Lockdown Day 72 – 6 June 2020 – Contentment

Posted on June 6, 2020 by PietMar

Contented

Edward Elgar – Serenade for Strings Op.20

“Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have.”
– Bilal Zahoor

“Contentment is an attitude that says, I will be satisfied with what God has given me.”
– Anonymous

A SIGH of Contentment

I remember one Saturday afternoon in the gym. I hiked Myburgh’s Ravine on Table Mountain – alone. All day by myself – except for two people I meet coming down as I go up, and another group of 5 as I come to Judas Peak. Bliss. Meditation in motion.

As I came out of the sauna, I gave the Granddaddy of all sighs. Another member commented: “That is a huge sigh?” I replied: “I had the most incredible day. It is a sigh of contentment.” He was silent for a few moments and then said: “That is such a nice word.”

Contented is how I feel on day 72. Slept late. Did exercises. Late breakfast. Took Hilux for his exercise to Philadelphia, walked around in Philadelphia and bought a take-away Cappuccino.  Home, braai, music.

A simple life. A contented life.

Enjoy the contentment quotes!

“Contentment comes from many great and small acceptances in life.”
– Anonymous

“Contentment is the greatest form of wealth.”
– Acharya Nagarjuna

“A contented heart is a calm sea in the midst of all storms.”
– Anonymous

“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”
– Anonymous

“A harvest of peace is produced from a seed of contentment.”
– Proverb

“Someone is happy with less than what you have.”
– Anonymous

“Comparison makes finding contentment a million times harder.”
– Anonymous

“Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want but the realization of how much you already have.”
– Anonymous

“True humility is contentment.”
– Henri Frederic Amiel

“The state of being mentally or emotionally satisfied with things just the way they are.”
– Anonymous

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment is the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.”
– Buddha

“A contented heart is a calm sea in the midst of all storms.”
– Anonymous

“Happiness comes after contentment.”
– E.A. Cabaltica

“Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside.”
– Anonymous

“Happiness. Contentment. Inner peace. Have you ever gone looking for something only to realize you had it with you the whole time?”
– Anonymous

“You can own everything in the world but if you lack contentment, you’ll never be happy.”
– Anonymous

“Contentment makes poor men rich, discontent makes rich men poor.”
– Benjamin Franklin

“Contentment is an inexhaustible treasure.”
-The Prophet Muhammad 

“If one’s life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having a few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. And finally, there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation.”  – Dalai Lama

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.”
– Socrates

“Money can buy happiness but not contentment.”
– T. Josh

“A grateful person is rich in contentment.”
– David Bednar

“Life is about balance. Be kind but don’t let people abuse you. Trust but don’t be deceived. Be content but never stop improving yourself.”
– Anonymous

“True contentment is within.”
– ATGW

 “Contentment always eludes those who don’t count themselves blessed for what they already have.”
Anonymous

“He who is contented is rich.”
– Lao Tzu

Quotes from here

 

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Lockdown – Day 71 – 5 June 2020 – Closeness

Posted on June 5, 2020 by PietMar

Closeness

Closeness. A few days ago, I thought about distance. Is closeness related to distance? I am not sure. I am not sure that closeness is the same as physical proximity. Or that distance destroys closeness.

Flauta Indígena de Bambu, Pássaros e Sons da Natureza (2018) – Meditação, Oração e Insônia

This started this morning during our exercise walk. Benji, the Yorkie, was with us. It is something I noticed during lockdown when he went with us on our walks. Mostly he ignores other dogs – too busy reading the p-mail. Every so often, he will pretend to “go” for a big dog. Then I remind him he still has two dogs in the freezer, and everything calms down.

Then there is the situation where he and another dog see, smell, or sense each other. They strain at the leashes and it is barking, growling, and digging to get at each other. Why, I wonder.

Closeness? Or a lack of closeness?

“Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.”
– Henri Nouwen

“You can break through old limits, past inertia and fear, to… richness of choice, freedom, human closeness.”
– Marilyn Ferguson

“Intimacy is not a happy medium. It is a way of being in which the tension between distance and closeness is dissolved and a new horizon appears. Intimacy is beyond fear.”
– Henri Nouwen

“In this world, conversations are negotiations for closeness in which people try to seek and give confirmation and support, and to reach consensus. They try to protect themselves from others’ attempts to push them away.”
– Deborah Tannen

“Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.”
– Rumi.

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/closeness-quotes

ATTRACTION

What causes people to be attracted to each other, not in a physical, sexual way? Attracted on a mind level, a connection level, a “I-like-you-level?” You know what I mean. Sometimes you meet somebody, and you just know you like the person. You connect, the opposite of Benji and the aggressive reaction.

I think it lies on an energy level. An energy-wavelength level. Or perhaps one can say on a spiritual level. Or to go where I am totally ignorant, the auras gel. When that happens, there is normally an immediate comfort, ease, even a familiarity, in the closeness.

Good as it is, that is not necessarily a closeness.

INTIMACY

Closeness is rather the intimacy of which Henry Nouwen speaks. It is a connection on a different level. Knowing or sensing what somebody else feels and allowing for the unspoken emotions. Perhaps it arises from empathy? I think we need closeness to be “whole” and happy. Or do we?  Henry Nouwen is well worth reading.

What creates closeness? The energy waves? The willingness to be vulnerable and open to somebody else? A sharing of values? Acceptance? The fact that somebody else accepts you for who you are? I do not know. We need to be heard, we need to be respected. Especially by those nearest to us? Or am I missing the target?

LOVE

Closeness is not synonymous with love. There are many people that I love but I am not equally close to all of them.  I use love in a broad sense. It is not that I love some people (those that I feel close to) more. 

I am not sure where closeness comes from or how it grows. I think Rumi is right, it comes from inside us.

And perhaps Deborah Tannen is also right when she says that conversations are negotiations for closeness. At the least conversations is an effort to be understood, to be heard. Perhaps conversations are a way of reaching out to create acceptance, to feel “known,” to feel that you matter, to feel that somebody respects you.

 

HOMO HOMINI LUPUS EST

Perhaps we need more closeness in a world where homo homini lupus est. An old Latin proverb meaning “man is a wolf to man.” I often wonder if the senseless violence in our society is not a cry for closeness, a rebellion against homo homini lupus est! It is a dehumanising situation, and we have a need for closeness, to be heard, to be understood, for respect. For dignity. What happens when you are contiously treated without respect and robbed of dignity?

That is perhaps why it hurts when somebody does not listen, interrupts, just ignore you? Perhaps that is when we become wolves to each other? When we humiliate people? Treat then without respect? Destroy their dignity?

“You can break through old limits, past inertia and fear, to… richness of choice, freedom, human closeness.”
– Marilyn Ferguson

Closeness is not about proximity, because I can feel close to people far from me. Even if I see them seldom.

I do not understand closeness, it is easily destroyed and difficult to rebuild.

I would like to hear your thoughts. Please leave your comments below.

 

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Lockdown Day 70 – 4 June 2020 – Aroundtuit

Posted on June 4, 2020 by PietMar

AROUNDTUIT

Day 70 and I am still here and safe. It is a blessing and grace. And responsibility for my own health!

I bought an excellent online course on How to Overcome Procrastination yesterday, if you want a recommendation. I will start the course tomorrow.

This is the music that started playing while I was doing my exercises: The Best Relaxing Classical Music Ever By Mozart

A PRESENT

Today I have a present for you – in the present.

Over the last 70 days I have so often heard and read that people say we must appreciate our time and freedom. We must do the things we want to do. We must work on our bucket lists. That is why I decided to enroll for a course on procrastination tomorrow. I want to do the things I dream about while I still can.

Very often we put our dreams on hold, one day I will dive in the Malawi Lake again. One day I will tour through Namibia and visit Sesriem, Solitaire, Brandberg and search for the white lady of the Brandberg.

My gift to you are these two images – AROUNDTUIT. It will change your life.

Aroundtuit

Aroundtuit so you can live life

Since you now have your very own AROUNDTUIT, you can start doing all the things you always promised yourself. I will make the appointment with the dr when I get Aroundtuit. I will phone my parents when I get Aroundtuit. I will paint the house when I get Aroundtuit. All those things on the back-burner until you get Aroundtuit. Join the gym, visit the museum, read the book, climb the mountain, kiss the girl (don’t make her cry), do the course, whatever you always wanted to do – you now have Aroundtuit.

 

Here is your Aroundtuit. Just Right-click on Aroundtuit you like (or both) and select “Save as.” If you prefer you can click the image and it will open in a new tab.

Aroundtuit2

Aroundtuit do it

You have Aroundtuit – now you can do it!

Stop putting life on hold, go buy a pair of Nikes, take your Aroundtuit in hand and DO IT!

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy your Aroundtuit – please share your experience with us and how you use it.

 

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Lockdown Day 69 – 3 June 2020 – Randomness

Posted on June 3, 2020 by PietMar

Randomness

What random thought gave rise to thoughts about randomness on a random Tuesday in June 2020?

I am random – like a thunderbolt not hitting the same place twice in a row. Now read the definition of randomness, compliments of Google. Especially #2 – you may say: “I always knew!”

Randomness
/ˈrandəmnəs/Noun
the quality or state of lacking a pattern or principle of organization; unpredictability.
“we accept randomness in our own lives, but we crave logic in art”
INFORMAL
oddness or eccentricity.
“we tease her for her complete randomness”

Leonard Cohen – Anthem 

Some quotes about randomness:

“Life cannot be calculated. That’s the big mistake our civilization made. We never accepted that randomness is not a mistake in the equation — it is part of the equation.”
– Jeanette Winterson

“Expose yourself to as much randomness as possible.”
 – Ben Casnocha

“Everything we care about lies somewhere in the middle, where pattern and randomness interlace.”
  – James Gleick

“This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is a risk, that it is a bad thing.”
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“For what are myths if not the imposing of order on phenomena that do not possess order in themselves? And all myths, however they differ from philosophical systems and scientific theories, share this with them, that they negate the principle of randomness in the world.”– Stanislaw Lem

https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/randomness.html

How about a few synonyms for randomness?

haphazardness.
changeability.
fickleness.
impermanence.
volatility.

Randomness Synonyms, Randomness Antonyms | Thesaurus …www.thesaurus.com › browse › randomness

We Crave Certainty

As humans, we want certainty. I want to know the sun sets tonight in the West and will rise again tomorrow, in the East. I want to look at my watch and if it is low tide between 10h00 and 11h00 (in South Africa) I know it is about Spring tide. Important knowledge for me who love the outdoors.

We need certainty to live. We need certainty to feel secure. Change in most systems are slow enough that we are unaware of the changes. A good example is children growing up. It happens before our eyes. Until one day we realise that they have grown up.

We prefer change to be evolutionary, rather than revolutionary. Sometimes change must be revolutionary. I have a favourite saying: “Nobody does a dog a favour by cutting its tail 1 cm at a time.” Better to get the bad medicine all in one big spoon than two or three or four teaspoons.

In business one of the new terms is “disruptive.” Disruptive companies, when they get it right, has a distinct advantage over competitors. There are several disruptive companies that changed the landscape of their industry and other companies had to follow – quickly.

Learning Organisations

Peter Senge, I wrote about him on day 58 about systems, says that companies who adapt are learning organisations. They are aware of what is going on, they adapt to trends and circumstance.

That is true for humans, too. In the previous century I looked at a few elderly people I knew. Born round 1900. In their lifetime the experienced transition from donkey cars to Fords and Chev’s and jet planes. From smoke messages to radio transmission, to colour TV. From Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone to cellular phones. They had to learn, and I raise my hat to many elderly people who adopted all the changes so easily. I think that is what kept many of them young.

Covid-19 was a huge disruptor. The extent of the disruption we will have to wait to see. There were disruptions before. It is the learning organisations that get out stronger.

CHAOS

The nice thing about change is, that there seems to be an underlying pattern. The topic of Chaos Theory. If we filter out the noise, the most beautiful patterns are distilled. I will not bore you with Chaos Theory. Google it. You, too, may be intrigued.

Then there was Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician who taught us about fractals. With the right formula we can find the patterns in the chaos. Such as in leaves, trees, mountains and the clouds in the banner photo. That is where my own randomness is leading. Fractals displays the beauty in the chaos.

I will stop my oddness and randomness now. Just remember, in the chaos is the most beautiful patterns, which we do not always see. Shakespeare was right, there is method in the madness. Underlying the chaos and change, there is a pattern – we do not always see it, unless in hindsight.

Google fractals in nature to get an idea of the beauty. Look at the picture below for an idea of the beauty that can come from randomness once we expose the patterns.

Fractal

Beautiful Picture of Fractal – https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-jrsqd

 

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Lockdown Day 68 2 June 2020 – Distance

Posted on June 2, 2020 by PietMar

Distance

Today my youngest granddaughter turns 2. She lives less than 1 km from us. An easy walk. She might have been in Canada, too.

Relaxing Music, Enchanting Forest, Nature Sounds, Piano Music, Stress Relief

“But nothing makes a room feel emptier than wanting someone in it.”
― Calla Quinn, All the Time

“Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” 
– Henry David Thoreau

“Sometimes I feel like crying, tears of happiness, tears of joy, to see the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made.”
– John Lewis

“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.”
– Zora Neale Hurston

https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/distance-quotes

Distance…

How do you measure distance?

1.5m from you to me? Or 1.5m from me to you?

Do you measure distance in units, be it imperial miles or metric Km’s?  Something like the distance from Cape Town to Cairo is 10 259.9 km (thanks Google).  Or Cape Town to Saint Hellier is 12675.8 km. That is exact enough, I hope?

Do you measure distance in time? It is 10 hours’ drive to Bloemfontein from Cape Town. It is a 12-hour flight to Gatwick? It is an hour drive to Hermanus?

Do you measure distance in stopovers? From Cape Town to Johannesburg, to Doha, to Dublin …

IF not in Time or Units?

Not all distance can be measured in time or units. Some distance is infinite. Some distance cannot be bridged. That often happens in relationships. It happens between groups of people. How do you bridge a distance when somebody just refuses to listen? How do you bridge a distance when a party in the distance is dishonest and have hidden agendas? I believe when there is too big a gap in values the distance becomes infinite.

Distance is increased by immaturity. I see so much of that. One of my lecturers said: “People say marriages break up because of bad communication. It is not true. Relationships break up because of immaturity.” Applies to friendships, marriages, groups and countries.

Decades later I still think he was right. Even more so, today.

South Africa

In South Africa, when I look at comments on Facebook. I often wonder that there are not more divorced people when I read the comments! The distance becomes infinite and ever growing! Immaturity.

At the same time, I often observe people and

“Sometimes I feel like crying, tears of happiness, tears of joy, to see the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made.” – John Lewis

We can learn from young people. The danger is that the old farts might mess (read with an F) this up again! Many seem to try their utmost.

The opposite of the infinite distance is that one can be very close to somebody because of share values and respect – even when you do not know the person!

LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING

The best way, I think, to bridge a distance, is love. Whether it is the distance between Cape Town and Vernon – 16 139km – or between myself and the person that has a different view than I have. Love will at least cause me to listen to understand and not listen just to refute an argument, just pretending to listen. Love changes everything (listen below).

This morning I had a conversation with somebody. He says he realizes God is unknowable. God is a mystery. In the same way he realized we cannot know people. People are a mystery, too.

My answer was that it is pure logic. If man is created in the image of God, it is logical that both will be a mystery. I explained it this way. If I carve a sculpture of a lion, the sculpture will look like a lion. But the lion will also look like the sculpture. Has to. That has implications for distance. When we stand face-to-face, it is image of God facing image of God. “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Matt 25:40.

How would the world be different if we could do it that way? What would happen to distance?

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You Can Become Wealthy Working a JOB

Posted on June 2, 2020 by PietMar

You Can Become Wealthy Working a JOB

Not everybody wants a business!

It seems there is a general perception that you must be in business to become wealthy. 

I am not sure where that perception comes from. I surely do not agree with it. 

Do not get me wrong, I love being in business for myself and by myself. I do not want employees and an empire. I know what I want and have what I want and I am happy. Not the Ferrari’s for me. 

That is me. There are other people who do want to be able to flaunt their wealth. Nothing wrong with that either. As long as you have what you want and you are happy.

It Is OK and Good to Love Your JOB!

That is the point. Not everybody wants a business. I know many people who are happy in their jobs. My wife is a very good example, thank heavens. She is a (music) teacher and a very good teacher. Heaven forbid that she wants to stop teaching to start a business. The idea is stupid, anyway. How will you and I learn to read if all teachers now wants to start a business to become wealthy!

HOW vs WHAT will Determine Your Wealth

It is not HOW you earn your money that will make you wealthy, it is WHAT you do with the money you earn that will make you wealthy.

It is as simple as that.

That is why I know a policeman who at 40 owned 7 rental properties and was wealthier than a surgeon. Or a with 5 properties at age 35. Or an Auditing Article Clerk with 2 properties at age 30. It is not how you earn your money. It is what you do with your money. It is what you DO!

Stick around this blog and I will share many ideas and insights from my experience.

For instance, have you ever thought that you can run a job like a business?  That is for another day.

 

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Lockdown Day 67 – 1 June 2020 – True and Not Quite so True!

Posted on June 1, 2020 by PietMar

True and Not Quite so True!

You know there are stories that are not quite true and not quite a story? I love those types of stories. It always involves me.

Let me share two of those:

All my life the girls I wanted, did not want me; all the girls who wanted me, I did not want. My wife was the first girl I wanted who also wanted me, so I immediately married her before she could change her mind and I did not know if I would be lucky again. Now you decide – is it true or not?

Here is another one of those true and not quite so true stories.

Do I have to be normal?

Do I REALLY have to be normal?

When I was in standard 4 (in 1971) I started piano lessons. No, my mother did not force me. With hindsight, being married to a music teacher (see, there is always method in my madness) I progressed quite quickly. Unfortunately, long before I wanted to start practicing, I had to play with two hands. At the end of my first term of music lessons the teacher burst into tears and made an appointment with my mother. I attended the meeting. The teacher begged my mom to stop my lessons. Now you decide – is it true or not?

What is true, is that I listened to classical music from a young age. Rarely did I listen to pop-music while at school. Yet today I know and recognize many of those songs. I love Moody Blues, Queen, Procol Harum, and a many others. That is one regret I have – that I was too lazy to practice my music. I can write an essay about benefits of music lessons.

I live in a house filled with music. My fondest home memories are my daughters practicing music (piano, flute, violin, keyboard, and my wife adding classical guitar and clarinet). I love working with music from YouTube on auto play.

PACHELBEL * CANON in D major

“Music can change the world.”
– Ludwig van Beethoven

“Music is the universal language of mankind.”
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.”
– Bob Marley

“A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”
– Chinese proverb

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” – Plato

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
– Victor Hugo

“Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can’t.”
– Johnny Depp

Find the quotes HERE

Memories

I have many memories associated with music. Niel Diamond’s “Beautiful noise” takes me back to high school and our bi-annual inter schools and fete’s. Specifically, the year that song was a hit and blasted over the school yard. I can still remember what we did, the noise, smells, and the couples in the dark corners. I always wondered what they are doing, and that in the dark! 😉 

The hymn I sang on our way to George the day my mom died.

Evita’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” driving away from Keetman’s Hoop in Namibia after a 3-week holiday, June 1977. And three weeks are not nearly enough!

Demis Roussos and my famous Vic Bay holiday end 1976.

Pachelbel’s Canon in D on a sunny Saturday morning in July 2018, back-roads to Philadelphia, a week after hearing my wife has leukemia. Thanks to medical advances, not the death sentence it used to be.

And today?

“Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can’t.”
– Johnny Depp

 

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Lockdown Day 66 – 31 May 2020 – Thank You, I Will be Back

Posted on May 31, 2020 by PietMar

Thank You, I Will be Back

It is a perfect autumn day in Cape Town. As I make my first cuppa of the day, I catch myself singing Sunday Morning Coming Down. There is something to a Sunday. There is longing in me for so many things I have lost in a life of almost 61 years.

Kris Kristofferson – Sunday morning coming down (1970)

Jerry Shows UP

Jerry showed up again. Short pants, open sandals, thin shirt.  What will Patel say? He has rained out and his clothes are drying. I give him a raincoat I kept out for him. Obviously, he appreciates it. Puts it on. When I come back with coffee and food, he tells me he is sending it home. “Why,” I ask. “Because it is even colder at home and I will need something warm when I am old.” Logic there. I reply: “No, wear it, I give it to you so that you can grow old.”

I boil some take-away eggs. He asks for more takeaway bread and salt. He gets it. He gets some apple crumble and cream. Pudding for a Sunday. He does not say anything, but he looks at it very dubiously.  Wonder if he likes it?

As I hand him the takeaway salt, he leaves.

Halfway to the street he turns around, points his finger at me and says: “Thank you. I will be back. Probably sometime this week.”

I Hope YOU Survive The Virus, Jerry

I hope you come back, Jerry. I hope you survive the virus. I wish there were more we could do. I say a word that I cannot type about everybody involved with state capture and a government too busy enriching themselves. My wish for those involved with state capture and their extended families to the nth generation I will not print either. In Ireland I bought a book about forgiving by Desmond Tutu and his daughter, perhaps I should read it and stop postponing!

My heart goes out to the Jerrys of this world. They are the conscience of our society, reminding us of things gone wrong and a lack of will to repair it.

There goes Jerry. But for the grace of God, there goes I!

I listen to Streets of London again, because I have to!

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Lockdown Day 65 – 30 May 2020 – Expectations

Posted on May 30, 2020 by PietMar

Expectations

Mozart – Violin Concertos Nos.3,4,5,1,2 & Rondo + Presentation

This morning I read this article on Facebook. It is not long, easy to read and gives good insight. If you follow my posts, I am sure you will like this beautifully written piece.

Revisiting the Stockdale Syndrome in a Covid-19 world.

When I took my Hilux for its weekly exercise, I started thinking about this paragraph in the article

When asked who did not make it through the time of imprisonment, Stockdale replied the “optimists” and explained it like this:

“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

There is often a saying about seeing the glass as half full or half empty. Yesterday, when I bought olive oil on tap, my wife warned me, as I was filling the bottle, the bottle is half full. She is an optimist? When I looked at the tank from which I was pouring, I said it is half empty, as I see the level dropping. I am a pessimist? Although I mean this as a joke, there is a suggestion here that it is not always so easy to classify optimists or pessimists.

Balance = Realism?

In most cases it is best to have a balance. Somewhere between pessimism and optimism is realism?

That is when my thoughts jumped to a conversation I had months ago, but still have no clear answer to.

The conversation was about expectations. I think many of our problems arise from expectations. The other person said we should not have any expectations, then we will never be disappointed. To me that feels very cynical.

I cannot expect my Hilux to perform like a Mercedes C220. Neither can I expect a Mercedes C220 to drive and perform like my Hilux. But I can expect my Hilux to drive well and perform off road. That is why I have it. That is a fair expectation from my Hilux 4×4. A realistic expectation.

Once again realism comes into the equation.

Since we are in lockdown, I will apply my thoughts about this to lockdown:

The optimist believes the infections are nothing and we will breeze through it like nothing. We will be a model to the world. This becomes his expectation. Is it realistic?

The pessimist believes that 70% of the population will die and it becomes his expectation. Is this realistic?

Does this mean it is preferable to be a pessimist? Will the pessimist be better off, because the chances of being disappointed are less. One could then deduct that it is better to be pessimistic, because you are not so easily disappointed. The expect nothing argument, then.

Not true, me thinks. Firstly, because I think pessimism can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Secondly, such pessimism could have equally damaging results, albeit different, as the optimist.

Once more we must search for balance – the secret to a happy life. Realism. People will get sick. It was an emotional journey to this point. We will have an emotional journey ahead. We have a long way to go. We cannot undo the benefit of the lockdown by being irresponsible – you keep me safe; I keep you safe.

People will die because of the virus. Optimism or pessimism could increase the number of deaths many times.

That is why I believe we must be careful, rational, and responsible in our decisions and actions. Individually and collectively.

 

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Lockdown Day 64 – 29 May 2020 – Then What?

Posted on May 29, 2020 by PietMar

Then what

Yesterday evening I lay in bed reading Seth Godin’s book “small is the new big.” This one got me thinking:

Assume that:

Hard drive space is free
Wifi like connections are everywhere
Connections speeds are 10 to 100 times faster
Everyone has a digital camera
Everyone carries a device that is sort of like a laptop, but cheap and tiny
The number of new products introduced every day is five times greater than now
Wal-Mart’s sales are three times as big
Any manufactured product that’s more than five years old in design sells at commodity pricing
The retirement age will be five years higher than it is now
Your current profession will either be gone or totally different

What then?

I found it on his blog – written in 2004 – 16 years ago!  If you do not know who Seth Godin is, he is a remarkable person and worth following.

 USA ORDERS UK ORDERS

The World in Sixteen Years

Start ticking the boxes to see what has happened in 16 years.

I can tick a number of those statements as achieved. Currently, I think, we can take it for a fact that most people will have to work longer to afford to retire. That is, if they have a job.

Very few professions can claim that they will not be affected by technology, and if you think it will not happen, you must rethink quickly. How many services will go “off-line” after lockdown?

If we stop complaining about lockdown and the government for a moment, if we stop arguing about whether Covid-19 is deadlier than the flu or not, and notice what has happened around us, you will notice many more people doing business internationally and making money during lockdown.

Many people have discovered during lockdown that they can offer services and products online. Many people have discovered they do not need to waste time and fuel to drive to a shop to buy what they need. These trends were slowly developing before the pandemic. Now the pandemic and our reaction to it has expedited the process. Many people will never go back to their jobs because the nature of the business changed, and they were not ready for it. Many people will only visit shops and malls because they cannot wait for a delivery. The world has changed around us in a few months!

In 1984 Prof Walter Claassen said to a few of us (on our way back from seminar about databases): “soon you will be illiterate if you are not computer literate.” It amazes me that there are young people who can say “I am not very computer literate.”

The World Tomorrow

Look around you, it is the computer literate and those that are willing to embrace new technology and learn that thrived during lockdown.

They will continue to do so going forward.

I would love to hear what you think about this. Please leave a comment below.

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