Victory is a strong word that brings great pride. Whether the pride is felt by an individual, team or a nation.
To be victorious is to be the be the best you could have ever been and at that moment, when you feel victory, is when you are unstoppable, untouchable, and even invincible.
So how do you take an entire nation and make them feel proud, proud to be a part of something, something bigger than themselves. How do you UNITE a country? how do you UNITE a community? How do you gain the trust and support of your community?
To build something and make it prideful is challenging, you have to somehow gain the support of those people around you and get them to believe that the things you are doing, or that you are doing as a group of people is what needs to happen.
Invictus is a movie that inspires a nation to take pride in their country and to believe in something as one. They are brought together over a game. A nation becomes a inspired, prideful, united nation. They became a community over a rugby game.
"We need inspiration Francois, because in order to build our nation, we must all exceed our own expectation." - Nelson Mandella
Sometimes, to unite people you need to think in different ways and think outside the box in order to get support from people. This movie relates to recreation and community development because it was a challenge that this nation faced, becoming "one" as people. And they were united over a team that they rallied around. A game is a simple thing, but it brings people together. It gives us a reason to socialize, to compete and most importantly it gives us a reason to believe.
Communities need to develop in a similar way because the people who are involved in the community who are trying to make it better need to gain the support of their "nation", otherwise known as their supporters.
This is not a simple task and it never will be simple to gain the trust and pride in something, everyone needs to be willing to contribute and let themselves be led as well as be leaders of their own. As Nelson Mandella said we must all exceed our own expectations, in order to build a prideful nation.... to build a prideful community.
Great blog! I really like how you discussed the importance of victory in building a community. In order to have people trust one another and become united, people must see the benefits. By achieving victory members of communities come together and have something to be proud of!
ReplyDeleteGreat job emphasizes the importune of teamwork.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have each person in your community wanting a similar goal, you will never be able to achieve the goal you are striving for. Great blog.
One aspect I really liked about your point of view on victory is when you said “when you are unstoppable, untouchable, and even invincible.” It reminds me of the flow theory (when challenge meets skill level ) and I feel that community development, in that sense, is really like flow. In order for a project to really be embraced the participants skill level has to be matched to the challenge level or either people get bored or get discouraged. I also liked the connection you made when you said “It gives us a reason to socialize, to compete and most importantly it gives us a reason to believe.” I like that you made the link to believing because I think this is one of the most important parts of Invictus.
ReplyDeleteSport is much more than we give it credit for. You emphasizing that rugby is much more than a "game" is fantastic. Sport gives us a reason to believe, it give us reason to dream, and more importantly it creates confidence within a community and in this case a country. I enjoyed reading your blog - well done.
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