What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
I see life as a beautiful passage.Death also
We are all connected ,some live a long time, and some barely see the light of day before being whisked away.
There is no rhyme or reason for this,we may try and rationalise it , but life and longevity are indeterminable.
Perhaps what is important is the spark of life in whatever form it takes. Either in the very young or in the very old. The genius,the beauty ,the electricity,the neurons,the complex being.
Time represented by longevity is irrelevant. We should laugh at time and celebrate the spark of life.
If I was in a room with a bunch of people I didn’t know and one of them asked me
“What could you do differently?”.
I would not be impressed. I would feel rightly so that they knew nothing about me and had no basis to ask such a question.
The reality is that life is so complex ,and there are so many possible permutations of life choices that to regret or reconsider a choice seems hard on oneself.
“Do differently?” I would reply. Playing for time.
“Nothing really, I think it’s important to be adaptable but also combine that with determination.”
“Really?” My imaginary protagonist would say.
“Yes really” .I would reply,becoming slightly irritated.
“…but you could determinedly go in the wrong direction…” My protaganist smiles.
“Really, possibly,but I would have made the best decision I could with the information I I posessed, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“No,there’s nothing wrong with that; and if you are adaptable ,you can adjust to any change in circumstances as needs must”
“Yes.”
“Nice to speak to you,I’m just going to check out the buffet.”
“Good idea. I hope you make good choices and find something nice.”
I regard the stranger as they turn and make their way across the room and think.
“My, that was a lucky escape and look for the exit.”
Hola, mis amigos. Yo aprendido español,y quiero saber si es verdad que seis de enero es el dia que se regaló a los niños. Es que un tradiccione todavia?
Me encanto oir de tus.Por favor , me escriba un comment.
If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?
If I had a freeway billboard, I would obviously be in the United States of America. As we don’t have freeways in Europe.
So ,my billboard would have
“Think Before You Shoot!” In 6 foot high letters.
Even if it got peppered by gun shots over time.It would still be effective in getting people to think about America’s awful gun laws and the message about “thinking”,not reacting is important.
Well hello, and welcome back to what I hope will be the last episode in the hernia series for the rest of my life. I could probably stand to condense what is about to spew out into a couple more posts and if I was hurting for ideas I might have milked this longer. I […]
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
Interesting question.I have flashbacks about my past,but I don’t have premonitions about my future.
The flashbacks ,though ,are not me thinking,they just happen. They are situations that struck a chord in my brain at a time in the past and just occasionally pop up.I wouldn’t describe them as thinking.
Thinking,I associate with planning.So, is planning about the future? Yes, I suppose it must be.You can’t plan your past.
Anyway ;on a sad note. I don’t feel confident about planning anything . Everything seems so unpredictable and expensive. All I feel I can do is live in the present.
If the total population of the world gave each other ten minutes of their time each year to find out about each other and to really undestand someone. The cumulative effect would be amazing.
Some no doubt would see it as a waste of their “precious” time. And I would say that this is silly.Ten minutes of your time a year.
I estimate that with a world population of 8 billion people and the premise that any form of effective communication counts ,be it talking ,holding hands, or looking someone in the eye . It would take 1.3billion hours of everyone’s time in a year to achieve.Given that in a Year, we have 70,080 billion hours of time available. I think it would be time well spent.
Crazy I know,but we’d still have 70,078 billion hours each year to do what we do currently do now ,but with a better insight . Now, that would be a great gift.
Like any other writer,my life experiences are my building block to who I am.
Details like where I was born and brought up,where and how I was educated, and why I feel the need to publish my thoughts on a Public Platform such as this.
Writers can not help themselves ,they sweat facts about themselves onto the paper, internet,or whatever media they are using.
I thought about inventing a fantasy Potteresque college of the weird and wonderful,of Hermoines and Hagreds,of wild parties and derring doos of Masters and Students alike. It would have been fun.
Instead I’ve opted to write about protecting information.
Recently,our Right Honourable Prime Minister Rishi Sunak invited me to “like” his Facebook page.That he personally wanted to know what I thought.
I admit,I was flattered ,and then I looked at his tag name and photograph.It said; “this account had been set up by Conservative Party HQ.” I realised I was just a piece of data that they wanted in their database. Modern-day Politicians have learned how to use this information now.I smiled, ignored it, and moved on quickly.
The request from Rishi was made as they wanted access to my details, and with these details to influence me.I suppose I should be grateful to Facebook that they made them state the real origin of the request and enabled me decline and not join my mate Rishi’s account.
My suspicions were also raised by the soon to be ex CEO of a famous UK retailer having a clandestine coffee shop meeting with the used to be Honourable (maybe still is)Nick Clegg who is I think a VP at Facebook now,but indeed is famous in the UK for introducing student loans and fees for Colleges in the UK.In other words Privatising Tertiary Education.
This meeting will all be about acquiring information, as the CEO will be looking for a new job in the New Year. Will she join Facebook?Will we ever know?
Ah , I digress what colleges have I attended, none that you have heard of but nevertheless have taught me things of value.
I am a magpie.I gather shiny details. I listen and learn a lot from people of all backgrounds, and I realise that listening to everyone’s story is valuable. Yes, I gather information,but for good reasons.Would I use it maliciously?I hope not. Would I trust others not to use my information maliciously? No, of course not.
So thank you for reading, and thank you, The College of Life.
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
Yes,I am a player in my daily life.Playtime to me means getting messy in the kitchen.
Not the heat of the oven or the firey hob for me. They are quite scary and need to be watched over. A necessary evil
I get my kicks from mixing ingredients without technology. My favourite implements are whisks and my Pyrex Bowls. Nothing I like better than lining my bowls up on the kitchen surface and then using my ancient weighing scales to allocate the necessary ingredients to each bowl.
When I first try a recipe,I will measure accurately,and hopefully will have all the ingredients.(That I’m afraid is not always guaranteed,however,it can be fun trying to find a substitution in my cupboards).
I love using the basics ,such as flour,eggs,milk,butter, sugar, and salt.What beautiful foods,such textures ,colours,and flavours.
I love “creaming ” butter and sugar together to make all sorts of cookies and doughs.
As I say ,when I first try a recipe, I will follow the instructions exactly and have great success.Subsequently, I might tweak the recipe out of necessity(usually ran out of something) and the results might not work as well. It is fun to experiment.
Recently,I’ve been infusing to make a non-alcoholic gin. Largely based on cucumber(love cutting and slicing the cucumber). Then I add loose chamomile flowers,cloves,peppercorns,juniper berries, cinnamon, and anything that might give me that “gin”character. Infuse in the fridge for five hours, and then it’s ready. Sieve the liquid and then add your favourite tonic and a slice of lemon. Infinitely experimental.
Would I want to run an International Food Company making popular products.No.The individual loses their ingenuity and creativity.Do I mind clearing up and washing dishes?No ,not at all ,now I’ve got discipline and a system.
Is it playtime in the kitchen for me every day.Yes!
As long as I am in this World,I am Happy in it. I feel I have a purpose to make things better in any way I can.
My biggest challenge every day is to combat mediocrity. Mediocrity is fired at us from all angles, People we meet don’t care, Organisations don’t care ,populations and animals are disposable.The World about us makes us feel worthless.Why?Because someone can’t be bothered.
Bothering costs time and money and therefore can be treated as an expense.Those of us who can be bothered see that investment as important,but increasingly standards in all areas of our lives drop eg.Public Utilities, Social Media,Entertainment ,Private Business and Government. When we accept Mediocrity served up by unmotivated mediocre people ,situations deteriorate.
The challenge is to readdress the Balance Sheet of Life and counteract the Mediocre each day,one small step at a time. It is a constant.
