Category: Meaning of life

Once when I was in grade school, the class was presented with a surprise pop quiz. The first one who finished would win some prize. At the top of the quiz, on the very first sentence, it stated very clearly to be sure first to read through all of the questions before beginning the quiz.

Of course no one did this. Looking through the questions ahead of time like this would only be a waste of time and cause unnecessary delay. Everyone was too eager to be the first to finish the quiz and win the much cherished prize. We did not want to want to compromise any chances at the starting line.

So about ten minutes later, upon reaching the last question, we discovered the trap that was waiting to ensnare us. The very last question was very clear: Do not answer any questions, and instead turn in the quiz immediately with only your name written at the top right corner.

Since that amazing insight into the ways and means of life, desperate distractions have often returned to ensnare me again and again, and I have blindly repeated that same painful mistake unknowingly.

I guess I didn't learn that lesson very well...

The most important thing you can do is learn to control yourself. And that starts with your thoughts. It starts with not being negative.

Living with Confidence.

It is with honor and privilege that I don my new radio paradise cap (also have a matching tee shirt).

Radio paradise

I received the following very nice email this morning, and it has touched me deeply.

Hello, I apologize for bothering you,
but I'm not sure how to get out of the difficult situation I'm in.

Maybe you could help me. I need an urgent liver transplantation,
and the surgery costs a lot of money for me.
To be precise, I need 36,414 USD.

I would greatly appreciate any amount you can contribute.
If you're unable to help, I apologize once again

My bitcoin wallet: ...

You can buy bitcoin here ...
or choose another payment service (google search phrase "buy bitcoin")

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this,
and please take care of yourself and your loved ones, especially your family...

I feel very sorry for this person, and since this sounds like a perfectly reasonable request, I have decided to donate the money for her desperately needed surgery.

During my daily walks through the countryside, I come across natural wonders which catch my attention. Sometimes the object results in a fleeting thought or a mental distraction, and other times I become frozen in time philosophizing about the this and the that.

Take for example that small stone at the side of the road. Until now it has been enjoying a relatively peaceful existence minding its own business. As I approach the small inanimate object, I wonder if I should let it continue lying there motionless for years to come with no will of its own, or better yet release my free will in such a manner as to disrupt the future as it could have been.

From one instant to the next, I decide to express my will power and disrupt time. With a perfectly placed kick of my toe, I send the small stone sliding across the pavement where it hits a slight upramp of the road at the edge of the canal, whereupon the rock is launched into the air, flies several meters and splashes in the exact middle of the water. A miniature splash sends it its way to the depths of the canal, settling to the bottom to remain there for the next thousands of years.

All of this was triggered by some random thoughts in my mind and the laws of nature took over. Here we are, again.

I was making my way to the gym today, when I suddenly heard a faint voice calling in my direction. "Mister, mister, can you please help me?" On the other side of a street stood an elderly lady bent over her walker. "Please help me, it is very important."

I crossed the street and approached her. She looked about eighty years old but could have been older. "I need to mail these letters, but I am out of breath I can't make it any further." She reached into her purse and pulled out two envelopes with handwritten addresses on them. "Would you be so kind as to mail them for me?"

It really touched me that she was trusting some total stranger. At the same time, I felt blessed to have become the chosen one who fate had decided to put there. It was a fortunate twist of the elements. I could have been any uninterested passerby who'd just end up throwing the letters into the ditch not wanting to be hassled.

So here is what I did. Although my destination was in the opposite direction, I made the detour to the nearest mailbox, and when the time came I lovingly pushed the two envelopes into the mailbox. Indeed, they would reach their destination in a day or two. Thanks to me, and no one would ever know it.

This is what I learned about life on this planet. We are a tight-knit society of randomly placed human beings, and we depend on one another to do the right things. In times of need, we should not be afraid to reach out to the random passerby for help. It is a complicated fabric of society which holds us together, and what makes it strong and durable is our trust and love of each other.

Forget about the past, and forget about the future. Live life fully in the present and make the best of it as each second ticks by.

By following these simple guidelines, the demons of the past will eventually fade away into nothingness, and the future will in the end take care of itself. Or so that is what the wise philosophers of the past have promised us.

It is up to each and every one of us to decide our self whether or not we should pursue this path. Our reckoning will be the day of our death when the final conscious thoughts reveal if we have taken the correct decisions and followed the proper path.

Spoiler alert: the answer will always be yes.

I had just crossed the bridge next to the hockey field, turning left on my last leg of the journey back home. That's when a white hockey ball flew right past my head missing it by only a couple of inches.

On the other side of the wire fence about ten yards away stood a husky twelve year old girl leaning nonchalantly on her hockey stick. She had severely misjudged the height of the goal and had launched the hockey ball over the net, over the fence, through the highest tree branches, and at an obtuse angle onto the asphalt path leading back to the bridge.

The hockey ball is a good bit larger than a baseball, weighs about 5.5 ounces and has a diameter of nearly 3 inches. It is harder than hard. At that velocity, it easily qualifies as a deadly projectile. It slammed into the wooden bridge with a loud thud, ricocheted off of the metal railing, took another bounce in the opposite direction and then splashed into the water. Forever lost to the depths of non-existence.

The young girl seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she had nearly killed an innocent bystander. Then she broke her posed stance and continued running around as if nothing had happened. I can imagine that she felt pretty embarrassed about making such a bad shot and didn't want any of her fellow team players to notice her gaff. Indeed, peer pressure can be pretty bad these days, especially at that tender age, when even near death episodes are irrelevant.

How ironic it is nowadays when everyone is so completely preoccupied by the dangers of catching and dying from the corona virus. Little do they realize that an other completely random event could just as swiftly end your life right here and now.

If I had been walking a fraction faster or had tilted my head a bit more to the left, I would not have made it back home in time to write this interesting and philosophical blog entry. Thanks God for saving my life.

Every challenge can show you who you are and what you're capable of. The good and the bad.

Not all challenges are desirable, but not all are optional either. Many of them are forced upon us. When they are, we can choose to learn from them.

by Dan Pedersen

Please be warned that the following provocative video will really get you to think more deeply about your ultimate future and the true meaning of life.

But don't forget how you continue to live in other people even if they won't remember you.

Say goodbye to yet another beard. After struggling ten days battling the incessant itch, I had finally grown a pretty impressive beard. I could have let it grown even longer, but my wife found it too ugly to bear. Oh well, there goes another beard.

Thanks to this inspirational quote by Dan Pedersen, I feel much better today:

Taken from his website Living with Confidence.

You know that you are getting older when you completely forget that it is your wedding anniversary.

By arrangement it was also the very same day we first lay eyes on each other.

Thea and I met each other for the first time in Balestrand, Norway exactly thirty-nine years ago to the day.

Hard to believe but true.

Lately, things seem to be slipping out of my grip more often, mostly without major consequences. This time around, however, the result was not what I had been hoping for.

While preparing my daily peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch, I inadvertently let slip the jam and it fell to the floor in one swift swoop. It landed bottom first and exploded upon contact, shards of glass and blobs of jam flying every which way. It made a muffled sound when it hit the ground, and the splatters thudded on surfaces in a five meter radius from ground zero.

Amazingly, I thought nothing of this tremendous mess. Calmly I spent the following half hour vacuuming up the glass which had flown to every distant corner of the house, cleaning the cabinets and walls of the reddish stuff, and then mopping the floor until it glowed.

You would have never guessed that only moments earlier a natural disaster had nearly knocked over the place.

With age one gets less stressed out and accepts change with open arms, it's all a new adventure in learning.

As things turn out this time around, I have to admit that it's not that bad at all turning 61 years old, although thirty years ago I might have thought otherwise. To have been able to be a part of everything is something for which I can be thankful for the rest of my life.

In this modern era of mobile phones, computers and keyboards, it's nice to reach out for old-fashioned pencil and paper and jot down spontaneously those thoughts which come to mind.

To be honest, feeling the graphite tip of the pencil press down on the paper surface and etch out words and figures makes me feel more like a real human being.

Back to the roots of existence in order to get in touch with the past and feel inspired.

Modern society is making it more and more difficult for older folks to find employment deserving of their experience and competence.

This is not only very sad, but it doesn't make much sense either. From an economic point of view, there's a large workforce void out there waiting to be filled by eager, enthusiastic and qualified people.

Sure it might cost a bit more than hiring younger folks, but with a slightly increased payroll comes a huge benefit which more than compensates any disadvantages. More often than not, a single older person not only counts for two or more equivalent young bucks. Through a structured sense of seniority, he or she also inspires the surroundings to become more orderly and efficient.

In general older people are a gentle folk, wise and creative, not to be afraid of. Eager to avoid fading away in some dark corner, rather to pursue an active and meaningful life, the slightly older person will be inspired to be more eager and productive.

He or she will also challenge and inspire the younger generation, making them more productive as well, which is great for the company.

So what's the big deal? Let's make society a better place by getting these people back on board where they belong.

slightly-older-and-not-yet-over-the-hill

Taken from the blog article: Where to find God.

See Living with Confidence by Dan Pedersen.

Taken from the blog article: Beware of Extreme Rationality.

See Living with Confidence by Dan Pedersen.

"We need to recognise the legitimate and necessary role of failure, allow ourselves to do things quite imperfectly for a very long time - as a price we cannot avoid paying for an opportunity one day, in many decades, to do something that others will consider a spontaneous success."

Taken from The Perfectionist Trap.