President’s message
I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I cry. And I know you do the same things too, so we are not really that different me and you.
Collin Raye is an American country music singer, who has been writing and singing music since the 1990s, and I felt that these words and the fact that they are actually the lyrics of a song, bring together two concepts underlying what I want to offer for my year in office.
I have been fond of what you could call “the arts” since I was young. I love music of all kinds, dance, visual art, poetry and literature. The one thing, I feel, that all these have in common is that they are all universally acceptable and understood. There is something inherent in each of them that creates feelings that everyone whatever sex, colour or creed, can experience. All individuals have the capacity to feel all the emotions mentioned in Collin Raye’s words. All nations sing, dance, paint and write expressing everything from joy to despair in whatever way they can. And other nations can join in with them and experience the same things too. It is the most basic form of communication.
This leads me directly to communication, and how it lies at the very heart of everything we are, everything we do. George Bernard Shaw said that “the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”. How right he was… Even today, with all the aids to communication at our fingertips, many times we still fail to do so.
I would ask for us all in the coming year to step back and look at how we communicate – with family and friends, other club members, and so and so on. When it comes to communication, what you say and what you don’t say are equally important. Being a good listener is quite crucial too! So, let us brush up on saying what we mean and really mean what we say!
And to finish with another quote – from Hans Christian Anderson – Where words fail – let music speak.
Gail Wedge