Forever

This picture is from Joseph Breitenbach. I am not sure why it is called Forever. Nevertheless, it is. What is forever? We human beings pretend that we'll be around forever. But we won't. I wonder, if you knew you'd die soon, why would you fight for a comfortable life instead of testing your limits and seizing the day? If you look around, the luxury we live in is build and created because we think we'll be around forever to benefit from it.

How many people die every day. And more are born. There are billions of us. Many billions of us already died and the world still goes on. Millions of people are in this world who are lost, lonely, hurt, or those who have brilliant ideas but cannot break through. Our existence is so insignificant if we lose our belonging to a context, a system, a network - to nature, to emotional sanity and honesty to ourselves and others.

Still our existence still has a meaning. In its modest way. And that is what we should be grateful for and rediscover ... ourselves. A brave new world would emerge if we'd finally stop pretending so much, huh?

We look so alike...but we aren't

Sometimes I find it striking how all human beings look alike. Of course, we are the same species. But what is more interesting than our similar appearance is how different we are underneath. When you look at a person, you can guess if the person is happy or sad, or if the person is dull or charismatic. But there is a lot more to it than that. Imagine, even parents and children have very different personalities and sometimes even values. On the surface, they look alike, but below the surface... one may save lives every day as a doctor whereas the other feels nausea from the sight of blood. One looks sure of himself and the other is shy, yet has a profound soul and mind. But all these qualities take time to reveal. It is exciting. Some find it extremely boring to talk about these kinds of things and look into exact sciences or just have to devote all their energy to survive from one day to another.

And on top of it all, depending on the circumstances one grows up in, "good" and "bad" differ according to culture. We are very complex beings.
On the other hand we all are determined by the pursuit of happiness. That's a thing we all have in common. And one more thing: the source of happiness is always inside of us. Hidden in our complex existence.

Fascinating people!

It's a dark picture, I know. This is Meky Zbirka, the all time favourite Slovak "soft rock" singer. He was the ultimate hit of the 80's and gave a concert just a few days ago in Brussels. Among others he sang John Lennon's anthem, "Imagine". It's always uplifting to listen to it...
Por o caso (by the way) on the day of the concert I went to a conference on mobility/migration in Europe. And there I saw a quote saying "The more we share, the more we have!". What wonderful thought...even though lately we are not good at sharing at all...
So this is a message to those who care, who look for inspiration and who believe that they can make a difference.
Listen to "Imagine" and try to share something with a stranger today!
It's a start :-)

The power of our brains

Have you realized that the "truth" we percieve to be out there, our "reality" is created in our brains through the limitations and norms we impose on ourselves?

It is amazing how even neighbours and siblings live in different realities....

That is why it reveals so much about this world when you just observe the others, when you look outside the window of the moving bus and try to picture yourself in the situation of a bypasser. I am amazed.

And it teaches you a lot, too!

About literature and the state of my soulbird

I have a bird in my soul. But you also do. Have you noticed? If not, just try to listen to something isnide of you and maybe you'll discover him. If it seems hard but you speak German, look up the poem called Der Seelenvogel by Michael Snunit, Na'ama Golomb. Maybe that will wake your soulbird up.
So, once he's awake, you'll feel some things differently. You'll feel the soulbird's mood. Especially when you are under emotional shocks.
Since I like reading, novels that is, my soulbird reacts to the morals of the books I read. I have noticed, that just like in visual arts, it is not the style and technique of writing any more that makes a piece of literature good (even though that matters, too), but the ideas. How daring the book is, how shockingly do the protagonists behave.
Letely I was reading about boys being raped, about a wife having breast cancer and dying from it whereas her husband falls in love with someone else. And we all know true stories of adultery, lies and thieves from our own surrounding. So it is not so hard to imagine, that whatever we read in the books, is actually going on around us and we just have been oblivious to it.

And that is when my soulbird is most confused.

I believe in things changing, in progress, in people being able to be honest and reliable and truthful. I believe that what we feel now, just after we passed quarter of a century of age, is the truth we accept and according to which we will live. Or are least I really would like it to be true.
I would like to comfort those who love me and care about me. I would like to be there for them.
Am I lying to myself?

Overpowered

like exploding from energy or like given too much power?
Is either of them any good?
Still, right now I would like to feel both. But somehow it feels that often we are not in control and someone has drained our energy. Maybe it is a good idea to start doing yoga. The hatha version :-)
Happy New Year to everyone! I got this numerical picture from http://ideiasenlatadas.blogspot.com/. This is the ad spot!

If travelling was compulsory

We all know that civil aviation contributes to the increase of greenhouse-gas emissions. We all like travelling. An increasing number of us is aware of the fact that travelling by air is not environmentally friendly but still, we just love travelling.

But no one really forces us to travel. On the other hand, we all have to pay taxes, but we are not too excited about it. We had to go to school when we were kids and most of us were not crazy about it. We have to obey our boss/parents, even if we don't agree with them. Most of the things that are compulsory are not our hobbies.

So, does this mean that if travelling by air was compulsory, we would prefer taking the train, boat or bus?

I wonder...

Long busride

Even though Amsterdam and Brussels are relatively close, a busride between the two cities takes four hours. And last night I had the honour of sitting next to an Erasmus Mundus student from Shanghai, China. So I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to ask a Chinese person how they see us, Europeans. And to my surprise, she said: Europeans are slow.
And I was thinking all these years that we live in a crazy rat race, an inhuman stress. Apparently, everything is relative.
Are we missing out on an opportunity if we are seen from the outside as slow? Should we speed up?
I guess all coins have two sides....

What else is there to add?

Fashion

What is fashion about? I guess it should be about being appealing to the person who we would like to show interest in us. Or at least that was the initial idea. But not that I walk on the street, I look at women and judge their appearence, like "i'd kill for that bag". And that particular person with the killer bag, boots, earrings and other apparel items or accessories probably chose it knowing that other women would give them jealous looks. This however does not mean that I am the person who should become interested in her. Just that fashion is not oriented at attracting potential partners any more. But at attracting jealous looks from other women (or men). And spending way too much money on not so important things.
It works! ;-)

The golden rule

i guess there are several of them. The one I heard today from a particular Mister from Social Platform (http://www.socialplatform.org/) was the following:
The one with the gold sets the rules.
I might live in a dreamworld, which is not healthy at my age, but I find this golden rule hard to accept.
Or at least I would say, Hard work brings you gold and with gold you'll set the rules.
That gives me at least a little hope.
Call me naive if you like.

Self-branding

I saw an article in the Time magazine yestarday. It said that Facebook os good for nothing but self-branding in the end. I guess having a blog is pretty much the same! Sorry, I still hope it serves as an inspiration for others to start their own blog and say something interesting. It's a way of communicating with others, a very simple, but efficient one!
Anyways, I would like to invite anyone to comment on this. It is good to know what you might think of the things you find in this blog.
I guess I am self-branding, but hopefully I also say sometimes something useful! :-)

Belarus

What do you know about Belarus? Well, Idon't know much about the country, only that Lukashenka is the president and that the opposition does not have much power. Check out www.salidarnasc.org (and click on the EN button) on more opposition info. Many say the situation is not that bad there. I don't know. All I know that I saw this wonderful yound lady who said when asked about her family's view on her opposition to the government: I only have a husband. But it's hard. We cannot have children, we don't know who'll go first to jail.

Need more?

Way better than watching TV

It is so wonderful to sit by t he sea and look for Morocco on the other side. Well' it's too far to see and we tend to pretend that it's not too close. If you would like to acknoweldge that Northern Africa reserves more attention, visit http://www.kingbaudouinfoundation.org/ for a start. And watching the sea anyway has a tranquilising effect :-)

Chocolate

Iguess everyone knows what is the big attraction of Brussels. It's Chocolate, of course! And the big attraction of Amsterdam? Weed, of course. Since I have had the opportunity to visit both cities, I happened to compare them on their attractions. And I have to admit, the winner is Brussels. From a pure marketing point of view: weed is attractive for a smaller amonut of people than chocolate. Not everyone who goes to Amsterdam goes to a coffee shop. But I have not heard of anyone coming to Brussels and not visiting some fine chocolatiers. Also, whereas weed is an issue that is not supported by all Dutch, I have never met a Belgian complaining about the silly tourists "eating our chocolate". Basically, Chocolate is a less controversial topic and in the end, it brings more money even if just because of the nr of people buying it. And if you have been to Brussels, you probably know that you rarely get away with paying less than 10 Euros...

Lost in Brussels! Or lost in Europe?

Last weekend I was walking with Patricia around in Brussels.

And I got lost soooo many times. And she made me promise I would put this picture on my blog.

So here it comes! But I was thinking if this could be a metaphor for being lost in Europe. Well, not for me. I am at home in Europe and believe I know my way around. There is still a lot to learn, but I am a EUphoric person. Therefore, the idea of a Europe that is in many ways united makes me smile with content.

For its values should not be set but earnt from its citizens. For its beauty and diversity continue to persist. And that is good!And that's why there is a future to it. And that's what I would like to be a part of!

Boycott

Fascinating and vast and wonderful and rich the country I have on my mind may be, I shall try to boycott its products for one entire year. (I have not bought anything from there this month so I'll count the end of the year for the end of next September.)
It's not agianst that country. It's againt my consumerism.
It's to make sure that I feel good about the things I purchase.
Producers of the world, please provide enough goods to avoid the absence of choice for consumers (in terms of the country of origin of a given good). After this, I will buy products from that country only for one entire month, I promise!
Is that a deal?

Shoe story

I have realised, that not only did the heel of my boot break off last Friday, but the last time I started a new job (in Amsterdam), I wore new shoes on the first day and they completely rubbed of the skin of the back of my heel on the way to work. So I started my new job back then barefoot. Maybe there is something about shoes on the first day in a new job...what do you think?

Positive news

well, I don't know how you feel about it, but sometimes I wish news were not so negative. So sad and frustrating. So I found this gentleman, Mr. Boufford, who has a positive newsblog at http://mrpositive.blogspot.com/. Check it out! Even though he tends to be happy about profits and other financial news (which I am not that extremely excited about if I do not like the overall policy of the given organization), he does put things in a nice and promising way. I am not sure if he has any competitiors, so if you are looking for a market niche, maybe you could feel positively challenged about providing even more positive news to the rest of the human race!

Clash of civilisations

So I went to church today after a rather long time. Do you know the book by Samuel Huntigton The Clash of Civilisations? It's about the proneness to conflict in areas where civlisations/religions meet. It basically says that where the Christian and the Muslim world meet, there will definitely be a conflict. Because of immigration, the Muslim religion is more and more present all over Europe. So there it is likely that there will be a conflict in many European cities because of the religious diversity.
And today at church I saw this humble group of Christians and Arabs (also Muslins thinking of converting) singing together psalms with an Oriental rhythm. Now that's what I call not lamenting but doing something. Not writing books and being famous scientists but thinking globally, acting locally and indeed making a fundamental difference in those people's lives who get involved. I have to admit, I did have goosebums and almost a tear in my eyes. No battle is lost until we accept the defeat!
There might as well repprochement of civilisations instead of a clash!