For anyone here who cares.....
Because if it's not fit for CB it must be fit for CUF.
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I served in a mission that had only been open for three years when I got there and the names and reputations of everyone who went through the mission in the first five years circulated pretty widely.
There were only two elders who had been sent home in the history of the mission. One for hooking it up with a local girl. All sorts of salacious variations had taken shape around what actually happened, ranging from just some light makeout to getting busy upstairs in the branchhouse during Sacrament meeting.
Whatever happened, more than five years after the fact the ten-month mark had taken on a name - that missionary's name. Let's say it was... 'Duncan' (it wasn't) and we called it "Duncan Day." If you made it to your 10 month mark it was 'Duncan Day.' Two months before the infamous 'Hump Day' every Elder in my mission had 'Duncan Day.'
We all thought it was hilarious and it was just part of mission lore and never gave two thoughts to the actual person in question as no one in the mission still knew him. But this was his legacy. We made it so.
Fast-forward three years. I'm sitting in the BYU apartment of a girl in my new ward with my roommate and old mission buddy. She's a nice girl and my buddy was going to be her home teacher. She finds out where we served our missions and lights up "oh my brother served there!"
"Oh really?" we respond (at this point most people who had served in our mission either knew each other personally or through reputation) what's your last name? "Duncan" she responds.
And we failed to mask our expressions as our mouths hung half open at the realization that this was the younger sister of the guy whose reputation we had kicked around all those years. And she noticed. She nodded and you said "you guys know about what happened with then." Um, yes. We did.
What we didn't know is that Elder 'Duncan' had gone home and got it right. He had repented, been married in the Temple and was currently in the Elders Quorum presidency with a child. But to now well over a hundred missionaries who had passed through his mission all they knew about him was the infamous 'Duncan Day.' We booted his reputation all over the place and didn't much think about it.
In the moment that I saw this girl's crestfallen expression at recognizing that we only knew her brother as the guy who got sent home for a transgression I felt a little ashamed that I'd been a happy perpetrator of the 'Duncan Day' legend and I resolved to be more conscientious about how I handled people's names and the reputations that hang from them.
So the sort of relevant part......
How much all of what has happened defines Harvey's legacy depends a lot on the fans. Of course it's unavoidable that this will be remembered as an unfortunate conclusion. But we can decide, as fans, to primarily focus on the Harvey Unga who slugged it out between the tackles for three long, hard-running years as our feature back and to assume the best about how he is moving forward with his personal life and resolve to focus our discussion on the good Harvey stuff.
Just a thought on approaching a difficult episode.
Because if it's not fit for CB it must be fit for CUF.
________________________________________________
I served in a mission that had only been open for three years when I got there and the names and reputations of everyone who went through the mission in the first five years circulated pretty widely.
There were only two elders who had been sent home in the history of the mission. One for hooking it up with a local girl. All sorts of salacious variations had taken shape around what actually happened, ranging from just some light makeout to getting busy upstairs in the branchhouse during Sacrament meeting.
Whatever happened, more than five years after the fact the ten-month mark had taken on a name - that missionary's name. Let's say it was... 'Duncan' (it wasn't) and we called it "Duncan Day." If you made it to your 10 month mark it was 'Duncan Day.' Two months before the infamous 'Hump Day' every Elder in my mission had 'Duncan Day.'
We all thought it was hilarious and it was just part of mission lore and never gave two thoughts to the actual person in question as no one in the mission still knew him. But this was his legacy. We made it so.
Fast-forward three years. I'm sitting in the BYU apartment of a girl in my new ward with my roommate and old mission buddy. She's a nice girl and my buddy was going to be her home teacher. She finds out where we served our missions and lights up "oh my brother served there!"
"Oh really?" we respond (at this point most people who had served in our mission either knew each other personally or through reputation) what's your last name? "Duncan" she responds.
And we failed to mask our expressions as our mouths hung half open at the realization that this was the younger sister of the guy whose reputation we had kicked around all those years. And she noticed. She nodded and you said "you guys know about what happened with then." Um, yes. We did.
What we didn't know is that Elder 'Duncan' had gone home and got it right. He had repented, been married in the Temple and was currently in the Elders Quorum presidency with a child. But to now well over a hundred missionaries who had passed through his mission all they knew about him was the infamous 'Duncan Day.' We booted his reputation all over the place and didn't much think about it.
In the moment that I saw this girl's crestfallen expression at recognizing that we only knew her brother as the guy who got sent home for a transgression I felt a little ashamed that I'd been a happy perpetrator of the 'Duncan Day' legend and I resolved to be more conscientious about how I handled people's names and the reputations that hang from them.
So the sort of relevant part......
How much all of what has happened defines Harvey's legacy depends a lot on the fans. Of course it's unavoidable that this will be remembered as an unfortunate conclusion. But we can decide, as fans, to primarily focus on the Harvey Unga who slugged it out between the tackles for three long, hard-running years as our feature back and to assume the best about how he is moving forward with his personal life and resolve to focus our discussion on the good Harvey stuff.
Just a thought on approaching a difficult episode.
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