I’m not really a football supporter and rarely can I ever sit through 90 minutes of football and even more rarely can I ever watch a football match between two teams that I’m not emotionally attached to.
I am, however, a Scotland supporter in every aspect.
You can blame my dad for this because as my brother and I were growing up, we went to a catholic school (my mum was a catholic) but my dad was a rangers supporter (my dad was brought up a protestant) and so he decided that the best way to introduce us to football was to introduce us to Scotland to avoid the whole Celtic/Rangers, Catholic/Protestant thing.
For a Scottish father to introduce his entirely Scottish son to becoming a Scotland supporter is completely reasonable but for a Scottish father to introduce his son who’s half Scottish and half English to be a Scotland supporter is clearly a form of child abuse by psychological impact.
Such as the situation that Callum, my son finds himself in though as his father has ‘inflicted’ upon him the curse of supporting Scotland of football.
So, to the point Colin, hurry up!
In our recent year long business course leadership module John Gibson discussed the concept of brokenness and of the construction of your timeline which I have eluded to in a previous blog, you can read that here.
One of the exercises he suggested we all go away and do was to write a timeline of our lives with marking out all the significant events that have happened and to do that unconsciously and instinctively and then to review the timeline to see what some of the most important points were.
I did that after listening to John’s presentation and the results were quite stunning.
I drew a diagonal line from one corner of the page of A4 to the other with January 1972 on the left side and September 2020 on the right and then proceeded to divide it into the stages of my life and things that are significant.
There was almost nothing in that which was particularly financially dependent, suggesting that I could have achieved the same life with much less money which was quite an insight.
Some of the points in that though were to do with watching Scotland playing football but in particular one of my earliest memories was of me and my dad watching the 1978 world cup final when Archie Gemmill scored ‘that goal’ which was included in the Trainspotting movie.
I did not watch that goal happen, I was watching my dad as that goal happened and I can remember it vividly.
I can remember where he was sitting and how he was holding (cradling) a pillow in both hands to his chest after Gemmill scored.
It was quite a moment for both of us I think.
On Thursday Scotland play again.
How they have fallen from grace since 1978 and in fact have not qualified for a major championship since 1998 in France but have the opportunity in one game against Israel to qualify for the euros.
I had a peer review group scheduled for that night prior to this game being arranged but I’ve asked Anna Lawson (my co-conspirator in peer review) for the permission to change it to Wednesday because I’d like to recreate that memory with my own son.
In all likelihood Scotland will be glorious in defeat and will lose in the last minute against Israel but that in itself will be a memory for Callum and I to share.
Should they not however.
Should they just happen to scrape through against a second-rate Israel side (a third rate Scotland side) it will be a glorious night for both of us, that we will never forget as long as we live.
It doesn’t matter where or how we watch it, what matters is that we share it together.
So, next week it’s more important than my work, at least for a short while to create another memory on my timeline.
“Your work exists to give you the life you want”.
(A little bit of joy in the middle of the lockdown).
Blog Post Number - 2547
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