Keep Out of that Rut

Nicholas Shakespeare in his biography of Bruce Chatwin quotes the Headmaster of the late-writer. It is most important to make a good start: if you start the wrong way it becomes difficult to get back on the right road again. A man who was travelling one spring time in the north of Canada when the frost was breaking up and the roads were well nigh impossible saw this notice at a cross-road: Take care which rut you choose: you will be in it for the next 25 miles.

When Time Matters

The efforts of those who serve on committees draw many responses. Someone commented once that the main problem concerning these groups of people are that they attract those who like taking minutes and wasting hours.

Maximise the Minimal

Interesting things come from the East. The day breaks in that direction, romantic concepts are linked to many places in Asia, and new ideas from the Far East are increasingly popular. Who would have thought five years ago that magazines on Feng Shui would be on sale in the shops of British newsagents ? The art of detecting the flow of natural energies to create beneficial effect is appealing. It is a way of seeing connections between objects and spaces - and the people in between. In short, protect places, be rid of the clutter in life and think that GROT is necessary, only if it stands for Get Rid of Things !

The Way You See It

Putting matters into perspective depends partly on appreciating deprivations. In Terra Incognita, an account of her travels in Antarctica, Sara Wheeler describes her arrival at Christchurch, New Zealand, after months on the ice. It is here that the Botanic Gardens often attracts the scientists who have been deprived of those two features of life, colour and smell. However, her indulgence was to order cappuccino coffees at a cafe with a Swedish scientist. They both drooled over the frothy cups and he responded: It is really too good to drink. We should just look at it.

The Variety of Trips

There's a new word on the block and it refers to an activity appropriate for this time of year - travelling. Those who long to get away may be suffering from 'dromomania,' sometimes referred to as the vagabond neurosis. This is a preoccupation about travelling in which relief is experienced only as the new journey begins. Once the trip is over, then the mental trip begins immediately and can only be satisfied by being on the move again. When at a terminal - rail, coach or air - remember that some passengers may crave to be there.

Be Wary

Everything wears out eventually, but some things last longer than others. Parchment made 2000 years ago remains robust, while paper made from cotton or linen in China has lasted more than 1000 years. The machine-made, wood-pulp paper of the 1850s has started to decay, the present-day microfilm has a similar life-span, while music CDs will give sound performances for about 15 years and magnetic tape for about ten. The information that we see on the Internet lasts for under six weeks. Beware of wearing out.

A Friday Feature

There was a time when uniforms meant just that - one form of clothing only. Then came the variations on a theme of dress code. There was a brief period in which the concession to individual choice was announced by such features as 'Dress-down Friday.' Now there is much more freedom about what is worn to work. Yet the timing restraints have become more rigid. Some people look back with nostalgia to an era when the word 'POETS' would give a sense of release - "Push off early, tomorrow's Saturday."

Attention Spans

When we concentrate on what we are told or look at, we do try to focus our attention. That's basic good manners. However, there's likely to be something else both pressing and stimulating coming into range - and we switch away. Stronger attention-spans matter, but we should not feel guilty when compared with our forefathers who would allegedly listen to the speeches of statesmen, such as Gladstone and Disraeli, for two hours. We live in 'electronic-time' and 'fast-forward' is a mental demand as well as a video instruction.

Mind the Gap

There has been erosion at both ends of working-life during the past 25 years. The time-spent on further and higher education often means that work is not started until an individual is 22 years-of-age. Early retirement schemes mean that employment can cease at 50. Then there is the 'gap-year' phenomenon that creates another diversion. The popularity of visiting Australia, the Far East and South-east Asia before 'settling down' means that some people are tempted to extend such trips indefinitely to what has been called, a 'gap life'.

Smiles Better

Children laugh much more frequently than adults who often appear to lose the knack. Many facial muscles have to be operated in order to smile, but in the end it is worth it. For apparently there is no greater determining factor in personal success than the appeal of an individual's smile. Those with open and genuine smiles seem to cruise towards happier, fulfilled lives, according to recent research. So grin and bear it, smile and make it.

Job's Worth

Television presenters often try, and usually succeed, in making us a part of their programmes by creating that feeling of involvement. We forget that this is a one-way process in which we are merely observers who only imagine that we 'participate.' A resolution could be to realise that when we do anything active, using our own resources, it is an achievement in itself. In the words of the great G K Chesterton, 'If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing badly.' Think about it.

The Three Fs

As there are warning notices posted wherever items are sold, we should never take for granted the enduring popularity of anything - except, perhaps, the three 'F' words - food, fun and freedom. When investors thought Internet companies possessed complete access to the public's attention and wallets, they were wrong. Being on-line may be just a passing fad summed up by the title of a conference paper, 'They Came, They Surfed, They Went Back to the Beach'.

Four-fold for the Future

Personal trainers are paid to look after the bodies of the rich; life-coaches are employed to manage the minds of the would-be successful. They need to zap out weaknesses and zip up strengths. The basic requirements of any course in personal development are four-fold. Be clear about priorities, in command of time, confident in judgement and ready to celebrate successes, however small. In short, be good; feel better.

For Commitment ?

Collecting can encourage those people who are committed as well as those who should, perhaps, be committed. You have to be up early to beat the 'twitchers' who collect sightings of birds. The last humans you see as you leave airports can be the plane-spotters. Be aware, however, that there are individuals who tick off the electricity pylons that straddle Europe. Their different designs, colours, numbers and positions attract … some people.

The Three-Rs

Be wary of those offering activities which involve extensive travel, systems bearing the word 'synergy', concepts centred around such fancy names as 'multi-tasking' and 'time-deepening'. They all mean two things - cramming efforts and stifling pleasure. The danger is that so-called 'hurry-sickness' can take over those parts of our minds which should provide us with the three important r-words: reflection, relaxation and realisation.

Whether the Weather

Billy Connolly expressed his dislike of British weather reports in which forecasters talk in terms of bad weather. He said "There's no such thing as bad weather, it's just a case of the wrong clothing." When I once suggested to a young friend that he could get thoroughly wet, his response was the memorable and convincing, "But skin's waterproof !"