There is a but. In between the things.

Every day, like many if not (seemingly) most of us, I receive many emails.
(I started this post 57 behind. That is the number received before today that I actually intend to read or do something with.
Today is a normal day.
This number is random and has nothing whatsoever to do with a Bruce Springsteen song. It has very little to do with the frequency of ‘I’ in this post. Like all of my posts I want this to be as much about ‘you’.

A normal day has a measurement of what I wish to do not yet done. Emails that link me to others blogs, actual news – not media hype. Pieces of inspiration or irritation. I subscribe to things that provoke my thoughts. I receive a fair number that I lay aside and mean to comment upon. I wonder the balance between comment on others thoughts, expressions and very being:

eleanorroosevelt385439_m

I have to agree that this is one of the best summaries of so much yet, there is always a yet, a however: even to the most accepted of ‘fact’, like the earth is flat?

Too often there is a but.   Here I merely consider, am I discussing ideas, others ideas, when I debate, re-iterate, re-phrase even. Or am I idly gossiping? I hope that my considerations are in the very least helping by defining my own philosophy.
If I’m really lucky they may even have the smallest influence on your own. Why would I want this? Or that? Not because I think that I am right and the world is wrong. Well, ok if you push me into a corner we all know that the world is wrong.

Yet (again) (or simply ‘yet again‘) Don’t we all want to have some effect/affect, influence on others?
Don’t we desire to ‘leave something behind’ some tiny legacy at least, some mark of what we did to help this world?

Following this post I will quite probably post as seldom as before, as I make a push to advance the book that I am writing that yes, I hope and intend to have an influence on this world!
Am I merely a reflection of others? In an ideal world.. Aren’t we all? It is the degree that I reflect (repetition intended) upon things, that has me wondering if my life is about a conversation that I am yet to have? Or some other such alter ego, parallel universe, matrix re-loaded mumbo?

What I would like is a program: a ‘social carte blanche ©’ upon which speech is entered, kind of FaceBook style yet (just as FBook are now introducing the ability to comment directly on comments within a chain of discussion, I thought of it first, BTW, FYI 😉

On my carte blanche clean page each comment arrives in a speech bubble, iPhone texting style.
The original is one colour and any comments relatively directly i.e. continuing the conversation sit off to one side and are linked by a line of relevance to the previous comment or indeed, as the conversation grows and widens, by lines to others spido-graph/mind map style.
Any one to one direct sub conversations sit on top of one another each being of a following or preceding colour of the rainbow, with just enough overlap to create rainbows upon rainbows.
Each colour clicked upon reveals it’s predecessor and double-click takes you to the links original words. In this case the following click reveals the next in chronological sequence.
Private comments are possible and that one has been made will be again, set to the side and shown by it’s rainbow colour of sequence yet no words. Now; this pure white space may not stay white very long and if you imagine it spreading far and wide, it will.
By scrolling your web page up, down, left and right you can navigate across this in a tablet style; follow and track this conversation throughout time itself, even using a ‘timeline’ scroll back through vast space as the conversation grows and grows.       Inserting comments should you so wish in the appropriate place with a right-click on the comment that you wish to pursue.

Anyway, I digress. If any software genius wishes to contact me regarding this program/Ap please do, there is much more in the details. (And it is not my only idea).

Wait for the book that I am currently writing. You’ll then understand the origin of my futuristic ideas and, much more?

Back to this conversation: With a relative seriousness, identifying what is important is necessary in order that we thin out the growing list of’ things’. Prioritising what is important and that which is actually urgent. Triaging life if you like, is a skill.
If everything is important something will not get done.

The archetypal father figure who spent his life at work, missed his children growing up and then found time to want and try to prioritise and connect with those young adults now too busy to find time for him.

The example is a sobering one for it is too common.

What stops us stopping? Is there really a race to achieve?

I can argue that the balance of quality/quantity is still imbalanced, even as I choose to see the quality in our world.

There are numerous breakthroughs in science.
Plastic’s origins are not quite one hundred years old and already they have been developed into that everyday substance used in everything.
The Higgs Boson discovery only last year took 50 years to find.
The wheel apparently existed for three hundred years before it was used in transporting anything.

Attention to detail taking years.
Pieces of Art subconsciously enhancing the lives of busy people rushing past not noticing that they are seeing them.

I can site terrible stories of companies focussed more on profit than good. I cannot write that sentence without thinking of Monsanto.
I cannot write that word, without thoughts that take away it being a proper noun, a name of something; it is now a word with its own meaning almost a verb-noun?

I could continue ad-infinitum. Yet already that is quite possibly enough to displace your balance,

There are the structures of good over greed, politicians who begin with ideals and as they negotiate the corridors of power they are compromised and corrupted.

Doctors who miss symptoms, misdiagnose and people die unnecessarily.
Due to numbers, time, external finance based pressures; measurement of….of what exactly?
Success? Would we not be more successful if we slowed down and focussed on what is right?
On that which could be better just because we give it time to be so. Idealistic? Yes. Naive? No. Have we, society, mankind, come so far down a road carrying so much baggage to establish our selves, that maneuvering our big assed truck to avoid potholes and accidents has become as difficult as turning it around in this narrow regulated street?

I believe that people are essentially good. That we receive reward in a/effecting others. In recognition of our effects. Positive reinforcement theory… The big boss, somebody else; they ‘know, they have the plan’, you, I, we only see a part of it.

It’s a statement yet it requires a question mark to make sense.  Make sense? Does it? How many overall plans have been overlooked and demoted into irrelevance; details? Maybe it’s not all about the eventual outcome? Though, ‘the greater good for the greater number’ hits a home run, maybe it is in the detail? The quality aspect, the moment. The moment that makes a difference to perspective… What is it that we have to ‘achieve’? Beyond enjoyment: I do not mean narcissistic, hedonistic…  I mean whole-hearted, actual pleasure in our very being. Idealistic? Naive? I write this and sit looking around my apartment, pleased with the things that allow me to feel me…

About JJBollOX

This is an update. The slight humour aka sarcasm will be lost on anyone who hasn't read this before the update. I am, still a British male. Still living but not in Switzerland. I intend to remain, living and male. When I wrote before I had "spent the better part of two months negotiating the change in my self identity. Unemployed and sharing home with a now ex-girlfriend. I've moved. Moved on. Maybe a year has passed by. Have I moved in an upward direction? Is upward the only way to go if we are to expand, broaden and grow? Realistically, the most dramatic (not exactly decisive) direction I have taken in the time was down. Down, down and deeper than down. I fell off of a mountain. My life got complicated yet simple. This in itself is a fair summary of my personality. I have posted the first words of blogs to be written which I would like to turn into a book. 'A normal life.' Let's see how well and how fruitfully I can express my frustrations, pain, healing process and the constant changes that are life.
This entry was posted in answer, argument, balance, book, challenge, change, different factors, Doctor/s, effort, empathy/sympathy, equal, everything/anything/something, Face Book, Facts, random, reflect/reflection/reflecting, Society, work and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to There is a but. In between the things.

  1. Jon David Groff says:

    “. . . identifying what is important is necessary in order that we thin out the growing list of’ things’.” I like this. In life, in education, in all aspects of our everyday, we need to prioritize if we want to accomplish anything meaningful. That is the point of many of my thoughts on my blog about education. Knowledge is great! Keep learning! But come on, we need to focus on something or we will do everything poorly. What is it that we have to ‘achieve’? Beyond enjoyment: I do not mean narcissistic, hedonistic… I mean whole-hearted, actual pleasure in our very being.” Not idealistic (I hope.) Necessary!

  2. WordsFallFromMyEyes says:

    Great post, Johnny – like it much. I like your style, the way you meander.

    The Lesterland video was really interesting, too.

  3. Anja says:

    I agree with WFFME. You have a way with words

  4. JJBollOX says:

    Thank you both very much 🙂 OxOx

  5. The lesterland vid is really good. I was watching it a few weeks ago. I remember back in high school, our teacher discussed the way special interests, especially the more emotionally charged, were often political distractions from the general legislation that often takes place in congress, which while perhaps more boring than controversial/flashy issues, has far reaching implications. Even adding controversial questions on the ballot can cause an increase of votes for a particular party. As I’ve said many times, the only difference between the Republican & Democratic Parties is Brand Management. And defining platforms are also limiting to politicians. Meandering away from the party platform creates serious difficulties for politicians, and maintains divisiveness.

Leave a reply to JJBollOX Cancel reply