The Question ….. er….

I wonder why?

I am not sure if you are like me, but everything in life for me is followed by a question. Simply because I need to know more.

Apparently its quite normal for what they term Generation Y. Maybe that’s why I am always wondering “Y”. Although technically speaking I missed that category by a few years. We always need to know the bigger picture. But it tends to be very frustrating for the every day things.
Needless to say it has caused quite a rift between me and some people over the span of my life. People generally do not like to question or even worse, they do not like to be questioned.

I really do not understand that, because when I looked at it, its for the very reason of my questions that I am where I am today. I know the common thing to search for is the answer, but for me its my questions that lead me. My questioning is what has shaped the life I know today.

Most questions in life cannot be answered anyway, and for those that do believe they have all the answers, well what can I say to that…. Well done to you you can die now, you know everything there is to know (just kidding).

Mystery is what runs the wheels of life is it not? Its the pursuit of knowing what makes things tick, that drives people to explore and fuels innovation. Why else would people go diving with cameras in the middle of the ocean (personally I think they mad) and film very dangerous creatures. It makes no sense, yet it is done.

I guess my motto in life is QUESTION ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING”. It might frustrate the people around me, but hey it is what keeps me going. In fact I would go as far as to say that your questions you ask are more important than the answers you find.

What would a world without questions look like?

theHonestOne

The Secrecy Bill………..

This was simply too much for me not to comment on…… For those not aware of South Africa’s new “secrecy bill” which, in short, is a bill that is proposing that no media can publicize any state information even if it exposes corruption. Basically journalists cannot just report information without “permission or declassification”. Its a bit more elaborate than that, but that’s the gist of it. And there are quite stiff penalties for it should a whistle blower decide to risk it all….up to 25 years in jail await them…

My first question is of course…..Who passes such a bill without having something to hide to begin with? Secondly, what lies behind and after this? How far will this go, and to what level of lunacy must it get to before before the wool is removed from our eyes?

Cannot really be bothered by it all, since I really believe the state has been doing this all along, just now they are trying to make it a law. One thing I must say is everybody has a voice suddenly, which is good. One thing we cannot say is that the ruling party never got us together. Okay so they got us all together against them, but hey, if it works it works hey.

But I think my personal best thing in my life is, now I can go on living my life in peace. There will be corruption, lies, theft, just plain ridiculous goings on…….
But I don’t have to hear about it anymore 🙂

So now I can go on with my seemingly mundane existence, with not a care in the world. Because if no one says there is corruption then there is no corruption right?

Just because if the government says they have our best interest at heart, then that means they do have our best interests at heart….right?
I liken the way its going now like driving a car, but we don’t like what we see in the rear view mirror. We therefore just remove rear view mirrors and waalaaa no more problems. Our past does not exist because we can’t see it…. So we move on and don’t learn from our past mistakes.

I think the government has forgotten who they are, servants of the people. We do not serve the state, its the other way around. Unless I never got the memo….

But let me crawl back into my little hole and go on with my life. At least it will be slightly peaceful now.

Oh yes, and wake me up when the dictatorship is revealed for what it really is…..then I will comment again……..

theHonestOne

The Intrinsic You Part 2

“I am a drug addict”

“I am a quiet person”

“I am a shy person”

“I am a difficult person”

And the list could go on here…….
People, mostly unwittingly, say these statements, or rather these pronouncements about who they are or what they about. And yes, they might be that at that moment. But what I would like to know…..

Is that the real you or simply what you have become due to whatever reason?

No person as far as I know wants to become a drug addict (I use this example because its very blatant and illustrates the point better). But for whatever reasons that person becomes a drug addict. Does that mean that’s who they are intrinsically?
No, right?

Rather intrinsically they are not a drug addict and the real person inside is just like any other human finding their way around life as best as they know right then and there.
I am living proof of this one, since I have taken copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, yet find myself today not under that anymore. Therefore I reason that, that activities could not define me unless I did allow it to.

I sound cryptic. Let me explain myself better. As in life, our experiences shape us (depending on how we view it) so do bad experiences. But what I am getting at here is that, there remains an intrinsic you, the real you…. The one that is really, really, really who you are. The soft, vulnerable, genuine person. This is true for every person. And sometimes that intrinsic you gets stuck through a endless loop of distortions and paths that really don’t help.

But deep down you know, you may not be this way….

So my question today is are you really who you are? I mean genuinely the real you, or do you still allow the pronouncements of a bad experience to shape you?

When we say, but I am just this way, are you really?

When you meet someone or get to know people, do you allow time to see the intrinsic person? Or do we quickly rush to one line judgement of who a person is?

theHonestOne

The Intrinsic You Part 1

A while ago, I watched an episode of My Family. Really funny (my type of humour at least). The husband was really getting frustrated with the wife (as usual). But he blurted out to her “We are not human doings, we are human beings, so just be……”

How do we value ourselves? mostly what I hear and see is, we place an awful amount of emphasis on what we do. I will not speak for all people here, but that does seem to be the trend these days.

As much as the Guy in the sitcom said it in jest, I really think there is a lot of truth in his statement. We are human beings. What does that mean to us though?

Does it mean when people ask what am I, I do not answer with “I am a Sound Engineer”?

I always say, I am a human being. That is who I am, this defines what I do and not the other way around.

The trouble with finding one’s value in what we do, is that what happens the day you lose a job? What happens the day you fail at the thing you pursued? What happens when we put our foot in it?

Do we then call ourselves losers, failures, etc?????

No the reality should be that we are who we are and that defines what we do….

theHonestone

Fighting the trend

People often have issue with my “generalisations”.

Instead of trying to reason and explain why “all generalisations are generally true”. I decided to do a post on it, largely because there are no interjections here and I can explain myself fully. My generalisations are based on my observations of trends and analysis on various areas. I see the patterns and therefore come to my conclusions.
To start, I believe that we are all unique and that every single person brings something to the table, but that is on a small scale.

When we as humans act as a group, over time you will see patterns and repetitive behaviour even if what we are involved with, is not a good thing. As a group we almost never act originally. This frustrates those that think like individuals. Right?
People who think for themselves and are creative are the exceptions to the rule rather than the rule itself. Don’t believe me?

Let me show you………

That is the Dollar Index from 2002 to 2004. No contest, the trend is down. Its known in currency markets that one must follow the smart money. They normally in at the top (right at the top of the chart) they sell the market and ride the trend all the way down till 3 maybe even 5. But the slaughter of other traders along the way because they try and trade against the trend or getting in at the wrong times. So when the masses are starting to sell (by 4 on the chart) the smart money is starting to leave already)

The chart is marked with a 5 step (Elliot Wave pattern) down impulse. Now Elliot Wave analysis is based on crowd behaviour and here we see it clearly. Its not that us humans are not capable of doing things differently…..but when we act as a collective we tend to “follow the crowd”.
In short to explain the chart, if you sold the dollar (make money believing the market goes down) in this period you would be with the market and momentum would be on your side. If you were buying the dollar (hoping it would go up in value) then you would lose. You would be trading against the trend, basically a fools errand, unless you know what you are doing….

As for fighting a trend, to put it bluntly you cannot. Or more specifically, you cannot fight it and win. Even if you have a good idea and it works better than the current one, the masses simply will not change their direction.

Let’s look at something more close to us and something we are more involved with.

Most people have a love/hate relationship with facebook. And there have been a quite few nay sayers, but overall the masses have adopted facebook into their lives.
And there have been attempts at dethroning facebook from its position of social network of the world.

Even though whatever it is might have a better look, feature, interaction, etc. The masses are involve with what they think is correct for them. Truth and facts does not count for the masses. This does not mean they are correct.

It simply means that if you want to change things or the direction of things, the masses is not where you need to focus your efforts on.

If you want to change the world, you have got to think smaller. Instead of trying to fight the trend. Don’t bother with the masses, start creating a small group where people are really cared for and appreciated. That will become viral, should you desire it to do that.

I avoid large gatherings for this very reason. You will get lost in it all. Everyone desires to do great things….I desire to many little things. Even in relationships these things pan out like that. You can change the big picture by focusing on the little things.

Think small…..

theHonestOne

Perfection

“There is no such thing as a perfect church”

“There is no such thing as the perfect person”

“There is no such thing as the perfect job”

“There is no such thing as the perfect …..”

Those are phrases we hear all the time. At least I hear them. And it always makes me wonder, if this is the the truth or has this particular person just settled……

True perfection, as in no faults, I will concede does not exist here, but a perfect job? I think that exists, a perfect person to share your life with, I think that exists. “For you” is what I mean.

Someone who is good for me (perfect). A job that is good and right for me I consider perfect for me.

I think what I am getting at here is that we often settle in life because we believe that perfection does not exist out there, therefore we settle for the less than good one (of whatever).

That does not mean that the current person or thing is intrinsically bad, just bad for you.

I could be wrong, but I really think that that type of perfection does exist. And I get that true happiness is from within, but at the same time do we just accept that everything around us just is…..

Any thoughts?

theHonestOne

The Sea Shell

One day this sea shell arrived on shore fresh from its journeys from who knows where. It was a real eye catching picture and everyone that walked by stopped to take a look and admire it.

Sometimes water would catch it again and it would glisten in the combination of sunlight and water and angle that one looked at it. Its beauty was undeniable and for all to see.

On rare occasions the odd person would pull it to their ear and listen to its music….

Pure bliss, life simply could not get better than this.

Soon the ocean receded for a longer period than normal. The sun beat down on the sea shell with unrelenting rays.

Cracks started appearing. People started walking pass the shell without even a second glance. The shell was still what it was, the beauty a bit faded, but still present…..

When the ocean returned it was rather violent….

The ocean had its way with the shell and burrowed deep into its crevices and churned through what it could…

The shell is but a shadow of what it was, yet somehow if one would stare closely and really search you would see some remnant of its former beauty. Its got a character now, some real life exposure and some stories to tell…..

I am that shell……..

theHonestOne

Momentum is it good?

mo·men·tum/mōˈmentəm/
Noun:
The quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity.
The impetus gained by a moving object

That is the dictionary description of momentum.

For now I would like to adapt the meaning to a more current understanding.

Momentum – It is when something continues without the help of the initiating force…

In short, it is basically every business man’s dream. When the business takes on a life on its own and works without his input anymore. For a company that may be a good thing, but for relationships it might not be so good.
One could even say that when momentum steps in, relationship steps out.
Relationships need continual nurturing and involvement, and does not do well in an environment that seeks automation or minimal effort.

For this reason I ask the question, is momentum a good thing when it comes to lets say church, which is a relational environment. That is the last place that you want momentum. Yet these days I hear the word fly around a lot.
In a business I think that it might be a good thing, where there are normally shortages of staff and so forth. Momentum could help that place, but where relationships are important, I think momentum needs to be kept away from.

Sometimes the trouble with churches is that they run like business, which ultimately defeats the purpose.

theHonestOne