Lessons from the geese
- When the lead goose becomes tired, he rotates back into the “V” and another goose takes over.
It pays to share leadership and take turns doing hard tasks.
- The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep their speed.
Words of support and inspiration help energize those on the front line and keep pace in spite of every-day pressures and fatigue. It is important that our honking encourages. Otherwise, it’s just, well, honking.
- Finally, when a goose gets sick or wounded or shot and falls out, two geese drop out of formation and follow the injured one down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is able to fly or dies. Then they launch out in another formation to catch up with their group.
If we have as much sense as the geese, we will stand by one another as they do.
Merle W. Boos
We live in a tradition that has been telling us that we can do it on our own. With hard work, diligence, and individual effort––like the cowboys on Bonanza––we will make it. But the geese demonstrate otherwise. We know that without schools, teachers, hospitals, nurses, doctors, roads, trucks, tracks, trains, runways, planes, stores, storekeepers, waiters, cooks…,our society would come to a standstill. These are but a few of the ‘others’ that support us in our endeavors. Without them we would not be a society.
We have to ask ourselves, do we believe we have to go it alone? Or do we want to be like the geese and want others to be with us, to support us, and we to support them? The geese show us community––heading in their agreed-upon direction.
Alone, when we think about it, we can only go so far. Together, we can choose to set common expectations. We can form shared goals and “stay in formation.” It is challenging, but it enables us to make our lives work.
Are we willing to form support communities to “lift each other along the way?” Will we, especially when the going get tough, “stay in formation with those who are headed in the same way that we are going?”
In these troubled times, share “Lessons from the Geese” with others. Encourage conversations without judgement or coming to quick conclusions. Ask if we can agree that it applies to our lives, to the community, to the country, and whether “if we have as much sense as the geese, we will stand by one another as they do.” And discuss the implications of our “honking,” whether it will encourage, to have purpose. “Otherwise, it’s just, well, honking.”
Invite “lessons for the geese” into your life, into your community.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward” (Kierkegaard)
I write to bring ideas and methods from my life as a teacher in the latter half of the 20th century to help teachers and the public to “live forward” in this century. My latest book, Teacher in the Rye: Doing It My Way is available on Amazon. And I welcome comments here on my Blog or by email at frankthoms3@gmail.com.
