I am not a number

L to R: Rover and Number Six.

Wie geht's?

Visiting a dementia unit is a sobering experience in many ways.

Dementia is a catchall term for when the brain undergoes a progressive decline in memory, thinking, and reasoning skills. That decline changes a person's life quite profoundly. 

Certainly, life as an independent person is no longer possible. Driving, living alone, paying bills, organising food for yourself - all no longer possible.

We have a loved one - Patrick McGoohan (not his real name), in that situation. He's suffering from vascular dementia following a stroke. Patrick is an exceedingly bright man who spent a lot of his working life as an engineer working out solutions to complex problems on oil rigs and operating highly technical submersibles that checked on deep water cables. Like my brother, while doing this work his brain operated like a circuit board solving problems with logic.

I have a lot of respect for that ability because I have a very limited capacity to do that. In Robert Pirsig's great book The Art of Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance he categorises people as either Romantic or Classical. 

These are not opposites - just two types that represent two different ways of making sense of reality. It does often mean that people struggle to communicate with one another or see another's point of view.

Romantic describes people who look at the world by immediate appearance, emotional experience, feeling and then overall appearance rather than looking at the underlying rules or inner mechanics of things. This is how I see things for the most part.

Classical describes people who see the underlying form, order, and rational underlying structure of things. They look past the superficial to understand how the components fit and function together, then use logical step-by-step problem-solving to diagnose and fix mechanical issues. This describes my brother, father, and is definitely how Patrick used to operate, and still does from time to time.

That must be hard. It's difficult to know. 

Visiting the dementia unit (or 'the prison camp' as Patrick refers to it) means also seeing others in various stages of Alzheimer's Disease, vascular dementia and other types of mental change. 

It's a tough place to go for us Romantics, easier, I imagine, for the Classical types. 

Love and peace - Wozza

Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it (Charles Swindoll)

Wie gehts?

Big thanks to the blogosphere and the interweb (primarily TheFacebook) for all the birthday wishes from hither and yon.

I had a great birthday - buying a few records* from a new record shop in Waipukurau, and enjoying a day out with Jacky.

Jade made me a scrumptious cake (mmmm banana) plus Ross and all the kids gave me a call. Love it - thanks team!

The girls won the annual Happy Birthday renditions, but Greg gets a special bonus point for the horrendous polka version.

Love and peace - Wozza

* Jacky did an eye roll when I played my new purchase of The Sound of Dinah Lee - a mint copy. She said, "How old is this????" To which I replied - "1965 - you know - when you were a baby". You guessed it - another eye roll.

You could have it all, my empire of dirt (Nine Inch Nails)

Wie geht's?

Seems like the whole world is nostalgic for the Barack Obama years. The coolest man on the planet is everywhere, including the message board at Iona College (that mic drop was Friday's feature image).

Is it any wonder with the embarrassing situation in America these days. It's like a slow motion train wreck unfolding before our eyes on a daily basis.

America has transformed into an empire of dirt and a nightmare that the world's population is powerless to wake up from. Trump's insatiable need to create chaos and confusion has meant vast repercussions for the whole planet. He himself is a case of the more you talk the more stupid you look.

Let's take a look at the two contrasting legacies of Obama and Trump for a sec.

• One inspired a global message of change and a deliberate shift toward multilateral diplomacy, international cooperation, and a strategy of military restraint.
• One positioned the U.S. as a collaborative global partner (rather than a unilateral bad actor). 
• One orchestrated the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, uniting nearly 200 nations in a global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas.
• One helped secure the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal to curb Iran's nuclear capabilities and restored formal diplomatic ties with Cuba.

And the other one is Donald Trump.

I could go on but you get the idea. Hence America becoming an embarrassment, and the global nostalgia for when calmness, order, and sense prevailed.

Love and peace and mic drop - Wozza

We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun (Terry Jacks)

Wie geht's?

I once wrote about my life in 1974 as a watershed year. During that post I explained how my parents sheltered me from a lot of family news and decisions. I can't recall any instances of being included in their decision making. And I seldom had an issue with that, but family dynamics have changed since then generally.

That's partly because of the expanded means of communication available to parents and children in the 2020s.These days children have phones for staying in touch. There are so many social media platforms, it's dizzying.

My own children's awareness and need for information is light years beyond what mine was back in the day. They would have been part of the decision and interested in what was going on in terms of family decisions, where I wasn't, I guess.  

These days, I sense that family relationships are much more open because modern parents are much more open with their children, as opposed to parents from the suitably named Silent Generation (who produced Boomers, like me).

I wonder what Asher, Ivy, Billie, and Poppy will be like as parents.

Love and peace - Wozza

 

Look out child it look like something be coming, it be coming the long way around (Chris Whitley)

Photo by Mehdi Mirzaie on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

I wish there was another word for 'retirement'. Those terms like 'third act', 'withdrawal from the workforce', 'retreat' leave me a tad cold. Nor do I like 'semi-retired', 'scaling back', or worst of all - 'downshifting'. Shudder.

The key driver: I need my purpose to remain strong for as long as possible.

If you retire from football, you stop playing at the same intense level, but you keep playing. At age 39, Messi has retired from playing for Argentina, but not his club side. He'll eventually stop that too but will presumably remain an active footballer for some years to come.

I played football into my forties and then loved playing indoor football, and fun football after work on Fridays. After a while, my knees couldn't handle too much of that. These days, exercise is down to a brisk walk whenever I get a chance. The point being that my intensity level for football peaked early - aged 19, but I have never actually retired from physical activity - it's just changed as I've aged.

Maybe that's how I need to think about retirement from full-time work; it's a change of intensity (but not a slowing down). A reorientation of priorities.

Maybe it's obvious, I've been thinking about this for a while. I'll turn 70 next year and while I still want to teach and preserve my purpose, maybe it's in a new direction, a new format.

At this point - I don't quite know what that means. Which is a good thing, is it not? The path has not yet revealed itself.

Love and peace - Wozza

The first meditation

Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

This one is about sleep and walking. Seemingly, two distinctly different activities. Not so.

Haruki Murakami says: 'Sleep both calms and provides a discharge for thought circuits...Sleeping is an act that has been programmed, with karmic inevitability, into the human system, and no one can diverge from it, the person's very "ground of being" would be threatened'.

Last night's sleep was restless and fitful. I couldn't get comfortable at all and this morning my back is sore. My 'ground of being' was disrupted and jolted.

The remedy, according to me, is a long walk.

Gary Snyder says: 'Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance of spirit and humility.'

I hear the magpie walk calling me.

Love and peace - Wozza

Like the sun through the trees you came to love me, like a leaf on a breeze you blew away (Justin Hayward)

Joan and Gregarious

Wie geht's?

Sadly, the three amigos (that's me plus long-standing mates - Kev and Greg) have come to the end of an era with last week's passing of Joan Knowles, aged 101.

When Greg and I were at Mt. Albert Grammar in the mid-seventies, we would often visit each other's houses. Conveniently close to town, his home was in Shackleton Rd, Mt Eden, and mine was up Dominion Rd. to Ramelton Rd in Mt. Roskill South. The purpose was often to listen to loud rock music or a Friday night stop-off on the way home from record buying adventures. Joan and Harry Knowles and Graham and Dulcie Purdy put up with a lot!

Top left, bottom right

I loved visiting Shackleton Rd. because Joan was always very welcoming, and tolerant. It was a warm, cozy, happy place to visit. She definitely made me feel special and that's a great personality trait to have.  

Greg's loss means that all three of us (plus our siblings) are on our own now, as our parents have all pre-deceased us. It's a sobering feeling, being an orphan.

Last year we created a playlist called WTWMC - Loved Ones that celebrated our parents and our spouses with a selection of 15 songs per loved one that we thought reflected each of their musical tastes. 

Because of Joan's passing, I've been listening to it again. It's a very poignant, but, ultimately, joyous experience. I find it particularly uplifting because it was made with love for our loved ones. 

Given the age range from spouses to parents of around 40 years, the styles and genres of music vary tremendously, so it's fun to have it on shuffle and work out which loved one the song is for.

It was a labour of love that I will listen to again and again to remind myself of our key origins.

Love and peace - Wozza

It couldn't fit more perfectly, than to have a world party on the day you came to be (Stevie Wonder)

Wie geht's?

September is a biggie for whanau birthdays.

• 2nd - Poppy Mae Purdy (turned 3)
• 3rd - Ivy Dulcie Fenn (turns 1)
• 18th - Greg Knowles (I lost count - too many candles)
• 24th - Michelle O'Neill (a spry spring chicken)

Most of that list (except for Ma Belle) are Virgos. Characters known for their good looks, meticulousness, analytical thinking, fine taste in music, and practicality. 

They are often conscientious, reliable, and attentive to detail, thriving in organised environments (Adam/Ashleigh and Jade/Chris take a bow). 

Early September Virgos (Popstar and Ivy) are highly perfectionistic and methodical, while later September Virgos (GK) are more flexible and individualistic. Yep.

So, a big happy birthday to all the September babies!

Love and peace - Papa/El Prez/Wozza

Well, I tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition (Dolly Parton)

Wie geht's?

In her lifetime, Dolly Parton sold a lot of records and to a wide range of folks. Yes, even to me*, someone whose country corner of the collection is quite small. There wouldn't be too many people without any knowledge of her music or films, or presence. She touched a lot of lives in a positive way.

She was larger than life as something about her personality meant she appealed to millions of people from all walks of life.  

Even though she clearly and outrageously embraced flamboyance, artifice and excess, her core personality - honesty, integrity, loyalty, shone forth. That's some trick.

The TV One network news started their daily bulletin with a 15-minute tribute that included live reporting. Extraordinary.

R.I.P. Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Love and peace - Wozza

*Back in the day I bought a copy of Nine to Five on 45rpm.

I can't tell you how much I would like to step into that view (Bill Bryson)

Kindred Spirits - Asher Brown Durand

Wie geht's?

Bill Bryson's two books A Walk in the Woods and Down Under were published together in an omnibus edition called Walkabout. I have read a few of his books before, but not these two, so I gobbled up this edition for a dollar during a closing down sale of a local second hand bookstore in Waipukerau.

The Appalachian Trail (AT) is the focus of his Walk in the Woods. During which he writes effusively about the Kindred Spirits painting - which is a heavily idealised view of the woods. The reality of the woods is a different matter.

The description of his walks along part of the AT is a pretty honest one. BB doesn't skimp on the hardships and misery involved at times on the journey, while there is also a wide-eyed euphoric appreciation of the impressive views.

As I read, I couldn't help thinking about my excursion up Mt Tamalpais with Mike Rowbottam and dreams of walking the Camino. 

Hiking along mountain trails, through dense woods, and staying in miserable conditions in cabins with strangers is not my thing. But walking is.

It's interesting reading the book alongside Gary Snyder's The Practice of the Wild. In his essay The Etiquette of Freedom he writes about walking:

Walking is the great adventure, the first mediation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance of spirit and humility.

I'm sure BB would concur.

Back to Synder - Human beings are audacious. They set out to have adventures and try to do more than perhaps they should.

Hence my quest to walk the Camino at some point in the next ten years. It would be audacious but worthwhile in terms of a learning experience.

Snyder again - Some of us have learned much from travelling day after day on foot over snowfields, rockslides, passes, torrents, and valley floor forests, "putting ourselves out there".

I'm halfway through A Walk in the Woods, and BB has yet to share revelations about what he's learned about himself. As I read on, I'll be looking out for some specific reference to that.

Love and peace - Wozza

I'm a man of contradictions, I'm a man of many moods, I contain multitudes (Bob Dylan and Walt Whitman)

Wie geht's?

The final edition of my self-assessment series is a response to the existential question - who are you, really?

The simplest, most profound, and hardest to answer question of all.

A while ago, my eldest son asked me this very question. At the time it kind of broadsided me, and then resulted in some ongoing deep level consideration of my core being.

Like Uncle Walt and everyone else, I contain multitudes, and like Bob, I'm a man of contradictions.

Blithely, I could fob myself off with my usual WYSIWYG response but I sense that will not satisfy my needs.

Since 2008, the blogosphere has read and studied me via my blog entries but I obviously self-censor these things as a matter of self-preservation. My students are among those who love to read my musing after all.

So, by necessity, I need to tip toe through this answer, while remaining true to myself, and you, dear reader.

The problem is - which me do I consider? Young me, early fatherhood me, middle aged me, or me now? Like all of us, I have physically changed, grown up, developed my thinking, experienced a wealth of things, failed lots, been shit canned, gone sideways, backwards and promoted many times.

The answer is obvious - I talk about the current me - the be-here-now me.

Enough preamble; here goes:

At my core I have key values that I hold myself accountable to; the key one being integrity. This is a value often used in schools in a superficial way, but I hold myself to account a lot - on a daily, hourly basis (yes - teaching is a great testing ground for what is right and wrong). Teaching involves hundreds of micro decisions a day. Integrity is key.

A Year 13 student this morning (as I type this) asked me if she could go and make some toast in the Year 13 common room - she was hungry.  I was pleased she asked and she understood when I said - sorry, no. But she wasn't done. She reminded me that I have a thing called Milo Friday where the class can grab a milo and come back for a more relaxed end of the week class. This isn't Friday though, and even then toast isn't on the menu. Eating in class, as a school rule, is a no no, which she knows, so she countered with, I could eat it outside the classroom. Again, sorry - no.

That ended the 'discussion' which involved me considering my own Pirate Code. The first 'guideline' being - Do the right thing, now. If I'd said, yes - go ahead, make some toast, I would have opened a portal to future pain and I would consciously have gone against the spirit of the school rule. Nuances. The right thing to do was to say again, sorry - no.

Consistency is important to me and sometimes it can be testing. What you do for one you do for all was a motto at my last school. Much earlier, my father had instilled that idea/ model in me and that informed how I treated our four children. Did/do I always get it right? Probably not, but that was the aim.

Another aim was/is not to be hypercritical. I don't think getting drunk is a good idea (I've never been drunk). I don't think smoking is a good idea (I've never smoked anything). I don't think tattoos are a good idea (I'm the only person in my family without one). If other people choose to do those things that's nothing to do with me - it's just not for me (we can only exercise control over ourselves).

That all probably makes me sound conservative and boring and narrow minded. Sure, at times I am guilty as charged. At others I can be liberal, daring in pursuit of goals, and open minded - they also go towards the real me. I'm a man of contradictions.

What influences the other multitudes also makes me unique. Things like: my Anglican faith (I was baptised and confirmed in the Anglican church); my interest in sport, literature, quotes, and mass media (music, film, blogging); experiences from living in different countries (China, Qatar, the UAE, England, New Zealand); being a Kiwi; my philosophical perspectives - a melting pot of faiths/ideas from Buddhism, stoicism, Christianity; my relationships with friends and family (I am thankful for all of them); my memories; my lack of an existential crisis (I know who I am and what I stand for); and my purpose in life (I am very clear on that as readers of Baggy Trousers can appreciate).

That will do it for now. I know I have more to say on this topic. This is not the definitive word. I remain a work in progress. I wrote an autobiography in my thirties and updated it for my blog a few years ago. I'm not done yet.

Love and peace - WNP

I don't wanna sit around, walk around today. I'd much rather levitate (Kurt Vile)

Wie geht's?

Part 5 in Ryan Holiday's provoked self-assessment series asked the fundamental questions: How does your mind work? Why does it work that way?

That took some thinking about (the self-examined life's not easy remember). That wasn't meant to be a smart alecky comment, instead it points to how my mind works.

I can still remember a moment of crystal-clear clarity as I walked home from a late lecture on Chaucer at Auckland University in my early twenties. I looked at the trees in Albert Park and I had a bullet-to-the-head revelation - I could see things distinctly for the first time.

My teenage boy fog had finally lifted, and I could see clearly now. It pointed to how my consciousness had bloomed at University and I found I could now reflect in a deep and sustained way.

I have always had the ability to focus intently on something. In the early days it was a book, or a TV programme, or while I was playing football. Mum would often say the house could be burning down around me and I wouldn't notice.

I'm still like that - ask my students or Jacky. I really really really block out things when I'm concentrating intently. When they break into that concentration, I can get quite frustrated. Why can't they see that I'm deep into it? That kind of frustration. I do get that I could be the only person alive with this ability (and there it is - my sarcasm).

I've strayed into personal qualities a tad but that's also how my mind works at times. It's why I love the Seinfeld eye roll so much. It also points to my refusal to take things too seriously - there's always a (sometimes inappropriate) laugh bubbling away under the surface.

I've digressed. My brain/mind is heavily biased toward language and communication. That's why I need this blogging business; that's why I'm an English teacher (the perfect job for me); that's why I can't live without music.

Why does it work that way? Obviously, my mother and father can take a large dollop of credit for that. After all - they made me. 

[My sometimes smart alecky approach is mine alone, as are my many other faults].

My father and I were very different people. I do not have his scientific mind (Ross is a clone), but I do share his analytical approach, his slight aloofness, and some of his social awkwardness (my struggle with phatic communion). 

From my mother I inherited her openness, her passion for things, her sense of humour, her love of communication (although, unlike me, she could talk on the phone for hours).

In the past I've failed to see my father in me, but I now recognise how much I am a composite of them both.

I realise I've only just scratched the surface of these two Ryan Holiday questions, but they are things I'll continue to chew over in my mind. Ha ha!

Love and peace - Wozza

You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it (Goldie Hawn)

Photo by WONSUNG JANG on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Growing older has its benefits.

Ryan Holiday (who is 39) is one who has acknowledged the positive changes that come with greater maturity: One thing I've noticed? I am calmer. I am quieter. I argue less. I get upset less. I admit I am wrong more often. 

This is wisdom, Epictetus said. Getting in fewer fights, letting more things go, focusing more on what you control. A smooth flow of life.

That's all groovy and all when you're under 40, until time flies and you become completely reliant on a caring helping hand to get through the day and night.

Recently, I visited some aged care facilities (not for me, I hasten to add) and I do not want to be someone who is wheeled into a dining hall in a recliner chair for lunch, thank you very much.

It's a bugger getting old.

Love and peace - Wozza

Ooh - ooh ain't it good for you. My own home recipe will see you through (Traffic)

Photo by Myles Tan on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Part 4: What are the patterns I picked up in childhood?

[A pattern is when things happen or appear in a repeated order that you can notice and predict; childhood is roughly the time before puberty]

In many ways the patterns I picked up on before teenagerhood are still with me. That's because they resulted in a couple of epiphanies that came along during that time. They provided the path I have been following ever since.

The patterns have their bedrock in life with my parents and brother at 18 Korma Ave. There were loads of books around, there were loads of records around, we were early adopters of mass media, and technology (dad built our first TV). 

I had a few close friends but I was also reserved as far as that went. There were the usual birthday parties with friends from school or football and my parents friends but no one person stuck until I was a teenager.

Family patterns were set early too. My brother and I were close in those childhood years and we lived in a peaceful, calm house. Our parents clearly loved each other (if there were disagreements, I never heard them). Feelings of trust and gullibility came from this environment. I was closer to mum than dad during these years. I have many of her traits and Ross is a lot like dad with his skills and attributes. That's simplistic, I know, but it's how I see it.

My childhood included many visits to my three grandparents' homes but they seldom came to ours. We were close to mum's Adsett family because she was close to her brothers but we had little to do with the extended Purdy family. I didn't even know about them until my twenties. I don't really know why it was like that.

As a result, I read a lot of comics and books (Marvel and DC, Look & Learn, Shoot and Goal), watched a lot of Television, listened to a lot of music on the radio, played a lot of sport - not just football and tennis but loads of other things like swimming (we had a pool), softball, cricket, singing (I was in the choir at Royal Oak Primary), art (I loved to draw), table tennis and I even played a game of rugby when they were short. I was good at sport and sport was good for me.

Traumas in childhood were few. I pulled a boiling kettle onto myself when I was two. I have the scar on my ankle where the drip was attached but no memory of it - just what mum told me. A large, loud, terrifying pig dog frightened me as mum walked me home along Pah Rd - leading to my deep distrust of dogs. Returning to Auckland from a Sydney holiday, we had a flight that hit really bad turbulence (so bad Ross and I still remember the sensation). That has led to a lifetime of nervous flying.

These patterns led to three key childhood life changing epiphanies :

• Epiphany 1 - At age four I fell in love with football.
• Epiphany 2 - While watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• Epiphany 3 - Deciding on a career as a teacher when I was 12.

Love and peace - Wozza

The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand (Irene C. Kassorla)

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Part 3 - What do I like? What do I hate?

I kind of balked at this question in Ryan Holiday's book. I dislike a few things, but I don't hate anything. 

[That Star Wars thing. Yoda points out that "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."]

I've written about my likes before here. If you can't be bothered reading that post here is the Readers' Digest version:

• They fit into various categories like sport: Arsenal F.C.; Rochdale; Pitsburgh Steelers; the All Blacks.
• Music: The Beatles is the obvious one but I am a completist for a large number of artists and labels.
• Films: again Star Wars is obvious but there are many others like Once,
• Books: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is calling me for a fifth read through.
• Ephemera: The 'I love...' list at the back of my 2005 journal written while living in England summarises things I'd written about during the year:
• The weather
• The Houses
• 28 Victoria Road, Leigh-on-sea
• Scottish borders
• The trains
• The underground
• People (staff) at school - King John
• The Guardian newspaper
• The Times
• Weather forecasts
• Snow
• Walking - Southend/Hadleigh Castle/ Hockley Woods
• Leigh-on-sea shops at night
• London sun
• Fopp
• Picking one at random - here's an excerpt from 2 January about the Scottish borders:
• The border area remains a real favourite of mine. We stopped at the English/Scottish border - huge winter winds/ a rain shower and gathering gloom from impending night and the mists made this a real highlight! I can't help it. I much prefer autumn and winter to the heat of summer. Gloomy days and early darkness have a lot of appeal. Particularly when allied to the warmth of English houses and pubs.

Much like everyone, I'm multi-faceted and full of contradictions. But I know what I like.

Love and peace - Wozza

Remember, one man's ceiling is another man's floor (Paul Simon)

Photo by Neven Krcmarek on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

So, here we are, as promised - this one is about my flaws. I said I'd limit it to the top 100, but let's see where I get to, shall we?

1. Gullibility - I'm quick to believe stories. A current student keeps feeding me tales and I swallow them up every time.
2. Loyalty - it can go either way, be a strength or a flaw, but my tendency is to stick with the tried and true. I inherited this trait from my father. I can't help being influenced by him*. The expression 'loyal to a fault' applies.
3. I also tend to get defensive with negative feedback and criticism. I'm aware of it and I've been working at it over the last couple of decades. It remains a WIP.
4. The obsessive-compulsive side of my personality manifests itself in my music collection. I am a completist with certain artists and labels. It began as a teenager with The Beatles and John Lennon but has spread over the last 30 years. That's it for the emotional/personality flaws. 
5. In terms of social and interpersonal ones I will own up to a reclusive gene, and a struggle with an aspect of phatic communion - small talk. I tend to get awkward in some social settings.
6. A behavioural flaw centres on my fog dwelling. It may appear that I'm absent-minded at times but the reality is that when I'm completely locked in/ focussed I enter into a kind of foggy dream state where nothing else exists. I understand that this can be very frustrating to key people in my life.

How many was that? Six or seven (ha ha). 

Love and peace - Wozza

*BTW it was his birthday on the weekend (he would have been 98). His influence remains strongly with me as you can tell by my frequent mentions in these posts.  

I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be (Joan Didion)

Photo by Vicky Sim on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

The unexamined life is not worth living, according to Socrates, but the examined life isn't a snap either.

Polonius' advice to his son (Be true to yourself) and the Oracle at Delphi's advice (know thyself) are all well and good but knowing yourself is not a breeze.

As Ryan Holiday says, self-awareness is rare and is a pursuit that takes a lifetime.

From time to time, I attempt to explain who I am in this blog. Here's another chapter in that on-going quest.

Ryan suggests some questions in his book Wisdom Takes Work to help work yourself out.

• What are your strengths?
• What are your flaws?
• What do you like? What do you hate?  
• What are the patterns you picked up in childhood?
• How does your mind work? Why does it work that way?
• Who are you, really?

Now I'm not about to answer all of those now, but I'll have a go at them one at a time.

First up: my strengths.

This is interesting because when I've asked others what they think my strengths are, I get surprising answers. Sometimes things I didn't think were my strong points.

For what it's worth, here are my four cents worth:

1. I knew what my purpose in life was from an early stage. I was twelve when I focused on teaching as a career. I have never deviated from that idea, even when a series of failures could have derailed me. This could be called stickability or naive and blinkered. Those all describe me.
2. A clear moral purpose. I learnt early on how right and wrong worked. Sometimes from doing dumb stuff I got to understand what was wrong. My parents were always there as an example of what was right, they still are. I was a lucky boy and they guide me still - what would Graham do? What would Dulcie say?
3. Emotional intelligence. I remain calm, believe everyone is doing the best they can, and I seek first to understand.
4. A reader and a listener - that describes me well. I loved reading from an early age. I still have a few books in my possession that were my favourites as a toddler. My early memories are often around mum taking me to buy books in Remuera, visiting the Onehunga library, or charging through the colours of the SSR readers at Royal Oak Primary. That love has stuck with me - I am always reading at least one book - most often two. Those quiet times reading probably helped me to become a better listener. It's a key skill and I practise it as much as I can.

Next time - my flaws. I'll aim to keep it down to a top 100.

Love and peace - Wozza

It's a family affair (Sly and the Family Stone)

Wie geht's?

Part two of some recent snaps from the whanau get together at Maple Grove, Palmerston North and Wellington. Special times with a special bunch of people. Warning - super cute geekids ahead!

Love and peace - WNP

Wear your love like heaven (Donovan)

Wie gehts?

We're back at Maple Grove after a week away, first in New Plymouth and then with the whanau in an Air BnB in Wellington, where all the grandkids (the cousin crew) turned up. Because we're all distributed in a variety of countries, these are special times and it's great to spend time with these remarkable people.

These days everyone has a phone, so, luckily, everyone has a camera to document these times. Here's a selection from the beauties taken during the week from a variety of people. They show some lovely family moments, captured forever.

Love and peace - Papa

So just look at them and sigh and know they love you (Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young)

Fanfa is always aware of the camera.

Wie geht's?

The long-awaited fandamly reunion with Purdettes arriving from 'Stralia and Denver happened this week. It marks the first time that we've ever had the four grandchildren together in one place. Very special!

The g-kids - Billie, Asher, Ivy and Poppy

Love and peace - Wozza