Competition

When Lucas and Phoebe fenced, they both were chosen to compete in the Canada Games, an athletic event for youth and all manner of sports. Kids from 13 to 18 (give or take depending on birth dates) gathered in small communities and competed in a Winter or a Summer Games.



Lucas competed in Dalhousie, New Brunswick 2003 and Phoebe in Whitehorse, Yukon 2007. Lucas went on a luxury bus, Phoebe flew economy air in a blizzard. Both kids fenced in the sabre event, meaning that they had big swords that they used to clobber the other guy over the head with. Luckily the original use of horses has been removed. Lucas had his parents and sister (who out-screamed everyone) and his grandparents watching at his games, Phoebe had her dad and no one screaming. Each of my children were able to represent Nova Scotia in a not very popular sport and we had to do our mental preparation differently than other sports.

The fencing coach had a different attitude to competing than we (I) did and we (I) did our (my) best to not undermine him. My life lessons had me ready to knock other kids down so my son could win. This is bad form but I had bad training and I spent the games suppressing killer urges. The coach left each athlete to his or her own devices most of the time, and was preoccupied by I'm not sure what. The kids had to fend for themselves, from getting their own equipment into working order to remembering their jock straps.



Jock straps turned out to be a big issue for Lucas' team. You have to have one on to compete and most of Nova Scotia boys hadn't clued into this. Sure enough, a judge knocked on the groin of one boy, he didn't have any protection and there was a mad scramble to find a “spare”. The parents passed the hat and one mom went out and bought him his own jock strap. I'm still laughing.

In Whitehorse, Steve brought in (sneaked in) a hump of Caribou meat prepared Philipino style with red peppers by his hosts for all the kids. The kids had been moaning about the food, so they ate every scrap.

We were pretty sure that Lucas and Phoebe would be nearly trounced. Both kids fenced very well and had good skills and good competitive attitudes. They also exhibited great sportsman like behaviour and did not ever lose their cool and scream in a competitor's face, the ultimate bad manners. They were both excellent at figuring out what lessons were to be learned from losing a bout and they were delightful when they won. Lucas experienced a nasty thumb/wrist accident yet he managed to keep competing, despite a lot of pain. I have been proud of that boy many times, but the bout he fought just minutes after getting bandaged was a very fine moment. He showed great courage and determination. Phoebe went into the games with a collar-bone/shoulder joint inflammation and the area was very vulnerable to dislocation.

Lucas's goals were hard to pin down. I think he wanted to not throw up. I also think he really wanted to win, but had no idea how he ranked relative to the other athletes. We were pretty sure he wouldn't finish in the top 10, so how do you support a kid in the face of knowing that? We set a goal of finishing in the top 50 percentile and in the top 3 for the Atlantic region. And he did it. I remember going to the announcement boards and looking up the details and there he was. Around 30th, if my memory isn't completely wrong. I recall he was top male Sabreur in Atlantic Canada. In other words, he exceeded his goals.



Phoebe is the one with the helmet off, facing the camera.

Phoebe had more opportunity to be realistic because she had competed against the team from Quebec and knew she would have a tough time. Her goal was to finish the top Atlantic female in Sabre and she did. She didn't worry about how she placed over all. Her other goal was to trade her Nova Scotia hoody for one from the Northwest Territories, and at that, she was very successful. Just to carry on, she also won best Karaoke performer and best stand up comedy act back at the athlete's village.



This is Lucas seeing Phoebe off at the airport. The young lady with dark hair was on Lucas' team in 2003, and she is seeing her brother off as well.



So here I am with my little knitting project, competing against 3926 other knitters and I think I'm skunked. The lessons I learned here is an interesting one or two. One, my kids are better sportsmen than I, and two, by setting the challenge low enough that I was reasonably sure to succeed, I have actually let myself down. In the past few years, I have been trying to get expectations in line with reality to get rid of dissatisfaction and consumer lusts. As someone put it somewhere, "Learn to love what you have". But it is clear that a little gritting of the teeth to get a thing done adds some “shiny” to the practice. It's great when things come easily, like getting the tax form right the first time, or not having to paint a wall three times instead of two. Yet, every so often, a bit of competing with one's self is a good thing, a bit of “won't this be cool if I actually succeed” tension is good for the heart and soul.

That said, in the next post, I will tell you about my great sister Rachia, and her competitive spirit. She is using her biking skills for a great cause and I am going to meet her challenge in my own spinning style.

Hello Riky.....

I'm coming

and it's gonna be great,

'cause i'm a gonna

give you a big ol'

kiss

on your birthday

love
your Prince Olympius the Golden

I'm a sissy after all

I thought this challenge I set myself would be terribly hard to get done in the available time. Was I wrong!

Day Three and we have.....



I'm nearly finished! What was I thinking? Well, I was thinking I had a board meeting Monday for 4 hours and a long errand to run, and a desert to make and a migraine to avoid. I also had huge pan of gingerbread to bake for the reading of our play Wednesday evening. We were both too tired for our Sunday night ballroom dancing, the board meeting was canceled and the long errand taken on by someone else. We also had a snow date this Wednesday





That meant over 8 hours of unexpected knitting time. I used two.



The week coming has even more packed in, so my estimated amount of time to knit was about 10 hours over two weeks.

This pattern has all these “knit in the front of the next loop and then knit in the back of the same loop” instructions and I found the reading of the pattern to be a challenge. I have ripped back so much, the item should be double it's size. I entirely under estimated the time it would take to do this vs the time I had to knit it. It turns out I have chosen a sissy pants item to knit. I had to be honest with myself and not find ways to drag out the knitting. The question is “If I cast off before the torch goes out, will I have failed or succeeded?”

Knitting Olympics 2010

A few years ago my mom bought me “At Knit's End, Meditations for Women who Knit too much” by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee




and I laughed myself to tears. I have loaned this book out a few times and it may be that I am easily amused. The danger of sharing one's sense of humour is that it may turn out that one is a bit of a silly git.

That same year, Stephanie came to Halifax and with a few friends, we went to see her give a “lecture”. It really was a stand up comedy act and we laughed the night away. Since then, I have been visiting her site, Yarn Harlot at www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ and still enjoy it. I have figured out that she often posts after 4:30 my time and rarely on weekends, an average of 2.5 times a week. Yet I still check daily, more than once, just in case.

At the last Olympics, Stephanie created the Knitting Olympics, so knitters could participate in spirit and energy, if not in kind. If you visit her site you will see that again, and in celebration of the Olympics being in Canada, the Knitting Olympics 2nd cycle continues. You can get the back story and still sign up. The day I signed up there were then 1000 participants. Tonight there are 3926.

The rules are 1) cast on during the opening ceremony, 2) chose something that would be a challenge, not a sissy pants thing to do and 3) cast off during and no later than the moment when the torch is extinguished. When we signed up, we had to say what our project would be. I won't tell you now because I want it to be a tiny bit of a mystery.

Here is my opening ceremony cast on.



It was bloody 1:00 a.m. in the morning Halifax time and in the spirit of top athletes the world over, I waited for the moment when the keeners would join in. That moment came when the 4 Canadian athletes lit the indoor torch.

Saturday was our “Trip to Cuba” day and this was all that I managed to get knit for Day One.


Sunday, also known as Day Two, was a little more productive. I wrote the lyrics for two songs for Gingerbread, sung them on the phone to Cheryl without musical support and she didn't scream. We went for a hike through Point Pleasant park



and eventually found ourselves in front of the fire and the TV.



Here is Day Two's effort and it is a bit more clear just what is on the needles. Any guesses, and Linda, you don't get to tell it outloud. Whisper.