Title: Holding Grudges

Illustration:

Begin by doing a quick fire survey of which brands/shops people prefer, biggest show of hands wins eg. Topshop or River Island, Xbox or Playstation, Tesco’s or Asda but make sure you finish with Adidas or Puma.

Talk:

Now out of Adidas or Puma which of those sportswear brands do you think had the most teams wearing their gear at the last world cup? Hands up if you think Adidas, hands up if you think Puma?

Well it was actually Puma, they sponsored 12 teams compared to Adidas’s 6.

Now I wonder how big a fan you are of those two brands, for instance if you prefer Puma do you refuse to speak to people wearing Adidas? Or if you prefer Adidas do you cross the street if you see someone wearing Puma walking your way?

Might sound bizarre to you but that behaviour can happen in a town in the south of Germany. You see Puma and Adidas were founded by two brothers from a town in North Bavaria, one called Adi Dassler hence Adidas and the other Rudi Dassler who started Puma.

Now these two brothers, who both worked at their father’s shoe company, fell out. No one’s sure why but the grudge is still there in the town especially amongst family members. So much so that in this town people often look down to see what you’re wearing on your feet before they talk to you. There are Puma and Adidas gangs in the local schools. Puma people often will not marry Adidas people, pubs that are loyal to one firm will refuse to serve people who work for the other.

The rivalry was so bad that one day a Tennis manager brought his young protégé to Adidas to see if they’d sponsor him. After Adidas said no the manager went over to Puma and said if you sponsor this guy it’ll really make your cousin over at Adidas mad! Puma sponsored him to the tune of a £100,000 advertising contract.

That tennis player was Boris Becker who became the youngest ever winner of the male singles title at Wimbledon when he was age 17 in 1985.

Rudi and Adi Dassler even took their feud to the grave. If you go to the graveyard in the town where they were born, their graves are as far apart from each other as is physically possible.

Think about it. You may not ignore people because of the trainers they wear. But often we can bear big grudges for the smallest reasons. How many times has someone insulted you and you’ve said you’ll never talk to them again only to find yourselves chatting away to them half an hour later.

Is it worth bearing a grudge? Could you imagine what would have happened if Puma and Adidas decided to put aside their differences and join forces? Without doubt they would have been the biggest sportswear producer on the planet.

It’s always the best solution to try and put aside your differences even if the person your angry with does wear Nike!

 
For Further Illustration:

Christian Perspective:

Luke 10.38-42.

Martha miffed at her sister Mary for not helping with the housework, Jesus smoothes things over.

Anecdote:

One day a friend of the 18^th century  British poet Charles Lamb offered to introduce Charles to a man whom he had long disliked based only on his reputation. "Don't introduce me to him," Lamb pleaded. "I want to go on hating him, and I can't do that to a man I know."

Film Clip:

Mean Girls       15 Mins 54 seconds to 17.22

How to get revenge: in a mall popular school girls ‘The Plastics’ get revenge on a boy two timing one of their friends.