Unity

“The workers, united, will never be divided!”
It astounds me what unity can achieve.  There was a word I was looking for and could not remember.  It was just said on tv.  Exponential.  It seems that when another embraces and runs with an idea, the impact is greater than just two.  The more who take up the cause, the greater the impact.  I really doubt Apple or Microsoft could have achieved what they did, if the ideas had remained the domain of one person.  I reckon we won the first and second world wars because we were united in our desire (among other reasons).
It is not just what major corporations have done that shows unity.  All around my home I see examples.  Colourbond fences are a standard height.  Screening has a standard.  Even sleepers.  I can do what I want to, but it is always a multiple and fraction of the standard.  A guy called Mattie Stepenek put it this way, “Unity is strength... when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.”
I think unity is sometimes not easy.  I always need to weigh up the cost of the cause before I can decide if it is worth pursuing.  Sometimes the cost means I need to subjugate other desires or abandon them altogether.  They may have never been wrong, but they may be wrong in the context of the cause.
It seems jettison is a good word for it.  When ships are in trouble, one of the remedies is to jettison cargo.  Sometimes I need to jettison dead weight I am holding on to.  For want of a better way of putting it, I am leaner and meaner.
The more I think about racing boats, the better they seem.  Like the maxi yachts in the Sydney to Hobart race.  It can seem there are a lot of people sitting on the side to weigh the boat down.  One thing there is not though is a surplus number of people.
Those things are designed to win.  Most people are in it to win it.  For some a win is not necessarily crossing the line first or getting handicap honours.  For some, just finishing is a win.  Whatever the motivation, there is a need to work together to achieve an aim.
I used to sail a cobra cat.  I was not the captain, but I had my role.  If I did it badly, we never did well (turned out ours was a good “almost no wind” boat.  In the Australian championships the one and only time I saw the reigning Australian champion was in that sort of weather.)
The thing that got me thinking about this was I reckon unity is not always easy.  Often elements need to be moulded together.  That means knocking off unwanted things.  That can hurt.  Sometimes I need to say goodbye to things I like holding on to.
The only trouble is, if I do that, I could be weighed down and come a cropper.  As with many boats, if I come a cropper, I take others with me.  I performed a song with a bluegrass band who, individually were way better than I could ever hope to be.  They had never seen or heard the song, but graciously played it.  That was despite my telling them “if I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.”  It all worked out well.
Personally, I prefer the good outcomes to the bad.  When a number of people work together, the outcome cannot just be good, but really good.