Dig in.

[SPQR]

Its been many years now but somehow it seems like it was yesterday.  My old Dad and I were driving north out of town to pick up a load of shelled corn.  The old farm truck was half rotten and smelled somewhere between rust and hay.  We had glued a magnet onto the gear shift so it would hold a pair of vice grips that we used to turn the window cranks which had long broken off.  This was still when side windows had vents and dimmer switches were on the floor.  When I was 16 or so a kid had pulled out in front of me and I had to stand on the meager brakes.  I threw it into third real hard in an attempt to slow down and the vice grips flew off the magnet and broke the tuner knob off the radio. I got the truck stopped but I don't think he ever forgave me for the radio.

It was Spring.  The sky was a hard blue and the sun was warm but the wind carried a chill with it.  Like many fathers and sons our conversations were often short and punctuated but I was feeling philosophical.  I told Dad that I regretted the way I played baseball as a young man.  I felt like I had left something on the field and that I carried that shame with me.  I said I thought it may have been the worst mistake I had made.  Dad moved his toothpick to the other side of his mouth and, without turning to look at me, slowly said, "If that is your worst mistake I guess we're doing alright."  That was the moment I learned Perspective.  That was the moment I learned what was important and what was not and why I needed to Ignore that Stupid.  Looking back I reckon that old Dad was a pretty good Teacher.

My first Seed was Patriots Day of '09 at Riley.  I had a blast.  We went home and built an AQT range.  When I went to my second Seed in July of 10 I was ready.  We had done a lot of preparation before then and exported that curriculum back to our range.  I wasn't worried about shooting Rifleman.  As long as I focused on the post my mechanics would do the rest.

There had been a lot of time between my first shoot and the second and a lot of those times were rough ones.   So it goes.  I probably wasn't in a very good place but as all that practice had shown me, one of the few safe places for my marble box was behind a rifle, where a lot of things seemed to disappear.  It was a miserably hot Saturday, one of those mid-90's Indiana days with eight million percent humidity.  A lot of folks were having trouble, shooters and instructors, and only those of us used to working outside in this kind of weather were able to keep their brains.  Still, I went into it well practiced, and I was able to get into the Bubble fairly easily.  I have always described the Bubble as being unaware of anything and hyperaware of everything.  One of the things I saw really caught my interest.

There was this younger gal who came with her husband, maybe 20s or early 30s, and she was out of her element.  She was filled with so much anxiety that she was physically shaking.  At one point she approached an instructor with loose rounds and a magazine in her hand and asked ,"What do I do?"  The early results were not encouraging for her.  She was next to me on the line and all she could see was this really focused person who clearly knew what was going on and her husband who was tickled to be there for reasons she could not understand.  Fear consumed her, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of embarrassment.   It got so bad she quietly started asking her husband if she could leave.  Eventually, late in the afternoon on Saturday, she did.  The Shoot Boss seemed unable to prevent it but went to lengths to get her on the phone and convince her to come back on Sunday.

When Sunday rolled around I was convinced there would be few, if any, folks return to the boiler plate but I was wrong.  Not only did almost everyone come back but so did this young gal.  she was still nervous.  By the time we got around to Ball and Dummy the Shoot Boss said that we couldn't do it with anyone we knew coming in, so I offered to work with this gal hoping that working with somebody she had gotten to know a little bit and who was clearly aware of what they were doing would help but her eyes grew with fear on the suggestion.  The Shoot Boss was about to assign an IIT to work with her, and she saw it and was still nervous.  The Shoot Boss sensed her anxiety and in the middle of the sentence announced that he, the most experienced instructor on the line, would work with her.  She was instantly and visibly more comfortable.  The Shoot Boss had taken responsibility for making her experience the best it could be, for taking that irrational fear away.  It was her best group up to that point.  Twenty percent of teaching is content knowledge and delivery, the other eighty is relationship building.

As the day wore on something happened and I got to witness it from my Bubble.  That young gal became more comfortable.  By about eleven o'clock her groups had shrunk and she began to relax.  By lunch time she was even beginning to smile.  By two in the afternoon we now had a different creature on the line.  She was energetic, encouraged, and excited.  She was safeing her rifle faster and trotting down to the target line.  What had once been a meek lamb had now become a Lioness.  By three in the afternoon this once shaking leaf had become a Rifleman.  I had not gone to that shoot intending to take a hat, I had too much on my plate.  I saw that, though, and how the Shoot Boss and other instructors had behaved and I knew that they were Patriots and that I had to help them.

You know, it's interesting how some people hoard knowledge and skills.  I wonder about a person that is in possession of knowledge or a skill and does not seek to pass it along.  Is that not a disgusting brand of vanity?  When you boil it down it is the desire for some sort of power over others, some sort of exclusivity, that prevents that person from disseminating their knowledge or skill.  But teachers, ah the Teachers, take personal responsibility for making their communities better.  Classrooms may come in all sorts of shapes and sizes but the Teacher understands that passing along a piece of knowledge or a skill makes their community a stronger place and when everything else is stripped away they do so for no other reason beyond that.  It is the Teacher who takes responsibility for helping others make themselves better.  The Teacher, by their very nature, is a Can Do-er.

As a social scientist I used to ask people if the Country was getting better or worse.  I probably asked that a couple hundred times.  It wasn't that no one said it was getting better that shocked me.  It was that everyone said it was getting worse and no one had a good plan to make it better.  People were mad about this and mad about that and said certain things needed to change but nobody had a tangible plan to make it better.  I don't know if the Appleseed Project is the answer, that is above me, but I do know that Appleseed helps people make themselves better and it feels good to help.  I don't know...

I hope that one day, if I am lucky, I may be asked to stand before my father again and answer for the life that I have led.  If that life can, in any way, be legitimized by the merits of my character and actions.  I know that in some small part I will look back at the Appleseed Project and what I am able to accomplish here.  It will be things like this that help me say, that when the Ship was Sinking, I stood with the Teachers.

Nine out of ten television shows make me want to throw up and that is probably being generous.  Whatever can be said about them, when things got bad they made it worse.  My local state representative is an Elvis impersonator, my high school principal retired and grew a beard so he could be Santa in the mall.  Things are weird nowadays, real weird. 

We are still, however, Teachers.  We cannot save the Country from a computer desk.  We have to work more shoots.  We have to keep building relationships with shooters and helping them have good experiences.  We have to tell the Strikes.  Those things happen on the line.  Anything that takes our focus away from that is a needless distraction and, no matter how you want to chew on it, it isn't important.  It is just an excuse we use to keep ourselves from getting off the couch and working with shooters.  It is Vanity.  What is important is Saving the Country.  Keep that in Perspective.  Anything that keeps you off that line is not helping.  If it isn't helping...

The Appleseed Project helps people make themselves better.  Better people make better communities.  Better communities make better countries.  I aim to make my people, my community, and my Country stronger with this program.  In the end you will not be able to point at me and say I didn't try, I didn't pull my weight.  Ol Huff got in there and gave it what he had, not because his rugged good looks and roguish charm needed to have a bigger audience, but because he wanted to help and he wasn't afraid of the responsibility and he wasn't going to say he didn't try.

Indiana we have plenty of shoots this year but we need more shooters, we will always need more shooters until this thing gets sorted out.  Nobody is going to fill those lines for us.  We may hear and see silliness in the AS program but, and let me make this clear, THAT IS NOT US.  We took this mantle of Instructor and decided that we would stand as Teachers.  Our Perspective must always remain on helping people make themselves better.  To do that we have to get them to lines and not worry about distractions.  We've got miles to go, folks, bend your knees and dig in.


There was once a gruff Appleseed instructor on the line at Bedford.  He was the kind that played his cards pretty close to the vest.  There were a couple of boys down on that line, young ones maybe 8 or 10 or so, and they spent the weekend on his end of the line.  He ran them tough, treated them like they were men, and kept them safe.  When it came time for KD he pulled out his AR so these boys could have a chance to get behind some centerfire.  I watched as he sat there in the soft gravel and ran these two young fellas through the manual of arms for this rifle.  I marveled at their rapt attention and focus.  They would follow this man through fire.  It was as if Zeus himself had come down from Olympus to teach men how to sling lightening.  At the end of the day, as one of the youths was getting into the vehicle with his family to go home, he stopped and ran the length of the range to where this instructor was cleaning up the target line.  The boy stuck out his hand and respectfully asked if he could know the real name of this giant, whom he had only known by a moniker duct taped to a t-shirt.  This small hand was firmly shook in the grip of a larger mitt and the name was uttered.  So thankful was the boy that he leaned forward and quietly whispered, "You're my favorite."   Imagine what we can accomplish.   

         

[Cal 7.62]

I had not gone to that shoot intending to take a hat, I had too much on my plate.  I saw that, though, and how the Shoot Boss and other instructors had behaved and I knew that they were Patriots and that I had to help them.
   

Right on Brother, as did I!



The Appleseed Project helps people make themselves better.- 

Look at what it's done for each of us individually. Can you look at yourself in the mirror and say you're a better man, woman or young person because of it?  I know I can!

-Better people make better communities.  Better communities make better countries.  I aim to make my people, my community, and my Country stronger with this program.  In the end you will not be able to point at me and say I didn't try, I didn't pull my weight.  Ol Huff got in there and gave it what he had, not because his rugged good looks and roguish charm needed to have a bigger audience, but because he wanted to help and he wasn't afraid of the responsibility and he wasn't going to say he didn't try.

.....we will always need more shooters until this thing gets sorted out.  Nobody is going to fill those lines for us.  We may hear and see silliness in the AS program but, and let me make this clear, THAT IS NOT US. (Me either!) We took this mantle of Instructor and decided that we would stand as Teachers.  Our Perspective must always remain on helping people make themselves better.  To do that we have to get them to lines and not worry about distractions. (a 7th step bubble?) We've got miles to go, folks, bend your knees and dig in.

.............................. Imagine what we can accomplish.
       

Bravo! Well said SPQR!

P.S. I printed this out and shared it with my new IIT. He liked it alot!

[PHenry]

SPQR,
Well said sir. I came here in early 2007 to help pass on the message of our unique heritage. Fred knows that I will not accept any task that precludes my ability to work the firing line as an instructor. Owing to having only two of us running last weekend's event, I was "forced" to call the line myself. Lord it felt good. 

In order to have any hope of success, we must get raw numbers on the lines and expose them to our message of heritage and marksmanship. There are but three things required  to make this happen - all other considerations are secondary at best. I have for years offered what I consider the top priorities for the program.

They are as follows:
Venues
Events
Staffing

Anything that does not secure venues / dates, promote said events, and secure qualified staffing must be dropped to a lower priority and frankly questioned as to their general worth. All resources must be focused on the above three areas - venues, events, staffing.

If anyone can explain to me how effort spent in any other area can help us expose more people to our mission - I'm all ears.

Here in FL, we have several venues and maybe 40 dates - what we need most are more people at each event, and that takes promo. I therefore will aim all of my personal resources to that end for the foreseeable future. When most of our events are sold out and we have an excess of instructors - I will look for more venues. When we have plenty venues and they are all sold out and staffed by excellent instructors, then I may consider other lesser tasks, or maybe I'll just push for even more venues, events and staffing, because the little stuff can always wait and the rest, IMHO, is all just little stuff.

More / better promo means more attendees. More attendees means more instructors, which allow for more events. Early to bed, early to rise, advertise, advertise, advertise.

We are working on a RC FTF in the near future and the above concerns will be my primary focus as acting SERC.

[Patriot Gal]

Quote from SPQR:
"I hope that one day, if I am lucky, I may be asked to stand before my father again and answer for the life that I have led.  If that life can, in any way, be legitimized by the merits of my character and actions.  I know that in some small part I will look back at the Appleseed Project and what I am able to accomplish here.  It will be things like this that help me say, that when the Ship was Sinking, I stood with the Teachers."

Your words touched my heart, revitalizing my spirit and stoking the flame of determination.

Thank you. 
Patriot Gal

[Johnnyappleseed]

I learned a lot from reading this thread .
Thanx to all who posted.
JA

[Amber Waves]

I so enjoyed reading your post, that I too, will print it out and make sure others read it.  You have a gift for words.

[Mudcat]

Thanks Huff!

[Cooper]

this post brought me to tears the first time I read it, and somehow I'm not surprised that it has done that again.

Thanks.

Coop