It is assumed that all readers are educated people here so let us consider a few questions. The first one is this: Who said: “Some are born great; some achieve greatness; some have greatness thrust upon them”? Older ones among us may remember it was actually said by Malvolio, a character in Shakespeare’s play, “Twelfth Night”. The second question might be easier: Who is Kate Middleton? We would, of course, be right if we said she was the wife of the future king of Britain. Now, though, what is the connection between the first and second question? And what has it to do with us?

Well, let it be noted that readers are, in fact, in the presence of greatness as you read this; you are indeed in the presence of royalty!  The fact is, Kate Middleton is a relative of this writer; she is (as the Western world describes it) his third cousin, once removed (to spell it out, his great-grand-father is her great-great-grand-father). Of course, in Africa, we are all cousins, even if some of them are not removed far enough! We are all related to lots of different folk; “A brother with a different mother”.

Let us understand though that while everyone may be a relative, everything is in fact relative. Everything that we do, everything that happens, is all part of the Big Picture. We are all part of a bigger family (this writer is not on his own but he has children, siblings, parents, uncles/aunts, grandparents, in-laws). We are all part of a bigger world: as a reference, we probably all did this once, writing our address with the name of our house, our street, suburb, city, province, country, continent, world, universe, galaxy and so on! We are all relative to where we live. In addition, our performance is part of the bigger picture, be it our academic, sporting, cultural or social actions.

It is vitally important that we see that everything fits in with a bigger picture, in relation not to other people or other schools but to the bigger picture. Here is a picture to help us understand. The Comrades marathon in South Africa, being a distance of 90 kilometres, was won in 1988 by Bruce Fordyce in 5 hours and 27 minutes but the real ‘winner’ was Wally Hayward who finished in 9 hours and 44 minutes. The reason Wally was the winner is that Wally Hayward was 80 years old that year – his achievement, relative to that of younger people, was much more remarkable. Interestingly, Wally Hayward had won the Comrades marathon the five previous times he had run it. As another example, the tallest Grade 7 girl and the smallest Grade 7 girl both reach up to see who can reach the highest but while the former has no difficulty in reaching the highest (purely by virtue of being taller) the latter is putting in greater effort. In relative terms, the smallest girl is achieving more. 

Our achievements therefore are all relative. They depend on our starting point, as in the example given, but also on what resources we have available (if the smallest girl had a ladder she could have reached even higher!), on what targets we set, on what values we hold. The goal for children in sport is not to win a tournament or be selected for a provincial or national team and then chill. Everything is relative, all is part of something much bigger, all is just a stepping stone to greater heights.

That means, therefore that there is no Best Family Member – the frail granny is no less important than the tiny baby. There is no Best Player – one will achieve more but he may not necessarily be the one who gave the most. There is no Best School – all schools are cousins, related, but they all are different. Some may be close, like a sister or brother school, while others may be like a cousin but we are all family, even though we each have our own starting point, resources, targets, values, finishing point. Everything is relative. And everyone needs their relatives.

So, please understand that greatness is relative. Some may be born sporty, clever or royal; some may achieve sporting or academic success or even marry royalty; others may have sporting or academic success or royalty thrust upon them suddenly. It is all relative; all our efforts, successes, failures, joys, disappointments are all part of a bigger picture. The Big Picture is not our child receiving or not receiving a prize. The Big Picture is not a school winning or not doing so. The Big Picture is not me being related to royalty, but me relating to the reader. The Big Picture is everyone. We do not just have Kate Middleton in our midst: we have Wally Haywards in our schools (those pupils whose achievements are fantastic in their particular context). Salute them all!