HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE. MAY 2024 BE A FANTASTIC YEAR FOR YOU ALL.

THE WOMBAT OF WOORUKKUBUNYA

Our Wombat wanders sagely towards his home of sacred refuge,

Which lies within the earthen fortress of the shaded tree-lined dam.

His home is well advantaged with a view right down the gully,

And it also faces west towards the setting of the sun.

His garden at the entrance has been thoughtfully created,

The result of solid digging with his powerful long nailed claws.

A passing human glance will show the porch but not the door,

Which will reveal itself if one decides to wriggle closer in.

But a human will not do this for the Wombat is a mystery.

He seems so soft and cuddly but is truly strong and solid,

With claws designed for digging and crafting out his home.

They are also there for fighting to protect his little bunch.

He waddles through his porch and grabs the handle firmly.

Pulls the door to widely open and enters deep within.

It is there he finds his mate cooking up some tucker,

Of grass and juicy leaves for joeys snuggled on the floor.

A bright eyed greeting meets him makes his heart feel warm and wanted,

As he pats his gang of joeys who smile and sparkle at his touch.

Behind that solid door within the fortress of the dam,

Created with its earthen structure which keeps his family safe.

Believe it or not some years before, the wombat had had a nasty experience building his home in a dam wall. He was overzealous and over ambitious and to some extent immune to risks.

Blinded by the desire to have the largest home in the district, he dug on regardless. Often he would step back and survey how his handiwork looked, was pleased and felt that he wouldn’t have any trouble finding an impressed mate to share it with him.

Suddenly, in the darkness, he felt his paw becoming damp but driven by his bold ambition he ignored this phenomenon and forged ahead. Then the damp became a trickle, but he failed to heed the obvious warning and he ambitiously dug on, failing to recognise a plausible explanation for the water. And, oh heck, the water of the dam was released to freedom, blasting him out of the tunnel which was to be his new home, rolling him over and over down the creek valley, out of control until he could scramble to safety as the dam wall was dramatically breeched. Life surely becomes so much sweeter after you nearly lose it and the whole experience helps to set a safer course for the future.

His new house, described in the poem, was the result of careful, thoughtful planning, lots of research and investigation, and the use of a really cautious paw in the building. Yes, his new family home is good and safe.

(Part of this story is true) THE

HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH - Eddie Jaku

The story of Eddie Jaku is a wonderful autobiography with many good thoughts for students and teachers to consider. Remarkably Eddie Jaku, who was a German Jew, managed to survive concentration camps, Buchenwald and Auschwitz and a terrible death march. I’ve visited Auschwitz, Birkenhau and Dachau concentration camps and all are places of pure horror that has left tragic memories imprinted on my mind. His story added another dimension to my memories.

Eddie, after the war, emigrated to Australia where he married and had a very rich and rewarding life made possible not only because of his courage, skills and positivity but a determination to break the chains of bitterness. The name his book “The Happiest Man On Earth,” is truly powerful. The book was published when he was 101! Eddie was married for 75 years!

Most of our family gathered in Coolum with my youngest daughter’s family for Christmas. The book was my eldest son’s family’s gift to me for Christmas. They had experienced it as a talking book on the road trip across from Alice. I started reading it on Christmas Day and finished it the next day - I was enthralled at the wisdom its pages held - in our often-troubled world what lessons it holds for humanity! (Talking books and road trips are made for each other).

Eddie, with a determined spirit, dedicated his post concentration life to being an advocate for peace and kindness, simple but so hard to obtain objectives. After all that pain and horror how could this come to pass for him, but it did! Eddie’s book won the Australian Book Industry Award.

Here are some of his statements:

“Life can be beautiful if you can make it beautiful. It’s up to you.”

“There are many things more precious than money.”

“You can find kindness everywhere, even from strangers”.

“Education is a life saver.”

“The Human Body is the best machine ever made.”

“Shared sorrow is half sorrow; shared pleasure is double pleasure.”

“What I have to share is not my pain. What I share is my hope.”

At the front of the book he has included an anonymous saying:

“Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

HARDWIRED HUMANS

Successful Leadership Using Human Instincts

By Andrew O’Keeffe

This wonderful book was introduced to me by Andrew McGregor, Principal of Hailebury Rendall.

Andrew O’Keefe consults in the human dimensions of organisations through his consulting firm Hardwired Humans. He has worked with the famous primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall whose life long research with chimpanzees has shown the similarity of some of their behaviour with human characteristics. Andrew shows that much can be learnt from this and in the book he discusses 9 instincts which both Chimpanzees and Humans seem to exhibit.

Andrew describes Instinct Number 1 as Social Belonging. He notes that this instinct helps explain why:

“people talk about a great team being just like a family”

“teams have a natural size”

“80% of people who resign do so because of their manager”

“conflict in our team drives us crazy”

“silo behaviour emerges as organisations grow beyond a moderate size.”

He explains carefully the similarities in this between the Chimpanzee and Human world. Andrew O’Keefe believes that “knowledge, application and value of our basic instincts have largely been ignored in the practice of leadership. Understanding those instincts can provide the missing link to understanding effective people leadership.”

In this book Andrew O’Keefe looks at nine Human Instincts: Social Belonging; Hierarchy and Status; Emotion Before Reason; First Impressions to Classify; Loss Aversion; Gossip; Empathy and Mind Reading; Confidence Before Realism; Contest and Display.

It is a book which is very entertaining and from which, I think, all School Principals will benefit. I will present more next Principal Thoughts.

Chris Tudor

Principal Liaison & AISNT Historian