Category: Life

Dividing responsibility for success

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith, Life

I’ve recently taken over leadership of the youth band at church. Upon taking this up, the leader of the youth services (who just happens to be my wife) wanted to make very clear guidelines of what was expected of each of our positions. We decided that I would take care of the musical side of the youth services, rehearsing the band, choosing the songs etc. She would take care of preparing the meeting leads, leading the service and those sorts of things.
What we’ve found is that dividing that responsibility gives us the freedom to really focus on our areas, and do more with them than we could do if we had to do it all on our own.

Likewise, my manager recently started job-sharing with another person. While they’re still working it all out, they will divide up the tasks of one job, and divide it between the two of them, bringing their own strengths to each part. One will deal with the media, one will deal with more internal communications. One will deal with budgets, one will deal with writing. I think that this arrangement will allow them to focus on the areas that they work best in, and help lift the quality of output of our team higher than it has been before.

Dividing up your roles can give you freedom to focus on your strengths more, and help you improve the final result. How could you divide up your role(s) and what qualities would you be looking to add to give you the flexibility to work to your strengths?

Floreat Fete

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

Well what a busy day it was. Today was our Church Fete, one of the busiest days in our Church’s year. We had plants, handbags, cook books, sausage sizzle, cheap fruit and veg (bananas for $5/kg!), face painting and even a fashion parade!

The youth band played, and apart from some early sound issues with microphones not working, I was really pleased with it. We played a more contemporary set than we would normally play at a youth service, which allowed me to utilise our singers in a different way. I was able to spread some solos around which, I think, was greatly appreciated by the band. Plus, I finally got to play the violin for “Devil went down to Georgia.”

The Church fete is great, because our whole church pitches in and helps out on the day. From some of our youngest members to our oldest members, there’s a job for everyone on the day, and we raise a heap of money. The past couple of years we’ve raised over $10,000.

A little hint goes a long way

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life

On Saturday, I treated myself to a golf lesson. I’ve been playing for a number of years, but had never had a proper lesson. While I did have some good things in my game (eg, my grip) I also had a number of things to correct in my posture.
My teacher got me to change only a couple of things, but that made big changes to my swing. Through practice to make it regular, it should hopefully bring my game down to a lower score.
What I liked about the lesson is that he didn’t make massive changes, only small ones. Bending my knees less, bending more from the waist, lifting up my chin. When we want to make changes in our lives, we often tend to look for the big changes. Problem with that is that we’ll fall off the bandwagon, and get disappointed. Instead, we should look for little changes that will make a big impact on our lives.
For example, one of the little changes I made to help me lose weight was to stop buying soft drinks when I was thirsty. Instead, I’ll have water, cordial, or fruit juice. These aren’t as bad as soft drinks, and it’s just a small change that will have a big effect on my life.
What small changes can you make on your life?

Let your light shine

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, faith, Life

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16 (NIV)

Have you been to the country recently? Just recently, I headed down to Margaret River for a weekend away. We were driving, and there were no lights anywhere. We looked up and saw the stars. Having escaped the light pollution that cities normally give, we could see all these stars lighting up the sky. It was really amazing. Continue reading “Let your light shine” →

Mr Holland’s Opus

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life, Music

I was reminded of this movie when someone quoted a line from John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” which is performed by Mr Holland and dedicated to his deaf son. It a touching moment in a movie full of them. When I think about it, this movie has a similar hold over me as M*A*S*H does – through the course of this movie, you get involved in Mr Holland’s life. From his first day at work, his attempts to get a football player to play drums, his temptation by a student, and finally his retirement. All through this you get to feel his emotions as he feels them. His anger, his hope, his despair. Plus, it always helps that it’s a film about music – and I love films about music.

Anyway, I’m going to leave you with a couple of clips of my favourite parts. Firstly, the performance of “Beautiful Boy” and secondly his farewell assembly, including the first performance of his symphony.

The first (and worst) album

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life, Music

The first album I ever bought was one I remember because it is one that I regret so badly. I hear all these stories of people who bought these classic albums as their first, and they have great pleasure in remembering how it affected their lives.
My album is far more embarrassing – being Hansen’s first album. it got turned into an art project soon after.
I’m hoping that there are some readers who have similarly bad first albums. Please feel free to share on the comments.

Favourite Class at College

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life, Music

Just a quick one as it’s late, and I need to be up early tomorrow.

My favourite class in college (well, University), would probably have been String Class. This was where we would play for the other string players at uni, and get specific feedback relating to string playing.

I remember my first performance, and I hated it. I felt like I didn’t deserve to be there. It probably didn’t help that string class was joined with the other Music Uni, because “there weren’t enough string players for their own class” (despite there being more string players than brass players, and brass players had their own seperate class). While they may not agree, we certainly felt like second class citizens, as if we were the string players who weren’t good enough to get into their school.

Anyway, eventually, WAAPA granted us our own string class. And it was awesome. It really helped bring the strings together, and start supporting each other. And while there were many things that I would say helped along the way, I would say that giving us our own string class really helped kick start the redevelopment of the strings program at WAAPA.

So that was my favourite uni class. What was yours?

Zangief Kid: Bullying and its effects

by Ben Clapton, posted in Archive, Life
Zangief
Zangrief from Street Fighter, who is known for the Spinning Piledriver, similar to the move Casey pulled on his bully. (Image via Wikipedia)

The Zangief Kid is making a big splash. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s a video of this school student, Casey, getting bullied at school. He eventually snaps, and drops the bully on his head. He has since been suspended from school.

Now, I want to say right from the outset that I believe Casey’s reaction was most likely justified, but was completely over the top. I in no way condone violence. However, I know how harmful the effects of bullying can be.

When I switched schools at the end of year 10, I didn’t fit into the mould at the new school, and didn’t exactly want to change. I got pretty heavily bullied, including cyber-bullying. It was awful, and there were many times when I wanted to run away, to drop out of school, at times – to die. It was only through support of my friends, family and the teachers that I managed to get through the year. The main light of hope was that I would soon be out of school, and never see any of the bullies ever again.

The effects of bullying stayed with me well past the end of school though. I avoided the school – including the major shopping centre across the road – for years afterwards, afraid of seeing anyone. One day, the chaplain of the school contacted me and asked if I would meet him at the school for a discussion. Of course, he was late (not his fault the assembly ran late), but those few minutes of me waiting there were absolute torture, remembering all those bad memories, afraid that someone would see me and it would all start again. Of course, it didn’t – but it was still an awful feeling.

After that meeting, I was able to start releasing some of the anger that I held towards the school, and during a retreat, I was able to release it all to Jesus, all the pain that I had held in me, all the anger that I had bottled up. I’m a lot better now, but there are still some names that I’d prefer even my friends not to use.

Bullying is awful, and its effects can span a lifetime. This video has brought it into the forefront of our minds. At this time, let’s make a commitment to stop bullying wherever it happens.