Author: admin

The restrictions after the crisis are easing and we should take some lessons into the future. Were the restrictions defensible? Was the situation so bad, that some borders needed to be closed? … Of course, being a general after the battle makes it easier to find reasons for “our” solution and doubt the rest of the world.

But we are in the world together! We need to communicate!

Whether we are dealing with corona crisis, a lot of rubbish in the oceans or climate change. We don’t have another planet ti live and while it is still possible to move from one country to another, there is always some price to pay and I don’t mean just money. When you move abroad, your friends and family stay behind. Then when your kids grow up and move out of family home, you stay behind. And whether you want it or not, you may become foreigner even in your homeland. It happened to me after about 20 years living abroad.

Covid-19 emphasized how vulnerable we are.

I live in Europe, in a society where most of our basic needs is satisfied. We are not starving, we are not in a war, but do we need everything? Do we need several types of butter, even more types of bread? It is called “living standards”, but our parents didn’t have that much. They even didn’t have a TV, fridge, dishwasher, probably not an au-pair to be with kids.

Which lessons can we take from the Covid-19 crisis? Should we still flush the toilets by drinking water? Should we allow our countries to be a hostage of a few oligarchs?

We should decide.

Strange times.

Sometimes I feel, that less information could be better than a heap of often contradicting information. Just to have the life in balance, one needs to filter the news. It is not healthy to read only the negative ones, at least I get stressed knowing that I can’t help everyone that is suffering, unjustly pursued, fearing that someone near is going to die or … ???

It seems that the whole world is in the Corona crisis together, but it is not. One’s understanding of the topic very much depends on one’s past experiences, education, occupation and last, but not least, the age and the birth’s place. Just I would not dare to compare and/or confront the (dis)advantages of anyone’s situation. Still a lot of politicians are making decisions for the whole nations without having a clue, what is going on.

Let’s talk for example about the weather – a good starting point for conversation in England – people are used to the climate of their birth’s place … of course unless they are moved elsewhere as babies or toddlers.

But the climate is changing even in my birth’s place in the center of Europe. We used to have proper Winters, I used to ski in the park in Praha, nowadays snow falls only in the mountains and not every year. Well, being older I don’t mind that much, but is it due to the climate change accelerated by human activities? Is it normal?

The Corona crisis could give some answers – or rather the scientists – but will we listen to them? And who are “we” after all?

Knihovna ožívá … změnila jsem otevírací dobu, ale pokud se Vám nehodí, zavolejte a můžeme domluvit jiný termín. Neočekávejte klasickou knihovnu, mohlo by u Vás dojít ke “krizi představ”. V té mé je nejen dovoleno, ale i doporučeno mluvit. Jen diskuse a výměny názorů nás (svět jako celek) mohou posunout někam dál.

The library comes to life … I have changed the opening hours, but if it does not suit you, call and we can arrange another date. Don’t expect a classic library, you could experience a “crisis of expectations”. In mine, it is not only allowed, but also recommended to talk. Only discussions and exchanges of views can move us (the world as a whole) somewhere further.

Dostávám mailem výběr komentářů a blogů z Aktuálně.cz. Poslední, z 6.3.2020. začínal takto:

Petr Kukal tweetuje pro Aktuálně.cz

“Co bys chtěl v sobotu k obědu?”
“Nevim. Třeba rizoto.”
“Rizoto ne. Něco jiného.”
“Proč rizoto ne?”
“Stydím se jít koupit rejži.”

😉 … i když předpokládám, že je spíše humorná historka, stát se to může.

A tak mě napadlo – měla bych se já stydět, kdybych si šla koupit rýži, protože mi doma došla a mám chuť na rizoto? Vždyť přece na tom není nic špatného mít chuť na rizoto a koupit si kilový nebo pětikilový pytel rýže … možná jen vlastní pocit, že “nechci být jako oni”, tedy jako ti, co si nakupují do zásoby.

Ale já si taky nakupuju do zásoby. Pravidelně. Bydlím ve vesnici, do nejbližšího krámu to mám cca 4km, takže si běžně nakupuju minimálně na 14 dní dopředu. Nakupování mě nebaví, takže nákup většinou spojím s něčím pozitivním, abych negativní zážitek z krámu nějak vyrovnala. Myslím si totiž, že pro zachování duševního zdraví potřebujeme mít v rovnováze povinnosti, zábavu a odpočinek. Mám to snad v krámě vysvětlovat každému na potkání, aby mě nepovažoval za někoho, kdo nejsem?

Kde je vlastně problém?

V tom, že nemáme všichni na všechno stejné názory? Ale to ani nejde, narodili jsme se různým rodičům, jsme různě staří, chodili jsme do různých škol, v různém časovém období, v různých lokalitách, ti starší z nás pracovali v různých odvětvích … jediné, co máme společné, dokonce se všemi lidmi na zeměkouli, jsou základní lidské potřeby, nejlépe je vyjadřuje Maslowova pyramida.

Základní fyziologické potřeby mé snad většina obyvatel vyspělých zemí uspokojené. Myslím, že i potřebu bezpečí a jistoty – poslední světová válka skončila před pětasedmdesáti lety, což je jeden lidský život. Měli bychom tedy být ve stadiu potřeby lásky, přijetí a spolupatřičnosti (viz definice na Wikipedii). To sice neznamená, že musíme být všichni kamarády na život a na smrt, to by ani nebylo normální, ale mohli bychom si v zájmu uspokojování těch vyšších potřeb ujasnit, co je naším společným cílem.

Možná je problém v tom, že pokud se s něčím setkáváme poprvé, nemáme se situací vlastní zkušenost a jednáme intuitivně. Až vzdálená – a někdy velmi vzdálená – budoucnost ukáže, jestli reakce našeho mozku na stres byla správná, ať už zvolil bojuj, uteč nebo zmrzni.

Doporučuju knihu Tři muži ve člunu, napsal ji Jerome K. Jerome v roce 1889 a stále se dá číst. Hned v první kapitole najdete kontext následujícího úryvku:

“Přečetl jsem si ten recept. Stálo v něm:
1 půlkilový biftek, k tomu
1 půllitr piva
pravidelně po 6 hodinách,
1 patnáctikilometrová procházka každé ráno,
1 postel přesně v 11 každý večer.
A neláduj si do hlavy věci, kterým nerozumíš.”

There is one difference between the road trip and life trip. You can’t reverse the life trip. Whichever decision you make, you need to stick with it. There is no way back, even if it was not you, but the (mis)fortune making the decisions – and I mean things like dying of the loved ones or life threatening illnesses.

There are also other life changing events, which we can read about thanks to the internet. There are counselling sites, scientific sites, insurance companies sites … and you just wonder. Are all those people concerned about my life changing event?

Well, not exactly. Everyone is (and should be) concerned about his/her own survival, especially if he/she has some dependents. But not everyone knows, what you need without asking questions. Nowadays all counseling sites presume you look for some counselling, scientific sites may presume, that you know some basics and insurances just want to insure you for whatever can happen.

In a way, it’s like nearing the crossing, making your decisions where to go and all passengers giving you their own advice, how you should behave – turn left, right, slow down, accelerate … the situation prone to a disaster.

I was once diagnosed with quickly growing Non-Hodgkin B-cell Lymphoma. At the time I was living in England, which was not my home country. I’ve read a lot about the illness on the internet. Also the comments, not realizing, that chemotherapy is just a type of the therapy. Everyone’s chemotherapy then depends on the type of the cancer, on the stage of the cancer and maybe on some other factors too. I remember I was fed up with the wording the doctors used – lymph nodes – which – being a foreigner – I didn’t connect to “cancer”. I even complained …

15 years later I’m still alive. I have three great kids, I was able to know my grand kids too, for which I’m grateful, on the other hand I needed to sign the divorce, for which I’m not so grateful. But as stated at the beginning – there is no way back in the life, so I will live my life as long as I’ll be able too. With all my memories – good or bad – from the past.

I tend to compare the life to the road trip.

On both we encounter a number of intersections. Then, on each of them we (or our brain) take into the account the Past and we (or our brain) make our decisions for the Future accordingly to our up to date experiences, whether conscious or unconscious, stored in our “data-bank” in the brain.

And now it becomes interesting.

According to Vera.F.Birkenbihl, our conscious experiences on a line would make 15 mm, compared to 11 km unconscious. As we’ve been born to different parents in different countries, where we’ve been attending different schools, learned some stuff, but also wasted a lot of our potential through the process called “education”, lived through different epochs, we have various experiences. Even two people being on the same event may have different memories, depending on the age, past experiences, living conditions … etc.

There is a lot of Vera F.Birkenbihl’s lectures on youtube which I sincerely recommend. For example “Gedächtnisprobleme im Alltag sind lösbar”.

I like the way she explains, that “misplacing” (keys, phone, glasses … whatever is important to us) has nothing to do with “forgetfulness”. We just need to pay more attention to what we are doing, slow down, be conscious or “present in the moment” when placing the keys, phone, glasses … or taking care of our priorities. Thus – imho – we can be better off than living on “autopilot”.

Enjoy!

Learning – especially if we want to learn 😉 – is enriching. Also one of the ways to prevent or at least postpone Alzheimer or other age related illnesses.