Category: Old age of my youth – 2012

FRIDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2012

I always find it fascinating: the embarrassment of not being busy with something that is supposed to make money, when it is expected of you, or when you yourself expected to engage in such an activity.

I had a busy morning. I took laundry to the laundromat, did some print work at the 7-Eleven, continued my preparation for a private class tonight, and by noon started getting ready for a meeting at a school. I knew that when I got back from the meeting, I had to finish my preparations for tonight’s class, get something for dinner, and then after dinner leave for my last commercial activity of the day.

Just before the meeting, I saw that I had missed a call. A two-minute conversation enlightened me to the fact that the private student I was supposed to teach tonight is still in Taipei, and that the class is thus cancelled.

By three-thirty, N. and I were back from our meeting (we teach at the same school). We stopped at the 7-Eleven at our apartment building so that she could buy something to eat, before heading off to another school to teach there for a few hours. I wished her a pleasant remainder of the afternoon, reminded her to drive safely and to eat something proper for dinner, then turned towards our apartment building. It was a rainy, chilly Friday afternoon. My “work” for the day was done. And I felt guilty. And ashamed.

Could it be that I have not yet advanced further than the robot-like programming of the materialistic world? After all these years of weighing up values, is it still appropriate to feel ashamed just because I am staring a final few hours of a “work week” in the face in which I won’t fulfil any visibly commercial role? Where – can you imagine? – I might just take it easy?

Why do some people manage not to think twice about it? They get a Friday afternoon off, give an unashamed whoop of relief, and rush home. Why is it that I feel ashamed about something like this, even though I know I am most likely still going to work on something else?

The answer is boring. The answer has shown its face too many times.

Most of the work I keep myself busy with has little or no commercial value, or has yet to bear fruit of any material significance. In a materialistic world where your personal value is determined by how much commercial value you create, or how much commercial value you carry in your handbag or wallet, even the lone-working entrepreneur and writer of non-commercial material occasionally then buckles before the temptation to show the world that he, too, is “busy”. “Look everyone! I’m not just sitting at my computer all day writing, and working on internet projects and things like that! I also go out sometimes and do things primarily for the money, like other people!”

And what happens when you miss an opportunity to do something primarily for monetary gain when it was expected of you, and when you anticipated having this opportunity? The old programming kicks in – as if you have never even tried to think differently about it.

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SATURDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2012

When someone asks my advice on career, work or ways to make money – or when I give it on my own accord, I always base my opinion on a certain model that I have in my head. This model says: don’t put too much weight on what will give you higher status in the community; think twice before you insist on trying to make money with something you’re passionate about – there’s not necessarily a market for it, and even if there is, you might find after a few years of commercial activity that you’re not that passionate about it anymore; do not commit yourself to a career or a commercial activity where you will do the same thing over and over and over again, Monday to Friday, until someone finally taps you on the shoulder and says, “Stop! You’re 65. Retire, for crying out loud!”

I believe this model makes sense, and have thought so for a long time. I can therefore never understand when someone hears my well-meaning advice, and then do the exact opposite.

But there’s something I tend to forget.

In many cases, people get something back when they follow their own instinct and consider status in the community, when they go for something they have always had a passion for, and when they choose a profession or business where they will do the same thing over and over, ad nauseam. They establish a regular stream of income that puts food on the table and pays the rent. They develop a relationship with other people in the community. They become part of something. They will tell me: “You know what? It’s true that sometimes the work is boring, but we like what we get back at the end of the day and at the end of the month. What we get for our labour, not only money but also the connection and sometimes friendship with people we work with, make up for the things we don’t like. We simply endure the less pleasant aspects of our labour.”

My model works for the individual who wants to be left alone, for the person who doesn’t want to compromise his passion with commercial packaging, and who definitely does not want to do the same boring job every day, over and over until he goes out of his mind. My model works for the person who is not concerned on a daily basis with keeping a family alive, who doesn’t want to endure tedious and boring work.

So, am I wrong?

No. I just don’t always take into account what works for other people, what other people want, and what they’re willing to give up for what they get in return.

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SATURDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2012

Here is my cursory opinion on “creation”, evolution, and “intelligent design”. Like any reasonable opinion, it is open to debate and counter-arguments.

I don’t believe the development of life on Earth was a series of random events. I believe there was some form of intelligence behind the earliest forms of life.

I further believe the creation mythology propagated by institutionalised religions serves the same purpose as it did two and three and four thousand years ago. Something that can form part of people’s integrated world views must explain the origin of life. The creation story provides followers of these religions with exactly that.

Nevertheless, I believe it is highly unlikely that life forms developed without … some form of intelligence.

Finally, I believe even the efforts of learned people to explain the development of early life forms is comparable to the type of conversation that Org the Cave Man might have had with his cousin about the sun and the stars 10,000 years ago. Even if Org and his cousin had command of adequate vocabulary, the data available to them was incomplete – to put it academically.

Of course, as it is with more things than many people are willing to admit, language plays a crucial role in this matter. What exactly do people mean when they say “intelligence” or “intelligent”? What do people mean by “design”? And what exactly is meant by “random event”?

The good news? There is a strong possibility that we’ll develop a better understanding of things in the next couple hundred years – as long as our minds remain open, and the conversation is kept going.

Read more:

Intelligent Design Creationism: Fraudulent Science, Bad Philosophy.

Evolution vs. Intelligent Design: 6 Bones of Contention

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THURSDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2012

It’s how it is: something bad happens … and you have to move on, and keep moving. That’s just how it is.

SATURDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2012

1. A funeral celebrates the life of the person to whom a final farewell is being said.

2. A funeral provides an opportunity for friends and family to take leave of a loved one in a ceremonial manner.

3. A funeral provides comfort to friends and family.

4. A funeral provides a confirmation of life to those who attend the funeral – to show them the door after the service is over, and to tell them: “Now go home and LIVE!”

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Gideon Gerber: 1955-2012

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MONDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER 2012

Parents must refrain from trying to create their children in their own image. Children will eventually have to survive in a world that is different from their parents’ world, and where many things will work differently than the way they worked in the world in which their parents had grown up.

Parents have the duty to equip their children to survive in a sometimes hostile world, and to define a workable identity that will ultimately enable them to function as adults in this world, to foster relationships with a wide variety of people, to formulate a purpose to which they can apply their lives, and to find happiness.

Children need to be equipped to survive – physically, mentally and emotionally, and to lead fulfilling, productive, happy lives.

Parents should at least attempt to do no less than this, seeing that the child had no choice about being born in the first place.

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