Pistis reclaims transactions (weekending September 25th 2021)

 

‽istis reclaims transactions (weekending September 25th 2021)

This week ‽istis purchased a redundant prop from a hotel – once used, perhaps, as a bar for a specific cuisine-themed night with, possibly, matching drinks and (Pistis fears) stereotypical national or regional dress for staff and, maybe, besported by particularly enthusiastic guests!

Plenty to wonder here, but the pitch (the nearest that Pistis might get to an ‘Apprentice’-style task), over a congenial cup of coffee, went something like this:

·        been walking past it for about a year - unused, taking up space in a garage with old chairs

·        likely that neither of us need it; seems that you may not want it; I’d quite like it

·        little intrinsic value

And, with candour, we acknowledged that worth maybe what someone is willing to pay.

So, an offer was made with commitments as sweeteners and maybe conscious-salvers: on the purchaser’s side – to match the payment with a donation to a prominent, literally life-saving, charity; and, on the other side, to put the money received in the tips jar, to be shared by all staff[i].

And in this upholstered and softly-furnished ‘market place’ the process and outcome proved mutually satisfactory. Hard to find evidence of exploitation, of margins squeezed to the barely bearable to fight off the competition, of profit disproportionately lining the pocket of a chief executive officer at the top of a pyramid of necessary and dependent whole system activity.  

So, in a week ending with queues outside petrol stations and when the impact of gas price rises perhaps remind us that free market economics may not always have been that free; that regulation, caps, recommended ‘switching’ and plenty of competition may not always guarantee value for money, long-term security, reasonable price or affordability, quantity or quality of goods and services - Pistis wondered whether there might be lessons to be learned and scaled-up  from an exchange over a cup of coffee in a hotel bar.

And ‽istis also wondered whether this might be yet another purchase dependent on that (perhaps, possibly, maybe) old (self-)deceptive capitalist trick of a want framed as a need? Finally ‽istis pondered - what if my wants came second to others' needs a little more often and a little more globally, well just imagine how different the world might be...  

© Pistis                                                                                                                        

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome…  

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[i] In touch with the UK zeitgeist and law, also this week: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58669632

Pistis reclaims imposter syndrome (weekending September 18th 2021)

 

‽istis reclaims imposter syndrome (weekending September 18^th 2021)

In a week when the UK Cabinet is reshuffled[i] (perhaps, some might say, rearranged like chairs on a non-level deck of a floundering ship of state?), ‽istis reclaims imposter syndrome[iii] ‘suffered’ by an ‘individual who struggles to internalise success; who feels fraudulent; and who attributes success to factors such as hard work, charm or luck.’[iv]

This weekending, ‽istis wonders whether some of the newly-promoted and the somehow-kept-in-post may wake and consider their competence and fit-for-purposeness; may hold the responsibility of government (and the delivery of the priorities of at-least-some-of-the-people) very heavily and with trepidation, with an absence of hubris and exceptionalism and with humility; may take only limited comfort in the confidence that has been instilled (sometimes as a result of possibly very expensive, exclusive and excluding education) and reinforced (group think-like) over the years?

But ‽istis cannot be sure, given the announcements, pronouncements and responses; the unqualified language; the sheer sense of certainty that exudes.

Yet, ‽istis also wonders whether catching a dose of ‘imposter syndrome’ (hopefully before policies and their outcomes for others does the unmasking) might change things:

·        more partnership

·        more collaboration

·        more sensitivity

·        more tentativity

·        more caution…

But ‽istis also wonders whether this is really what ‘the led’ want from their leaders, shakers and policy-makers and whether it could actually result in better outcomes for everyone – the majority and the minoritized – better health and wellbeing, greater security, more happiness[v]? Anyway, here’s a humble invitation to the empowered – perhaps imagine that you might be just a little bit of an imposter…  It may possibly make a difference‽

© Pistis                                                                                                                        

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome…  

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[i] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministerial-appointments-september-2021 (being updated as this is typed)

[ii] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58495112

[iii] See Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006 & https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-23/edition-5/feeling-fraudhttps://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-23/edition-5/feeling-fraud

& https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/06/01/a-new-study-claims-that-under-pressure-imposter-syndrome-hits-men-harder-than-women/

[iv] https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2019/09/tackling-imposter-syndrome

[v] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=99&nr=266&menu=1449

Pistis wonders about continuity and change (weekending September 11th 2021)

 

‽istis wonders about continuity and change (weekending September 11^th 2021)

Over this past fortnight

·        as one who has loved even before the very beginning, and was loved - is half lost

·        as Afghanistan’s governance diverts, or reverts or converts

·        as one-time colleagues are met after 17 years, and the conversation just resumes

‽istis wonders:

‽ what perhaps stays the same, what perhaps changes?

‽ what are the possible ‘residual messages’ we form and hold and carry, that filter and shape (about the world and the way it works, about people and the way they work, about the nature of knowledge and vice versa, about matter and all that matters) that may or may not be affected by new encounters (people, knowledge, experiences) - confirming, complexifying, challenging, creating…?

‽ how might I, how might you, how might ‘we’, how might others (if others there continue to be) be both the same and yet different?

‽ what perhaps remains when awareness, comprehension and faculties fade and ‘the plot’ seems lost save for snatches of poetry, etched deeply; the identity found now only in relationships – mother to a daughter, mother to a son; faith that there is more and better, that reunity will be?

And perhaps, possibly maybe there is a realisation of utter connectedness and the boundaries of independence (body, mind, spirit, agency, responsibility…) found, as it may not be on earth.   

© Pistis                                                                                                                        

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome…