Are We The Enemy? (Taken from Callerlink 156 Febuary 2003)
Jeff Garbutt

Are you familiar with the statement "we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us"? I can't remember where it came from, but it is certainly an interesting statement. And maybe we should be asking ourselves now and then if we are our own WORST enemy.

Now I am not saying that we are doing anything, let alone everything, wrong - but how do we know for sure unless we ask the question? Too many times we seem to do things simply because "that is the way we have always done it". And too many times we don't try something else simply because "we tried it before and it didn't work back then".

Well times have changed and we live in a dynamic ever changing world. It could very
well be that things that used to work great years ago are not only working less effectively for us now - they may in fact be working against us now.

So we need to take a step back now and then to really look at ourselves. We have to critically examine each and every little procedure we carry out and ask ourselves if we are using the best possible practice.

We also need to start thinking like "non square dancers" a lot more. How can we really know what will attract non-dancers if we don't really understand how they view us? Sure we "think" we know - but are we only really kidding ourselves? Are we doing things that are really working against us? HAVE WE BECOME OUR OWN WORST ENEMY?

As an aside I suggest you all read the article by Jerry Junck titled "Attitude is everything" that was published in the September 2002 issue of "American Square Dance" magazine. The article really hits hard at some of the things we are doing and will make you stop and think.