‽istis ponders noticing (weekending January 14th 2023)
This weekending ‽istis wonders about
what gets noticed:
·
A snippet on the radio that might snap you back from
being ‘miles away’
·
A conversation overheard in the street
·
Something seen that sparks a thought – a bit out of
the ordinary
·
A snatch of a thought that flits through – barely
catchable
·
A sentence in a book – that jumps out, keen to be
underlined, marked up
·
A social media post, a video perhaps designed to
‘reel’ you in and down advert-lined rabbit holes having taken the bait (and
mixed the animal and fish-based metaphors)
This week’s ‘noticings’ and related sparked thoughts have
included:
‽ Piers Morgan casting oh so broadly – reigniting my fear of being stuck in a lift
with PM, the (not most) recent ex-PM, plus Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Madeley, Giles
Coren and Andrew Bridgen, and wondering who might emerge the least scarred by
the experience. Ponder point: check the lift before you get in.
‽ Quotations attributed to Alice
Walker, Aristotle and Simone de Beauvoir - and a picture of a hat or an
elephant inside a satiated snake from Antoine de St Exupéry:
·
‘Keep in mind always the present you are constructing.
It should be the future you want.’ (More wonderings and ponderings, not enough
action?)
·
‘The more you know, the more you don’t know.’ (And the
name Donald Rumsfeld comes to mind)
·
‘If you live long enough, you’ll see that every
victory turns into a defeat.’ (Perhaps then the trick is to die at the right
time?)
·
‘My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a
picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.’ (Hoping that this what I
shall always see – fearing the time that I have even forgotten that this is
what I hoped I would always see).
o
Ponder point: one person’s inspirational quote could
be quite the opposite for another.
‽ High tides, full harbour and the sheer power of the sea. Ponder
point: great caution, risk assessment and hats off to the RNLI, coastguards and
coastwatch volunteers
‽ A West Country space launch. Ponder point: the same thing could
be considered both a success and a failure at the same time (and the Cornish
space business may thrive ‘dreckly’)
‽ That not all beauty is always permissible[i]. Ponder
point: art may challenge perceptions and perceptions may challenge art
‽ That natural yoghurt can highlight the sweetness of a (memorial)
egg custard tart. Ponder point: tastes may perhaps be relative and on a
spectrum
‽ That ‘on this day’ dates can potentially spotlight aspects of
the past that:
a) we might wish to avoid, forget, ignore… e.g: the granting of a charter
to the ‘Royal African Company’[ii]
(10.1.1663) by Charles II which sanctioned explicitly ‘the buying and selling,
bartering and exchanging of, for, and with any negro slaves, goods, wares and
merchandize whatsoever to be vended or found’ in Western Africa’
b)
we might wish to hail and applaud… e.g: January 10th 1946 saw the opening
of the inaugural session of the UN General Assembly in the Methodist Central
Hall in London.
o
Ponder point: when, how and why might we judge
something to be ‘a good thing’ or not? And can there be a universal ‘we’
anyway?
‽ How a good pair of binoculars still won’t help if the dolphins
are just not there at the moment. Ponder point: if a dolphin is swimming in the
sea but nobody sees it, etc…?
‽ Porridge pan: perhaps best soaked and scraped before washing. Scrambled
egg pan: perhaps best left to dry and scraped before washing. Ponder point:
tips and hints for cleaning other kitchenware?
‽ That, again – see previous blogs – ‘problem-locus’ and
‘solution-focus’ may be linked (i.e: a proposed solution may provide insight
into the perceived cause of the problem), whilst root cause analysis[iii]
could potentially help dig down past the soundbites and rehearsed ‘positions’ –
that will be delivered during the interview, whatever the question asked.
Ponder point: is the solution to
striking workers (for example in the health sector) a ban on strikes or ensuring
adequate pay, terms and conditions and recognition (beyond a Thursday pandemic
clap) so that committed professionals do not find themselves thinking that
striking is necessary?
So, this week - lots of ‘noticings’ and a fair bit of more-or-less
relevant pondering. ‽istis is left wondering what you may have perhaps noticed,
what ponderings were possibly inspired and, maybe, what impact they had…
©
‽istis
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...
[i]
See what ‽istis considers to be an extraordinary exhibition at Hampton Court:
‘Permissible Beauty’ https://staging.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/whats-on/permissible-beauty/
(amazing work Julie Howell and team).
[iii]
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_cause_analysis
as a starting point. Wikipedia was chosen as so many references to RCA link to
commercial businesses and resource/training providers
