Musing

-16C/4F, our sky fully lit before sunrise, not even a wisp or a wisp of a wisp in sight; Gusta fresh and frisky, well rested owner straggles less than usual

musings are little late this morning; long discussion with SC over breakfast – we needed an extra couple of hours to figure out how to change the world – she’s headed back to Edmonton now to resume the ‘wait for 1st grandchild to arrive’ for a few days before heading back to Fort Smith

the end of 2006 draws near, 2007 through 2051 (I’ll be 100 that year) looming ahead arrives in 3 days; are we prepared?

cliché’s like ‘what are you doing for the rest of your life’ seem apropos for review at this time on the calendar; I think we (all of us both individually and as a society) rely too heavily on our past experiences when we try to look forward; we expect to succeed as we have in the past, we expect to fail as we have in the past, we expect to solve (or fail to solve) problems pretty much the same old ways we have (as have our predecessors) . . same old, same old

same old, with technology and modern trends, is still same old

we resolve conflicts with wars (this includes trade wars, marital wars and star wars) though they have never proven to be good in any measurable way

we live lifestyles modeled after what we’ve learned from our parents, Harriet & Ozzie, the Jetsons and what we read on the cover of some magazine; in this part of the world where paleontologists of the future will no doubt label this the Epoch of Conspicuous Consumption where our strata will be very thin, sitting above a landfill above a riverbed above a coal-bed above something Devonian above . . and so on

our world has far more appetite for boring the earth's crust than for savouring the taste of good pie crust, far more occupied with ROI (respect for investments) than it is of AOL (appreciation of life)

why can’t we do a better and sustainable job of both?

this richest society in history cannot solve its problems of caring for one another or for disagreeing with one another without waste, destruction and death by-products; we are the smartest society in history by an incalculable margin yet we do things the same old way expecting (and soon demanding) different results

where do we find the innovation to change, to navigate to explore uncharted waters with bravado while taking no risk at all?

in business we do a SWOT analysis on projects and when doing planning; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats; we can do this in business and government with ease, but when was the last time any of us as individuals or all of us collectively did that?

we rely on smart people somewhere in corporations or the media or investment houses to spot trends, to forecast (especially at this time of year) what will earn big, what will suffer, what commodity will make someone a fortune, which one will cause heartache, which new technology will have a breakthrough in earnings; rarely do these prognostications measure things in human terms

I mean things like: this trend will make the world safer, this trend will give a society a better quality of life, this new discovery will ease pain; instead we oooh-aahh around Bill Gates donating billions to cure Malaria somewhere without spending energy on figuring out how the next two generations will figure out how to pay to care for us when we are old and in need of expensive care to sustain our lives

my predictions for the coming year are not predictions as much as they are wishes for our species on this planet; that we will get a grip on the geo-political scene with many nations collectively leading us away from the precipice that American foreign policy and religious fundamentalism (and its relative hate mongering) have taken us to; that we place our investment bets on reinvention of health care to produce a better result with radical change in who/how the system is driven; that we take more time to look forward than just looking ahead, that we all get bifocals so that our attempts at having any kind of vision looks beyond the next quarter or our next birthday; that we face the fact that vested interests (economic, political and religious) are running our world – and that it is time to take back control . . . something we do not do as a group, but as 6 billion individuals, individually

Strengths are easy to identify

Weakness is something we hate to face, even when someone exploits it; denial or head-in-the-sand techniquest are so well practiced, so well spun and rationalized

Opportunities are easy to identify if they fit our dreams, but if they are outside our field of view we will miss many of them; for many people opportunities are too scary to pursue because there is risk involved

Threats we see are easy to guard against, until the ones we never saw coming hit home hard

whether we plan, predict, analyze . . or whether we don’t, the world is a ball of risk, a ball of energies pointed in 6 billion directions - so lets have a ball

I resolve to boldly go where I have not gone before, not because it is risky but because I can

I do not avoid risk whether I sit still, go safely or step into unfamiliar territory taking a chance

you can bet with the market or contrary to the market, you can hedge your bets in every commodity going

but why hedge bets on ourselves?

selling short is a market technique that can make a little or lose a lot very quickly

selling ourselves short is surely a losing bet that can never win

lets ALL not do that in 2007

Mark
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