==== Eating words ====

(* There was a little grumbling in the Whatcom Paddler's messages after the 2009 Length of the Lake race (probably in part due to people being even more worn out than usual after the race) that led to some ruffled feathers * - those messages have not been included here)

\\
**Reivers Dustin** \\
10/03/09 #7180

Such a drab surprise:\\
The laughs I heard yesterday\\
Were gone with the sunrise

These were the waves that carried me\\
The waves were us\\
They were camaraderie

Nothing else mattered\\
Then was forever\\
but now is shattered.

Will they return,\\
the smiles, the waves, the Us?\\
I will be the sea and will not turn.

If you are there,\\
we will be Us.

\\
**Re: Eating words\\
Erik Borgnes** \\
10/03/09 #7181

roses are red,\\
frogs are a-croakin'\\
Reivers, ol' man,\\
what are you smokin'. . . ?

\\
**Re: Eating words\\
Larry Goolsby** \\
10/03/09 #7183

Reivers….Probably one of the best unexpected things about Whatcom Paddlers is that most of us are of an age that we realize that negativity is not productive. We have survived and grown through the years because when something bad happens, we take that information and use it to move forward, not backwards. When some of our paddlers were rescued by a helicopter, we wanted to learn form this while one of our readers felt ashamed. She was mad because we weren't. I sent her an email pointing out that condemnation of an act seldom improved the situation and that an open discussion would be more beneficial to the group. This person chose to terminate her membership because we wouldn't condemn the event. The greatest strength that our group has is that we are willing to learn and not condemn. We don't need to pay dues or sign waivers to show that we are of the same genetics, we just need to need to meet face to face whenever we can. You don't need to eat your words because your words reflected what many of us live by: Let's accept our differences and move forward. If you don't have a positive thing to say, then you have probably joined the wrong group.\\
Larry Goolsby