Pistis ponders age or shoe size (weekending February 12th 2022)

 

‽istis ponders age or shoe size (weekending February 12th 2022)

This week:

• ‽istis feels genuine great fear, even from a place of relative safety at the potential catastrophic consequences of a failure of politics and diplomacy (1)

• as a vision of young sporting excellence seems to shatter like fragile ice into a story of possible adult manipulation and abuse when the price of winning is perhaps set just too high (2)

• when workplace mention of ‘we all make mistakes’; ‘we’re just human’; ‘that’s what people are like’ prompts recurring thoughts about whether there is a difference between ‘excuse’ and ‘explanation’ - and whether this is what we have always been like and will always be like…

‽istis wonders whether it is better (definition pending; future blog entry forming; your views welcome…!) to have ‘grown-ups in the room’ (3) or to ‘act your shoe size not your age’ (4)?

Perhaps, possibly, maybe it could be a question of: 

• for the ‘grown-ups’: how do we nurture, support, protect, encourage and meet the needs and rights of all children and young and people?

• for the children and young people: what adults do you want and need now - and wish to be when it is your turn?

‽istis is pretty sure that:

• the absence of war and the fear of war
• the absence of abuse and coercion and exploitation
• the absence of lies, loopholes wrought through semantics and ‘apologies if…’ (5)
• the effective optimal management and response to sources and threats of illness and diseases endemic and pandemic, to poverty and hunger and homelessness
• the presence of perhaps dynamically and necessarily interlinked peace and justice and equality (6)
• a future-proofed sustainable planet

might feature in the hopes of children and young people, along with a wish that the adults with power are focussed utterly, absolutely and relentlessly on bringing them about - especially this week in London, Washington and Moscow.

Whatever your shoe size, whatever your age, whatever your position or circumstance, ‽istis wonders whether it is just too difficult or too much to ask that ‘we’ seek to act in a way that constructs the world as we would like it to be rather than perpetuates the world as it is.

Just imagine the perhaps, possibly, maybe consequences…  

© 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...  

 

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60355295  & “All war represents a failure of diplomacy.“ —  Tony Benn Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1991/feb/28/the-gulf in the House of Commons (28 February 1991) & a fascinating article stumbled upon from 1908: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25106058?seq=11#metadata_info_tab_contents 

2. References found include: https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/figure-skating-russias-valieva-shows-up-practice-again-beijing-2022-02-11/

3. References found include: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/boris-johnson-out-government-grownups-26049419 & https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315535/a-ladybird-book-about-donald-trump/9780241422724.html 

4. References found include: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/27/act-your-shoe-size-not-your-age & https://adsspot.me/media/tv-commercials/clarks-act-your-shoe-size-not-your-age-b7e63ededa0e 

5. References found include: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/understand-other-people/201607/i-m-sorry-you-were-offended-is-not-really-apology 

6. Versus ‘mutually assured destruction’ which is perhaps being tested as an effective philosophy of deterrence at this very moment…? References found include: https://www.thoughtco.com/mutually-assured-destruction-1221190