FACING UP

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 25, 20 November 1984, Page 12

FACING UP

There it stands: the Carrot, and well may one ask what it stands for. I've thought a lot about the Carrot. What is it saying, standing there? What do you think? What is the 'special carrocter' of Ohakune? What are the 'carrocteristics' of Ohakuneites? Carrots are supposed to be good for the eyes. If that's so, the carrot could be saying "Round here we are trying to see things better — life, people, the times. We seek a better vision. We want to produce good and better carrots, good and better people, good and better children. Ohakune has its carrocters all right. There is Peter Hammond for a start. I've met others here too, Carroters- and carrocters. There it stands — risen! Balanced. Ready for blastoff. Apollo 11, 1967. The Carrot 1984. I like that suggestion of balance — in my life, in my attitudes. A carrot is also a symbol of bait. We want to interest people in an enterprise, and we ask "What's the carrot?" Bait is incentive, encouragement, so to me the carrot is also saying incentive — the need for us to respond to incentives to good things — to take up challenges — to give one another incentive, encouragement. Sometimes our light goes out, but is rekindled again through our encounter with another human being. We have a need and we don't know it. Someone comes along with the right carrot. Our blindness is cured. We see, and we know the way to go. Thank you, Carrot.

B.

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