What does it mean to be prepared in a land of potential earthquakes? We've all seen the pictures from Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. People are always urged to have 3 days of food and water supplies on hand - to be able to be self-sufficient for at least (at least) that long. But how many of us actually do that?
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Belief-o-matic
I was looking for the readings of the day yesterday... the Catholic readings, the Koran readings... something to feed the writing well. I eventually landed on a website called Beliefnet.com. They have all sorts of things... Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Taoism... You name it, they have it.
One little thing caught my eye - a quiz called Belief-o-matic. Twenty questions that will tell you what faith category you fall under... Hmmm... too irresistible for me! The disclaimer is kind of cute too: "Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul." Alright, I've been warned!!
One little thing caught my eye - a quiz called Belief-o-matic. Twenty questions that will tell you what faith category you fall under... Hmmm... too irresistible for me! The disclaimer is kind of cute too: "Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul." Alright, I've been warned!!
Monday, November 12, 2012
Life of Pi
I know... this poor blog has been languishing for exactly 7 months (almost to the day). Life has been hectic and busy... and with the year away, I now have some time to devote to writing.
Truth be told, the urge to write has never gone away, I just haven't let it had free rein! But we'll see how this goes.
The Life of Pi. It's a book. I'd heard about it about 10 years ago but never read it. Never had any desire to read it actually. And it's by a Canadian author too! Has won many medals... And yet was never on my radar screen until a few weeks ago. That is when I started seeing ads for a movie version of Life of Pi. It looked interesting but that is about it.
Truth be told, the urge to write has never gone away, I just haven't let it had free rein! But we'll see how this goes.
The Life of Pi. It's a book. I'd heard about it about 10 years ago but never read it. Never had any desire to read it actually. And it's by a Canadian author too! Has won many medals... And yet was never on my radar screen until a few weeks ago. That is when I started seeing ads for a movie version of Life of Pi. It looked interesting but that is about it.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Time Warp
Alright, I don't know about the rest of you but... I'm pretty sure that time has speeded up a lot in the last year or two. Somehow it never seems like there is enough time in a day or a week or a month. The days just speed by and the weekend is over before it even began!
What's happening?? Is this just a "getting older" thing? Or does time really speed up? I think back to when I was in my 20s and 30s and I seemed to have a tonne of free time! What happened? Do I just have way more projects on the go? Or is there just less time?
What's happening?? Is this just a "getting older" thing? Or does time really speed up? I think back to when I was in my 20s and 30s and I seemed to have a tonne of free time! What happened? Do I just have way more projects on the go? Or is there just less time?
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Fascination with the Old
The web/smartphone app "Instagram" has been on the news lately... snapped up by Facebook for a ridiculous amount of money. I didn't understand the fascination with Instagram until I installed it on my smartphone a week ago. Oh my goodness... what fun!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
To Do List
Ah the humble to-do list. There are so many ways of keeping track of the various things we need to get done in a day or a week or a month. Usually a piece of paper is sufficient - sometimes the back of an envelope or a receipt. Sometimes an actual notepad or notebook. Sometimes a tiny little sticky note. Whatever it might be, the to-do list is there to serve us. If we can find it... Because let's face it... to-do lists have a habit of being mislaid... or of walking of away... And so we start a new list with the first item being "Find old to-do list"!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
What the heck is NESS?
Have you ever heard of NESS? I guess you'd need a context... it has nothing to do with the Loch Ness monster. It stands for National Emergency Stockpile System. Does that help? Probably not... Maybe you heard on the news that the federal government of Canada recently released a supply of drugs from its emergency stockpile due to a shortage from supplier Sandoz. That's NESS.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Connections: Obesity and Autism
We've been hearing about the rise in obesity in the population - not just in First World countries but elsewhere also. Studies suggest a link between our extremely unhealthy fast-food, high-sugar diets combined with a sedentary lifestyle (like sitting in front of the computer all day). We eat poorly and exercise less. Simple really... and so our waistlines get bigger and we pack on the pounds.
Friday, April 6, 2012
What Goes Around... Comes Around
Some of you might be old enough to remember "slates"... remember, they were used in schools by students. Or if you're not old enough, maybe you've seen them on Little House on the Prairie or Anne of Green Gables or something similar. They looked something like this...Students had chalk and they would do their sums on their slate boards, erase them with a damp cloth and then do some more. They could practice their writing and then erase it and try it over again. No wasted paper (paper was expensive back then)...
That was... oh... how long ago... 70, 80, 90 years ago?? Something like that... and it was a good system, a natural system... Slate is a stone... the frame was wood (trees) and the chalk was... well... chalk... another stone. They could last a very long time as well... unless someone broke one over a student's head (didn't Anne of Green Gables have a temper?).
The idea is this... it has a screen that students can use with a plastic pen-like scribe tool.. They can write their sums on it... and then with a flick of that button at the top, erase everything. They can practice their writing on it... and then erase it. It saves on paper... which is a big expense in schools nowadays.
The whole Edmonton school district is apparently going with Boogie Board Tablets... yes they are... What's it made out of? Probably a lot of plastic and metal and glass... Quite expensive too...
What goes around... comes around... Back in the days of slate, paper was expensive and scarce. Nowadays paper is everywhere, but so much use means it is expensive... and hard on the environment... But what happens to a dead-Boogie Board??
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
A Penny for Your Thoughts...
Ah, the penny... so maligned, done in by inflation. I remember when you could get a piece of gum for a penny... but those days are long gone!
But the demise of the penny makes me wonder... what will happen to our cultural icons and customs and ideas? What will happen to:
"A penny for your thoughts...
"Lucky penny"
"Penny wise and pound foolish"
"A penny saved is a penny earned"
"A bad penny always comes back"
"I don't owe you a penny"
"Down to the last penny"
"... and not a penny less"
What will happen to those little plastic containers at the check-out till where people can take a penny or leave a penny? What will happen to all of those penny-presses at tourist attractions like Niagara Falls - where you pay $1 to have your penny flattened and embossed with an image of the attraction? What are we going to use to play board games or dominoes?
Are pennies going to become serious collectors items? As people use them to buy things, the stores give them to the banks and the banks turn them over to the Canadian Mint who will melt them back down to elemental copper. Is there going to be copper glut on the market?
Oh... all the questions... maybe we'll end up talking about "lucky nickels" in the future.
Monday, April 2, 2012
We shall reap what we sow...
There's a saying in the Bible - you shall reap what you sow. I was musing on that this morning and started wondering... maybe that is more literal than we realize... We tend to think of it as, yeah, we'll reap what we sow in our lifetime. But what if we will reap what we sow beyond our lifetime... or into the next lifetime?
I think in particular of the environmental crisis... global climate change, tar sands, rising oceans, desertification, deforestation, etc. A long list of issues that we are sowing today. We are a short-sighted species though, so we don't really think of the long-term consequences. We are more concerned with political re-election and/or financial gain. Let's face it, most of us aren't willing to pay more for organic produce, even though it is better for the environment (less phosphate fertilizer and pesticides used.... less to end up in our rivers... less to end up in our oceans... less algal blooms in oceans... less dead zones in oceans). No, we are concerned with how to save money now... not with what the world might look like in 50 or 100 years.
But what if... what if... instead of the Christian view of the after life... we were to hold a different view? What if, instead of thinking that, well, we die and that's the end of it... we just go to heaven, put up our feet. What if, instead of that... it was something more along the lines of this... this life, this incarnation in bodily form is only one of many that we have had and will continue to have. What if, instead of death being the end of it all, death is just the start of another grand adventure? What if, when we die, we dip back into the oceanic pool of spiritual consciousness and then come back out again to have another shot at the game of life? Well then... we may very well reap in that life, what we have sown in this life. It might very well come back to bite us in the butt... Some food for thought...
I think in particular of the environmental crisis... global climate change, tar sands, rising oceans, desertification, deforestation, etc. A long list of issues that we are sowing today. We are a short-sighted species though, so we don't really think of the long-term consequences. We are more concerned with political re-election and/or financial gain. Let's face it, most of us aren't willing to pay more for organic produce, even though it is better for the environment (less phosphate fertilizer and pesticides used.... less to end up in our rivers... less to end up in our oceans... less algal blooms in oceans... less dead zones in oceans). No, we are concerned with how to save money now... not with what the world might look like in 50 or 100 years.
But what if... what if... instead of the Christian view of the after life... we were to hold a different view? What if, instead of thinking that, well, we die and that's the end of it... we just go to heaven, put up our feet. What if, instead of that... it was something more along the lines of this... this life, this incarnation in bodily form is only one of many that we have had and will continue to have. What if, instead of death being the end of it all, death is just the start of another grand adventure? What if, when we die, we dip back into the oceanic pool of spiritual consciousness and then come back out again to have another shot at the game of life? Well then... we may very well reap in that life, what we have sown in this life. It might very well come back to bite us in the butt... Some food for thought...
Friday, March 30, 2012
Old Dog - New Tricks
I don't know about you, but I like things to be their normal comfortable selves. I've been using this blogging site now for several years and it has a certain look and a certain feel that I like. I've gotten used to it. We're old friends - we know each other well. And now... now... they have gone and changed the user interface!! It looks different, paler and blander. It feels different, commands are in different places. It's just different. And I don't like it.
I could resist it... I could go back to the old look... for as long as it will be around. I could kick and scream and send nasty emails to the developers and say "Why? Why muck with something that looks perfectly fine and isn't broken??" Sigh... I've done that in the past... when Google Mail changed its look... of course it did nothing. All of my resistance and kicking and screaming did nothing. And now I'm using the new Gmail look and I can live with it. Partly because various people have created various plug-ins for my browser that allow me to claw back some of the features that I liked so much. I like colours... bland and pale colours don't do much for me. I like to have rich colours so that I can recognize things quickly.
Maybe the blogging interface will get some plug-ins soon... that will allow me to keep some of the features that I like. Or maybe not. The world changes... and we either change with it... or we stagnate I guess. I resisted smartphones for the longest time, not wanting to become one of "those people" who were forever checking their email at dinner and in their cars. But I eventually capitulated and here I am - not quite one of "those people" but... I see the benefit of the smartphone.
I suppose it's really how I view the change... is it a "good" thing or a "bad" thing... if it's a good thing (at least in my eyes), I usually embrace it. If it's a bad thing, I fend it off. But what I'm finding is that good and bad are quite relative. I generally see all change as bad, at least initially - later I might change my story - but in the moment... it seems bad... and I resist it. Perhaps it is to alter the way that I see something... it's not good or bad... it just is....
I could resist it... I could go back to the old look... for as long as it will be around. I could kick and scream and send nasty emails to the developers and say "Why? Why muck with something that looks perfectly fine and isn't broken??" Sigh... I've done that in the past... when Google Mail changed its look... of course it did nothing. All of my resistance and kicking and screaming did nothing. And now I'm using the new Gmail look and I can live with it. Partly because various people have created various plug-ins for my browser that allow me to claw back some of the features that I liked so much. I like colours... bland and pale colours don't do much for me. I like to have rich colours so that I can recognize things quickly.
Maybe the blogging interface will get some plug-ins soon... that will allow me to keep some of the features that I like. Or maybe not. The world changes... and we either change with it... or we stagnate I guess. I resisted smartphones for the longest time, not wanting to become one of "those people" who were forever checking their email at dinner and in their cars. But I eventually capitulated and here I am - not quite one of "those people" but... I see the benefit of the smartphone.
I suppose it's really how I view the change... is it a "good" thing or a "bad" thing... if it's a good thing (at least in my eyes), I usually embrace it. If it's a bad thing, I fend it off. But what I'm finding is that good and bad are quite relative. I generally see all change as bad, at least initially - later I might change my story - but in the moment... it seems bad... and I resist it. Perhaps it is to alter the way that I see something... it's not good or bad... it just is....
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Free at Last
Have I mentioned lately how relieved I am to be out of the Catholic Church? Too much politics within those walls. Too much bigotry and prejudice. Too much of all that is not life-giving and fulfilling. So sad really...
Was reading a Robert Fulghum story today and he was talking about his baptism at the age of 12 as a Southern Baptist. He is now a Unitarian Universalist minister. And he is a firm believer in one of the immutable laws - nothing is ever lost. Matter is not lost, it just transforms into something else, energy or light. Nothing disappears... not really... not even our souls.
Imagine if that became widely known... that our souls cannot be lost... ever... might put the Church out of business...
Was reading a Robert Fulghum story today and he was talking about his baptism at the age of 12 as a Southern Baptist. He is now a Unitarian Universalist minister. And he is a firm believer in one of the immutable laws - nothing is ever lost. Matter is not lost, it just transforms into something else, energy or light. Nothing disappears... not really... not even our souls.
Imagine if that became widely known... that our souls cannot be lost... ever... might put the Church out of business...
Monday, March 26, 2012
Cycle of Life
Nature is a source of great creative inspiration for me. I'm not sure how it works, but oftentimes, seeing something in nature creates a chain reaction and I quickly get an insight into some aspect of my life or life in general. Sometimes it's the reverse... I experience something and immediately see a connection with nature...
The other day, we were doing a guided meditation, essentially a review of the day... without judging anything that had happened. We were to be neutral observers of our day... and I had an insight of our lives... of life in general...
At some point, we've all learned about the water cycle... water evaporates from the ocean to form clouds, which move over land rising up and cooling as mountains are encountered, falling as rain, which then seeps through the soil into streams and rivers which flow back to the ocean.
It came to me that our lives are like that... we come from a vast Oneness (ocean) and are brought into this world as infants (drops of rain), living our lives for whatever length of time (streams and rivers) before finally joining the Oneness again. Some people live very long lives and are like very long, old rivers which meander as they slowly approach the ocean. Some people live very short lives, dashing down the mountains as creeks and rivulets, joining the ocean shortly after birth.
Our lives, like streams and rivers, are full of obstacles and set-backs. Sometimes we end up coasting for a long time (lakes), other times we are tumbling through a torrent of life (rapids and canyons). Sometimes it seems like our spirit has dried up entirely and we are just suffering through life (underground flow).
Like rivers, our lives can be fruitful and nourishing or wildly damaging. We can suck people into our vortexes or bear them up gently. Rivers and our lives shape the surface upon which we flow... Sometimes we go with the topography of life... sometimes we burst our channels and go elsewhere. Ultimately though, we all end up back in the Oneness... from which we do it again, in a different way, in a different lifetime.
The other day, we were doing a guided meditation, essentially a review of the day... without judging anything that had happened. We were to be neutral observers of our day... and I had an insight of our lives... of life in general...
At some point, we've all learned about the water cycle... water evaporates from the ocean to form clouds, which move over land rising up and cooling as mountains are encountered, falling as rain, which then seeps through the soil into streams and rivers which flow back to the ocean.
It came to me that our lives are like that... we come from a vast Oneness (ocean) and are brought into this world as infants (drops of rain), living our lives for whatever length of time (streams and rivers) before finally joining the Oneness again. Some people live very long lives and are like very long, old rivers which meander as they slowly approach the ocean. Some people live very short lives, dashing down the mountains as creeks and rivulets, joining the ocean shortly after birth.
Our lives, like streams and rivers, are full of obstacles and set-backs. Sometimes we end up coasting for a long time (lakes), other times we are tumbling through a torrent of life (rapids and canyons). Sometimes it seems like our spirit has dried up entirely and we are just suffering through life (underground flow).
Like rivers, our lives can be fruitful and nourishing or wildly damaging. We can suck people into our vortexes or bear them up gently. Rivers and our lives shape the surface upon which we flow... Sometimes we go with the topography of life... sometimes we burst our channels and go elsewhere. Ultimately though, we all end up back in the Oneness... from which we do it again, in a different way, in a different lifetime.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Trust in Life
We had a saying at university - "life's a bitch and then you die"... which seemed like an interesting thing to say before exams. A fatalistic view of life in the face of a perceived threat/danger (exams). But is that really what life is like? I suppose it really depends on how we view life. Do we trust life? Is life something to be endured? Or is life something to be ventured?
The truth is... life will show up in exactly the way that we believe life will show up. If we believe that life is a struggle... then life will be a struggle. If we believe that life's a bitch and then you die... then that will be how life will show up for us. If we don't trust ourselves... we won't trust life.
Ultimately it's up to us as to how we handle life... sure, bad things happen... but the question is, how do we handle them? Do we resist them? Accept them? Move through them? Let the past go? Or are we always going through life looking for the next bad thing? Cause if we are... then we'll find it.
I'd rather move through life in a venturing way... or adventuring way... life has all sorts of opportunities... for exploration and newness and discoveries... that's my view of life. What's yours? And it's not to say that one is right and one is wrong... there are as many ways of moving through life as there are people on this earth... but some ways lead to pain and suffering and some ways lead to joy and fulfillment...
The truth is... life will show up in exactly the way that we believe life will show up. If we believe that life is a struggle... then life will be a struggle. If we believe that life's a bitch and then you die... then that will be how life will show up for us. If we don't trust ourselves... we won't trust life.
Ultimately it's up to us as to how we handle life... sure, bad things happen... but the question is, how do we handle them? Do we resist them? Accept them? Move through them? Let the past go? Or are we always going through life looking for the next bad thing? Cause if we are... then we'll find it.
I'd rather move through life in a venturing way... or adventuring way... life has all sorts of opportunities... for exploration and newness and discoveries... that's my view of life. What's yours? And it's not to say that one is right and one is wrong... there are as many ways of moving through life as there are people on this earth... but some ways lead to pain and suffering and some ways lead to joy and fulfillment...
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Building Trust - one Link at a Time
The other day I came across a very simple, but seemingly effective method of encouraging us to do what we say we're going to do. It comes from Jerry Seinfeld, a show I never watch... and it's called, Don't Break the Chain.
Quite simple really... get a calendar... maybe the one that you got for free from the pharmacy or the garage. Choose what it is that you want to do... exercise every day, drink 8 cups of water in a day, meditate... whatever it is... and then for every day that you follow-through on your commitment to yourself, put a big red X through that day on the calendar. And the next day... and the next day. The idea is to create a long, continuous chain of big red X's as you consistently do what you say you're going to do. Just don't break the chain. And if you do break the chain, then start over again.
This is not a new idea. Factories and other workplaces often have signs that say "We have 723 days injury-free". They don't want to break the chain either!
I use a website called www.750words.com to write my "morning pages" (a la Julia Cameron) every day. The idea is to do it everyday... to create a consistent chain of writing. I started out as an Egg... after 3 days, I earned the Turkey Badge... after 5 days, the Penguin Badge... after 10 days, the Flamingo Badge... after 30 days... the Albatross badge... and at Day 52, I missed a day through forgetfulness... and went back to being an Egg! Now, the little virtual badges might not work for everyone... but they sure work for me... The ultimate goal at this point is 500 days of consecutive writing to earn the lofty title of Space Bird.
It's all the same idea... create an unbroken chain of doing whatever it is that you want to do... and do it. One day at a time. That's all it takes... just do it for today - don't worry about tomorrow. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other... and a mountain can be climbed. And with each footstep, our trust in ourselves rises...
Quite simple really... get a calendar... maybe the one that you got for free from the pharmacy or the garage. Choose what it is that you want to do... exercise every day, drink 8 cups of water in a day, meditate... whatever it is... and then for every day that you follow-through on your commitment to yourself, put a big red X through that day on the calendar. And the next day... and the next day. The idea is to create a long, continuous chain of big red X's as you consistently do what you say you're going to do. Just don't break the chain. And if you do break the chain, then start over again.
This is not a new idea. Factories and other workplaces often have signs that say "We have 723 days injury-free". They don't want to break the chain either!
I use a website called www.750words.com to write my "morning pages" (a la Julia Cameron) every day. The idea is to do it everyday... to create a consistent chain of writing. I started out as an Egg... after 3 days, I earned the Turkey Badge... after 5 days, the Penguin Badge... after 10 days, the Flamingo Badge... after 30 days... the Albatross badge... and at Day 52, I missed a day through forgetfulness... and went back to being an Egg! Now, the little virtual badges might not work for everyone... but they sure work for me... The ultimate goal at this point is 500 days of consecutive writing to earn the lofty title of Space Bird.
It's all the same idea... create an unbroken chain of doing whatever it is that you want to do... and do it. One day at a time. That's all it takes... just do it for today - don't worry about tomorrow. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other... and a mountain can be climbed. And with each footstep, our trust in ourselves rises...
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Self-Trust
Ah, now here is the kicker... Do we actually trust ourselves? Hmmm... that is a big one. Because we don't just make promises and agreements with others. We make promises and agreements with ourselves. We say that we are going to do something... and what happens then if we don't actually do it?
Yeah... we lose a little bit of trust in ourselves. That would see to be fairly common sense. And we can also build trust with ourselves. Some days the trust level goes up... some days it goes down. It's really up to us though. Whereas our trust in others is dependent to a certain extent on their actions (driving erratically)... our trust in ourselves is solely dependent on ourselves and our actions. We're it... And ohhhh... we don't like that sometimes!
We can come up with all sorts of excuses as to why we break our word to ourselves - I'm tired, the weather is bad, the news is bad, I don't have enough time, I had a hard day, I deserve a pick-me-up. Yeah... we use a lot of them... But really, the only person we're injuring is ourselves.
Building trust in ourselves is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute process. We have a choice in each and every moment as to whether we are going to choose an action that is going to raise our trust level in ourselves... or whether we are going to choose an action that will lower it.
We make a commitment to meditate every day - and if we do that... our trust level rises. We make a commitment to go for a walk every day - and if we don't do that... our trust level decreases. I suppose the real question is this... do we want to trust ourselves? Do we want to build trust in ourselves? What is the price we pay if we keep losing trust in ourselves? Does that affect our trust in others as well?
Yeah... we lose a little bit of trust in ourselves. That would see to be fairly common sense. And we can also build trust with ourselves. Some days the trust level goes up... some days it goes down. It's really up to us though. Whereas our trust in others is dependent to a certain extent on their actions (driving erratically)... our trust in ourselves is solely dependent on ourselves and our actions. We're it... And ohhhh... we don't like that sometimes!
We can come up with all sorts of excuses as to why we break our word to ourselves - I'm tired, the weather is bad, the news is bad, I don't have enough time, I had a hard day, I deserve a pick-me-up. Yeah... we use a lot of them... But really, the only person we're injuring is ourselves.
Building trust in ourselves is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute process. We have a choice in each and every moment as to whether we are going to choose an action that is going to raise our trust level in ourselves... or whether we are going to choose an action that will lower it.
We make a commitment to meditate every day - and if we do that... our trust level rises. We make a commitment to go for a walk every day - and if we don't do that... our trust level decreases. I suppose the real question is this... do we want to trust ourselves? Do we want to build trust in ourselves? What is the price we pay if we keep losing trust in ourselves? Does that affect our trust in others as well?
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Basic Trust
Where does trust come from? Is it something that is built? Is it something that we just have? Can trust be strengthened or diminished? By what?
I was musing about that the other day as trust seems to be a sticking point in many areas of our world. Do we trust our politicians? Do we trust our condo boards? Do we trust our neighbours? Do we trust the other drivers on the road?
And it seems to me thusly... we all start with a basic level of trust. We have to... otherwise we wouldn't leave the house. We would stay inside, in our basement bunker, shivering in fear. We have a basic trust as we leave our driveway that the other drivers out there are going to drive responsibly. We have a basic trust that politicians aren't going to run our country into the ground. We have a basic trust that our bank manager isn't going to embezzle our money.
Now, having said that... once we are out there... our trust metre can either go up or go down. If we say a driver weaving erratically down the road, our trust level goes down. If we see them run a red light and narrowly avoid a collision, our trust level goes down even further. And once it's down there, it will take quite a bit for that trust to be rebuilt.
If we repeatedly experience a lowering of trust with one particular person, then that trust might never be rebuilt. If someone is repeatedly late for meetings or appointments... our trust goes down. And re-building that trust can take quite a bit. It's very easy to lose trust... much harder to regain it.
Conversely, if our trust level increases over time.. as someone demonstrates that they are consistent and worthy of trust, then there might even be a bit of room for a misstep here and there. Once in a while is one thing though... over and over again is another thing.
Which makes me consider... how trustworthy am I?
I was musing about that the other day as trust seems to be a sticking point in many areas of our world. Do we trust our politicians? Do we trust our condo boards? Do we trust our neighbours? Do we trust the other drivers on the road?
And it seems to me thusly... we all start with a basic level of trust. We have to... otherwise we wouldn't leave the house. We would stay inside, in our basement bunker, shivering in fear. We have a basic trust as we leave our driveway that the other drivers out there are going to drive responsibly. We have a basic trust that politicians aren't going to run our country into the ground. We have a basic trust that our bank manager isn't going to embezzle our money.
Now, having said that... once we are out there... our trust metre can either go up or go down. If we say a driver weaving erratically down the road, our trust level goes down. If we see them run a red light and narrowly avoid a collision, our trust level goes down even further. And once it's down there, it will take quite a bit for that trust to be rebuilt.
If we repeatedly experience a lowering of trust with one particular person, then that trust might never be rebuilt. If someone is repeatedly late for meetings or appointments... our trust goes down. And re-building that trust can take quite a bit. It's very easy to lose trust... much harder to regain it.
Conversely, if our trust level increases over time.. as someone demonstrates that they are consistent and worthy of trust, then there might even be a bit of room for a misstep here and there. Once in a while is one thing though... over and over again is another thing.
Which makes me consider... how trustworthy am I?
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
What is Trust?
Ipsos Reid did a poll in Canada in the middle of December 2011, asking Canadians which professions they trusted the most. Top of the list? Well... pharmacists, doctors, Canadian soldiers, and airline pilots are all in the 70% range. Bottom of the list? Not suprisingly... car salespeople at 6%. Church leaders come in at a mediocre 33% having lost 5 points from last year. That is now below plumbers, chiropractors and financial advisors.
Which makes me wonder... what is trust? Does it matter what sort of trust we place in a person? Perhaps it does... We're entrusting pharmacists, doctors, and airline pilots with our lives, literally. But then police officers and soldiers would seem to be on a par, and yet they're not. Police at 57% and Canadian soldiers at 74%. Apparently news reports play a role in who trustworthy we perceive people/professions to be. Bad press about the RCMP means a drop in trustworthiness at the polls. Same with church leaders. Some bad press over the last year and all church leaders are viewed as being less trustworthy.
Which means... we are for more interconnected than we think. My trustworthiness can have implications for my entire profession. The behaviour of one person can have ripple effects far beyond them.
Bishop Raymond Lahey didn't really think through what it would mean to look at child pornography on his computer. He didn't think through what it would mean when he was caught... and charged... and convicted... and sentenced. His behaviour affects the whole Catholic Church in Canada and beyond.
Russell Williams, disgraced former commander of CFB Trenton and convicted serial killer didn't really think through his actions in stalking, raping and murdering women. He didn't really think it through... what it would mean to be stripped of his rank, to be disgraced with a dishonourable discharge, to have his medals confiscated... to be thrown in jail... to have all of his military kit burned in a roaring furnace. But does anyone really think through how their actions will affect themselves and the greater world?
When we toss a piece of trash on the ground... do we really think through how it might have bigger ramifications? Probably not... but maybe we could...
Trust starts in our private lives... trustworthiness starts with the little things that we do in secret... or that we think we do in secret. Nothing is every really a secret... it will come out eventually, and the questions for us really is... what sort of legacy do we want to leave in the world... for ourselves and for others?
Which makes me wonder... what is trust? Does it matter what sort of trust we place in a person? Perhaps it does... We're entrusting pharmacists, doctors, and airline pilots with our lives, literally. But then police officers and soldiers would seem to be on a par, and yet they're not. Police at 57% and Canadian soldiers at 74%. Apparently news reports play a role in who trustworthy we perceive people/professions to be. Bad press about the RCMP means a drop in trustworthiness at the polls. Same with church leaders. Some bad press over the last year and all church leaders are viewed as being less trustworthy.
Which means... we are for more interconnected than we think. My trustworthiness can have implications for my entire profession. The behaviour of one person can have ripple effects far beyond them.
Bishop Raymond Lahey didn't really think through what it would mean to look at child pornography on his computer. He didn't think through what it would mean when he was caught... and charged... and convicted... and sentenced. His behaviour affects the whole Catholic Church in Canada and beyond.
Russell Williams, disgraced former commander of CFB Trenton and convicted serial killer didn't really think through his actions in stalking, raping and murdering women. He didn't really think it through... what it would mean to be stripped of his rank, to be disgraced with a dishonourable discharge, to have his medals confiscated... to be thrown in jail... to have all of his military kit burned in a roaring furnace. But does anyone really think through how their actions will affect themselves and the greater world?
When we toss a piece of trash on the ground... do we really think through how it might have bigger ramifications? Probably not... but maybe we could...
Trust starts in our private lives... trustworthiness starts with the little things that we do in secret... or that we think we do in secret. Nothing is every really a secret... it will come out eventually, and the questions for us really is... what sort of legacy do we want to leave in the world... for ourselves and for others?
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Lost?
There was an interesting story in the news the other day. A Swedish woman lost her wedding ring 16 years ago while baking with her daughters. A few months ago, she was pulling up carrots in her garden and there was her wedding ring around a carrot! The best that they can figure is that it went down the sink, mixed with the compost, either went into the garden or the sheep and then the garden.... and came out the other end wrapped around a carrot.
There's a lesson for all of this somewhere in that. Nothing is every really lost. You never know what sort of a journey things will take. Imagine the adventure that the ring could tell if it could talk. Does the story tell us something deeper about our relationships? Perhaps some people leave our lives only to come back later in a different way. Sometimes we tend to hold onto things long beyond their "shelf life". Whether it's our youth... or our friends... or our possessions... or our pets... we try to extend things, relationships, experiencees long beyond what they were meant to carry.
We can't hold onto our youth. The ones who try... who colour their hair, inject botox, nip and tuck their wrinkles, etc... end up looking worse off than if they were to let go of their youth with grace and good humour. We can't hold onto our relationships. The ones who try end up regretting it eventually! Life is an ebb and flow of people, experiences, possessions, places, events... everything has a story to tell... everything has a lesson to communicate. We just need to listen and learn and take it with us.
The ring doesn't fit the Swedish woman... but she has plans to have the ring altered so it will fit. I wonder what impact the discovery of the ring is having on her relationship with her husband?
There's a lesson for all of this somewhere in that. Nothing is every really lost. You never know what sort of a journey things will take. Imagine the adventure that the ring could tell if it could talk. Does the story tell us something deeper about our relationships? Perhaps some people leave our lives only to come back later in a different way. Sometimes we tend to hold onto things long beyond their "shelf life". Whether it's our youth... or our friends... or our possessions... or our pets... we try to extend things, relationships, experiencees long beyond what they were meant to carry.
We can't hold onto our youth. The ones who try... who colour their hair, inject botox, nip and tuck their wrinkles, etc... end up looking worse off than if they were to let go of their youth with grace and good humour. We can't hold onto our relationships. The ones who try end up regretting it eventually! Life is an ebb and flow of people, experiences, possessions, places, events... everything has a story to tell... everything has a lesson to communicate. We just need to listen and learn and take it with us.
The ring doesn't fit the Swedish woman... but she has plans to have the ring altered so it will fit. I wonder what impact the discovery of the ring is having on her relationship with her husband?
Sunday, January 1, 2012
A New Year
A New Year is born. We look back on the old year and think of all that we have witnessed and seen and survived. Tsunamis, nuclear meltdowns, financial meltdowns, environmental disasters, Arab spring, etc. 2011 was a very full year. And as we move into 2012 with the Mayan calendar looming over us, I wonder what this year will bring. Will the world end on December 21 2012? Or will the Mayan Calendar just flip over another page, start a new calendar, like we do every year?
One thing this does do is make us look at our lives and wonder... if we do have only one year left to live - less than one year actually - what would we do in that year? There is a danger in that thinking - for we could decide that we want to go out with a bang and use up all of our resources, spend all of our money, eat all of our food, waste the environmental resources that we have left. It's like the patient who receives a cancer diagnosis that she has less than a year to live, and who decides to live it fully, spending all that she has - selling her house, traveling, enjoying and then... discovering that it was a diagnosis made in error. She doesn't just have a year left to live! Now what.
So, looking at this year as it were our last doesn't necessarily mean squandering our physical resources.. but it could mean something else. It could mean altering our attitude towards life and towards others. Perhaps we could spend our love extravagantly, be generous with our time, connect with others, contribute to others. Because the world might not end on December 21, 2012. Maybe, in fact, we need to alter the way we have been living our lives, the way we have been spending as if there is not tomorrow. Maybe December 21, 2012 represents a moment where we can make a choice as a species as to which sort of a world we want to create. All sorts of possibilities abound and we have the power to create that... or not.
One thing this does do is make us look at our lives and wonder... if we do have only one year left to live - less than one year actually - what would we do in that year? There is a danger in that thinking - for we could decide that we want to go out with a bang and use up all of our resources, spend all of our money, eat all of our food, waste the environmental resources that we have left. It's like the patient who receives a cancer diagnosis that she has less than a year to live, and who decides to live it fully, spending all that she has - selling her house, traveling, enjoying and then... discovering that it was a diagnosis made in error. She doesn't just have a year left to live! Now what.
So, looking at this year as it were our last doesn't necessarily mean squandering our physical resources.. but it could mean something else. It could mean altering our attitude towards life and towards others. Perhaps we could spend our love extravagantly, be generous with our time, connect with others, contribute to others. Because the world might not end on December 21, 2012. Maybe, in fact, we need to alter the way we have been living our lives, the way we have been spending as if there is not tomorrow. Maybe December 21, 2012 represents a moment where we can make a choice as a species as to which sort of a world we want to create. All sorts of possibilities abound and we have the power to create that... or not.
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