HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-03-04, Page 15Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - Page A15
Canucks happily het into Hockey Night in Doha
It's strange the things one misses when liv-
ing abroad. The simplest things from back
home seem to assume unusual importance
and become conspicuous in their absence.
And it's strange what can make one feel
less far away from home in a foreign coun-
try.
I've written about the Qatari version of
West Edmonton Mall previously in this col-
umn. Doha's Villagio Mall contains a
Venetian canal and gondolas, a food court
like nothing you've ever seen, and an
Olympic size hockey rink.
On a recent trip to this enclosed commer-
cial village, we enjoyed a good meal while
watching—you guessed it—hockey.
Across the rink in cold arena air hung the
Qatari and Canadian flags side by side, an
oddity in itself. Qatar is not known for ice.
The 3rd Annual Desert Cup International
Ice Hockey Tournament was organized by
the College of the North Atlantic -Qatar
where my husband, James, is teaching.
The three-day event, staged February 5th
to 7th, drew 10 teams from Bahrain, Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) and, of course, right here in Doha,
Qatar—mostly comprised of ex -patriots
working in the Middle East.
While the ice rink is up to spec in all ways,
• • •
I gather the dressing
rooms are little more
than closets. Whoever
designed them obvious-
ly had never taken part
in our great Canadian
sport.
Min'. James played a pick
Y `!"` up game at the rink last
year. As a goalie, he
found the dressing room more than cramped—
and we all know that a goalie has a set rou-
tine for getting into their considerable gear.
My son, also a goalie for many years, had
a system and never varied from it—might
put him off his game. Superstition abounds
in all sports.
Anyhow, James prefers to have room to
arrange all that he needs to put on and change
room space was definitely at a premium at
"Maple Leaf Gardens Doha."
Nonetheless, the players in the Desert Cup
seemed to pull it all together and looked very
professional as they hit the ice.
Qatar had four teams entered—once a
hockey player, always a hockey player, I
guess: the CAN -Q Breakers, the Qatar
Qanucks,. RasGas and the European Fitness
Centre Team.
The. majority of the 140 fellows taking
part were Canucks. And a lot of the players
had their country's flag on their jerseys.
There were guys from the USA, Sweden,
Finland, Switzerland, Norway and of course,
Canada. There were even a few Arabs lacing
up for theKuwait Mooseheads.
The play was non -contact but was heads-
' up nonetheless, particularly in the first peri-
od. Games consisted of two periods of
straight time, with the last minute of the sec-
ond period, stop time if there was a one goal
differential.
The gray hair and bald pates under a few
of the helmets explained the somewhat slow-
er second period of play. Hey, having fun has
no age limit.
Officiating was looked
and linesmen—obvi-
ously imports as well.
They knew the rules.
The players deport-
ed themselves well.
Many of them still
had all the moves,
regardless of the pas-
sage of time and
being a step slower.
A few of the game
scores were rather
lopsided but did not
The saint and genius in all of us
Mohandas Gandhi and Albert Einstein are two
of my greatest heroes. They inspire me to no end.
When I am making a big decision or have a big
project on the go, I'll often think, "If Einstein and
Gandhi were sitting here right now, what advice
would they give me?" And luckily for me their
advice is always brilliant!
But what is the real role of these heroes and
icons in our lives? Are we just to look up to them
and be amazed at their accomplishments? Or
could we mimic them? Could we do what they did? Could
we be more like them?
But we say, "We aren't saints like Gandhi and we aren't
geniuses like Einstein!" These guys were exceptional!
They weren't like us. They must have had an extra gene
somewhere that set them above us common folk, right?"
The funny thing is, that the more you find out about most
really famous people, the more you realize that they aren't
a whole lot different than us.
I once read Gandhi's autobiography "My Experiments
with Truth". What really blew my hair back reading this
book is how phenomenally human Gandhi actually was.
History defines lianas a bigger -than -life, super -human kind
of saint. But when you read his own accounts of his life – in
his own words – you get a different picture.
He struggled with many of the same things that we
struggle with every day. He struggled with work -life bal-
ance. He struggled to balance his way of life with his ide-
als. He struggled to have decent relationships with his son
and. wife. He said a number of times that he regretted the
way he treated his wife – that the only reason that she
stayed with him was because she was a "good Indian
woman".
But most of all, he struggled with his faith. How could
he be sure that he was on the right path? If he felt God's
calling and followed it, would God always come through in
the end? In his heart, he knew that non-violence was the
answer. But as people resisted embracing it, and violence
escalated, his inner struggle escalated along with it.
And then them was Einstein. Today his name is synony-
mous with genius. But it wasn't always that way.
When he was young, he didn't fit into school at all. His
teachers considered him a complete pain in the toushka. He
didn't want to do the work and was considered to be a rebel-
lious child – and not a very bright one at that.
He is famous for working as a patent clerk. The funny
thing is that he wasn't terribly easy to get along with and he
only got that job through a friend. What he really
wanted to do was work in the universities. But
they wouldn't take him. His ideas were consid-
ered foolish, poorly thought-out and his essays and
research were discarded as nonsense.
Imagine!
But for all of these two men's challenges, what
was it that made the difference? Sure, Gandhi's
heart was as massive as Einstein's brain. I won't
take that away from them.
But all of their insecurities and
stumbling blocks could have easily
tripped them up. Many times, they
could have given up and settled for
much less.
What really made the difference
was their drive. There was some-
thing that possessed them and
wouldn't let them quit. They kept
their passion in motion – even if it
was just in small ways, they
couldn't let it go.
Einstein continued to write
papers even when no one would
read them. Gandhi continued to
travel from village to village dis-
cussing peaceful options even
when no one would listen.
This is not super -human – it is
just being persistent. We can do
that. We might not be trying to
overthrow British Rule or crack the
secrets of the atom, but there are
things in our lives that we believe
in and we can use the same persis-
tence.
Maybe we just give up too easi-
ly. It took decades of perseverance
for these men to achieve what they
did -- and the first couple were
pretty slow and painful.
These guys didn't have an extra
gene that we don't have. They
were smart and persistent. They
ended up a saint and a genius. We
can be that too:
For more, visit: www.katrinabos.ca
after by
a referee
necessarily reflect the effort on the ice. Some
pretty goals were scored, sweet passes were
made, give-aways happened and everyone
enjoyed a good time, rink side fans includ-
ed.
Al Ain Vipers from the UAE won the tour-
nament with Abu Dhabi Scorpions, runners-
up.
Local Qataris in the mall seemed bemused
and somewhat puzzled by the game. But
they would stop to watch for a while and take
a few photos on their cell phones, before
drifting off to the other attractions of the
mall.
It all made for great entertainment as we
enjoyed a bite to eat. And it transported us
back home, even if just for a little while.
moAs,'
4
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