Guardians in Training

I once heard Nick Cave say, “We are the guardians of the soul of the world,” and I was a little proud of that. Two days later I learned the second part of the bargain: if you want something strong to grow, you have to “kill your babies,” meaning: let go of the ideas you’re attached to so the ones with real potential can come to life. Painful, but I do want to be a strong guardian.

Anyway, before either can happen, I need to put on my Blue Hat, that’s one of Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, to help me switch my mental lenses on purpose instead of getting stuck in one mood. So, the Blue Hat to get organised and set the timer (Monday 20th, 07:05 am, blog post to be done by 08:00 am or I lose to my own procrastination), White Hat to look at what’s actually here (and what is absolutely not), Yellow Hat to believe it might still be worth salvaging, Black Hat to add elegant pessimism and ask “yes, but realistically?”, Red Hat to let the feelings have their moment without having to defend themselves, and finally Green Hat to open a window for something new to appear so Blue can come back in and steer it into shape.

We were properly juggling our hats in our group work on this year’s SCA agency name. Three-person teams can be their own comedy of alliances, two against one in any combination, just like with my sisters. There were ups and downs, but in the end we were all happy with the overall result (although, of course, there are always a bits left that give a slight ick)…

I believe teamwork only works when everyone decides the shared outcome matters more than any single person’s product, it can be hard but is so worth it. (If you’re curious: voting on this year’s SCA agency name is now open, and I heard that “The Frog” might be a good idea to vote on.)

Last week Pete made us write an email to ourselves, scheduled to arrive exactly ten years from now, with the subject line “Me.” I won’t say what exactly I wrote, because I might hold on to the superstition that some wishes spoken aloud don’t come true, but what I can say is that I hope I’ll have become a very strong guardian of the soul of the world in ten years’ time, with the teammates and friends I made along the way still beside me, as well as a pride of lions.

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