Taking one for the Team

Back in the Day, we learnt to use the slogans , the caveats, new-fangled proverbs, the words that meant we were damn cutting edge. We ran flags up flagpoles so often it could have been the back of Nelson's ship and it said every man must do his "cultural awareness course", touched bases that were not clothed and just about confused the older generation, until somehow we too were old, or at least older. How did that happen?

And today I am being asked to take a bullet for the team... yer wat? The old fella is being persuaded by the team that its time to be lead out and shot metaphorically.

Do I need a flak jacket, do I need a tank, do I need to prepare some final words -"Don't shoot' comes to mind. Or am I to lay my life down for the sake of reversing a business decision, that I stood by, until it became the sticking point, the showstopper, so its time to be humble.

Humbleness however is dynamic, this bullet will be taken over a dinner, perhaps the condemned man's last meal, perhaps not. Here is an environment to soften the climbdown, apologies can be whispered, 180- degrees can be re-aligned by say 90 degrees perhaps. Here is an an ambience that I can walk away from with my life..... Yee-ha.

But there is a penalty, I am taking some serious calories for the team, a starter that jollies up the weight watcher scale and makes it worth watching in Guiness Book of obesity stellar performance kind of way; a main course of potatoes garlanded with oil, layered in sauce, that sets a juicy piece of meat on its pedastal; a dessert that is not a desert of overflowing creams and sugary things, and all fluidised with an antiquated wine or two.

These calories for the team may not tonight lead to the heart attack.

But at some point, too many carbo-hydrate protein, cholestorol inter-snack fillers over three-to-five courses will lead to taking the metaphorical bullet anyway.....yee...beejesus.