You know you'll have to pay it all. You'll pay today or pay tomorrow. You fasten up your beaded gown, then you try to tie me down (Steely Dan)

Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Dental work. As a colleague said to me this week - hard to know what hurts most - the actual dental work or the bill.

I liken dentists to hair stylists, as in I can't cut my own hair, nor can I perform complicated dental procedures on myself. Asher recently took great delight in removing one of his wiggly teeth to assist the tooth fairy, but he's much more adventurous than his papa.

So - off to a variety of specialists I go for a root canal on a complicated molar that is dying a painful death. First was the consulation and fancy as scans. Twenty minutes work costing $400.

I lay back and thought of England.

Love and peace - Wozza

Now the darkness only stays at nighttime. In the morning, it will fade away. Daylight is good at arriving at the right time, it's not always gonna be this grey (George Harrison)

Wie geht's?

The Truman biography remains a fascinating experience, (I'm up to page 558) and it is inevitable that I would compare Henry S. Truman with the present incumbent in The White House. 

Truman was an exemplary leader. He showed exceptional diligence in his job. He was, according to those who worked for him in The White House, 'an extremely thoughtful, courteous, considerate man' who 'spent virtually every waking moment working at being president'. 

The staff was continually amazed by the President's knowledge of the country.

Truman would say sitting in the Oval Office, "It is ignorance that causes most mistakes. The man who sits here ought to know his American history, at least".

Check out this clip from Jimmy Fallon.

If ever there was a "clean break from all that had gone before," Truman would say, the result would be chaos.

That's certainly the reality of now. Screeds have been written about Donald Trump. A lot by him on social media. He thinks he's great. This is known as Figjam. He thinks he's the least racist President of all time. This is known as denial.

He has a pathological need to sow chaos and dominate the headlines. He is at the opposite end of the Presidential continuum to Harry S. Truman - who was a principled, hardworking man with integrity. Everyone who ever knew Truman said he was a man of great character.

In comparison, Trump is a Shakespearian villain like Edmund in King Lear. A bastard and a schemer, wreaking destruction upon virtually all of the other characters.

At the moment we all have to live through Trump's frippery and chaos, but, as George Harrison says: All things must pass away.

Pretty soon he will go the way of all things; history will have its say on the Trump Presidencies, and he will slip into the past like everyone else. No longer relevant. No longer a stain. His name will live in infamy, while Truman's will continue to grow in stature,

Back to the book. It really is a tonic!

Love and peace - Wozza

Camp is very entertaining, and they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining (Allan Sherman)

Photo by Fredrik Öhlander
on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Life has got hectic again with last week's return to work. Normal routines have yet to re-establish themselves to boot, and that adds to the hectic-ness of life. I need to guard against impatience at such times.

Next week will be even more disrupted, as I head off to Year 9 Camp with other staff and about 60 Year 9 girls. That will mean a few days without my daily blogging regime. I shall cope.

Some of my fondest memories have been on over-night school camps, but I haven't been on one for about a decade. I think the last one was while at Woodford House. 

Funny having to pack up gear again and heading off into the relatively unknown for challenging experiences.

Should be fun, I'll report back next week.

Love and peace - Wozza

What is not brought to consciousness, comes to us as fate (C. G. Jung)

Wie geht's?

This post's title was the quote for the weekend just gone. I've been puzzling it over since then.

It's made a lot more enigmatic by the fact that it's half a quote.

The full quote is:

“That which you do not bring to consciousness comes to you as your Fate, that which you do bring to consciousness, whether it was what you thought you wanted or not, is your destiny.”

This suggests that our unconscious thoughts and feelings can become predetermined outcomes, often beyond our awareness (we haven't consciously thought of them).

Jung believed that our unconscious selves play a significant part in shaping our experiences and decisions. Because of this, our perception is that fate is at work, rather than free will.

In a recent post I wrote about my need for ongoing challenges. These are part of my conscious decision making - like moving to a new school. It is part of my destiny.

Darth Vader tries to impress upon his son a conscious thought and he labels it 'destiny'. Luke decides against this course of action - he hasn't thought of this previously, so his repudiation of his father's idea becomes his fate.

Here's a personal example.

In this blog I have previously explained how it was fate that led me to my first teaching job in New Plymouth and then meeting my future wife within weeks of moving there. 

The circumstances of meeting Jacky were unconscious on my part - a move to New Plymouth, flatting with two girls, a chance meeting at a fancy-dress party after a birthday dinner for one of my flat mates. I just went along with everything and, zappo - love at first sight. 

Fate (according to Jung - it was predetermined). 

Over the next few days in late February 1983, my consciousness kicked in big time, and I had to meet her again somehow.

Destiny (according to Jung).

Love and peace - Wozza

Forward

Photo by Danka & Peter on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

I'm off to an induction day today. I start a new job next week so this is my first opportunity to note down the important things I need to know as I transition to a new place of work (Harry S. Truman's advice to 'shut up, watch, and learn' is key).

This is exciting, but I know plenty of people in my whanau that wouldn't be thrilled with this prospect. Change and disruption to routines are things I need from time to time. No one who knows me is surprised that I have moved from one thing, which I enjoyed, to another, which comes with risk.

Standing still, and avoiding the need for fresh challenges is not part of my make-up.

What I learned from today will feature on my next Baggy Trousers' post.

Love and peace - Wozza

I was meant to know the plot, but all I knew was what I saw (Joan Didion)

Photo by Mounish Raja on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Reading Joan Didion's The White Album has been informative. Within the opening pages, she uses a sobering phrase 'what would probably be the middle of my life' and I realise a few things. 

In my late sixties, the middle part is done and I am heading towards the later part of my life, but I am still 'a competent enough member of some community or another' (as Joan puts it). Partly the reason why I don't want to retire any time soon. That said, I do realise I am at the pre-retirement stage of my career.

The further realisation is that I am at a unique time in my life. Still employable! I'm about to start a new job - was that an attempt to prove to myself that I still could, you may ask. Not consciously, would be my answer. However, I am no longer frequently named. As in: I no longer have (or need) a fancy title. 

Many people asked me what title I would have at my new school and they were a bit nonplussed when I said that my senior management/leadership years were behind me. Never say never, but, like Winston Peters, I am happy to be where I am at.

The later part of life also means our nest has been empty for a long time now. Our children, who live in four different countries, are brilliant human beings, living their lives. We have three grandchildren, soon to be four. This year marks our 42nd wedding anniversary. 

I look around at my record collection and realise I will soon need to do what fellow collectors of my age are thinking of doing - downsizing it. 

These days, I know I am much more careful about buying new records (but not books). On a recent mini-break to Wellington I bought 5 records and 5 books. In the past I would have bought 10 records and 2 books.

Partly the reason for posting about my collection on my Goo Goo G'Joob blog was to establish a list of albums that are meh (i.e. 2 stars) in my reviewing criteria. The idea was that would quickly sort the wheat from the chaff. A cull is coming!

Back to Joan for a final thought: 'We live entirely...by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience'.

Life, it seems to me, is about making sense and then peace with the ever-shifting phantasmagoria as we go. At least, that's what I attempt to do.

Love and peace - Wozza

Rubus Cuneifolius

Photo by Alisa Kenley on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

The latest round in the blackberry wars has ended and...myah ha har! Wozza won in a technical knock-out!

The battle raged on for three days. It began at dawn. Actually. After breakfast. So around 7.00 for 7.30. At times, Wozza was down. The heat, the thorns, the ripped arms (as in cuts, not, ha ha - muscles).

In the end the box thorn needed confronting to root out the nefarious big daddy blackberry roots but rooted out they were.

Now the burn pile is all blackberry, waiting for autumn. 

It's extremely pesky stuff though. Somewhere it's quietly bidding its time out there in Maple Grove. Surveying its options. Watching...and waiting...

Love and peace - Wozza