State of the Universe
Yes, the world probably existed before me, and it will probably continue to exist after I'm gone, but for me, my life is the universe, and vice versa. This is the state of it.
This coming year I will turn 60, which I suppose will leave me in a state of reflection for the next twelve months or more. It's hard to know how far to plan ahead. I'm as eager to start new things as I ever was, but there's a horizon there.
In The Denial of Death Ernest Becker writes that we essentially live our lives as if there is no end, because there's no alternative. This 'immortality project' is what allows us to transcend the end of our physical existence, by building a heroic and symbolic legacy that carries on no matter what.
So, yeah, everyone is the hero of their own story, and I am no different, and while surely there will be a time to rest, it is not now, and so I continue to work and learn as though that horizon is infinitely receding.
Two main themes dominated my year:
First, this is the year that my travel slowed down to a crawl. I made only two long trips (still more than most people, I acknowledge) - one to Colombia, and the other to Saudi Arabia. I don't know why I stopped getting invitations, but I'm fine with it. I think my reach in general decreased this year, as the number of newsletter readers dropped by a lot.
Second, I had a lot more room this year to pursue my own interests in the workplace. We've reverse polarity, and no instead of defining innovation from the top down our office is enabling researchers to define and create innovations themselves. I've taken advantage of this and greatly extended my knowledge and capacity in a range of technologies that cumulated with my work on E-Learning 3.0.
On the home front, the main theme for Andrea and I was consolidation. We've finally turned the corner on the debt created by moving to Casselman, and we were about get out and enjoy ourselves more - some football games, baseball games and hockey games, as well as another short trip to Mont Tremblant. I had to buy a new bicycle this year, but I also cycled 2100 kilometers, a personal record.
We also bought a new car, a Clarity plug-in hybrid, which set us back quite a bit financially (we're still waiting for the Ontario government incentive money to arrive). So even though we live in the country we consume less energy than we ever did.
That's about it.
Just one final note. Every day now I take some time to take in just how amazing life is, how beautiful the world is, and how wonderful it is to experience so much of it. This isn't something I'm telling myself to do, it's just something I'm simply feeling.
This coming year I will turn 60, which I suppose will leave me in a state of reflection for the next twelve months or more. It's hard to know how far to plan ahead. I'm as eager to start new things as I ever was, but there's a horizon there.
In The Denial of Death Ernest Becker writes that we essentially live our lives as if there is no end, because there's no alternative. This 'immortality project' is what allows us to transcend the end of our physical existence, by building a heroic and symbolic legacy that carries on no matter what.
So, yeah, everyone is the hero of their own story, and I am no different, and while surely there will be a time to rest, it is not now, and so I continue to work and learn as though that horizon is infinitely receding.
Two main themes dominated my year:
First, this is the year that my travel slowed down to a crawl. I made only two long trips (still more than most people, I acknowledge) - one to Colombia, and the other to Saudi Arabia. I don't know why I stopped getting invitations, but I'm fine with it. I think my reach in general decreased this year, as the number of newsletter readers dropped by a lot.
Second, I had a lot more room this year to pursue my own interests in the workplace. We've reverse polarity, and no instead of defining innovation from the top down our office is enabling researchers to define and create innovations themselves. I've taken advantage of this and greatly extended my knowledge and capacity in a range of technologies that cumulated with my work on E-Learning 3.0.
On the home front, the main theme for Andrea and I was consolidation. We've finally turned the corner on the debt created by moving to Casselman, and we were about get out and enjoy ourselves more - some football games, baseball games and hockey games, as well as another short trip to Mont Tremblant. I had to buy a new bicycle this year, but I also cycled 2100 kilometers, a personal record.
We also bought a new car, a Clarity plug-in hybrid, which set us back quite a bit financially (we're still waiting for the Ontario government incentive money to arrive). So even though we live in the country we consume less energy than we ever did.
That's about it.
Just one final note. Every day now I take some time to take in just how amazing life is, how beautiful the world is, and how wonderful it is to experience so much of it. This isn't something I'm telling myself to do, it's just something I'm simply feeling.
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