Knowledge is Power

 This is a quote that is probably the most misunderstood and misused. I did not know the citation for this quote and had to look it up. Seems it was used by Thomas Jefferson and previously attributed to Francis Bacon. My understanding of this quote all these years had been that knowledge interpreted as education or understanding of something is powerful. In the present times, I have let us say been amused by how people use this quote or seem to interpret it. Glad to see that Jefferson did use it pertaining to a state university so it is linked to education and he seemed to think Knowledge is power, happiness and important of all safety. 

Some seem to use it as any form of knowledge is power and especially knowledge of gossip is considered to be a form of power. Though it does help wield a form of manipulative power onto others it is not the kind of knowledge that can bring one safety or happiness. Probably the issue is the usage of the word knowledge and information as synonyms without distinguishing information from misinformation. But then probably knowledge can also be obtained from cherry picked sources to fit one's biases, then it would be miseducation.

So knowledge in its own is supposed to bring power, happiness and safety when it is kept away from miseducation and misinformation is my opinion.

cadence they say

 This will be a very short one I have heard this word cadence often in the last few months,

though cadence can mean different things

Cadence can refer to frequency in certain technical sense 

Cadence is a rhythmic flow of sound and is used in the sense how a group functions

Or Cadence is also used as is the case in public speaking

so once again the same word different interpretation when used in a scenario where all this can apply at the same time 

Back to suffering and thriving

 I had earlier mentioned I do not know if you can thrive and suffer at the same time and that I am looking into it. Found some nice reads online on this topic. Most of them though lead to faith and spirituality as a form of dealing with suffering and what if one is not spiritual in the religious sense. This lead me to look into different forms of spirituality as it can be defined beyond religion (Anbe sivam movie for the tamil movie buffs) https://spiritualitypedia.com/spirituality/beyond-religion-exploring-the-different-types-of-spirituality/).  The humanistic and transpersonal spirituality makes more sense and more so the humanistic spirituality to my own values and identity. And to suffer and to thrive means one is resilient they say but then I have also recently read somewhere that resilience is not always a good thing. I think my understanding is resilience that leads to powering through is not a good thing, resilience that allows you to take breaks when needed is a good thing. so guess calling it a resilience with a small 'r' not a big 'R' . 

Books and what is inside

 I was at a second hand bookstore this morning and landed on a book titled never eat alone. I do not agree with the title ( here we go) , i think everyone needs to eat alone at times to sit with their thoughts and also to seek comfort in doing the most mundane of tasks to eat and still enjoy it. While thinking this in my head, i flipped the pages and the quotes in the book caught my eye and some were well selected. And then i landed on a page in a chapter titled warming the cold call and found an folded sheet of sudoku/garfield comic from gulf news. Got me thinking if the person reading the book marked the page, got distracted or was eating alone maybe :)

Suffering, surviving and thriving..

 I am going back to existentialism again. I realize over the recent times, when people have asked me about suffering or grieving as a process I never really understood what it meant. For me it is a part of life and life does not stop for you to go through these processes. And the pace is not in one's control and nor is life so you let it happen and you learn to live through it or with it. Now this again is very existential in nature as it basically is saying to live is to suffer (from Nietzsche's Twilight of the idols but i found an article mentioning it was rephrased by someone else do not find it now) and to survive is to make sense of the suffering. 

Surviving is mere existence, what one wants to do is to thrive which is not the same thing so can one say to live is to suffer and to thrive is to make sense of the suffering I do not know. But I am looking into it and it seems suffering and thriving can coexist so it is not surviving.

What about change?

 Change is scary and when it is something that one is not used to, it feels comfortable to stay in the same place than to actually move. The problem is that the more stuck you stay , it becomes more difficult to see the issues in the current status quo. One person cannot change a system or a society but it is a continued effort towards an end goal that once again changes with time and people that get involved along the way. One of the reasons why we resist change is sometimes because the path feels daunting as there is none and one needs to create it and figure things out, it is work. But then the path that feels safe has not worked and is not really safe so the question then becomes, what is the choice we need to make. All this rambling based on some discussions and i needed time to think so i did not say much when the discussions happened. Having had time to think..

Now there was a conversation about quitting toxic work places but then people do not realize it is not so simple and sometimes people need that paycheck. Those who think they will find another job may not necessarily and until they line up another job they may not be able to leave. So this arguement is easy to say but it is not always the best solution. I think another angle to this is also that if people constantly believe that they can get away from things or just change the place, there is a possibility that one is low on tolerence and has to work on certain things but is blaming the environment which may not be the case. Then the job hopping happens with never any place to stay and its easy to hide behind the toxicity of the environment (which may be true in some cases but not in all cases). So this attitude of leaving needs more consideration than as a sign of independence and freedom.

Then the discussion on whether it is systemic or is it societal or management issue. I had to think about this one a bit. If some things are illegal and is being followed then it is personal responsibility to not participate and also raise an issue about it in whatever way possible from my perspective even if it does not mean things will change. More people come forward, there will be a discussion atleast around the subject. 

Saying it is societal in the current weather is following the crowd and saying I do as others do but this is only when things are convenient for oneself usually. In other times if things were to turn to oneself then it is not an acceptable option. So this is an excuse not the real reason.

The reason for not picking up workload when someone is away or interest in contributing to other peoples tasks this again is a management issue. If one gets incentives for said behavior they would participate in it. I have seen cases where it is in their job profile to support other team members but they are busy supporting external teams than internal team members. now this in my opinion is leaving your own team sinking and running to others hence, should be penalized that is a management issue in that case. And in jobs such as customer service roles, the roles are assigned by shift and there is someone who covers if the shift person is not around, this is defined by the manager. 

Somehow it seems we operate these days in this idea of it is not my problem it is someone elses and pass the buck. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 The last couple of days, I have been recollecting this book of Ngozi Adichie that I read a long time ago. It is called Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017). Before talking about the book, it reminded me of 2  ted talks by the author where she goes over some of her own experiences as a woman and how certain things were expected of her or not because of her gender (We should all be feminists do also check the danger of a single story not related to feminism ). For example, paying for parking , it would be expected the man would be the one with the money. Somethings I could relate to and this book is her attempt to explain to her friend on what she thinks would be to raise a feminist daughter. I enjoyed the book i recollect though cannot recollect the details. It is funny though how raising fierce independent daughters still strikes a chord in certain people as then they cannot be controlled is it not. Somehow the word fierce takes a negative connotation and independent becomes too arrogant while it just means someone who can stand her ground.