MUSINGS and other writing by Mark Kolke

. . . . . . there is no edge to openness

TODAY'S MUSINGS

FEEDBACK / COMMENTS

MARK SPEAKS

ARCHIVED COLUMNS

ARCHIVE WINTER 2022-23

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2022

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2022

ARCHIVE SPRING 2022

ARCHIVE WINTER 2021-22

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2021

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2021

ARCHIVE SPRING 2021

ARCHIVE WINTER 2020-21

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2020

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2020

ARCHIVE SPRING 2020

ARCHIVE WINTER 2019-20

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2019

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2019

ARCHIVE SPRING 2019

ARCHIVE WINTER 2018-19

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2018

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2018

ARCHIVE SPRING 2018

ARCHIVE WINTER 2017-18

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2017

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2017

ARCHIVE SPRING 2017

ARCHIVE WINTER 2016/17

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2016

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2016

ARCHIVE SPRING 2016

ARCHIVE WINTER 2015/16

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2015

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2015

ARCHIVE SPRING 2015

ARCHIVE WINTER 2014/15

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2014

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2014

ARCHIVE SPRING 2014

ARCHIVE WINTER 2013/14

CONTACT

MY REAL ESTATE LIFE

WHY I WRITE MUSINGS

SHORT STORY PROJECT

POETRY PROJECT

MARK'S SPEAKING TIPS

SELECTED OTHER WORK


OLD and WISE

Friday, May 1, 2020
 
 
 
As children, we look up to our parents to guide us, then teachers. As grownups, we look up to our bosses, our spouses, and then leaders of our country?
 
At very few points along this journey, do we pause to look to our elders – to our grandparents, to our mentors, to philosophers, to good books, and to well-recorded history?
 
We simply don’t find them knowing anything more, better, or wiser than what we know.
 
I remember this well.
 
Now that I am in that ‘older’ category, I realize what old people have always known, and young people have failed forever to appreciate – that the wisdom doesn’t come so much from superior knowledge or experience, but from perspective.
 
Right now, the most unsettled group in our society are old people, a club of which I’m becoming a member – realizing that we have just had our runway shortened, our personal situation and lifestyle altered. For many people all over the world, the next few years (3-10 yrs.) will be altered beyond measure. This is a health crisis with a mountainous mess of economic and social impact piled on top.
 
There is no silver lining yet, no silver bullet, just more hair growing out of place hair should not grow – and nobody is open to cut it. Reopening the economy of any country is not a solution to this or a cure for a disease.
 
The real disease here is not COVID-19, but rather ‘how we are organized as a world.’
 
The real problem here is not when we recover, but if we recover?
 
The real truth here is that the earth every human is interconnected and interdependent as never in history – and while we could tout it as wonderful that medical science, engineering, government, and the economy are proving one of Newton’s laws: for each and every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
 
Truth. Facts. Fear. Ambition. Survival.
 
One might wonder what Charles Darwin might say if he woke up in the middle of all this; I know, he’d need to study it for 25 years first, do a dozen other things, and then come to a conclusion.
 
We don’t have decades or centuries of data, we don’t have studies of alternative treatments that have failed, each marginally better than the last, but in the fullness of time, best practices will emerge. They always do – and in the learning, it is discovered that many simpler things done sooner and universally were the trick, and we’ll also likely discover that solutions many scrambled to provide were far less useful than before.
 
While it is true, that time is all mankind ever had, nobody has learned how to turn-back a sundial – nobody can reverse anything, delay anything, or fix anything.
 
Attitude matters.
 
But what matters most, or least?
 
Who matters most, or least?
 
What we don’t have is time. While the world has billions of years ahead, we all have limited time, so what can we do to use it better, waste less of it, and get to the point. The more we are direct, transparent, and disclose our motive, we are most likely to waste less time getting to the point, to the goal, to the place of having wisdom anyone might want to share.
 
 

Reader feedback:
 
BEST PRACTICES, or will SLIGHTLY BETTER ONES SUFFICE?
Things I can live without: daily use of my car, game face, and constantly checking my damn phone. All of which have dropped away during this crisis. Good riddance, JB, Edmonton, AB

This isolation period has taken a toll in all of us who have given it a serious thought. We will find a modified way of "safe" coexistence, for now we can only try to rest, order our priorities and be ready for the quarantine to be lifted. It is scariest for us in the 5th floor, we now know with certainty that health system will fail us in our winter years. Do take care, AG, Cancun, Mex.

Thanks for stopping by yesterday. I went for a mid afternoon run through the deserted streets of downtown Canmore. It made me sad, RH, Calgary/Canmore, AB


Find this and other articles by Mark Kolke at Medium



sign up to get Musings free daily



 
Read more of my writing by Mark Kolke at Medium

sign up to get Musings free daily

 


 
Mark Kolke, Realtor, MaxWell South Star Realty


sign up to get Musings CLICK HERE

Comments are always welcome - please contribute to the discussion.  Reply to: kolke@markkolke.com

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. This site is updated daily, each column is retained in the archive when the next day's column is loaded ...  


Copyright - all rights reserved - Mark Kolke, © 2003-2023 - MaxComm Communications

- this site is updated daily, new column on main page, older columns archived - use the tabs; last update - 2023 - January, 28