Sometimes you hear it said that ‘perceptions are everything’. I don’t think that’s true. Very often I find my perceptions or those of others to be ill informed. A lack of information or worse, a lack of desire to find out more, can lead to inaccurate perceptions and, if we act on those, poor decision making. Someone shared the following story with me that, I think, highlights that point.

A friend of mine, returning home from a long stay in Europe, found herself with some time to spare at London’s Heathrow Airport. Buying a cup of coffee and a small packet of biscuits, she staggered, laden with luggage to an unoccupied table. She was reading the morning paper when she became aware of someone rustling at her table. From behind her paper, she was flabbergasted to see a neatly dressed young man helping himself to her biscuits. She did not want to make a scene so she leaned across and took a biscuit herself. A minute or so passed. More rustling. He was helping himself to another biscuit.

By the time they were down to the last biscuit in the pack, she was very angry but still could not bring herself to say anything. Then the young man broke the last biscuit in two, pushed half across to her, ate the other half and left.

Some time later, when her flight was called and she presented herself at the gate, she was still fuming.  Imagine her embarrassment when she opened her handbag and was confronted by her pack of biscuits.  She had been eating his!

So what’s the point?  Its’ simply this – our ways of viewing things are often incomplete, inaccurate or completely messed up.  Therefore, we shouldn’t be so quick to judge, label or form rigid opinions of others, or ourselves for that matter.  Just because someone we like, or love, tell us something, does not make it true. From our limited points of view, we seldom see the whole picture or have all the facts.

Shalom Day we will celebrate this Thursday.  This is one of our very special days in our calendar as we celebrate who we are as a community.  It’s always a great day.  Before Covid, we had been building up a great tradition of combining the Liturgy and Morning Tea that follows with our ‘Grandparents’ Day’.  That is very much back on our agenda again and we look forward to welcoming many Grandparents and Parents to the start of the day.

Our Rowers - are psyched up for Head of the River which is on this weekend.  This is the premier schools event for 2024 and our rowers have been training hard for months.  Every best wish to all participants and their coaches.

Queensland Catholic Schools Music Festival (QCMF) last weekend saw almost 160 Shalom students travel to Brisbane for this annual gathering of Catholic schools.  We took 16 different groups this year with 11 staff.  It was a major but very successful effort.  Great to see first time groups in Rock Bands, Guitar groups and Drum lines joining our Choirs and Instrumental groups.  Shalom Performing Arts is knocking the house down!! 

Mr Dan McMahon
Principal
mcmahond@shalomcollege.com