Reflections on Peace, Philosophy, and Life
Coronavirus is rampant and has changed our everyday life, possibly permanently. As one of the old people prone to this virus, it makes me change many of the carefully nurtured habits. One in particular I find difficult is not being able to go to the gym regularly. So I'm substituting with long walks with my Nordic Walking sticks. It gets me out of the house and does at least something for my health.
I have neighbours who are both over 90 and pretty fit, but who is going to go and do the shopping for them? Listening to the radio and reading the news, the most striking thing are the many acts of kindness occurring. Kindness is not what we can expect from governments or companies. They are done by individuals for individuals. That's our nature.
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I've been thinking about "Respect". If I understand that I am as unique as every other individual on the planet, then surely I have to respect each person for their uniqueness?
On the other hand, apparently we have to constantly be in competition with each other. So the "I'm better/worse than you" is always applied to everything. How is that going to work with respect for all, better or worse - whatever these measures mean?
As Confucius stated, Respect starts with oneself. If I don't respect me, then how can I be expected to respect others? And there's the difficulty: how can I learn to respect myself, when I'm constantly being compared - at work, at home, in school, in my social life, to see if I'm better or worse than someone or something else.
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Wikipedia uses the phrase "Wilful Blindness" which is, apparently, also used as a legal term!
Wilful blindness (sometimes called ignorance of law, wilful ignorance or contrived ignorance or Nelsonian knowledge) is a term used in law to describe a situation in which a person seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally keeping himself or herself unaware of facts that would render him or her liable or implicated. In United States v. Jewell, the court held that proof of wilful ignorance satisfied the requirement of knowledge as to criminal possession and importation of drugs.
Although the term was originally—and still is—used in legal contexts, the phrase "wilful ignorance" has come to mean any situation in which people intentionally turn their attention away from an ethical problem that is believed to be important by those using the phrase (for instance, because the problem is too disturbing for people to want it dominating their thoughts, or from the knowledge that solving the problem would require extensive effort).
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The biggest illusion dictating our lives is Expectations. We expect life to follow a certain path: that was good enough for my grandfather, and it's good enough for me.
In all aspects of our lives, we have expectations. My children should be a certain way, my partner is supposed to be like something, my job is supposed to fulfil me, my house, my dog, my life.... Everything is supposed to fit into my expectations. And, does it?
Almost never. But that doesn't stop us. If once in 100 times, an expectation is fulfilled, we take that as being the norm and all the 99 other times when our expectations weren't fulfilled, we pretend they are the exceptions.
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I listen to the radio quite a lot, these days, mostly Ska - great radio station for that is Bob's Ska Radio - and I like Music Night on BBC4. Last night they had on the soul queens and that reminded me of my teenage years when Soul Music first came up. That music helped me get through the emotional roller coaster of feelings which were so powerful at that time. It also reminded me of how crazy that time is.
And the craziest emotion we have is love. It can feel like heaven and like hell - even at the same time! Listening to the lyrics of these "Love Songs", also leads to a reflection on that time and other times when I "fell in love". And it is a falling!
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