Ngahi Bidois: Many potae for different people

The other day I put on my safety potae (hat) to use my chainsaw and, later that day, my All Blacks beanie potae to keep warm at the Ireland game.

That got me thinking about potae.

You see, I wear many potae and I am sure you do too. For instance, tomorrow I put on my professional speaker potae and fly down to Queenstown to be the master of ceremonies and speaker at a three-day Australian financial corporate conference.

Most of my time in this potae will entail wearing a suit and never using words like mate, buddy or bro unless given permission to do so.

Business acumen and professional service are at the top of the menu along with loads of research and hard work, negotiations, preparation and making sure the ever-changing requirements of the client are met beyond their expectations. Oh, and I will do my best to have fun along the way too.

It is around 1am Saturday and my wife has retired to bed.

I am sitting at the table with my children. I have my papa potae on as I will be away for the next four days and we are making the most of each others' company.

My daughter is laughing aloud occasionally as she reads a book about Jessica Watson; the youngest girl to sail unassisted around the world non-stop. Now and then, she stops to tell us stories from the book, like the time Jessica mistakenly made a pasta meal using diesel instead of water. Yuk! My son is on his laptop surfing YouTube music videos and movie trailers.

He has his headphones on and now and then he also laughs aloud or plays a set of invisible drums. He stops to tell us about cool new movies starting soon. No suit required for this potae, not a lot of business acumen either to be honest, but lots of negotiation, preparation, listening, encouraging, motivating and trying to meet their ever-changing needs with definitely lots of fun along the way.

Other potae include my husband potae, which I have worn for just over 27 years and seven months. There has definitely been lots of fun and many rewards from this potae, including awesome in-laws (well 99.9 per cent of them anyway), lots of great memories and two amazing Rangatahi offspring. Then there is the friend potae which involves cups of coffee with buddies all week as well as games of golf and emails and phone calls all over the world.

I also serve on several trusts, which entails other potae such as the chair, deputy chair or a director role. Not to mention my various whanau roles as son, bro and tea towel expert at the marae (lol).

So how many potae do you wear? I don't know about you but it is only when I take the time to stop and think that I realise how many potae or roles I have and why my life is so busy. The thing about potae is that we can choose to keep them on or take them off. Hopefully, we keep on those potae that enable us to enjoy ourselves and have fun along the way, whether we are chain sawing or watching rugby. Ahakoa he rereke te potae, he orite te tangata - although we may wear many different hats, hopefully we remain the same person.

Ngahihi o te ra is from Te Arawa and is an international speaker, author and consultant. His book is available at Mcleods book store and the Lakeside cafe in Rotorua. His website can be viewed at www.ngahibidois.com.