Get over it and get on with it

My friend Whetu was not among the 600 kaihoe or waka paddlers who were such a large part of the RWC opening celebrations. He tells me that paddling a waka up the Waitemata sounded like too much hard work, best left to “the young fellas.” Instead he parked himself in front of the TV, opened a beer, lit a joint and sat back fully prepared to be entertained. With the possible exception of the joint, Whetu was much like any other New Zealander last Friday; either at one of the live events or glued to the TV to watch one of the most hyped events in New Zealand’s history. If transport and other issues tarnished the downtown event, people like Whetu didn’t care. By his fifth joint and twelfth beer, all fetched by the fellesse, he was fully into the swing of things. And if the two teams on the field were barely distinguishable at that point and he was left wondering why Benji Marshall wasn’t playing, it somehow didn’t matter. He was in party mood. We can learn a lot from Whetu, I think. Get over it and get on with it. We have had a week of fallout from Friday. Yes, things went wrong, and, yes, things had to be fixed and hopefully have been. But does what happened (or not happen) warrant the prolonged media beat-up it is (still) getting? I can only think that our overseas guests are probably bewildered at our propensity for self-flagellation. Except maybe the Brits, who are used to that kind of thing. For my part, I am going to take my cue from Whetu. I am going to sit back and enjoy this thing, and all that other stuff can simply ruck off. Fetch my beer fellesse.