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KW’s Ladder and a Swastika-Themed Moleskin

All Rolling Stone Backblasts

June 11th, 2020 By kilowatt

YHC planted the flag on our slowly shrinking mulch pile at 0525 and 0530 the DISCLAIMER was given (Sparknut said YHC was thorough – I replied that I didn’t want to get sued) and commence mosey to the HRMS rock for WARMARAMA. All IC:

Indian run to track (there was some confusion as to where to make the turn, but we made it eventually) and do some dynamic stretching towards the gate to the bleachers to start THE THANG

10/1 ladders (10 for exercise A and 1 of exercise B, then decrement (-1) exercise A and increment (+1) exercise B for the next round until you’re doing 1 of exercise A and 10 of exercise B)

At the bleachers:
Exercise A: Step Ups (each leg). Exercise B: Merkins

After that, mosey to the first bridge on the greenway (stop to pay the toll: 10x Monkey Humpers) and split into 2 groups for traffic management. Group 1 starts Exercise A at one end of the bridge, Group 2 starts Exercise A at the other.
Exercise A: Derkins. Exercise B: Squats

After that, mosey to the courts (locked out!) – parking lot. And we have just enough time for a 4/1 ladder:
Exercise A: Burpees, Exercise B: 4 count Mountain Climbers

YHC went to fix the flag and then called for MARY.

Start with a plank…30 seconds in tell those who have signed up to Q in June to stand up. Some discussion and we’ve got HCs from Kumho and Life Alert. It went quicker than I had budgeted…time to burn some time. All IC:

CoT:

MOLESKIN:
Something came up when we took a knee in that “taking a knee” has taken on a whole new life in just the past month or so. YHC gets it and it’s worth addressing, because of changes with the CoT.

But first, let’s talk about swastikas. There are likely uncomfortable images from the mention of it for most readers. For us: swastikas = bad. Like the worst. A terrible idea that should have never happened and took a lot of blood and treasure to erase. Never again…all that.

Imagine my shock when 4 decades of that conditioning confronted this on a walk near a Buddhist temple in Seoul:

Thankfully, YHC paid attention in the right class and knew that the swastika is an ancient symbol – usually associated with favor or good luck – used by a surprising number of cultures and has endured in various religious traditions worldwide. YHC was a long way from home and appreciated that representation probably was not some endorsement of Third Reich. (Here’s your Wikipedia hole)

The point is this: in a little more than a decade in the middle of the last century, that symbol got thousands of years of tradition denatured for those of us the Western world. It still occasionally causes confusion for the other half. Similarly, “taking a knee” is taking on some additional implications lately.

For thousands of years, kneeling has myriad implications and it was never without some controversy (the practice offended the Greeks and Romans). It’s an intentional posture. It’s harder for your mind to drift if your on your knees praying, it sends a message when you do it in someone else’s presence and coaches can get kids to listen when they have a knee on the ground.

It’s F3 tradition to take an intentional posture during CoT – usually one of the variants of “ball-of-man”. This is not currently practiced because we’re limiting contact to limit COVID-19 risk. “Taking a knee” was an obvious choice for aforementioned reasons. But, its context as a protest gesture is now part of that experience – like it or not.

YHC is not telling anyone how to feel or what to do. If you’re the Q and you tell people to “take a knee”: just appreciate that there are various contexts to that gesture and you might be sending a message – intentionally or unintentionally. If you’re a PAX and you choose to modify when the Q puts out the call to “take a knee”: just appreciate that there are various contexts to that gesture and you might be sending a message – intentionally or unintentionally.

The leadership lesson is that the message that gestures and language might be received differently than it’s sent and a leaders influence can be limited by not adjusting communication. For example, every other back blast YHC has posted has referred to “cotton pickers” or “CP”, but YHC noticed that the group moved to “daisy pickers” in recent beat downs. By changing, I showed that I accepted the change by the group and respected the rationale for doing so. I could have chosen not to and that would have an impact on my influence either that I don’t know (haven’t shown up) or don’t care. Either one of those situations limit downstream influence.

Here’s more on language and messaging: https://f3nation.com/2019/01/06/language-f-2/