Wednesday Recap #18 21.08.24

Blog: Highland Dance Code Breaking

Last Saturday I heard an amazing story at the Stirling Highland Games.

During WWII, a large group of soldiers from the Argyle and Sutherland Fusiliers were captured by the Germans. Whilst in their POW camp, and having some time to kill, they devised a new Highland dance reel. The dance setting was sent home but intercepted by the Germans. Then for the rest of the war, the Germans tried to crack the code, which they couldn’t, obviously.

From this story I learnt a couple of things about Highland dancing and making assumptions.

Firstly the Germans reasonably assumed that a weird looking code being sent home from a POW camp would contain important information. So they invested a lot of time and resources into cracking such an elaborate code.

While I assumed highland dancing was only about dancing. I assumed this because I’d only ever seen modern Highland dance – which is pretty much all about dancing. Instead it has its history in warriors being tested for agility, strength and stamina.

So reasonable assumptions can be wrong. The Germans try to see something but wasn’t there. I didn’t see something that was there. The reason for these mistakes was assuming, though the assumptions were in different directions. So the moral of my little tale is be careful that you do not see because you assume to already know.

Review

Last week I was on holidays so I didn’t get a lot done – obviously! But amazingly I did get a lot of thinking done and notes made on my writing workshop. I also have started another read through of Sled Down – in which I’m still finding the odd wee typo!

Next Weeks Goals

Make a short video!

Finish 3rd Sled Down read through and revision. Continue drawing the pictures.

Continue #100day project

Writing Workshop continue refining the program.

Clear the bureaucratic nightmare of phone calls, emails and forms.

Captain Timmy merch, set and handouts!