As you’ll have noticed, I’m a sucker for a good quote; but it’s more out of habit than anything else. That said, what I share is not random and the words are trying to capture a mood, thought — however irreverent — or feeling.
As for the rest of it — i.e. my online material — I try not to pray in aid too many writers to make my point. Sometimes, though, particularly in the case of those people I admire (e.g. Peter Zapffe, Mary Oliver, U.G. Krishnamurti), it’s difficult not to get caught up in their personal zeitgeist. The other issue, or the one that I find myself reflecting on, is that it’s all been said before and there’s very little these days I’d describe as original.
Of course, you might have a different interpretation of the cultural marketplace, but I do wonder, particularly in a corporate or personal development setting, why we’re not asked to apply a bit more time, introspection and clarity to our thinking process absent the influence of the Greats that everyone seems to think have all the answers; they rarely do because they’ve not lived and operated in the trenches, i.e. it’s all too academic.
What is it I’m trying to say?
Stop copying everyone and everything, and let us know what you actually think rather than what you’ve read in a book or heard online.
About what you might ask?
Just this moment.
What does it mean to you?
What’s happening?
Does our lexicon — imbued over the aeons — even cover it?
Why are we here?
Why do we see everything through our eyes and nothing else?
Now, these sort of metaphysical and/or existential musings are not for everyone. Some of you might simply want to get through the day without feeling denuded of your old self or to pass a nice quiet time but when you get to a certain age these sort of questions start to heave up with increasing frequency and unless you want to live like a somnambulist, you’re forced to look within and try to opine on something.
However, as I’ve said so very often, none of this really matters. We might think otherwise, but trust me, give it a few generations, and we’ll all be forgotten.
Sorry, that ending was a bit jarring but, truthfully, we invest so much time talking about issues that seem so dreadfully important at the time, but are they? Take something like building a great company and think of how many books, talks and companies have been produced and operate in the space. It’s mind-boggling. And then ask yourself why nobody has bothered to ask how those companies can and do operate with zero impact on the world? In other words, how can you consider working for the supposed best company in the world when it’s inherently ecocidal? Do you see my point?
Anyhow enjoy your day. It’s still dark and cold in Devon and Eddie has dragged out at least a dozen shoes from the shoebox which I’m trying to save from his deadly gnashers and the expected opprobrium of my wife when she asks me about another pair of shoes he’s ruined.
Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash