As it was last week with the snow, so it is today with the snow. Wind-driven snow is coming down thick and heavy between my office and the house across the street with a cold freeze predicted for tonight. Washington, D.C. is socked in deeply. Trains and buses are not running. Planes are not flying. The blizzard came across from the southwest and is beating hard toward the northeast and New England dumping a great white blanket along the way. Some areas already have or expect 20 inches. Communications told us it was coming… Now it is here.
William Wallace, fighting for Scottish sovereignty and independence from England, had great difficulty getting the Nobles and Landowners to see the need for throwing off English Rule, William was fighting a one man war against the English Magistrates because one of them killed his wife. That happened because they had married in secret to keep the Magistrate from taking her to his bed the first night of their marriage. The English Magistrate had to approve all marriages and then, under authority of the English King, took the new bride to his bed before she could be allowed intimate relations with her husband.
All of the poor people rallied behind Wallace and they fought several hard, bloody battles with the English and forced them out of Scotland. Wallace even attacked and sacked the English city of York in northern England near the border. Finally after many victories by Wallace and the poor men’s forces, there was a meeting where even the Nobles and Landowners came together with Wallace and those who led with him to recognize their achievements and make Wallace Commander-In-Chief over the Scottish Armies and all of his captains Aide D’ Camp under Wallace.
As soon as he was Knighted, a dispute arose among all of them about who would be the rightful King of the Scots… And Wallace walked out with his Aides. They all shouted and called him back to inquire as to why he was leaving??? His response was, “Because you cannot agree among yourselves about how to finish what we have started. We must prepare for more battles and you just want to argue.”
Eventually the Nobles and Landowners sold Wallace out to the King of England for more property as their rewards and he was tried, beheaded, quartered and his head set on London Bridge and the rest of his body parts sent to four corners of England. Politics is a vicious game that is dangerous to play. Even when it appears that you have backing and accompaniment, you may not be able to count on it, even when it is pledged to you.
Every Peace Keeper who has occupied any place in a chain-of-command for very long has had to learn these situations… Often it is a hard way that the lesson comes.
Every new thing… Every new change that has come to the ranks of the Peace Keepers over all of the centuries has first been resisted by those in authority. In some cases the proponent of the change suffered demotion… Or abuse… Or expulsion… Or poverty… Or imprisonment… And sometimes death, as Wallace did, before the truth is finally seen as the only good choice, received and put to use… Sometimes putting the new ideas to use caused greater hardships and wars in order to achieve the changes.
William the Conqueror came over to England from France in 1066 and conquered England at the Battle of Hastings. Once the country was won, some troops went home to France… Some troops occupied England… And some troops went north to settle in Scotland. Several hundred years later the descendants in Scotland would be fighting the descendants in England to gain Scottish Independence from England.
After Scottish Independence was won and lost again, descendants of both countries came here to live and build a new life. Here the battle for independent living started all over again because of the heavy-handed rule of the English Crown.
The Colonies resisted that heavy-handed rule and sought relief and redress from the English King. It did not happen and the Revolution finally freed us from English rule.
Jump forward to the 1930′s and ’40′s… Hitler is gobbling up Europe and attacking Russia… He is trying to bomb and burn London out of existence… The English are having a very hard time of it. They have developed a new device called Radar that can reveal the presence of planes in the air and ships on the sea at long distances. This device is far advanced over any device that any other country possesses… But England cannot make enough of them fast enough to do any good against Hitler’s forces. Winston Churchill secretly sends one of their new devices to the United States in a plain wood box packaged inside a plain tin box on an ocean liner. No guard. No special attention… Just a plain package. His intent is to employ the expertise and manufacturing capability of the United States and get their help in this war with Hitler. They succeed but through human resistance and/or poor/no communication the U.S. must learn a horrible cost first
December 7, 1941, two soldiers are manning a radar station on a hilltop in Hawaii. They are about to shut it down early that morning when they pick up some planes on the scope. They notify their commanding officer who says shut down and come in. He assumes it to be a rumored flight of bombers from the U.S. Mainland. It wasn’t ours… It was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor… And we paid a terrible price for an assumption. Radar wasn’t popular yet… And it’s usefulness wasn’t popular yet. Subsequently we entered the Second World War fighting against the Japanese and against the Nazi Regime… Terrible war on two fronts. Somehow the messages of the strength and usefulness of the new radar did not get to those in the field who were supposed to make use of them. Leaders failed in their efforts of communication or they did not make the effort to communicate.
When most relationships fail that involve human communications, the problem can usually be traced to failure to communicate, erratic communication or poor (unclear) communication.
If you want me to do something that I do not know of or know about, then it is your obligation to inform me and teach me what you want and how it is to be achieved if I do not already know. I cannot get the results you want if you do not make it clear what you want and how to achieve it if it requires a specific procedure. If you give me an assignment and do not give me any instructions, I will do the best I can to achieve what you requested… But I may far miss the mark you had in mind… The mark which you did not describe to me when you made the assignment. Expectations must accompany assignments or you will be stuck with what you get… Or it will have to be done over again if possible… Sometimes do-overs are not possible as in the case of Pearl Harbor and the radar crew.
We live in an amazing time. Communications can be almost instant… Yet communications is the one thing that fails most often when it involves the exchange of information between two or more persons. Countries fail to communicate with countries and wars develop. Governments of countries fail to communicate with their citizens and revolutions develop. Husbands and wives fail to communicate and a marriage is lost. Parents and children fail to communicate and a family is lost. Workplace communications are lacking or non-existent and resources are wasted or lost… And personnel are lost through disappointment, dismissal, resignation, injury or death. This is the problem… There is a solution… Communications must be give and take. Questions must be asked in order to gain clarification. Feedback must be given and allowed if there are any misunderstandings, unclear instructions or problems of any kind.
I have been a communications instructor in many different types of training. Sometimes my thorough efforts of communication irritates someone else. If I do not know, I must be granted the privilege of asking. If you do not know, I must be granted the opportunity of full explanation. If I am confused, I must be allowed to seek clarification. If I make a mistake, I must be willing to be corrected. If my methods or manner are unsatisfactory, I must be willing to be adjusted. All communication must allow sending and receiving messages between any two or more people or it is not communication. If the different steps to clarify communication are not allowed or paid attention to… Then communication does not take place and something fails… Someone fails… The effort was not satisfactory… Poor communication or lack of communication will always cost more than we would want it to cost. Sometimes the loss is not retrievable.
Ask, seek, knock… These are the steps outlined by my Eternal Captain. If we do not employ these methods we don’t receive… We don’t find… Nothing is opened to us.
Each of these weekly messages is an effort to communicate some vital bit of information to you so that you may be more useful to yourself and to others… Or an effort to make you think on some facet of your life to see if it might be improved for your benefit… So that you might have good success in all of your endeavors.
THANK YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE AND FOR WHAT YOU DO. You have been the best you could be to this point… Continue that effort from this point forward. Be greater blessed in your going and your doing.
“BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!” ALWAYS be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary. Take the very best care of you as you care for and about others. See to the strength and well being of your spirit as well as all the rest of you. Your spirit must be strong for you to be successful.
Call or write if I may be of any service… Or if you just want to encourage me… Feedback encourages all who write… It helps to know we are reaching someone who reads the message.
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