out of characters I'm going to have to continue my thoughts with another posting.)
God Bless Everyone On this site! I'll be back!
Daryl Lach
Personal responsibility makes it easier to move on. There are many reasons I could hold the Army accountable but I also had cause to leave. Facing all the facts made it that much easier.
I was only active five years and have been out so much longer than I was in. Life has gone in such wonderful directions that I have no regrets. It was good while it lasted but end it did just as many other things in life have. I have shared this in other articles and on FB as well but looking back I see I am much better former than active. I was too confined in structure and dogma and really never did fit. I like this Deborah a whole lot better than the other one. She is much more accepting and loving and most of all true to herself.
As always, Fletch, you rocked it.
Hi! I'm back continuing with my musings for whatever they're worth!
3. Up until WW2 and even into the 1960s in some western territories many Army young people (and most cadets were in their late teens and early 20s back then)had very few options to do anything exciting or imagine themselves making much of a difference in the world (things that are very important to that age group)other than through officership.
Add to this the fact that most candidates were women who REALLY had limited options and one could see why the training colleges were packed. The prospect of belonging to a group that would take care of your basic needs plus take care of a few of the higher self-esteem needs to boot--- and do it all while taking you out of your small town and sending you to the lights of the big city for a year or two had to be very alluring to any working class 18 year old. First world countries no longer exist in this same social milieu whereas third world countries are still there.
If the Army's "old salt" leadership(and I do believe that it is already starting to change)wants to attract and keep more soldiers and officers in the west, this issue of understanding "higher needs" is going to have to be addressed because in the next 50 to 100 years the same social patterns are going to emerge in the east. Lamenting the demise of a world that no longer exists and accusing people of "not being as dedicated as they once were" (which isn't really true since human nature has never changed) isn't going to help the situation.
4.In 1971 I remember hearing Commissioner Norman Marshall who was speaking at the Centennial Memorial Temple in NYC talk about how proud he was that a session he had trained in 1940 (the Holdfast Session) still had 55 active officers (out of 75) out on the field. Why was this significant? Because back then just like now 30 years later most people from most sesions were long gone! Former officers were NEVER a new phenomenon.
5.I remember reading a paper by the agnostic/atheist(?) Mr. Huxley in 1892 in which he lambasted William Booth and told the story of a conversation he had with a former officer who told him that the Army wasn't the evangelical force it was 10 years earlier and that he was glad to be out of it!
6. In my third year of college I accidentally found a book at the school library written in 1906 in which William Booth complained about too many of his "social" officers not caring about salvation anymore and being content to just dole out the soup and bread.
7. I also remember reading a book awhile back (probably written by Mr. Murdoch)where William Booth also complained that only one in four officers were any good to him and carried the load of the other three who were prety much dead weight. He also complained that once some of his best women officers got married they NEVER did another significant thing again!
(I'm running out of characters again and will post one last e-mail after this in continuation.....)
Daryl Lach
Fletch, am I correct in assuming that TSA allowed you to purchase the official vehicle when you resigned? It appears to be in very good condition. Did the RR include a good spare or did the DC keep that for his visits to corps in the bush ?
Good writing as usual !
Good on you mate !
Former
UKT
The last of my musings for whatever they're worth:
As I look back on many of my own disappointments in and out of the Army over the years (and read the many comments by former officers on this site) I realise that many of those "hurts and disappointments" could've actually been laughed at if a young corps cadet someone had sat me down and passed on to me a few pointers about life that took me several decades to learn on my own------
1. All things yield to economics. Not only piety but especially piety. In fact, when it comes to money and budget deadlines, etc. piety is one of the first things to fly right out the window.
2. If someone's accusing you of something you have not done, have not said and the thought has never even entered your mind---they're talking about themselves. It may even take a few years to see it but eventually everything comes out in the wash.
3. Leo Rosten the great Jewish humorist of the mid-20th century was absolutely right when upon being asked what was the one greatest lesson he had learned in life replied, (and I paraphrase as I can't remember ALL of the exact words) "In the depths of the mind, in some dark corner, EVERYBODY is nuts."
Hope I was able to help someone today with my rantings......
Once again, God Bless You All!
Daryl Lach (I'm not really anonymous. I just can't get anything through hitting any other button!)
"When you have a powerful, long-term vision for something, even against all odds and adversity, you will continue to make progress and people will want to get on board. Why? Because everybody wants to be a part of something great."
~Robin Crow
Rock Solid Leadership
Former UKT
"Every man is enthusiastic at times. One man has enthusiasm for thirty minutes, another man has it for thirty days. But it is a man who has it for thirty years who makes a success in life."
~Edward B. Butler
It is the person who has enthusiasm for thirty years that can make a real difference in the world!
Former UKT
The spike should have not been there sticking out so someone could hit it with their tire.
The Salvation Army shouldn't have encouraged so many young people into Officership . They groomed us young people towards Officership. The more light you have been exposed to the more you will be held accountable. When you lead the least of one of these astray it would be better for you to have a millstone hung about your neck and be cast into the sea.
Nothing more needs to be said about 'Personal Responsibility'....
I rest my case.......
What is this tit for tat attitude ? I sense some immaturity. This should not be present with God's people. Some people have grown up and matured. Others seem to want to have the last word.
I rest my case? This causes friction and confusion.
USA Former Officer
You are right of course and you would not be the first to make the charge of immaturity. If 'God's People' were all perfect in the present tense then I am sure that everything that I say would be 'kosher' so to speak. Alas I guess that I am not dissimilar to many of God's other saints as simply being a work in progress and I admit that he is taking his time with me.
I have already quoted this to a 'Former' privately as a result of my lapse in maturity. On one of the plethora of crime dramas the police team were discussing whether the victim would survive; "She is strong" said one character ".. but she will be scared". He then added "Scars (physical, emotional and spiritual; my additions) tell you where you have been; They do not have to dictate where you are going"
My sincere apologies to any that were offended, thank you to those who were not and let us all keep putting our thoughts, emotions and feelings down on paper. Done in the right spirit we are all going to be better 'Formers' for the sake of the Kingdom.
Cheers
Good line about the scars Fletch. My huge physical scars do indicate former limitations but they also represent what I can now do differently. I hadn't thought about the spiritual ones the same way. Thanks for the insight.
In response to the former who quoted from Matthew about a millstone being hung around the necks of those leading a little child astray: Sorry, but that verse does not apply here. You weren't a child when you went to training.
If you were an immature adult who now in hindsight realises he/she made a personally wrong decision that's another thing altogether. What about the king who doesn't go to war until he first sits down and counts the cost? Please re-read Fletch's post. It was written no doubt with people who think exactly like you do in mind!
Sorry also if it appears as if I'm helping to promote more "Army guilt". I'm not. It's just that after living in Chicago most of my life I never ever remember meeting any cadets who were legally children!
Daryl Lach
I'm responding late as I have just read your article. I had to think this over.
I never have had a wish list.
My findings are the other way round. The SA made me feel being the spike! Blaming me quiting on them.
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