Love, Hatred and Terror – recipes ?

Yesterday, the World witnessed the sad and brutal attack in Norway including a bombing of Oslo and a mad man’s shoot-down of a large number of youngsters on a nearby island. The immediate reaction is disgust, sorrow and anger and wishes for hard punishment if not torture or worse.

Thinking a bit further, however, brings me to other thoughts. Firstly, WHY  do incidents like the one in Norway happen ? HOW should they be avoided ? And how should we really react ? I think the “immediate” answers are given above but that the true correct ones are to be found elsewhere. They are to be found at persons like Jesus, Gandhi and Dalai Lama. The only universal answer is: love – and forgiveness.

Which sounds absurd, I know. But isn’t it so that we react with self-protection when we are hurt ? And that “hurt” most often means “loss of love” to some extend. And that this self-protection then evolves into isolation, fear, hatred … all kinds of malfunctious stuff in our psyche ?  That seems to be the common experience, I believe. The only way to break it is… by loving. Loving as an out-going and active feeling from yourself and in deep accordance and harmony with the universal values of Mankind, love as from the state of Grace, as from your personal Pieta with the Globe.

Let me be a bit blunt: most of you are complete ignorants – and be happy for that, I tell you ! Most of you do not know the true sorrow of loosing nor the real impact of Death. You only know your fears about it (if even). But let me tell you this: at the time a person losses everything and says goodbye to Life, only one feeling is present: Love. Love to Life, Love to the near-ones, Love to situations and shared experiences. Love.

So yes, we have to try to embrace everything with Love, even when it seems impossible. Let’s all use the events in Norway to raise the level, not lower it. Let’s go for the greater universal values and truths. Let’s go for Love.

A Few Good Men (and Runners)

Just watching a good “old” movie from my youth, A Few Good Men, staring Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore amongst others. Great stuff ! One of the touching points in the movie is the concept of a “code” that the Marines adhere to and the strong bonds and rules that connect the Soldiers for good and for worse.

Actually, I grew up in a kind of similar way, namely on a boarding school. There, we also had different kinds of “punishments” and we had a “code”. We were a unit. It took me many years to put these years of my childhood behind me and I missed the unique feeling of a “unit”.  In recent years Im beginning to pick up on these old mates e.g. via Facebook… and I strongly feel that we somehow still have a unit, that we would help each other if needed. It happens, actually.

Running marathons have created another type of “unit” for me, also unique and also with an unspoken “code” involved… or well, maybe that is something I imagine myself. Some of the other guys believe stuff too, I guess, getting tattoos of “Marathon Klub 100” and shit… pretty strong statements if you ask me ! (still thinking what *I* should get.. and *where*). I like to belong to such groups driven by a common passion, namely the love for Running… which obviously streatches outside any country’s borders… proven by the fact that I have Facebook Running mates on nearly every Continent of the Globe.

The most famous qoute from the movie ? We all know it, don’t we ? We should perhaps apply it a bit more in our lives. Yes, we should separate REALITY from ridiculous life-lies and self-invented images. We should avoid the sad waste of Time and Life in dropping REAL experiences in Life instead of pursuing fictionary “ideals” that no Humans can live up to anyway. So if you are not known in the entire World by 25, you are *not* a genious. If your salary is less than say 200.000 $ a year, you are *not* rich. Yes, people cheat in their marriages. No, if you do not live on a Castle, you are *not* a Princess. And so on. Make the most of your *reality* instead of crying over the losses of your *vanity*. Period.

The Truth ? YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH !

Live with it !

To my dead Pupil

Dear Pupil.

I often think of you when life bids against my wishes. What are any wishes worth compared to your destiny, killed by your own father at age 19, young, happy, ready for life. A young promising light was so crimefully dimmed  – you – but not forgotten.

Thinking of you in a dark moment of my own gives hope, gives promise. Because I will promise you that I will return even stronger than weakened just now. The best answer to everything is just to live on, to install happiness and good fortune in the mindset and to focus on own abilities. Who the f*ck cares about the “others” ? As Sartre pointed out, the others are hell.

Personally, there is no way that I can be put down, not by anyone, not by anything.  And I am totally “beyond bullshit”. I do not feed on lies or hostile reactions and I do not maintain relations with people without integrity or that keep double agandas or fill me with crap. People need to earn my respect and it does not bottle because of a fancy Title or a big car. In case you didn’t realize: these things span in Time like moisture in the desert. Very shortly ! I don’t need the junk of pretendence. No, show me something real. Feed me with wit, humour, intelligence, playfullness, curiosity, action, some of the stuff that creates memories for Life. Then I will be yours for keeps !

Well yes, I’m bleeding just now but not for long. Why ? Because none of the common nonsense in ordinary life compares meaningfully with your fate, dead Pupil.

For you, I lift my eyes, once again.

“The eternal feminine draws us ever onward and upward.”  Goethe

LGT Alpin Marathon 2011

This past Saturday 11th of June 2011 I completed the LGT Alpin Marathon in Liechtenstein, thereby adding both another mountain marathon to my list as well as a “new country”. The “LGT Alpin” was a huge experience and a great challenge and it was just bad luck that the weather really sucked: rainy, foggy, and low-hanging clouds the entire day.

Despite 1870 heightmeters up and 720 down I managed quite well, I think, in this my marathon #200 running with a camera ! Too bad that the full scenic potential of this race didn’t sparkle that day. I need to come back !

Read all about my day at LGT Alpin Marathon 2011 here.

Frameworks

So these days I’m reading up for my 70-536 certification on the .NET Framework. It is quite frustrating to experience that stuff you thought you knew a bit about is just magnitudes of order larger and more complex than imagined. On the other hand, that’s what makes it fun and challenging. The important thing is to get avoid being intimidated and just read on. Just read the fricking book, absorb the concepts, the specific words, the key examples.

Actually, that’s the way one pick up all kinds of Frameworks/Universes. I have been in a few during the times, my favorites ones being Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Carbohydrate Chemistry, Biochemistry etc. and in IT basically the .NET and other OO-stuff. It’s all just a matter of reading and understanding. However, the key is not to absorb, the key is to produce yourself. Producing is the difficult part: as a researcher to figure out new stuff, as a programmer to be efficient and creative, as an author to be imaginative, as a sportsman to be stronger and more visionary and so on. Producing equals success and success equals happiness. Isn’t that what we are all indoctrinated to believe in ?

On a larger and perhaps more important scale we all choose Frameworks for our Personal, Spiritual and Religeous Beliefs. That’s how I see it, anyways. One could argue that the different Religions are “just” Frameworks, each with a certain set of characteristics and expected behaviours. Same goes for the different Cultures around the World. Same goes for the different Civilizations throughout the span of Time. Same goes for the different Trades you can be in, the paths you can choose for your career: do you plug in to be a Programmer, a Medical Doctor, a Lawyer, a Craftsman etc. It’s all just a Framework thing ! And Frameworks can be shifted.

So ?

The important thing is to choose, really. Most importantly: in your private life. Choose the things that work for you, interests, partners, beliefs, places, feelings. We all plug in every day, into our Personal Framework, so it should be rather obvious that it is of some importance that we understand what is going on. Thus, Know Thyself ! Know the Framework !