Cool Hand Paul

News often reach me a bit late, because I'm often away from news - somewhere in Nigeria, or Zimbabwe or in Korea! And when I discover something that actually means something to me, I feel robbed, as if it happened while I wasn't around.
This happened to me when I found out that Paul Newman passed away. He was 84 and his second wife, Joan Woodward held his hand as he stepped over into eternity. She gave up her acting to let him pursue his acting career. She made a few movies but mainly raised the family.
The first movie I saw Paul in was 'Hombre'. He played the part of an Apache scout. Although he did not have many lines to deliver, his piercing blue eyes stare, captivated my attention. It made me feel that I too would like to act one day. Then I saw 'Somebody up there likes me' that told the Rocky Marciano story. Steve McQueen also had a small part in it. And then I tried to see as many of Paul's movies as I could: Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,The Sting, The Color of Money, Hustler, The Mackintosh Man and several others. His non-chalance way of actor's studio way of acting as the anti-hero really made me like the roles he played. But he liked motor racing most of all. It excited him. He played in a movie about a motor car racing ace, but I can't remember the name of it. All I remember is how he turned around and hit the guy that was messing with his wife. And I remember the way he slept, with his arm over his eyes.
I've read that he doesn't like to watch his own movies and that he shaves in the shower so as not to look into the mirror. His family says he was down to earth and likeable, just like the roles he played.
He had his share of troubles, lost his son through a drug overdose, but he managed to stay married for many years to the same lady. They lived away from the Hollywood glits and glamour.
With his salad dressing he made $200 million and gave it all away to charity!
Robert Redfort that starred with him in probably two of the best ever buddy movies (Butch and Sting)said,'I've lost a friend'. He died because of cancer. The doctors said that he could probably live longer if he used certain medicine, but Paul and his wife Joanne decided together to 'let it go'.
How short this life span is. It is a hand's width. Today you are here and tomorrow you are gone. Paul Newman was definitely one of the actors that inspired me to act and now he is gone. All that remains is a memory and the movies he had made.
It is an era that closed with him. The Steve McQueens and Paul Newmans are now off the center stage and new young actors step forward...but, alas, its only for a while.
Yet, if someone made you feel good, it was a life well lived. Paul always made feel good movies, mostly.
Somebody up there loves me, made you feel taller as you walked out of the cinema.
Cool Hand Luke made you realise you can have fun - even in prison!
Butch Cassidy gave you a sense of the joy of living - even in a Western!
The Sting almost convinced you to bet on horse races because him and Robert Redford had such fun in their wheeling and dealing!
Thanks Paul, God rest your soul, if a movie was ever made about your life I think it should be called Cool Hand Paul!

Tying Shoelaces

One of the most frustrating things to me was tying shoelaces, three, four times a day! Until at the impressionable age of 19 I saw my uncle tie his Barker English leather round point shoes and make a double knot! That discovery saved me a lot of time and lot of wasted emotional energy - about shoelaces!
Remember the first time you tied your own shoelaces? It took all the concentration you could muster, while chewing your tongue on the side of your mouth and hoping you will not get your fingers caught in the knot.
Then it happened: your shoes were tied! And you could walk off, proudly, knowing you accomplished a seemingly impossible task, all by yourself. Only to discover, a few hours later, that you had to redo everything. The whole process had to be repeated, labouriously.
Well, a double knot is the key.
I saw how my uncle enjoyed tying his shoes properly.
'Shoes must fit tightly to keep your feet in shape. Its no use to have your foot move about in your shoes. You will develop all sorts of problems. So if you tie the laces properly it keeps your feet in the right position in the shoes and you can walk around town without having to check if your shoe laces are still tied.'
I've often thought about that...if you know what to do, it is a pleasure doing it.
And obviously vice versa: if you don't know how to do something, it is a pain!
This applies on all levels, really!
If you don't know how to bake a cake, you hate it. If you don't know how to do book keeping or administration, you hate it. The same with budgeting, with paying accounts, with making a bed, with tidying a cupboard, with stacking things in the garage, with keeping your school notes, with filing your correspondence and bank statements...the list is endless. Think about it.
The things you like doing are things you were trained to do properly - and you saw someone actually enjoy doing it.
That is how I discovered cricket: Andre le Roux taught me and showed me how to enjoy it. He always had a smile on his face when he coached me in their back yard. And even though he was much older than I, he never made me feel 'small'. He invited me to come and watch where he played for Florida Park High's 1st XI. I would pack my sandwiches and ride on my BSC three-speed bike to spend the whole day in the sun, watching them play. I drank water from a tap on the school grounds. Cold drinks were too expensive in those days!
And I saw how my mother enjoyed praying, how my father enjoyed pastoring a church, how a prophet enjoyed prophesying and how a preacher enjoyed preaching, how someone enjoyed working with a computer, how my father enjoyed driving a car, how a cook enjoyed making spaghetti and how an old black man relished making porridge!
The first one to teach me to play the piano was our gardener...I was 5 years old in Benoni, 2nd avenue, Northmead. When my parents went out in the morning he would come into the house, wash his hands and tell me to never tell my parents that he played the piano. He would jam for an hour and I would stand next to him and watch how he played, 'In the Mood' and other favourites. No wonder that when I play in other countries they say,'you play like a black man even though you are white!' The same with my Hammond Organ playing, because African Americans taught me in Miracle Valley, Arizone.
Think about the things you can't do or do not like doing: you have not been taught or trained by someone who actually enjoyed doing it. It is the art of the tutor to instill the love of the subject into the pupil.
Think of the subjects at school...which ones you liked and ones you hated...
Well, Jesus Christ, came to teach us how to love one another and He showed us how to enjoy it! For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
The thing you love is easy to do, isn't it? You feed the cat because you love the cat.You put up with things in people that you love. You care for a babay because you love the baby. If it is not your baby you won't last three days!
Something birthed in your own heart is something you will stick to and never give up, because it is part of you. If someone else tells you what to do you soon get tired of it.
Your treasure lies where your heart it.
But today's sneakers and running type shoes have no laces. They use velcro and take away the joy of tying laces! But the lesson still remains the same!
It is the little things in life that makes life worth living. The art is to find enjoyment in doing the little chores of daily living. Washing dishes, making a bed, ironing...clean the pool. You don't have to study Bhuddism before you fix your motorcycle with concentration - just learn from someone who loves what they are doing and receive impartation that will change your life.
Jesus said,'I have come to give you life and life more abundantly!' He knew how to live. Its the best to learn from someone who knows what he is doing. He later on said, 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life - no man comes to the Father, but by Me.' Either He spoke the truth or He was the greatest conman that ever lived!
My experience so far, as a believer, is that He knew exactly what He was talking about. So I became a follower of the Man from Galilee...and I'm enjoying it!
John the Baptist said of Him,'I am not worthy to tie His shoelaces...' Think about that for a while!

School closes

Schools closes. A note in every dairy, every calender. The next note is, school opens. This happens several times per year. Parents design their year and their days around the school calender.
But today is something more significant than that. Our youngest boys is finishing his Prep School Days. He went to the same private school from grade 0 to grade 7 and today they are leaving that building. They will not play on those fields again. They are going to College next year, God willing!
How can I say thank you for all the things the good Lord has done for our boy during these 8 years? He kept him, protected him, strengthened him, gave him favour, helped him to excell at academics,sport and music; he built his character through all the adversity and the opposition he had to face; he learned how to put up with certain things he could not change; he knows how to stand his man; how to make strong decisiotn that he alone could make and that will influence his future; he learned to stand for what he believes in; and he took his punishment when it was handed out.
It is the last time he will put on those clothes. It is the last time he will wear that cap. He will fold away his first team cricket clothes and keep them in his cupboard for a while.
It is the beginning of a new chapter in his life.
All parents experience it with their children.
School closes. School opens.
Today is one of those days, but today is just more special than other days.

Everything is becoming old too quickly

Grabbed my old cell phone and had to think hard to remember how to use it. New one is on my mind. Old used to be something we threw away after many years of use. Worn out, rather than merely old. But in today's fast paced techno age things become old before they are worn out, simply because the Japs have found a way to update things faster than we can use them! What a turn over of money! No wonder phone dealers build skyscrapers within a few years of starting their company!
Everyone is talking at me...the old song said...can't hear a word they're saying...well that has come true, finally. Everywhere everyone is talking to someone else, even when they are walking next to each other. In the tubes in London it was most noticeable. Everybody was absorbed with their little palm toy and secretly smiling to themselves. Some hold the phone to the ear and talk to no one at all. It is comforting just to look occupied for a moment and not to appear alone...
Desperately lonely people everywhere...
And everything is becoming old so fast - young people are old before their time and have to handle the pressures of life and the problems of the world in their essays and their speeches...
No time to play...just work, work, work.
And sport is no longer just a game: everyone has to be professional because they see it on TV and the parents and teachers demand perfection at all times!
No wonder young people are looking for a way out - they want to remain young and be kids again!
Clothes become old before you have worn them out because fashion houses determine the look on the street. Suddenly your style is 'out' and something else is 'in' and those who are out do not fit in any more.
Israel wore their clothes and shoes for 40 years without wearing them out. God saw to that. But not today. Today the fashion demands that clotes be out of date within a season.
Buy a deodorant stick and you think you have 6 months supply. But open it up and you will see it is empty inside with just enough to last for a month! They deceive you - even with packets of chips...just wind, with a few chips in the bottom corner!
The Chinese diluted babies milk and added plastic to make more cash and killed many kids...the price of greed.
Things become old too quickly these days...we need the old buildings and old wisdom and old antiques to give our lives value...we need the old, old Gospel truths and hymns and songs and heroes of the past in order to give us a platform for today.
Don't discard everything you have to replace it with new things.
Keep what is valuable.
Everything is new in the spirit realm...all the time.
Look at the old with a new eye. Renew your mind but remember the old as well.
The Lord is called The Ancient of Days...because He is the same yesterday today and forever!

Blues Band in Benin

Harvester Blues Band backed me in the great all night concert in Nigeria a week ago! What an experience! I always wanted to do blues music in church, but the church world wasn't ready for it back then. In worldly circles my blues were too preachy for their liking so I never really fitted in anywhere!
But finally the dream came true - in Nigeria!
Pastor Godwins arranges an all night worship conference every year in November and all the world should be invited to it. It is a blast and a blessing all packaged in one! It is held in the athletic indoor stadium in Benin city. People come from four different countries to participate and attend. The best music equipment is hired from Lagos and the musicians practice all year for the event.
The choirs and solo artists all blend into the flow of the evening and the people are so responsive: they sing along and praise the Lord, but also enjoy the music because many of them are trained musicians.
The sheer artistry of pianists like Dr. Chidi and Romeo is absolutely stunning to hear and then Benin has their own Scott Joplin that entertains the crowd every year with lively syncopation.
The entrance fee is purchasing the DVD of last years concert. About 7000 people filled the auditorium and hundreds were standing outside.
When it was time for us to perform we went on stage that was especially built for the occasion and settled at the instruments: Aje behind the drums, Greg with his own harmonica mike, Dale plugged in his guitar and JP tuned his bass. Leigh was ready to do back up vocals and dance! I moved in behind the electric keyboard.
We started with a slow, solo number: Man Alone. Every time I got to the part: you were a man alone, but now...you can count on me! The audience sang along.
The next number was Preacher Man Blues. It is a fast blues song and young people everywhere got up and danced as we sang. They repeated the phrase, 'Preacher man blues' with me everytime! Then we did, 'Memory of me' that starts with the words, 'If I go away...'Pastor Godwins said the song made him cry because the song made him think about what he would leave behind and how he would be remembered one day. The last song we did was 'How can I say thank you' that starts off slowly but picks up the beat as we go along. It could not be recorded with a click track in the microphones - if you know what I mean.
We sweated so much in the 26 Celcius night that Greg, our blues harp player became known as our very own 'water feature' on stage!
Oh, how we laughed and had fun together on the 6 day adventure! But we also had many deep and serious times, sharing life experiences and explaining our understanding of the way the Lord works with each of us. Sometimes we sat around the lunch table for several hours and sometimes we shed tears...
On Sunday after the concert four of us preached in different churches. I preached about 'The Man Born Blind' in the Believers Church where pastor Samuel Osaghae and his wife Gladys are the overseers. I got down into the sand where the people were sitting on wooden benches and smeered the red mud that I made with spit, water and dust on my face to demonstrate the mud balls Jesus made for the blind man. When he sent him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam he became 'a sent one' and was no longer a beggar! The people praised the Lord when the blind man got his sight!
How else could I describe a tour with the Harvester Blues Band? So much happened in five days that it would take volumes to try to tell it all...Jesus did so much that all the libraries of the world could not contain all the things he had done!

Quantum of Solace

Watching Daniel Craig as James Bond in this years Bond release was what one expected: action, stunts, clever repartee in the dialogue and they usual distrust of the 007 agent willing to risk his life without ever being thanked for his labours by those who sit in offices and direct the procedings of the world's economy. Like the Minister said, (my summary)'if we only do business with men of integrity who would we do business with?'
Craig's personal rendition of the Bond character has moved away from the pretty boy suave image of a Pierce Bronsan. He has brought manly strengh but also a human weakness to the role that makes it both admirable and empathetic.
Without bad language or unnecessary nudity or sex scenes the Bond movie succeeds in keepin our attention rivetted to the screen because of good acting, excellent directing and editing.
The antagonist's Quantum project in the middle of the desert only has evil intentions: he wants to destroy all the earth's water resources so that he would control the water supply to all the countries of the world. But Bond outsmarts him as one would expect from Ian Flemmings secret agent.
But the line that stood out for me in the end was some advice Bond gave to his female assistant:'When adrenaline kicks in one has to compromise.Take a deep breath...and do what you have to do.'
As a cricket coach I often remind players to enjoy the exhiliration that comes with reaching a half century or a century, but then they have to take guard again in order to concentrate. Bond's line has given me better understanding of this coaching principle.
It is the adrenaline that kicks in that causes concentration levels to drop. The high brings imbalance. Take a deep breath...is sound advice at any stage!
If one would take a deep breath before saying harmful words in a moment of rage, it could save relationships! Taking a deep breath when one hears bad news could help to absord the blow. Taking a deep breath when one is praised or honoured will help one to stay humble. Taking a deep breath when one is unfairly criticised is an antidote to feeling rejected.
Compromise is normally seen as a weakness and a negative concept.But Bond's statement has raised compromise in my estimation as a tool to be used in life and not merely something to avoid.
Perhaps it is a timely word of advice for some of us right now, to find some solace in our sitaution! Take a deep breath before you go on! The oxygen to the brain will restore the balance and the sanity.

Lessons outside the classroom

All of us face things we do not like. Sometimes the situation we find ourselves in, is not something we can extricate ourselves from when we feel like it and we just have to plough through all the upsets and difficulties until we find a way out!

School life is not enjoyable for most people, because some teachers hate what they are doing and take their frustrations out on kids. It is not easy to be a teacher either, because most kids have no discipline or manners at home and make it impossible for teachers to manage a class full of kids!

But there are certain lessons in life that we do not learn in the class room.

In my school days teachers were still allowed to issue corporal punishment. I attended an Afrikaans Boys High school in Brakpan called Stofberg. This was more like a military academy. Cadets and rugby were almost worshipped at that school.
Teachers would give you six of the best for anything they could think of and sometimes you received beatings for no reason at all. They had the habit of giving the whole class a thrashing to punish one boy for doing something wrong. When we asked a teacher why he beat the whole class his answer was,'Just in case you do something wrong today!' This was the cruel, sadistic humour we had to put up with - and no parents ever complained!

Ou Skellie, (Mr. Steenkamp) who looked like a skeleton to us, and that is where he got his nickname, used to either pull your short hair above your ear while talking to you or pinch you under your arm and turn the pinch so that you had a bruise for days! My mother once saw the bruise on my body as I got dressed and when she finally got the truth out of me phoned the headmaster, who did absolutely nothing about it.

To give you an idea, in Standard 7 I received 171 cuts! We used to mark them on the red stripe on the inside of our blazers to compare with each other during breaks.
During rugby practice they used to hit you with a kweperlat (a twig from a quince tree) or with the rope attached to their whistle if you dropped the ball or did not scrum properly.

Because I was artistic and got almost full marks for essays and because I played piano, I was regarded as a 'sissy' and constantly mocked and bullied. Why I still went to school is a mystery to me. I hated every moment. But I cherised the challenge to try and get 100% for tests or exams. And I found a sport that I could beat them all at: cricket.

Cricket was almost non-existent in Afrikaans schools in those days because it was regarded as an English sport.We had no cricket nets, so I got my dad and a builder to build the nets for us. We got Dennis Lindsay the Springbok wicket keeper to coach us. I'm still delighted by the fact that I bowled him with the first ball he ever faced from me - in our school nets! He predicted that I would become the next Springbok off-spin bowler.

The teachers had no knowledge of the game and the only coaching you received was normally the coach shouting, 'hit the bloody ball!' or 'catch the ball!'
I went to the local library near the town hall to read up on the game and spent hours in front of the mirror correcting my batting strokes. I also went down to the club cricket nets and used a dust bin as wickets to bowl at. A white handkerchief was used as my marker and every afternoon I would go and bowl for hours until I mastered the technique of bowling off-break balls that spun into the batsman.
One day something amazing happened...

The opposing team only had to get another 20 runs to win the match, with 4 wickets standing. When it was my turn to bowl, I took 6 wickets in 7 balls against Nigel High. Five wickets were taken in succession - almost a double hat-trick! And then there was a dot ball. With the first ball of my next over I took another wicket and the whole team was out! It was like a dream. No one could believe what had actually happened.

The next day it was in the newspapers. I was contacted by the selectors of the Eastern Transvaal schools team and before I knew it was playing for my province! In this way I fought back against the system and used my skill to make room for me in the school.

No matter how harsh the circumstances or how unreasonable, character is shaped by facing the situation and negotiating your way through it until you come out on top.

My parents pastored the Apostolic Faith Mission Church in Brakpan and that is something I was mocked about throughout my school career in Stoffberg, because most of the boys belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church.

But after 5 years my dad took the call to move to Cape Town where he pastored the Maitland assembly and I went to Milnerton High, a school where I got opportunity to express myself in cricket and in the other love of my life: drama. But that is another story...