Ideeahs

The first day of the year is, arguably, the most optimistic day of the year. With determination we, as individuals, decide at this moment of time to affect some positive change into our lives or those of others. As a result of this clean sheet of paper offered to us by the New Year we feel that all the possibilities of the world are in front of us awaiting the reach of our hands. We can write the script. With all of the previous years baggage thrown out on December 31st there is nothing left to weigh us down and prevent us from attaining our objectives and resolutions. It is an optimistic day and we are hopeful that this sense of optimism will last for the remainder of the year's days. A new beginning. It would seem to me that this would, therefore, also be a day when world leaders might be feeling slightly more optimistic than normally. They may be entering 2011 with some real beliefs that this just might be the year that they can, as individuals, affect positive change...

During the last two days of the year I, like many millions, grab onto that most amazing human construct called Time, specifically the unit we call Year, and look forward in the space of time. I have always been someone who enjoys throwing stuff out. Decluttering brings me joy. Simplification removes weight from my shoulders. At this time of year I like to take the piece of paper that has all of the past's stories written on it, crumble and pitch it across the room straight into the bin. This human construct called Year allows me to bin the past and start afresh. The past has passed and the future awaits. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

A recurring thought recently found its way into my consciousness. The subject of this familiar thought is how the measurement of time has impacted society. Those of you who have read my book, " Avoiding the Blues ", know some of my thoughts on this subject and how time has had an impact on my life. Time management has become an ever more important skill for human beings. The slice of time we use to measure it has diminished from from years and months, through days and hours, on to minutes and seconds and, finally today, to nano and pico seconds. As a result we now have potentially more and more items that need to be managed in a day. More and more bits of data compete for these ever smaller slices and, because we are now able to measure and schedule time in smaller units, we allow more of these disparate items to enter our days. We feel a need to manage more and more into the finite number of twenty-four hours. To do this, successfully, we need to all become good ma...

Why is it that it is always John Doe that gets shot dead and murdered, beat up or harassed, or just goes missing? Why can't it be Joe Blow - that unknown, generic man that makes no difference in anyone's life - that goes missing sometimes? Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

I spent the afternoon constructing high-rise buildings, driving various cars and piloting planes with my son. It could have been the 1970s.....even the dust from that decade was with us. One of my most memorable Christmas gifts as a child was the Girder and Panel building set that I received one year sometime in the mid-70s. It was a building set that allowed me to construct skyscrapers by using plastic posts and girders. These girders allowed me to build towers that extended well into the sky - well at least three feet into it (measured from the wooden parquet floor of the living room of that apartment in Saint-Laurent). Part of my collection of toys were also cars and airplanes. The cars are long gone but the planes are toys that my son now plays with...along with that Girder and Panel set. So today we constructed, we drove and we flew. As we unboxed the building set my eyes noticed the dust that was sitting on some of the roof panels that make up part of the toy. The cor...

The idea for this entry came during my walk to the train station this morning. Near the railroad tracks there are two single-family homes surrounded by apartment buildings and town homes. These houses just don't fit in and look very much misplaced. I started imagining that they must have been built when the area looked a little different. Rather than apartment building or town homes there might have been fields. I caught myself saying that they must have been built when there was "nothing here". I immediately realized that I might have made a mistake. Not in saying that the houses might have been built when there were only fields around them but in saying there was "nothing here". The statement implies that today there is something here. That somehow there is more today than there was back then - whenever "then" happened to be. I indeed made an error. Yes there may be more human beings living in this place today than there were in the p...

I am writing part of this entry while riding the train home. In my lap is the book "Ryoju - The Hunting Gun" by Yasushi Inoue. I am unable to zone in and concentrate on my reading. There are too many distractions which are disturbing my peace. Clearly I am unable to meditate and ignore the happenings around me. I have work to do with my self. There are many times in my daily life that I think back to my trip to Japan in the autumn of 2008 . This is one of them. Specifically I am remembering how lovely it was to ride the train in Tokyo. I was struck by the silence. Standing on the platform looking in at the car one could have imagined that it would be a painful ride. People were packed into a sardine can only able to stay standing during the ebb and flow of the ride due to the fact that they were supported by their fellow commuter standing centimetres away. One might also imagine that so many people would create a cacophony of various noises in addition to a stin...