Monthly Archives: November 2009

The future.

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Who knows what the future will be like? I dont’t. And neither do you. In fact, no one does, because the future isn’t yet. No one can know what doesn’t exist.

…Yet, do you ever have this feeling, this feeling that we’re meant for something else? Destined for something bigger? Do you ever lay in bed, wishing you could reach for the stars and actually touch them? Do you ever walk the street, watching other people go about their daily lifes, pondering what your mission in all of this is? Do you ever wake up early in the morning, before the sun has risen, and think to yourself – today I can take on the world? Do you ever have the feeling that our purpose is to change the world?

If you do – you are like us. We call ourselves the BrookfieldLodge society. Would you like to join us?

my life Has a Purpose

The world we live in…

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… is a place I understand less and less. What happens to this world, home of 6,823,448,400 people (at this point of time)? Where do we actually live? What time is this?

In our own countries, those really modern, advanced and rich countries, more and more children don’t have enough to eat. Every day. The families have to live of such a small amount of money that I would have trouble to afford a normal life. If you lose your job these days, the way down the ladder is short. The way back up is hard and full of obstacles.

We are confronted with violence. In schools already. Children that seem different, that have different hobbies, interests or clothes are bullied. They get beaten up, robbed, raped, even killed. Remember: We are talking about kids here! What happens here? When did it become dangerous to fight for the good things? When did it become a suicide mission to ask kids in a train to refrain from smoking? When did our society decide that people that stand up for the rights we all rely on get killed?

Expectations. Everywhere and all the time. We expect people to give 100%… or even better: more than that. Today it is a common thing we hear at almost every marketing meeting, on the news but even in the companies we work for every day: It is not enough to give 100%. In order to be good, you need to give at least 120%. How stupid is that? We have to function flawlessly. In every situation. 24/7. But when was it that we decided that the one thing that makes us human, the fact that we are not perfect, that we all have flaws, was something that is not allowed anymore? When did we decide to rationalise our own kind? In a world where imperfection and 100% is not allowed anymore, we only get aware of the situation when something “dramatic” happens. Robert Enke, designated goal keeper of the German football team for 2010 commited suicide last week. The condolence is huge. But it happens every day…

There are moments, when I just feel I am in the wrong place. We live in a world where everything is available. All the time. Anywhere. At a different location on this planet, people die because they are lacking the things we don’t even pay attention to anymore. In our world, people die of the pressure we create for ourselves. And soon, they will die of hunger and bad medical support as well. Our societies diverge into upper and lower class more and more. But we are one society.

We are all one kind… will we ever learn?

Let’s start to think grand scale… with little things!

These days

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She doesn’t get out of bed these days.

These are the days we were told are the most critical, these days, more critical than the days in the future, or those in the past. And yet, these days we can’t help but think of those days, the days that we should have gotten out of bed early, while we still could. The days we could have spent achieving things that are now out of reach, or just going outside and appreciating the fresh air, or telling our friends how special they are, or telling our loved ones that we love them, even though they already know, or jumping and knowing that the risk of falling will be worth it, or running to get somewhere, not because we want to get there any faster, but because it’s nice to be out of breath for a change. These days we think of those days, and we also think of the days that we may never see.

These days we watch the things that we hope will get better, get worse. And the only thing we can do is hope that they get worse slower, so when someone asks us how we’re doing today, all we can say is that we’re worse than yesterday, but not as bad as we’ll be tomorrow. Does that make today a good day?

Today, twenty years ago, my Great grandmother died. We have lit a candle, it’s called a Yahrzeit, the candle burns for 24 hours. Today she is watching over us so today is a good day. These days are the critical ones and today we have an angel watching over us so today will be a good day, today we were strong, today we didn’t cry, today we laughed and sang and joked, and spoke about all the things we’ll do when we can, and we didn’t mention the thing we’re not allowed to talk about once. Today I was strong and I’m proud of myself.

I hope tomorrow will be better.

Eyal

The changing world.

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Our world is changing. Quicker than even we, the young generations, can percieve. We have in our short lifetime gone from a isolated “big” world, to a connected “small” one. Everything is connected to everything. I can type something on twitter, and it is visible to thousands of people instantly. I can post a video on youtube and anyone, anywhere, can watch it whenever they want to. But is this changing us as well?

Recent studies suggest so, and there are a number of examples; a 15 year old today has produced more written material than most people in their 50’s have in their whole life. Our language isn’t dying, it’s evolving. American researchers found that the number of words in regular use and the clarity of language for people leaving high school have gone up dramatically for the past 10 years. There is more: the average teen today will have between 7 and 9 jobs before his 60th birthday. The average adult born before 1975 will have between 3 and 4. Modern people read roughly 3000 pages of textbooks each year; and 12.000 pages of e-mail.

The growing numbers relating to the collective information of the human race is staggering: each year, we upload more video hours to youtube than the complete production of CNN, NBC and the BBC put together. The total number of tweets to date is over 1 billion. If Facebook was a country, it would be the world’s 5th largest. When the idea of computers first took root, it was thought that one supercomputer on each continent would do; today, there are over 2 billion computer devices in the world. It has been suggested, that by the end of 2020, e-mail will no longer be the preferred method of communication; social networks and IM will have taken over completely. In 2015, the handheld device will be the primary accesspoint for over 50% of Internet users worldwide.

We have begun the transition to a new world. When everyone is a reporter, a cameraman and a photographer. When news reach the whole world in an instant and everyone can access anything, what does this do for democracy?

We are changing the very nature of our world. A new order, a new power, with the people, no longer restriced by borders, but united by cause. How will our leaders adapt to this? And; is this the start of the glorious new united world? Will this be the end of countries and eventually, war? In a world where everything is virtual, the warrior is outdated. Will it perhaps be, that the ones who will give us peace at last, will not be our leaders, our diplomats or our politicans, but ourselves?

sHaPe the world