Category: "Friends"
Who Ties The String?
One of the recurring themes of my posts here (the most recent is Someone Is Pulling The Strings Again) is my thoughts on the applicability of the "Red Thread of Fate" - East Asian folkore that is specifically about the way in which we are "bound" to our soulmate, but which I see as a useful metaphor for the way in which we are "connected" to each other in a multitude of ways (perhaps there out to be more colours to denote the 'nature' of the connection! We could then have a rainbow world - in whatever dimension that thread resides!!!)
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Faith, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
Serenity
Just at this moment life seems to be very full of "situations" and it is clear that each situation can only be influenced to a limited extent. In some cases that may well mean that no influence can be brought to bear and I don't think there is any where full control can be applied. For these situations it is crucial that efforts are focussed on what can be influenced - and not wasted on the rest.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Complexity, Decision Making, Worldview, ----------
Not More Platitudes!
When writing to a friend this morning I found myself unable to find anything worthwhile to say because all the 'obvious' responses were sounding like platitudes. You know the sort - someone is feeling a bit "down" and you say "pull yourself together" - or someone tells you that they have broken their leg and you say "hope it gets better soon"!!
Categories: Philosophical, Friends, ----------
A Partial Summary
Although the entries in this blog are sporadic and are not following any particular pattern there are a few themes that run through them and which recur in different posts. I'm just thinking that it might be as well to provide a bit of a summary and a few links to enable easier browsing between related posts.
Categories: Welcome, Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Complexity, Learning, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
Someone Is Pulling The Strings Again
In previous posts I wrote about the way in which I have "re-interpreted" an East Asian belief regarding the "Red String of Fate". It is time to revisit the idea and to write a bit more - expanding the original thoughts and considering just what we are "tied" to.
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Complexity, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
The Best Things in Life are Free
This is a mantra that is widely accepted, often repeated and, in my opinion, lacking in a true understanding of the "cost" of things. There is currently a radio advert that uses the phrase and I hear it most days whilst sitting in the car - no wonder my "thinking" has been triggered.
Categories: Philosophical, Friends, Cognition, Worldview, ----------
On Being Helpful
Helping is difficult - we have all seen the joke about the boy scout helping the old woman across the road - with the denouement that she didn't actually want to cross it in the first place. In 'real life' not only do we find situations exactly analogous to that, but we also find that the 'old woman' simply resents the fact that she had to be helped.
Categories: Philosophical, Friends, ----------
On Endings
Are there any endings that we really want to happen? Even the best endings - the climax of a wonderful piece of music, the last page of a rivetting book - leave us in some way 'sad'. When we have been enjoying something good, the fact that it has ended will - no matter how much pleasure it has afforded us - inevitably bring with it at least a tinge of disappointment. Indeed it may well be the case that the better the thing is, the more we feel a "loss" at its conclusion.
Categories: Philosophical, Friends, Worldview, ----------
On Receiving News You Did Not Want To Hear
When I started writing these blog entries I had no idea what the precise nature of the content would be - in some cases it was a subject matter that has occupied my thoughts for a long time; in some it was something that I felt I needed to just understand my own thoughts; and in some - like this one - the subject matter is something that I just did not expect!!
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Worldview, Health, ----------
Pulling Those Threads Tight
In the two previous posts, The Red Thread and Making Connections, I wrote about the connections we have with other people and how there seems to often be an inexplicably strong connection to some - manifesting itself in the way that our lives constantly intertwine. Typical of this is, of course, family connections - these are to be expected. It is inevitable that we interact with other members of our family - even if that is only at births, marriages and funerals!!
Categories: Philosophical, Systems Thinking, Friends, Worldview, ----------
