mid 2011 was my last post, apparently. how time flies! almost 2 years, and how one's life and perspectives can change within such a relatively short space of time.
it's obviously not a short space of time, it's 2 years, nigh on, but what's fascinating is how my own views have changed. they've matured considerably. i've lost religion, or the last vestiges of it. i've tried, and failed, and am now trying again to put my efforts into the local business community. i've crashed, horribly, personally. and i've found my own self-belief again. with the help of anne.
there's an awful lot i could write and to that end it's very difficult to decide precicely what to start with, but i'll try to summarise just "where i'm at" at the end of april 2013.
i'm passionate. i always have been but often i've been able to hide it. now i realise that, when tempered with the wisdom of 40-ness, it's a power to be used. i'm aware and yet wary: aware of a whole lot more and how this complicated world inter-twines, yet wary of pinning my beliefs to one cause.
as i've learnt, there is no black or white, just an infinite number of shades of grey (thankfully not just 50). margaret thatcher wasn't right or wrong. valdimir putin is wrong. kim jong un is wrong. barack obama isn't right or wrong. the dalai lama is probably right (but he's religious, so i have to temper that). it's a complicated world.
what is right is that we should look out for one another more than we do. we have fractured communities made up of people who are more interested in what is right for them selfishly than what is right for the whole community. we have the internet to guide us, rightly or wrongly. we have polititicians who seem more hell-bent than ever to divide us.
yet, everywhere i go and with everyone i talk, there are more good conversations than bad. whether some or many of them are bullshit, i don't know but at least they happen.
i'll try and tackle some of the real world issues over the next few weeks and give my perspective as an agnostic, naive believer in the good of mankind... yet with the the understanding that most people couldn't actually give a shit, think i'm some kind of nutjob and wonder just what's in it for me when i try and do something generous. yup, that's what you get for trying to be a reasonable person.
in the meantime, don't buy cheap clothing, in fact, don't buy cheap anything:someone, somewhere has had to make a sacrifice to achieve that and you can be damned sure it wasn't the person running the company.
it's obviously not a short space of time, it's 2 years, nigh on, but what's fascinating is how my own views have changed. they've matured considerably. i've lost religion, or the last vestiges of it. i've tried, and failed, and am now trying again to put my efforts into the local business community. i've crashed, horribly, personally. and i've found my own self-belief again. with the help of anne.
there's an awful lot i could write and to that end it's very difficult to decide precicely what to start with, but i'll try to summarise just "where i'm at" at the end of april 2013.
i'm passionate. i always have been but often i've been able to hide it. now i realise that, when tempered with the wisdom of 40-ness, it's a power to be used. i'm aware and yet wary: aware of a whole lot more and how this complicated world inter-twines, yet wary of pinning my beliefs to one cause.
as i've learnt, there is no black or white, just an infinite number of shades of grey (thankfully not just 50). margaret thatcher wasn't right or wrong. valdimir putin is wrong. kim jong un is wrong. barack obama isn't right or wrong. the dalai lama is probably right (but he's religious, so i have to temper that). it's a complicated world.
what is right is that we should look out for one another more than we do. we have fractured communities made up of people who are more interested in what is right for them selfishly than what is right for the whole community. we have the internet to guide us, rightly or wrongly. we have polititicians who seem more hell-bent than ever to divide us.
yet, everywhere i go and with everyone i talk, there are more good conversations than bad. whether some or many of them are bullshit, i don't know but at least they happen.
i'll try and tackle some of the real world issues over the next few weeks and give my perspective as an agnostic, naive believer in the good of mankind... yet with the the understanding that most people couldn't actually give a shit, think i'm some kind of nutjob and wonder just what's in it for me when i try and do something generous. yup, that's what you get for trying to be a reasonable person.
in the meantime, don't buy cheap clothing, in fact, don't buy cheap anything:someone, somewhere has had to make a sacrifice to achieve that and you can be damned sure it wasn't the person running the company.
