All is not fair

The Springboks are back! Yes, it is that time of year, folks. Test rugby time. And we love it. We had a smorgasbord of rugby to enjoy on Saturday with the start of the new Nations Championship. This is a Northern versus Southern Hemisphere tournament. It pits England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales, representing the Northern Hemisphere against a Southern Hemisphere group made up of Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and joined by two invitational teams: Japan and Fiji.

We watched the All Blacks beat France and Ireland beat Australia, both in toughly fought contests. Fiji and Argentina performed disappointingly against Wales and Scotland respectively.

It was the Springboks versus England that we were waiting for. Ellis Park was a cauldron of green and gold supporters, who roared and cheered as the Boks beat the English team convincingly.

We sat warm in our lounge with friends and roared and cheered as well.

To be on the winning side

It’s always satisfying to be on the winning side but it hasn’t always been this way. Even as back-to-back World Cup winners there were some wobbles and a shock defeat by Australia this time last year. However, the errors were, as always, big learning opportunities.

One of the significant elements of the game that we, as ardent rugby fans have come to accept is the uncertainty that can be created by the refereeing. As much as World Rugby tries to standardise the laws and how they are interpreted, referees are human. They make mistakes. They make calls that are marginal. They send the wrong person to the sin-bin.

Sometimes it feels like they have a bias towards the other team. That is probably not true. The one thing that is true is that the teams have to accept a referee’s final decision. The team that is able to accept what is and get on with the game, is the team that has the better chance of winning.

The Springbok team has been trained to do this and it shows. It also shows when team members lose their heads.

Fairness monitor

Chantal has a well honed “fairness” monitor. In the past, any inkling of an action that was unfair caused a heated rise in her. When there was a rise there was often little rationality. Chantal is an expressor and express she would. Loudly. Unpleasantly. Not very resourcefully.

Taxis that pulled in front of other cars in a long queue of traffic would get her snarling and swearing. Any large corporation that treated their staff or suppliers unfairly would send her into an apoplectic fuss. It’s one of the reasons we don’t support Woolworths anymore.

The current anti-immigrant frenzy in some areas that has sent migrant families fleeing for their lives has made Chantal want to weep in dismay and rage at the political machine stoking the flames.

“Whoever said ‘All is fair in love and war’ didn’t know what they were talking about,” spat Chantal, closing her Instagram app with a discontented sigh.

Never mind love and war, life is not fair. In reality can it ever be? While having fairness as a value is seen as a character strength, the world out there is largely driven by inequality and mired in injustices.

That fairness monitor would be on perpetual red-alert if left to its own devices. Being in perpetual “red alert” is not good for anyone.

Rise in response

When that rise comes in response to the perceived unfairness, it is very uncomfortable. Who hasn’t opened up their favourite feed to be assailed by something that a politician overseas, or here closer to home, has done that gets the blood boiling?

“My body wants to do something, like shout or lash out, but that will only make things worse. In the bigger scheme of things I can’t really do anything about what I am angry about so why even get angry?”

“Well anger is a natural and normal response,” replied Matthew. “The trick is to let it come with awareness, accept what you actually can, or cannot, do about it, and then let it go.”

He wasn’t telling Chantal something she didn’t know. It’s just not always that easy. The “trick” does require a somatic acuity, an awareness of what is going on inside your body.

In alignment. Or not?

If we are to take a pass from the rugby player on the field, it is clear that pouring over a perceived, or real, ill takes the player off course. There is a job to do and the job cannot be done if Pieter, or Damien, Felicia or Ayanda are ruminating over an incorrect call by the ref.

“I’m not here to change the world,” said Chantal, “I am here to make a difference.”

Most of us are here to make a difference. To make a difference we need to be present to our purpose. In order to be present we cannot get sucked into calamities that we can do little about.

Being present to our purpose is a God-given promise to the world, something that social media and the algorithms that drive it seems to want to curtail. And no wonder, the capitalist money machine that social media has become, makes no money off shiny, satisfied, happy people.

Our emotions feed an energy field around us. If we exist in a persistent state of despair, rage, anxiety and dissatisfaction, we feed the very thing that we are trying to rise above. It’s important to feel what we feel, acknowledge it, accept it, then imagine and energise what we want to see more of in the world.

We all came to this earth to do something special. We have a responsibility to realign our lives and our way of being with the light, with the now, with love and community.

If you check in right now with how you are feeling you will know whether you are in alignment or not. Your body will tell you. Listen to it.

Until next time.

Yours in love and light,
Chantal & Matthew

Credits for this issue — Images: 5th Place, Randal Wahl & Matthew Bushell