We exchanged campfire for TV and other social media. In 5 pics

 

What do You Think. Why do We Watch TV?

Look at talkshow host Oprah Winfrey. Look at U2 rockband singer Bono. Look at Paris Hilton. Take 30 seconds … what do you see? Differences? Resemblances?

I see a big campfire. Only 3 ‘homo sapiens’ generations ago we all sat, with our own 40-60 group, around campfires. Looking at the fire. Eating and drinking. Dream a little. Chat a lot. Making plans for tomorrow. In our time and age we exchanged campfire for TV and other social media.

In the past our group consisted family, neighbors, friends etc. People who all lived nearby. People we all knew face to face. These days our 40-60 group is spread throughout planet Earth and consists: family, popstars, celebrities, Twitter and Facebook friends, writers etc. Most of them we don’t know personally. We get informed about them via TV, glossies, newspapers, tweets etc. We know much more about them then about the neighbor 5 houses down the street.

The setting changed. Our 40-60 group changed. But what remains is the amount of people we follow. Still 40-60. What remains is our need for people who change ideas with us: what's next? what happened? what to do tomorrow? who can we trust and who not?

Look at the fire. What do you see? 

I went into a room

I went into a room on the day that Jesus was born. Outside snow. Lots of snow in Austria. On  a 10-day ski holiday with my mum, brother, a friend of my brother and my girlfriend (now wife).

Just finished my 5 hour walk under a warm sun. I walked alone. Everyone else went skiing. Nothing happened. I made no spectacular climb. Didn't risk my life. Enjoyed the views, houses (german 'Maisäße'),  clouds and sun. Life in Austria is always so much more vivid.

Back in our apartment I took for something to eat. Made hot chocolate. Lurked in a book. The room was warm. I felt tired and satisfied. Nothing happened. Everything was quiet and cosy. In a few hours we would eat together and get a few drinks. But that was a few hours away. Far away. First more monky-me: nap, read a little and write a little. Just me and the ticking clock.

The right stuff

Runway. Empty landscape. Military jetnoise. A crashed jet with the pilot in it. Couple of pilots hanging at the bar. Pictures on the wall. A lot of pictures: pilots and their aircrafts. Two well dressed men entering the bar. Silence. We can hear the clock ticking. More jetnoise.

Two men: "We are looking for Chuck Yeager."

One of the pilots: "Who is asking?"

Two men: "We're from Washington and looking for pilots for the NASA space program."

Yeager: "Not interested. Don't want to get rocketed into space like a hooked monkey. That's not flying."

The scene above in 'The Right Stuff' (film 1983) is one my favorites. It tells it all in a nutshell: bravery, machismo and doing exactly what fighter pilots want to do: flying. Flying as a way of life. Danger - 53 procent change of dying as a test pilot during a 20-year career. Fast jets. A man's world. For Yeager being an astronaut was the wrong track. It had nothing to do with flying. Wrong track. Wrong stuff.

 

The book I finished reading last week reminded me of the scene above. Writer Dave "Bio" Baranek wrote in his book 'Topgun days' (2010) about his career as a radar intercept officer (RIO) in the Navy. He was not a pilot (front seat). He sat in the backseat. Flying was all Bio wanted to do. Live a fighter pilots life: flying in fast jets, outsmarting others in dogfights, learning and adapting. For 30 months Bio was an instructor at the US Navy Fighter Weapons School. It's the school we all know now by the name 'Topgun'.    

Lovely book. No real surprises for me. What struck me most was the fact that 'Topgun'-the-movie was a ripple in the day to day job of Bio. For him the movie was decoration. He was busy flying, doing his classes and being an instructor. Just a ripple.

P.s. Here a  real book review on book 'Topgun days'.

P.s.s. The scene above is my interpretation of 'The Right Stuff'. I saw the film >10 years ago. Can't remember the exact lines.

P.s.s.s. My blogs on flying: bookreview 'Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds'; history gliders in 3 pics; 3 pics fighter pilots how things changed in 100 years.

On an oil lamp

Today a poem from Marcus Argentarius who lived around year 0 in Rome (AP 5.128):

 

"Her breast against my breast, 

Her skin on mine,

Her lips against my lips, 

with nothing in between Antigone and me, we lay.

I say no more.

The rest the lamp was witness of."

Does the postman always rings twice? #job

My favorite extinct job is a #palingpeurer (english #eelbob). Question: What is your favorite(s)?

 

Postman always rings twice! Always? In The Netherlands #postman are this and next week on strike. It's a profession threatened with extinction. Why? All of us hardly send snailmail anymore. No handwritten letters. No postcards from abroad. No packages with food, cloths or ... - there must be more. The delivery of items is reducing quickly.

Are you frozen on your job? Do you hate the way your boss organises your company? Does no one ever listen to your "free" advices to get the work better - much better - organised? Looking around again for another job, boss or Way things Finally get Properly organised?

Remember this. There is not 1 way of organising. There are many. How to organise depends on the organisational configurations, the life cycle of the organisation and the environment it lives in.

Remember this. Jobs come and go. When we look back in history we find out that jobs are like a river. The exact definition on what to do (and don't) is never the same. Never! Water floats and floats. The #postman of today is not the same as the postman 50, 100 or 200 years ago. The #farmer of today is not the same as the farmer 50, 100, 500,1.000 or  10.000 years ago. 

I love to puzzle and wonder on jobs that got extinct. A little list of extinct jobs in The Netherlands:

• #peddler (dutch #marskramer)
• #eelbob (dutch #palingpeurer)
• #lamplighter
• #lighthouse keeper (dutch #vuurtorenwachter)
• #train crossing guard (dutch #overwegwachter)
• #bell-ringer (dutch #klokkenluider)
• #flintknapper (dutch #steenklopper of #vuursteensmid)
• #whaling (dutch #walvisvaarder) 
• #copymonk (dutch #monnik die boeken kopieert)

This is a list of not extinct jobs. It's a list of romantic remnants: #shepherd #clog (dutch klompenmaker) #windmiller #king. Yes a #king.

Odd?

What do you see when you look in the mirror? Only the fresh you of today that needs his teeth brushed? You at the age of 19? An ape? The imperfections? What you could be if ...? Do you ever look at your own eyes? Or only from the side? What do you see when you look at you?

This is what I "see":

You know?

Only 200-300 years old! Did you know that all our present day focus on I, Me and Self is a highly biased perspective? It's a Western Enlightenment view on life of species 'Homo Sapiens'. It's only a couple of 100 years old. 200 - 300 years old! Surprised?

Twenty years ago I planned to write "someday" a book on the history of happiness. Four years ago I realised I don't have to write it anymore. It's already written by Darrin M. MacMahon in his book 'Happiness: A history'. I read it 4 years ago. Back than I needed a mirror. I needed something that dried my tears and cleared my head. Reading Darrin's book worked perfect for me. 

In a way we as species invented (better: have been inventing) "happiness". The definition on what a happy life is changed a few times during history (source):

• Homeric.  Happiness = Luck
• Classical. Happiness = Virtue
• Medieval. Happiness = Heaven
• Enlightenment. Happiness = Pleasure
• Contemporary. Happiness = A Warm Puppy

It's my birthday today and I cry if I want to.

So why bother?

I know that I'm authentic and original. Someone who makes up his own mind regardless of authorities, titles, holy books, fat words or todays trending topics in my country or on planet Earth. Hot news of today is always old news tomorrow. So why bother?

How did I became the man I'm today? Someone who is always working on at least 3 projects. Bizzy with reading. Checking out thoughts, presuppositions and allegations. Always on the road. Never steady ground. Never afraid to enter a completely unknown subject.

The truth is I don't really know. Since I left primary school I was always on my own. My parents were not able to help me with my homework. I had to figure it out on my own way. At the university I was never impressed by all the professors I met. Just human beings too. With their strong points, flaws, jealousy etc. Most of them specialist's specialist.

I guess above all because I like to read books. Books make me feel alive.

I know that I'm authentic and original. How about you. Are you too?

Invoice

Five years before the Iron Curtain fell down I visited Auschwitz concentration camp (polski 'Oświęcim') in Poland. It was a strange place to visit. Rain. Green grass. Dust. Lots of rust iron. How bizarre to enter the old gas chambers. Pretty small.

What shocked me most was an invoice of Zyklon B. Couple of thousand kilo's. Price? Can't remember. One invoice of probably many. Apparently someone did the bookkeeping. I realised that the killing of the Jews in World War II wasn't done in a whirl. It must have been a gigantic logistical operation. Gather people (raids), transportation over thousands of km, selection (to the right meant labor, to the left meant to the gas chambers), killing (Zyklon B), burning of the death and get rid of the ashes. Bills that had to be paid. There must have been a bookkeeper who knew the answer to the question 'Avarage cost of Zyklon B for 1 Jew?'. 

Question: did he (or she?) calculate too the costs of razzia's, transportation, crematorium, food for gards and workforce? Were costs for environment e.g. Carbon dioxide (CO2) an externality?

P.s. I'll try to find a better and readable copy of this invoice.