At Grand Final two weeks ago
we had Brian Lochore speaking
at one of our dinners.
We have three gala dinners,
that's a lot of little black dresses....
Yesterday my coordinator cheerfully repeated a story
where he was on the welcome desk where people
collect their namebadges on their way into the dinner.
Sir Brian arrived and humbly said his name,
as NZ heroes would never assume anyone would know who they were,
which was good because coordinator boy
doesn't know who Sir Brian Lochore is.
He seemed to think that not knowing
an iconic kiwi hero and our guest speaker
was amusing.
This morning when I asked what was the story with
not knowing who Brian Lochore is
he shrugged and said he wasn't interested in rugby.
I tried to explain that it wasn't so much that
he didn't know who Brian Lochore is,
nor is it how interested you are in sports
cause I'm sure as hell not interested,
it's that Sir Brian is such a cultural icon that is like not knowing
what the All Blacks do
or saying Sir Peter Blake was just a sailor.
He just didn't seem to understand that knowing
a little bit of your cultural history actually makes you well rounded,
that not knowing what is common knowledge kind of stunts your mental growth,
hinders you fitting in with your equals
actually puts you on the back foot
because the baseline of common cultural understanding
is what creates a bond between strangers from the same land.
I asked him who he considered to be a kiwi icon
and came back with Norm Kirk
which surprised me as that is rather obscure.
When I asked why
the response was that he had learnt a little about him at school,
Norm Kirk shared my coordinators hometown
and he kind of knew his grandkids.
He didn't actually know why Norm Kirk
might be iconic....
he isn't particularly by the way....
I just can't believe this ignorance.
I explained that it wasn't acceptable to not know
general cultural history,
you don't have to know historical details
just who people are so you can relate to others from your own general culture.
But it's also that not being interested isn't acceptable,
especially when your career requires you to know who people are
as you are likely to be in contact with them one way or another.
I am just astonished that there are people out there who don't know who they themselves are.
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