| What are You Following? |
January 2, 2000 |
Sometimes, when the wishing for change of situation has gone on
long enough, there is only one thing to do, that is to make a move.
To take a risk and go.
Read Exodus... the part where they leave Egypt...
Exodus 12:37-42, 13:17-22
Peter Drucker quote on leadership -- freeing up resources being
spent maintaining...
The first step for a change leader is to free up
resources that are committed to maintaining things that no longer
contribute to performance and no longer produce results.
Maintaining yesterday is always difficult and extremely
time-consuming.
Maintaining yesterday always commits the institution's scarcest
and most valuable resources --
and above all, its ablest people -- to nonresults.
Yet doing anything differently -- let alone innovating -- always
creates unexpected difficulties.
It demands leadership by people of high and proven ability.
And if those people are committed to maintaining yesterday, they
are simply not available to create tomorrow.
| --Peter F. Drucker, "Change leaders," INC., June 1999, 66
|
Well, when we left our crew of 23 men stranded on Elephant Island
with winter fast approaching
In fact the day after they arrived a blizzard hit, shredded many
of the tents and blew away many of the supplies -- including a bag of
dry underclothing.
The men survived by turning two of the boats upside down and
stretching canvas tarps and tents across them, and then covering the
contraption with snow.
Their leader, Ernest Shackleton, seemed to know the men would not
all survive the winter.
Several suffered from severe frostbite and five months of winter
lay ahead.
On April 20, 1916 Shackleton announced he would attempt to sail the
22½' long James Caird 800 miles east across the South Atlantic
to the Whaling station on South Georgia Island.
This was not the closest land. Cape Horn -- the southern most tip
of South America -- was closer, but the prevailing westerly winds made
it the only option feasible.
And he would take 5 men with him.
Captain Worsley
Tom Crean
Henry Macnish
McCarthy
John Vincent
They made some changes to the James Caird, taking wood from the
other boats to construct a deck. They also took provisions to last
four weeks.
Worsley would navigate using the stars and his sextant... which he
put around his neck with a piece of rope...lest they capsize it would
not be lost.
On the 25th day of April they departed amidst a volley
of cheers.
First night they made 45 miles.
Shackleton divided the group into two "watches" -- three
men each.
Sleeping below deck was impossible. The space was 5x7 between
waterlogged ballast.
Water coming over the deck filled the bottom of the boat.
With the boat rolling and water slopping, entrapment in this space
was not pleasant.
On the third day Worsley got about 10 minutes of sun -- enough time
to take a reading on his sextant.
In his diary below deck he wrote,
"Navigation is an art, but words fail to give my efforts a
real name. Dead reckoning -- the seaman's calculations of course and
distance became a marry jest of guesswork.
I knelt behind the deck -- precious sextant cuddled under my chest
to prevent sea water from befalling her. Sir Ernets stood by with
chronometer, pencil and book.
I shouted "Stand by" and, held by two others brought the
sun down to where the horizon ought to be and as the boat leaped
yelled "Stop".
Sir Ernest took the time and I worked out the result."
Steering was difficult, but if their course was off by even
¼ of a degree they could miss South Georgia Island and have
nowhere to go.
At midnight on May 2, eight days into the trip, at about midnight
they were caught in a squall...also known as a hurricane. Facing
enormous waves that could tear their boat apart, they suffered through
two days of this storm.
On May 7th they found themselves facing South Georgia
Island.
For seventeen days, six men had maintained a ship routine, a
structure of command, a schedule of watches. They had been mindful of
their seamanship and navigation under the most severe circumstances.
They did not merely endure. They exhibited the grace of expertise
under ungodly pressure.
But there's one more piece. They managed to arrive on the
Southwest side of S. Georgia Island. The Whaling station was 150
miles around to the Northeast by sea. Given the treacherous weather
and coastline it was simply too far for the battered boat and
debilitated crew to attempt.
Shackleton decided that he and two others would cross overland to
one of the stations on the other side of the island -- a distance of
about 22 miles as the crow flies.
One problem. No one had ever made this crossing before and there
were no maps.
The mountains of the island jut up to just under 10,000 feet in a
confusion of jagged rocky up thrusts and treacherous crevasses. Mixed
with snow and ice it would be a wonderful little hike.
So, after four days rest, Shackleton, Tom Crean and Worsley set
out at 2 am under a bright moon to make the trek. The only
provisions they took were three days worth of food. No
sleeping bags, no tenting, no nothing.
They would walk until they got where they were going.
Their condition: Near the end.
Frostbitten feet had not regained all feeling.
Clothes, saturated with salt water, now rubbed their chafed inner
thighs raw.
It took two attempts to reach a pass that would let them through
the tops of the mountains...
Including an entire afternoon wasted going up two different passes
only to find a 1500 foot drop at the top of one and an insurmountable
wall up the other.
They ended up sitting down and sliding down the other side of the
mountain on ice...
Holding on to each other like toboggan riders.
At three in the afternoon on May 20th they walked into
the Norwegian Whaling station and were taken in.
Almost immediately they went around to scoop up MacNish, McCarthy
and Vincent on the other side of the island.
Because of the war in Europe, Shackleton faced one more challenge:
to find a ship to rescue his remaining crew on Elephant Island.
England was reluctant to send a ship. So he went to South America,
Chile.
Over the next two months he begged his own Admiralty repeatedly to
send a vessel.
Finally the Chilean government lent him the Telcho, a small, steel
tug steamer and on 30 August 1916 -- after 22 months -- the remaining
22 men were rescued.
Shackleton dashed off a note to his wife, "I have done it.
Not a life lost and we have been through hell."
I tell you this story on this Sunday, the first of the new year,
new century, new millennium... ...to invite you to take your risks.
To give thought to where you are, and to navigating to a new place.
What star will you use? What navigational instrument?
North star and a sextant?
Would the equivalent be Jesus Christ and the Bible?
I also want to again remind you of the power of community...of
connection.
We can't do it alone. And whether or not we do it, often relies
on who we have around us to support us, to offer us guidance.
This story seems unique... seems almost far away in time and space,
but I'm not so sure it is.
A woman who takes a child and sets sail in a new life...
Grandparents who find themselves navigating through parenting in
the 90's when they were parents in the 70's.
Stepping off land and bobbing into chemotherapy and radiation to
find new life.
How about divorce.
Situations in which what is required is courage -- knowing that
things are going to get a whole lot worse before they might get
better... and choosing to go it anyway.
Sitting in the whaling station, getting the feeling back in his
toes, Shackleton wrote these words,
"When I look back on those days I have no doubt that
Providence guided us, not only across those endless snowfields, but
across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our
landing place on South Georgia. I know that during that long and
racking march of 36 hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of
South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three.
I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards
Worsley said to me, "Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march
that there was another person with us."
So on the deep and open sea I set
Forth, with a single ship and that small band
Of comrades that had never left me yet. |
| Dante, "Voyage of Ulysses" L'Inferno
|
Wesleyan prayer of committal.
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