Mixed up in Verbosity...

I had to write a professional competence exam this week and have never encountered such a poorly presented course.  I cannot help but wonder why human beings have the tendency to complicate matters unnecessarily.  Are we testing competence on a matter or are we testing the ability of candidates to discern between essential information, peripheral data and absolute bullshit.

These days bullshit detection is a skill that seems to be in high demand on a daily basis. 

And which, incidentally, seems to be something that the average adult even seems to be struggling with...

I mean really, I piqued the interest of a married man this week.  The problem was, I simply couldn't get past the idea that some men actually think they are so special that a woman should be flattered when they get ‘come-on’ by them; men, married, as they are.  Like so here’s the offer:  I have a wife and kids but I will find an hour or two a week to come and spend it with you to relieve myself. 

Wow!  Is that supposed to be flattering?  Because to me; it is not.  Not at all. 

What makes you think you are that special?  What makes you think I would allow you to use me like that?  What makes you think that I also cannot get a man for everyday of the week if I so wanted to? 

Incidentally there is a guy I know who says the majority of men cheat and he figures about 10% of women cheat.  Unless the majority of men are cheating with men...(me thinks), - he failed mathematics...      
  
Since he is so sure his wife is not among them, I didn’t have the heart to correct him... moron. 

And so we work very hard to package what we want to believe.  We end up making things very complicated unnecessarily, perhaps even to deceive ourselves.  We live in a world whereby we would like to be so different from one another, exclusive, special and so in addition to the usual excuses for discrimination like race, gender, language, etc., we have added yet another; verbosity. 

What the hell is verbosity?  You wonder.  And no, I did not make that word up.  It actually means long-winded and wordiness.  Essentially the ability to make things more complicated than necessary.  And I think it is a trend that seems to be growing. 

You see these days we have MBA graduates who still do not understand that in order to become wealthy, there needs to be more money coming in than going out.  I mean this is a concept that can actually be taught to a five year old.  But it would seem that governments and experts alike seem to be struggling with the same principle.

We try everyday to tell ourselves that we can make it alone.  But anyone who’s ever made it, had some help along the way.  Perhaps it was parents who paid for schools, a friend who opened a door, a scholarship, someone who saw potential and invested...

We have convinced ourselves that love uses people to get what it wants.  ‘Love bites, it bleeds’.  Love hurts sometimes.

And that’s the kind of bullshit I am talking about.

Love does nothing of the sort. If love is real: love does two things I am sure of. 

Loves gives and love shows up when needed.   

Its time to stop buying so much bullshit... 

 

 

Time to Talk...

I had a bit of a rough week this week and so aside from not blogging there is a running list of other things that just didn’t get done.  (I have to let people know that my blogging is likely to fall to about once a week as my schedule at the moment simply doesn’t allow me to give blogging the diligence it deserves).

That being said, I attended the memorial service of a friend who was just in his low fifties from cancer this past week.  He was a good man, but then again I have not yet attended the funeral of a bastard yet.  Either they never die or it is simply culturally unacceptable to speak ill of the dead (incidentally that seems to be a universal cultural norm).   I am not sure which, but in any case, that was not applicable here.

I couldn’t help but look at the situation and listen to this man’s friends, family and colleagues and wonder what would be said about me in my absence in the event of my passing.  Culturally I suppose nothing too ill-gotten would be mentioned, but somehow I couldn’t help thinking, that isn’t it sad that one lives their life and everyone else gets the last word on the matter?

So I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great to plan my own eulogy.  If nothing else, I would have the last word which I think is somewhat appropriate.  It was my life after all.   

Wouldn’t it be a dream come true to have the last word where no one can argue.  You could say anything and there would be no debate.   

You can’t argue with a dead person.    

Then I needed to laugh because I would imagine the audience would go away wondering if they actually knew the person that they thought they knew. 

That, and I wonder when I would finish because I seem to have something to say about just about everything. 
 
I suppose everyone has sides, but sometimes I wonder if my life is more compartmentalised than the average person.  I have boundaries and distinctions between private, personal, professional, home, hobbies, interests, sports, academics, internet presence, etc., and there are only a handful of people who know me in more than one area.      
   
That being said, I suppose it is also possible that given the groups tend not to overlap, I could have a whole eulogy planned and even in my death be left with a lot to say and no one to say it too. 
   
So perhaps death is a good reason to keep quiet after all... and life is the time for your voice to be heard and for you to say the things that should be said.