Random thoughts

A few events have touched me in recent weeks.

The fragility of our health. Our regional director was recently hit by a mild stroke. He lost his speech and is half paralysed. The doc gave him two months to recover but … would he fully recover? Would he still be the same person? Would the mind work as fast? Can he still handle the stress? He is in his early forties, is a vegetarian and lives a pretty healthy lifestyle or so I am told. He got married a couple of years back and the wife gave birth to their first child just last year. And now this! Is the job, the stress worth this breakdown in our health?

The direction of our lives. Am I in control? Or am I allowing events in my life to take the driver’s seat? My intent was to do something worthwhile that contributes to society … but I seem to have lost sight of that goal over the years. What happened to my ideals?

Making unfair judgements. Have I erred in my dealings with a colleague? I do not agree with his handling of his private affairs, i.e. womanising on the sly while portraying himself to be the epitome of the perfect husband and father, BUT that should not colour my judgement of his work. However, he did use company time and events to womanise, and his work has been far from satisfactory with these distractions. Have I been unduly harsh with him? Can I be objective in dealing with him?

Good versus evil. There are lessons to be learnt from Paulo Coelho’s “The Devil and Miss Prym”. Good and evil live within every person and it doesn’t take much for a person to justify doing something evil for what he/ she perceives to be the greater good. It made me take a few hard looks at certain decisions in my life.

Facing up to the truth. Forty nine years after independence and the racial issue is still a political triumph card to be played within certain factions. Can we face up to the truth about ourselves? Watching “Crash”, the Best Picture award winner, was an extremely disturbing affair as the movie portrayed the inherent racism that lives within each of us. But no matter how disturbing it is, we have to face up to the truth, because if we do not acknowledge that the problem exists, how could we then find the solution or at least the anecdote to hold it at bay? I doubt “Crash” made it through the censorship board here, but if you can get your hands on the movie, do watch it. Take note of the characters. No matter how bad they are, there are also some inherent good; and vice versa. You can neither like nor hate any of the characters in the end.