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Thursday 2 January 2014

Now is our hour

Hey! I hope all OSQUAD readers had a mint Christmas/New Years, a good mix of chilling and smashing it in the outdoors. I had some good outdoors time, but also plenty of sifting with baby time to reflect, so apologise if what follows is a bit deep for some.

I'm not sure if it was some drones killing some Yemeni's, but something got me thinking about my all time favourite movie...Bladerunner...and particularly the scene that follows.




The replicant (robot) Roy, played by Rutger Hauer, unexpectedly saves the life of Harrison Ford, just before his pre-programmed life, which he had been fighting to extend, expires. In saving his enemy he reveals the value that he puts on the opportunity of life, and challenges what it means to be human,

"I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe... [laughs] Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost in time, like [coughs] tears... in... rain. Time... to die..."

For me Bladerunner has always served as a reminder to try to live life actively, not passively, to not accept the status quo unquestioned and above all to be damn grateful for the time we have. 

I am feeling strongly now the limited time I have left as an elite orienteer. Matt Ogden, Nick Hann and the like have made that case strongly. I also feel the generations passing. While in my private life I have recently lost grandparents and gained a child, in orienteering I have seen old faces pass or grow weathered and new fresh faces come. 

It seems like yesterday that I was with Lisa Frith, Stu Barr, Matt Backler and Aaron Prince at JWOC 1999-Bulgaria. I can remember whole conversations, the way I felt, I can smell the place. Now another bunch of young orienteers is lining up a Bulgarian JWOC 15 years later, they are training for the trials to be held in the Riverhead forest in March.

Geez. Cherish it! Give it everything you have, right now and at JWOC, then get ready to fight me for a place in the World Cup team for Tasmania 2015. 





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