10,000 times (from Sept 23rd)

 “Time provides all of us with the opportunity to change, alter our belief system, and create new perspectives that challenge a person’s character and teach him or her how to become a happier and wiser person.”

Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

Show me a man who claims he is objective and I'll show you a man with illusions.
Henry R. Luce

An excerpt from the Financial Express review of the book Poor economics: A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty

“We must arm ourselves with patience and wisdom and listen to the poor and what they want. This is the best way to avoid the trap of ignorance, ideology, and inertia on our side”, wrote Abhijit V Banerjee describing the main message of the book, which is the ‘Three Is' problem (ignorance, ideology, and inertia) of poverty trap. It often plagues the efforts which are supposed to alleviate poverty."

The authors of the aforementioned book, winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2019), have worked with the poor to cull information directly from them in dozens of countries across five continents for more than 15 years.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Bruce Lee

My thoughts;
I have been thinking of all the post mortems and blah blah about the Canadian Federal election on Monday. When I saw the reference on a quote to Dead Toad Scrolls I thought this sounded like an apt title for all this rehashing. Then I thought about the poor, maligned toad and how unfair it is to use anything from nature as a metaphor for our politics. In nature you eat or you are eaten. If you eat today you will be eaten tomorrow or the next day, possibly by a big predator, but for certain everything will  eventually be consumed by bacteria. There is no escaping, every living thing will eventually be some form of poop, and then fertilizer for the next creature that grows from it. 

Wait a minute here, maybe the rehashing is the bacterial process, but if so it seems like we have a long way to go before the fertilizer is used for anything productive. How many times do we hear the same things over and over?? The economy blah blah, the greedy rich blah blah, the unambitious poor who are so lazy they don't take advantage when aid is offered to them...

The 'three Is' problem seems prevalent in many of our ways of thinking today... 

Ideologies; what we believe to be true, keeps us thinking the same way. Imagine if things weren't judged on whether they fit in with an ideology in a government party, in religion, in culture, in business...

Ignorance; that we don't question to find out the meaning or source behind what we are told. It is so much easier to assume than to ask questions. Easier to be right than to say "I don't know". Imagine if we asked questions instead of thinking we know the solutions, instead of assuming everyone wants the same thing or has the same opportunities and needs.

Inertia; that lets us stay in our comfort zones and stay thinking the problems are too big and as an individual we don't make a difference so why not just accept our place and be content with jumping over puddles and never dive into the ocean. 

I think the first quote above describes the possibility. The second and third quotes describe the obstacles. The fourth quote actually gives us the work to do to make the first possible. We do not change in a day or in a thought. Hard work and many practice kicks are needed. 

My hero today is a friend who recently completed the physical challenge of bicycling 300 km, paddling across a lake and climbing to summit a demanding peak all in under 12 hours said that this was relatively easy because of all of the sweat that he put in during the training. He trained harder and in worse conditions than the actual challenge. 

 

How do we know something is impossible?? And if we are all going to be eaten by bacteria and turned into poop, why don't we aim to make that land in more fertile ground... oh dear, I lost that thought somewhere. 

PS      I had to google whether cremated ashes got decomposed by bacteria. I learned a new word; Cremains, and I learned a bunch of stuff like people store cremains in airtight urns and even in jewelry to make them last longer. I wonder if this is an analogy for the rehashing and why change in thinking is so slow...the poop process is slowed down and stays in the system way too long.

PPS   Spellcheck accepted cremains as a legit word (am I the only one to not have heard this??)

Cheers
Jeanne