riviersonderend

Die vrede en vreugde wat alle verstand te bowe gaan, het oor my gekom. Ek het ‘n uiters onbevredigende verhouding beëindig. My afskeidsbriefie was as volg:

Dear MTN,

It is with great relief that I am looking forward to the end of my two year MTN contract. It was an awful experience. Therefore, please cancel my contract. I am not interested in keeping the number. Take it.

Your customer service is nearly non-existent and network coverage at my home office unreliable. I really feel that I should not have to speak to clients and friends in the bathroom. 3G services would be nice as well.

I faxed through a cancellation letter which “you did not receive”. Therefore, I am sending this letter by courier service.

I hereby inform you that I will not be held liable for any costs incurred after 27 April 2007 due to your negligence. Amandla.

Yours sincerely

Praktiese wenk vir die dag: beëindig ‘n verhouding wat nie vir jou werk nie.

Professors is 3 keer meer geneig om ateïste en agnostici te wees as die res van die bevolking (20% teenoor 7%).

81% van akademici beskou hulself as “spirituele wesens”, net 65% beskou hulself as godsdienstig.

In Top 50 universiteite is 36% ateïste en agnostici.

Die biologiese wetenskappe het die meeste ateïste, gesondheidsorg die minste. Die artikel wonder hieroor:

Technically, medicine and biology are similar fields. However, in terms of a day job, they’re completely different. Could the academe factor in the impersonal of the biologist sitting behind a microscope account for the lack of religiosity? Is there more of that subtle, incomprehensible “real life” factor in treating and caring for people in the health professions and hence greater religiosity?

In Amerika, die Suide – Biblebelt country – is die nuwe inding “Purity Balls”. Dit het niks te make met babakos nie. Inteendeel. Dit lyk soos ‘n troue. Dit voel soos ‘n troue. Daar is net geen bruidegom nie. Beloftes word tussen pa en dogter uitgeruil waar die dogter belowe om nie seks te hê voor haar huwelik nie. Dogters so jonk as 9 jaar, lê die beloftes af by die geleenthede, berig IOL.

Ek wonder of dit net ek is wat ongemaklik is met die hele storie. Hoekom is dit altyd asof daar groter druk op vrouens/meisies geplaas word om ‘n gemeenskap se sedes en normes te bewaar? Plaas dit nie onnodige druk op die kind nie? Wat gebeur sou sy swig, nadat sy voor ‘n skare mense so ‘n belofte moes aflê? 9 jaar – dit klink baie jonk.

Is daar nie beter maniere om die band tussen ‘n pa en dogter te vestig en te versterk nie, as so ‘n openbare spektakel?

Deepak Chopra gaan van die veronderstelling uit dat ‘n samelewing ook daarna streef om gelukkig te wees. Hy vra dan wat die samelewing 40 jaar terug aanvaarbaar gevind het. Op sy lys is die volgende (ek lys net ‘n paar):

–Letting rivers and lakes become polluted without controls.
–Allowing more or less unlimited air pollution.
–Letting cigarette companies sell a known carcinogen without culpability
–Eliminating animal species at will
–Counting Communists of any stripe as deadly enemies
–Funding a vast secret intelligence agency
–Passing civil rights laws while at the same time secretly monitoring and threatening the most prominent civil rights leaders
–Accepting a 300% rise in crime and a twenty-fold rise in drug use
–Condoning pervasive inequalities between men and women in the workplace
–Ignoring the feminist movement or consigning it to the extremist fringe
–Turning our backs on post-colonial strife in Africa
–Tolerating apartheid in South Africa
–Accepting the medicine is a branch of private enterprise, with no concern for universal health care
–Regarding homosexuality as a disease, punishing homosexuals as criminals
–Allowing rain forests to be destroyed at will
–Paying mere lip service to the end of poverty and hunger in the world

Hy maak die punt dat die lys oneindig lank is, maar wonder oor wat verander het en wat nie. Hy sien ‘n tendens na ‘n oper samelewing wat lewe-verrykende waardes omhels wat ons gelukkiger behoort te maak. Daar is meer positiewe veranderinge in die wêreld as negatiewe veranderinge.

Hy raak ‘n punt aan waaroor ek al geruime tyd dink. Maak ons as mensdom vordering? Is ons vandag gelukkiger as 40 jaar of 400 jaar gelede?

Scientific American berig oor navorsing van Sonja Lyubomirsky, ‘n eksperimentele sielkundige. Sy beweer dat om gelukkig te wees, harde werk vereis.

Wat maak mense gelukkig? Blykbaar is 50% daarvan geneties vasgelê. Slegs 10% hang van ‘n mens se omstandighede af. Wat is die ander 40%? Wel, dit lyk of Salige Rus ‘n punt beet het met liefdesdaadjes. Lyubomirsky verwys na “intentional activity”. Dankbaarheid, optimisme en goedheid teenoor ander kan jou gelukkiger maak, maar net as jy aanhou daarmee. Interessantheidshalwe: Lyubomirsky beweer dat dit wil voorkom asof mense wat elke dag hulle goeie dade neerskryf minder gelukkig is as mense wat dit eenmaal ‘n week doen.

Heel gepas gaan ek afsluit met ‘n aanhaling van His Smiliness, die Dalai Lama:

Happiness is mental. Machines cannot povide us with it, nor can we buy it. Money and wealth are only partial sources of happiness, not happiness per se. These will not produce happiness directly. Happiness must develop within ourselves; nobody can give it to us. Its ultimate source is tranquility or peace of mind. It doesn’t depend on external factors. It doesn’t matter if we lack good facilities, a good education or a successful life, so long as we have inner confidence.