Only when it is all stripped away do we realize what was important and what wasn’t. I am going through that at present. I had everything and then when you take your eye of the ball unscrupulous people take advantage of your hard work. The impact on the relationships you hold near & dear is phenomenal and not something I would wish on anyone except my dearest enemies - but whats made round will come around and that is not my battle.
Looking to the future is the only way to learn from the past. We cannot avoid the obstacles on the road and apply the lessons if we are driving by looking in the rear-view mirror. We will just go from one crash to the next. Should we even be on that road at all is a great question.
I have been a great one for always “doing the right thing” which in hind-sight has generated a lot of activity but not much for me or of lasting value - only my children.
My mother was an interesting person, Betty; she was born in SW China in 1933 to missionaries in China Inland Mission and passed away 23 November 2005 after losing the final battle of her life - with ovarian cancer. My grandfather was also an interesting man and new many of the Chinese leaders in those days personally.
Unfortunately for my mother & her brother at the ages of 7 & 9, the school they were at in Shandong Province, in a town called Chefoo (original home of Confucius) was captured by the Japanese & they spent 4 horrific years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. But if you can survive this you can survive anything.
One thing I learned from her I think was that the value is in the person, not the things. Not all people have the same value unfortunately because the things they do and accumulate devalue them from what they could be. Never too late to change though, unless you die first. So I guess we all need to get started.
Having value is not just something you get by constantly trying to meet other peoples expectations. You have to be yourself and realize your uniqueness, even though we may all appear similar. Integrity, honesty, love, perseverance, empathy, common sense, trust and respect are all part of the greatest simultaneous equation you can ever hope to solve - life.
Whew - glad I got that off my chest.
I think the big lesson I am learning is the value is in you and what you do is evidence of it. Big thing is that we have to be connected. We are not meant to be alone. There is no meaning in being alone. Being together brings out the value - either at the hunting or gathering subsistence level, or a some higher level of existence (thanks Mr Maslow).
Being together is the hard part as the interplay of biology at the basic gene level and emotions at the higher level always seems to complicate a perfectly good situation. Jealously, envy, aggression, control, anger, sadness, joy, anguish - what a mix. But that is being alive and like the artist’s canvass - it is how you mix the colors. It takes a plan and active management to create lasting value, even at the most basic level.
But the results make it worth while and the influence (positive) that we can have on others and the world is great.
I often wonder if the “save the planet” “produce less CO2″ is a cop-out by those who want to ignore their neighbor’s and the plight of the world’s hungry. Some worthy cause which makes them “feel good” but doesn’t have a personal cost and is largely irrelevant. A “feel good” industry fun by those who benefit financially - probably moderately cynical I guess!
Well that’s enough for now!
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