Leadership, horses and faith

Welcome back!

A beautiful Sunday playing a late Fall round of golf! What could be better than that? Actually some ice on my elbow and soaking my aching muscles in a hot bath.....

This week's posting celebrates leadership - in this case from the worlds of harness horse racing and politics.

W.C. Fields once said, "horse sense is what a horse has which prevents it from betting on people."

First a look at the last race - this time the 20th win for the harness racing champion, Muscle Hill, selected and trained by Gregory Peck, my brother-in-law. As you can see from the video, Muscle Hill is a three year old stallion champion who has dominated the harness racing world this past year. His final race - a bittersweet experience for all who have shared in this beautiful horse's victories, as Saturday marked his last race. This time he won the Breeder's Crown at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.

Take a look at his speed and gait. I had the privilege of visiting Muscle Hill immediately after his previous win and was amazed how cool and unaffected he was considering what he had just gone through. Congratulations to Gregory, the incredibly talented driver, Brian Sears, and the ownership team for the most incredibly successful year for any harness horse in history!. Now it's off to stud for Muscle Hill!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX9zaq_ahqE

Now turning to leadership in the political world....

Ted Kennedy's 'True Compass'

I spent several days last week in Alberta and had the opportunity on the long flights to finish Ted Kennedy's auto-biography, True Compass. While a great tour through recent American history, I was particularly impressed with how he wrote about his deep and abiding Catholic faith. He certainly admits his many all-too-human failings and indeed his own differences with the Church in areas of public policy.

It did get me to thinking about the role of faith in public life. I was brought up to respect people of all faiths - and increasingly - of no faith too. In my view, we shouldn't 'privatize' faith so that it has no role in the public domain. Rather, faith informs us and helps shape our values. If done properly, that can have a profoundly positive effect. If done badly, it can be a disaster. Kennedy obviously spent a lot of time thinking about his religion and seemed to appreciate it even more as he moved through the tragedies and triumphs of his life.

It's a delicate area, as most people don't want it shoved down their throats, so to speak, by political leaders who blur the line. Take a look at this example of HOW NOT TO combine politics with religion:

http://www.ragan.com/ME2/Sites/Default.asp?SiteID=2DE73B54303942C4AC9E7EC3867DBF9E&Itemplay=E2BB72C144074447B6E2A94F94BE8285

Isn't that priceless? I can't decide whether the poor guy needs media training or re-programming.
Until next time...