Category Archives: The Journal
Things To Do When You’re 22 – 25
As now fully independent adults, people aged 22, 23, 24 and 25 are positioned to begin to make their mark. It’s the time when mature interests are established and occupational qualifications have hopefully been won. With luck you are strong in body and mind and have the freedom to develop as you wish. Be sure to follow your dreams.
This is a pivotal point in your life, as you plan and savour your future.
Maybe you’re still studying, maybe you’re not. Perhaps you have a partner and / or other personal commitments, or perhaps you don’t. Whether or not you’re footloose and fancy free, with luck some of these ideas will work for you; and if they don’t, with luck they’ll spark other better ideas anyway. Whatever, please remember the Be Happy Rules. Now give these suggestions as try…
Do a marathon
Nobody’s so busy they can’t take time to build up strength and stamina, and especially not in their early twenties. You know it’s true: active investment in your health will keep you on top form now and pay huge dividends later.
So run that marathon; or jog it; or swim it. But just do it. Even better, do it with a friend or team and raise some cash for your favourite cause.
Walk everywhere
Whilst we’re on this topic, get a decent pair of shoes and walk whenever you can. You know it’s much more eco- and convenient than the car, and it will help your training for that marathon. It’s OK to cycle, too.
Collect cities
You probably won’t have time to walk this one (or could you?)….. Try collecting capital and exciting cities. Aim on each visit to travel by foot, train, boat / barge and in one more exotic way (horse? tandem?).
Produce some decent photo blogs and post them on the internet to share your experiences and impressions with others. Who knows what you’ll like best when you try these new places?
Help with a voluntary group
Children’s playgroups and clubs are well run and regulated these days, so why not find out how you can help with one? It’s a great way to keep your feet on the ground and it’s rewarding and fun. No need to worry, as you’ll be properly supervised and, if you want to, you could qualify as a team leader yourself.
Or, if keeping kids happily occupied is not your thing, how about volunteering in some other way? We all have something to give, whether on a regular basis or as an occasional volunteer.
Keep a people diary
Even if it’s just a note of significant others’ birthdays and anniversaries, this is worth a bit of effort. Put these events in your e-notebook and actually act on them in good time. You’ll be making people you care about very happy (how often do you see your parents in the course of your new independent life?) and it will remind you to appreciate them, which can’t be bad, either.
Cycle an island
Maybe most of your experience is of towns and cities; and even if your life is mostly rural, perhaps you’re caught up in the usual day-to day realities. So here’s an opportunity to take a fresh look at things – get yourself organised, perhaps with friends or your partner, to cycle all round an island. (You can probably find somewhere via the internet to hire a bike, or, if cycling’s not your thing, walk instead – but make sure you have sensible shoes and clothing for the terrain.)
If you live in the UK, perhaps the Isle of Wight or Anglesey or Mull might be good places to consider as a start, depending on time available, energy levels and budget Get your gear together and test everything out before you start – easy to carry, comfortable, water / sun-proof? – and get some practice in. Make this adventure as strenuous or relaxed as you like, perhaps choosing Youth Hostels or bed and breakfast for your realistically distanced overnight stops. (Local tourist information centres will advise.) And don’t forget your camera.
Value your vote
The excitement of being old enough to vote may have worn off by now, but that doesn’t make doing it any less important. Make it a source of pride always to use this hard-won entitlement; you can vote in person at a polling station, on-line, or by post, for most elections. And do follow – and if you can join in – the debate about which politicians have the best ideas, before you get to polling day. Please play your part in deciding what happens in your community and country; the future, after all, is yours….
Find some Me time
Whilst we’re in reflective mode, why not make some designated Me time for yourself? Use it to develop the habit of composure and contentment (if you are seriously bothered of course, get yourself to your GP or college / workplace health adviser, or contact NHS Direct, available 24/7). And think a little about your personal future: are you doing the right things to get where you’d like to be? Do you need advice, support or encouragement? And if so, where will you go to get these? (Your local college drop-in centre might be a good first stop.)
But, most of all, use this Me time to relax, with a book, a nice warm aromatic bath, music you enjoy, the breeze in your hair as you walk around the park (or down a lane), or chatting with a trusted family member, partner or friend.
Time for the things we know are good for us personally is as important – though perhaps not always more so! – as the things we know we must do whether we like them or not. Use Me time to put some balance into your life.
Think local and global
How do you shop for your everyday needs (food etc)? Who selects your energy supplier? How do you choose your major purchases (transport, white goods and IT, holidays)? These are issues which affect not only your own well-being but also the future of the planet – your future too, as you enter autonomous adulthood.
Can you buy local produce (supporting the local economy as you simultaneously reduce food miles)? Is your home and the equipment in nit energy-efficient? Can you use sustainable forms of transport?
The choices you make really do make a difference in the longer-term.
Have a party
How do you party? Is it a BBQ in the garden (or even, if you’re lucky, on the beach)? Is it at a festival? A college ball? Perhaps at the BBC Proms, in London or at one of their free civic square screen events? In the pub? Or with your family and friends at home?
Why not plan to try another way, too? Make it whatever you like: fancy dress, or afternoon tea (!?), or somewhere adventurous and really exotic. Enjoy!
And now over to you…. Were any of these suggestions interesting for you? Or do you have other, different things to do? Why not share your ideas below?
Have you read….?
Things To Do When You’re 19 – 21
Things To Do When You’re 26 – 30
What To Do At Any Age – Be Happy
* Life is not a rehearsal
* Smile when you can
* Do acts of random kindness
* Try no-TV days
* Be cautious sometimes, cynical never
* Use your pedometer
* Treat yourself daily to a ‘Went Right’ list
And why not share your alternative ideas here, too? You can add your own take on Things To Do When You’re 22 – 25 via the Comments box below…
International Women’s Day 2007: What Will You Be Doing?
International Women’s Day is coming up on 8 March. It’s an event celebrating more than half the human population but it has a perennially low profile – often like the gender it celebrates. What’s International Women’s Day for, and how ‘should’ it be celebrated?
International Women’s Day is once more almost upon us.
Big events take a lot of organising, but, despite the IWD announcements, as in other years scarcely anyone is talking about how to celebrate this particular event. Of course there will be a scattering of (very welcome) arts happenings, and a conference or two, but… excitement in the air, there is not.
Celebration or frustration?
Perhaps the low-key approach to International Women’s Day is because many of us, women increasingly long in the tooth and short on patience, wonder if we will ever have an equitable stakehold in what’s on offer. Or else, still young and hopeful, perhaps we don’t yet think much about these matters.
Whatever, who wants to invest a lot of time and money in celebrating ‘women’s issues’?
One day a year is women’s notional allocation of celebratory time, and that’s not far off the proportion of wealth and top-level influence which women have, either. (I exaggerate and overstate the case a little, but not much.)
For those of us who, as women, value what we are and what we actually do, ‘progress’ does indeed seem to be very slow.
The dilemma: What does it take?
Our dilemma is this: Intuitively, we seek to celebrate, not stipulate. But celebration could be perceived as a very weak response to the multiple ‘challenges’ and deprivations which, globally, are still the lot of many more women than men.
Perhaps we should be marching in the streets, not sending out yet another lot of (idealised?) sisterly love, solidarity and affirmation.
Marching on the streets has however been done before, with sometimes important but generally only limited success – and often with fierce downsides for particular individuals.
And if we take just the harsher route of campaign, never celebration, we become very much like those whose behaviour, stereotypically, we may not always wish to emulate.
Solutions?
So is International Women’s Day worth celebrating?
I’d say, Yes – both because it focuses on issues which have particular resonance for many women of all ages and statuses, and because it reminds us of women elsewhere (than in the modern, western world) who should not be forgotten.
My ‘answer’, however, takes us almost nowhere in terms of how we should actually conduct our celebration.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Read the discussion of this article which follows the book E-store, and share your thoughts on the meaning of International Women’s Day, and how it could or should be ‘celebrated’.
A Civil Society University For The U.K.?
The place where non-state, non-business public activities challenge the assumptions of wealthy organisations and the ruling classes or prevailing consensus is often referred to as ‘civil society’. A proposal that this place have its own university in the U.K., to scrutinise and develop the core skills and specialist knowledge base of the ‘third sector’ of the economy, is now being taken seriously.
PrimeTimers is a London-based social enterprise promoting cross-sector transfers of people, ideas and methods. In Autumn 2005 they held a conference, Agenda for Change, from which emerged the idea of a ‘Civil Society University’. This idea is also a response to the UK Government’s review of the Future Role of the Third Sector in Social and Economic Regeneration.
A key concept underlying the idea is that third sector values and practices should be submitted to rigorous testing in terms of intellectual integrity, reasoned debate and scientific research. Such an approach has welcome and important implications for how civil society might develop over the next few decades and beyond.
Multiple conceptualisation, multiple benefits
Like many other good ideas, the Civil Society University concept
has also emerged in other places – for instance, at a Council of Europe conference in September 2005 and in a submission dated December 2005 to the Organisation of American States from the Permanent Forum of Civil Society Organisations.
Civil society is the arena where the right of free speech and association is exercised to promote many and diverse causes for what their proponents believe to be the greater good. Often these beliefs challenge the prevailing or most powerful consensus; yet rarely is attention given to the skills and knowledge which could best support such a challenge.
The benefits which might accrue from rigorous scrutiny by the academy, by those who practise their skills in higher education, are what make the idea of a Civil Society University appeal to many involved in widely diverse parts of the third sector.
Education, not ‘just’ training
There is a real need for parts of the third sector to move away from its historic philanthropic roots towards a sharper professional focus. Volunteers (nonetheless, preferably trained) will always be at the heart of at least some third sector activities; but they usually cannot provide the hard headedness which is required in running large-scale or complex modern organisations.
Indeed, thus far it would be difficult even to estimate what added value (or not?) would derive from a more fully functioning and defined third sector key skills ‘toolbox’. And the same applies to issues around third sector career structure and professional development. This is where the Civil Society University fits in.
Challenge and opportunity
For some the proposal to subject the third sector and its operation could pose a perceived threat, but that does not do the idea justice.
Those who share a concern to ‘make things better’ will more likely welcome the chance to support a move to do exactly that, to ‘make good things more effective still’.
What could be better than to subject our ideas and practices to a form of scrutiny – always itself open to scrutiny and challenge – intended to make the very best of the resources, people and commitment available to effect a more equitable and civil society?
Contacts
The Civil Society University is proposed by Professor Martin Albrow, Dr Mary Chadwick and Brent Thomas, all of PrimeTimers.
They can be contacted at info@primetimers.org.uk.
Where’s The Classical Music In The Summer? An Idea…
It’s surprising that so little music happens in most European cities in August. Obviously some musicians take their holidays then, but others might be pleased to work during the holiday period. The scope for entertaining and engaging tourists and visitors during the high summer season is probably quite significant.
Whether one is in the U.K. or most other European cities, there are very few concerts – classical or indeed of other genres – in August. Yet the holiday high season is when most people have the time and inclination to relax and enjoy music.
How about forming groups of (willing) musicians from the major orchestras and ensembles – no need to audition, they’re already in top bands! – and touring with them to bring good music of many sorts to people, young and older, in different and exciting contexts during the summer season?
Would it work? Would the idea get the sort of support from financiers and audiences alike that it would need? Would it reach people who might not otherwise attend such performances?
Tell us what you think, in the Comments box below…
See also: Orchestral Salaries In The U.K.
Life In A Professional Orchestra: A Sustainable Career?
The Healthy Orchestra Challenge
Musicians in Many Guises
British Orchestras On The Brink
Microsoft, BT And My Computer
E-technology may well be becoming more accessible, but it still has its problems if you’re just the customer. These last few weeks have brought this message home for one aspiring e-user at least.
I’d be the very first to admit I’m totally below the horizon when it comes to things e-technical, but I do seem to know a bit about how to deal with emails, blogs and such like. A-level Physics was a very long time ago – no computers then, anyway – and my relationship with my e-suppliers is the same (in my mind) as that with my newspaper shop, car mechanic or whatever. They deliver the goods and I use them.
So in a vague sort of way I expect that my IT suppliers will look after the technicals, the supply chain and so forth, and I will give them money to deliver a service, before we reach the part of the process which I’m responsible for.
Unwelcome surprises
It was a surprise therefore when all things e-technical went quite seriously awry in this office a few weeks ago. My email went on strike and my data-save service stopped working, all at about the same time, so I couldn’t access any back-ups, exactly when I also couldn’t read or send any email. (And I couldn’t just restart on Outlook 2003, before you ask, because it’s sold out everywhere. Why? is a good question…)
It turns out that these things were both related and not related. It was bad timing, but also bad luck. My only good fortune was that the wonderful Nick Prior (and a few very e-technically-minded house guests over the festive season – thank you, Nick and all!) managed to work out what the problems were:
The problems diagnosed
Firstly, although Microsoft had updated my Office system rigorously, I turned out still to have an ‘old’ copy of Microsoft Outlook 2000. How was I to know, having used the system for some years, that as soon as a large number of attachments reached me just before Christmas, this file would hit 2 gigabytes and flatly refuse to respond at all?
There were no ‘warnings’, nothing to let me know things were about to go haywire, it just all STOPPED…… and took until early January to sort out.
Secondly, the very act of Microsoft’s updating my system (they offered, I didn’t ask them to) was also the cause of my BT DigitalVault going on strike, even before I’d managed to get it started. BT ran a Net service before this, and they – again not I – insisted on my updating and starting a new system. When I rang
to ask why DigitalVault was failing to register my data I was met with a weary ‘You haven’t just updated to ‘7, have you Madam? Could you downgrade again?’
Well, no chance of that, so I still have a non-functioning ‘service’ whilst I await the basic courtesy of BT and Microsoft talking to each other on behalf of their (paying) customers.
Communication is the key
As on so many other occasions, more attention by the suppliers to communication might have resolved things even before I knew about them.
If Microsoft had enabled a notice to warn me about the 2 gigs limit, I would have ensured it wasn’t reached – a much better solution that the e-surgery, random and necessarily brutal, which was eventually required to get the system going once more.
And if BT and Microsoft had talked to each other before the launch of DigitalVault (or, come to that, if BT had warned me not to permit the Microsoft upgrade, which happened just after I’d signed up for the data protection) I would not now be paying for a function which doesn’t work.
Technical challenges or customers?
Like many other not-particularly-technically-engaged people I expect to be able to use my computer to do simply what it says on the can: in my case, essentially www searches, emails, documents, spreadsheets and weblogs. Not that difficult really.
There are many like me, I suspect ,who have a feeling that the challenges of advancing e-technology are more interesting to most IT people than are their humble customers.
So it’s not surprising, is it, that not everyone wants to embrace the brave new e-world?
Seven Reasons For Optimism In 2007
The cynics will always be with us ;and they have a point. Nonetheless, for many people things are as good as, if not better than, they have ever been. We can – and should – take a responsible view of events, but without denying that in many ways 2007 could be very positive for almost all of us. Here are some reasons to be optimistic as we enter the new year.
The media, as ever, is full of reasons to be gloomy as we enter 2007. But in reality we all know that looking on the bright side at least some of the time is good for us.
So here are some reasons to be optimistic in 2007:
1. The Environment
Global warming and climate change are at last receiving the attention they should – and most commentators still reckon we have a good chance of doing something about it if we all make the effort, right now. [And in the meantime, the weather in Britain is being very kind at a time of year when freezing fog – ‘pea-soupers‘, remember them? – used to be the norm.]
2. Health
Life expectancy (in the U.K.) is the highest it has ever been, and people are healthier than ever before. 60 is the new 40, so it is said; and you won’t have to retire at a set age any more if you don’t want to. [But if you do retire early, you’ll still have lots to do, now that expectations have risen so much.]
3. The Economy
Inflation and interest rates are still relatively low (remember 18% mortgages?) and employment is still high, after a long period before the Millennium of horrendous worklessness for millions. [And wages are going up, or have been levelled out more fairly, for many ‘ordinary’ worlers now.]
4. Life-long Learning
Opportunities for education and training for everyone have never been more wide-open and accessible. [You may need to take a student loan, but in many countries that’s how it’s always been – and the loan interest rate is amazingly low, plus you don’t have to pay at all if you don’t earn a reasonable wage; and for many vocational courses there are no fees – so everyone can benefit.]
5. Housing
Houses are warmer, more energy-efficient and better designed
than at any previous time. [And more people in the UK own their own homes than ever before.]
6. Open Society
If you need to find something out, the chances of doing so have improved greatly with Freedom of Information. [And the internet gives you a view of the world which can open doors on cultures, knowledge and ideas which previous generations couldn’t even dare to dream about.]
7. Laughter
At long last, it is being recognised that it’s OK to enjoy yourself – laughter and fun are now officially good for you!
The glass is half full
Yes, I know each of these points has downsides, and it’s always easier (and less effort) to see the glass as half empty rather than
half full. But I bet there are few people who recall life as it was many years ago who would actually choose to turn the clock back on a lot of things. And there remain, sadly, many people in other parts of the world than the West to whom our way of life seems to be unimaginably privileged.
Let’s make 2007 a year when we explore how much better still things can be if we perceive what’s good about our lives, as well as what’s in need of improvement. Why not ‘count our blessings’, if we’re lucky enough to be able to? Then we can concentrate on helping to make things good for other people too.
Maybe it’s time to be brave, to stop the criticism from the sidelines and to start having the courage to take active responsibility for at least some of what happens. Let’s try being positive, and see where it takes us.
Monday Women ’06: Liverpool’s No-Cost Mutual Support Group Relocates
![MondayWomen{small].jpg](https://i0.wp.com/www.dreamingrealist.co.uk/MondayWomen%7Bsmall%5D.jpg)
Monday Women is a no-cost group, open to all, which meets and has an e-group. With affliliation of hundreds, it welcomes discussion and activities around topics of interest to women from all walks of life. After four years, the meetings are re-locating.
Please see also the Monday Women section of this website for up-to-date inormation on meetings etc.
Monday Women meetings for early 2007 are moving to the Heart and Soul Cafe-Restaurant in Liverpool.
Monday Women (Liverpool) is an open-access social and e-group for women to share views and news. ‘Members’ keep in touch in two ways: via open meetings-cum-social-events on the first Monday of the month (except Bank Holidays) and through the e-group. Women attending face-to-face events do not need to ‘belong’ to the e-group, nor do e-group members necessarily attend Monday Women events. (N.B. Children are welcome at the social events where this allows their mother / carer to attend the group.)
The Monday Women e-group has just one aim: to facilitate contact and networking between women from all walks of life, some of whom will be able to attend our events and others of
whom may not be able to. The intention is quite simply to encourage the sharing of news, views and companionship.
A no-cost, informal and open-minded network
There is no formal membership for the Group and no Officers, or agenda. There are no costs, fees or admission charges for meetings or for ‘joining’ the e-group, which are both open to all on a no-obligation basis. This is simply a relaxed and informal meeting arrangement for women in Liverpool and Merseyside.
Topics for discussion and exchange of information between individuals attending / joining in the e-group might be anything from the possible need for a
playgroup, traffic crossing or bank in a particular area, to considering plans for regeneration and renewal of the city, to informing people about a special event, or enquiring who else might be interested in setting up a business or community group!
The group also occasionally shares ‘outside events’ such as the recent highly successful visit to the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth and two other adjacent sites of great civic and historical interest. There is in addition an annual Christmas celebratory event on the first Monday in December, organised, like every other occasion, by volunteer members of the group.
Relocating for 2007
The group was inaugurated on Monday 3 March 2003 in the Liverpool Everyman Bistro, where it has met every month since until the end of 2006. We are much indebted to Paddy Byrne, Geoff Hale and colleagues, the Bistro owners and staff, for their generous support over the past almost four years, as we now move on to new premises for early 2007 – the upstairs room of Chumki Banerjee’s Heart and Soul Cafe-Restaurant , and then from 2 April to Dragon in Berry Street. ‘Meetings’ will be from 5.45 pm until about 7.30 pm (some people stay later), although people come and go within this time span, arriving and attending for as long as they wish.
Each person joining a Monday Women event at our 2007 venues will (as before) select and buy her own refreshments – if required – in the actual cafe and then take them into the ‘meeting’ with
her. This enables everyone to choose items of food and / or drink which suit individual tastes and budgets.
PS Monday 5 February 2007:
Our meeting at Heart & Soul was a big success (thanks, Chumki!!), as the photo below shows….
Becoming a ‘member’ of Monday Women
All women are welcome to ‘join’ Monday Women (Liverpool). To become a ‘member’ all that is required is that women turn up for a meeting – a warm welcome is assured! – or that they join the e-group. To join the e-group women are invited to email Monday Women, or to contact Hilary Burrage direct via this website.
Or perhaps, if you’re a woman reading this away from Liverpool, you’d like to set up a Monday Women group too? If so, do let us know about your plans. There’s room for Monday Women everywhere….
Things To Do When You’re 26 – 30
At 26,27, 28 perhaps you’re still single, but the chances of coupledom increase quite considerably by 29 or 30. Whatever, the years seem to slip by more quickly as people reach their late twenties, but opportunities are still there to explore the world and take control of the direction of your life.
People in their later twenties have usually developed several networks of colleagues and workmates, friends and family members, perhaps including those of a partner or spouse. Building these connections helps us see who we are and where we’re going. We all need a mixture of experiences, whilst hopefully we remember about the Be Happy Rules. So the ideas which follow are a selection of serious and more light-hearted approaches to life. Choose or change them as you will.
Why don’t you….
Feel a million dollars
What’s your idea of feeling really great, right on top of things and raring to go? Whatever it is, don’t lose sight of it. Make time, regularly, to think about how you’d best like to feel and then ensure you act to achieve this. Your later twenties are real prime time, so please do make sure you benefit from and enjoy them!
Do an eco check
You will already have thought about green issues, and very probably you’ve already also done things to help ‘save’ the planet. But things are moving fast in this field, so maybe this is a good point at which to check you’re up-to-date with ways you can contribute to environmental sustainability.
Have you energy-checked your home? Is your mode of transport optimal? Are you recycling everything you can? And are you collaborating with others at home and work to do this even better?
Book tea at The Ritz
… or whatever else constitutes a real treat for your Mum or other established close family member/s. It’s easy in the hustle and bustle of developing our independence to forget (or seem to forget) that those who cared for us for many years still appreciate the odd occasion to chat and laugh together.
An hour or two just talking and relaxing with those we sometimes seem to take for granted is always time put to good use.
Learn a new mind game
If you play Sudoku, try the crossword for a bit instead. If you do the crossword, try a card game….. It doesn’t matter what, as long just every so often it’s something different. Now is a certainly not the time in your life to get stuck in a mental rut, not even a little one!
Take the Advanced Drivers’ Course
Nor is this a time to neglect more practical skills. You’ve probably been a driver for some years now. Is this a good point at which to sharpen up on your road skills? Taking the Advanced Drivers’ Test might be a way of getting the very best from your motoring – not to mention a better deal from your car insurer.
Join the debate
Is there a pressing local problem which interests you? Or, come to that, a work, political or personal crusade you’d like to pursue? Whatever it is, join in the debate. Along the way you may learn more about the issue; and, in any case, if you join in you won’t feel later on that you should have ‘said something’ at the time.
Don’t hide your light under a bushel; you have every right to a considered view, so think through what you need to do, to get in there and share your ideas.
Get a makeover
It’s actually quite hard to ‘see ourselves as others see us’, even if it’s only in terms of physical appearance. Have you stopped to think if you might assign some of your usual garb to the Oxfam shop? Would it be doing you a good turn as much as them if you did?
Some of us feel more comfortable then others with changes in style and how we look, as our circumstances inevitably change. Why not make a date to consider this, whether it be with a trusted friend or through a more formal and business-like makeover arrangement? Regard it as an investment in your future self.
Read a novel
Or a travelogue or an historical account or a book of poetry (why not?) or a biography. But make the effort, if you haven’t for a while, to read a whole book – or, come to that, to write one.
It’s good to do something sometimes which takes us right out of ourselves; exactly how much effort and time you put into this is up to you.
Do a quarter century check
You’ve reached your later twenties; now you can look back over a quarter century. Do you see patterns emerging in what you do? Are you pleased with your progress in life so far? Are there things you like and want to build on? And perhaps things you’d prefer to change a little for the future?
Be gentle with yourself; life’s often more difficult in practice than in theory. But also decide how to get support for anything you’d like to change, and encouragement for the parts which are going well. To repeat that well-known mantra, Life is not a Rehearsal.
Have a vacation adventure
Plan your next holiday to be different. If you normally do beaches, try a city. If you’re keen on festivals, try walking. Or join a group activity; or don’t.
Maybe you’re already adapting your leisure time to accommodate a partner or a family, but try every so often to make holidays interesting and just a little different as well. However you define your world, be sure also to make it your oyster as you plan your occasional vacation adventure.
Have you read….?
Things To Do When You’re 21-25
Things To Do When You’re 31 – 40
What To Do At Any Age – Be Happy
* Life is not a rehearsal
* Smile when you can
* Do acts of random kindness
* Try no-TV days
* Be cautious sometimes, cynical never
* Use your pedometer
* Treat yourself daily to a ‘Went Right’ list
And why not share your alternative ideas here, too? You can add your own take on Things To Do When You’re 26-30 via the Comments box below…
The Christmas Charity Gift Dilemma
Christmas is a time for giving. But what, and to whom? Many would like Christmas to be less commercial, whilst helping those not as fortunate as themselves. Doing this in a way which shows fondness for family, friends and colleagues but also benefits others can sometimes be a difficult balance to achieve.
The Christmas charity gift brochures these days often start to arrive with the August Bank Holiday. We therefore have plenty of time to ponder the dilemmas which then arise:
(a) Do I buy gifts from these brochures, actual items, to give directly to friends and family? or
(b) Do I buy ‘gifts’ which are actually donations towards items required by needy people elsewhere, often in the developing world – and give my own folk tokens which say that’s what I’ve done, of my own volition, on their behalf? or
(c) Do I give gifts which I have chosen elsewhere and then think about the charitable giving at some other point?
Not comfortable options
Most of these options leave me, at least, feeling rather uncomfortable. Buying charity Christmas cards (or some direct gifts, if genuinely appropriate) is one thing; the recipents still receive the original item. Buying charitable items which are not intended for the ‘recipient’, but for someone who for us is without a name, living elsewhere, is another thing altogether. The big question is, is it alright to give to charity on another’s behalf, without seeing if that’s what they wanted?
And, indeed, is it even OK to ask them if it is actually what they’d like to do? Perhaps, they’re doing it already? Or even, uneasy thought, perhaps they wouldn’t choose to give to the charity we’ve chosen on their unwitting behalf?
Of course, the precise intention of the charities who mail us is to encourage ‘giving’ – and few would deny that such giving is needed.
I do not subscribe to the idea that there is no point; I’m quite sure much of the money raised does indeed go to very good causes.
Nonetheless, is it OK to ‘give’ in the name of someone else? Should we give only what we own ourselves? Is it right to divert gifts from people one knows personally, to people one does not know, whilst also proclaiming a good deed on their behalf?
Another way?
Many would agree that there is a real sense in which charitable giving does reflect the ‘meaning’ of Christmas. The question then is, how can we do it without seeming to give what is not exactly ours – in other words the gift we would ‘give’ to our nearest and dearest?
I’m beginning to think there may be a way. This ‘solution’ depends on the amount of cash available and the sort of personal contacts one has; it’s not really appropriate, say, for hard-pressed families with children where money is scarce. But for the rest of us it might work.
Christmas consortia
How about an agreement that, special exceptions apart, we all give direct personal gifts costing no more than an agreed sum – but at the same time we get together to ‘buy’ that much-needed donkey, tree, kids’ trip, hoe, emergency kit or whatever?
It would take someone to make the initial arrangements and act as ‘treasurer’, and maybe each year a different member of the group might undertake that task. But it’s a project which would enable us all to choose something personal for those we know and love, whilst also sharing a goal in a positive group activity, be it as colleagues, family or friends. How much each person can give would be confidential between themselves and the ‘treasurer’ only, but all would have contributed.
Maybe 2006 is the year to set up the rota, even if there’s no time now to try the idea out fully before the festivities begin? And here are some of the many links which will take you to see what’s on offer:
Concern Worldwide
gifts4life
Oxfam Unwrapped
Wish List (Save the Children)
Has anyone tried this way? Does it work? Maybe you could let us know in the Comments box below?
‘Second Generation’ Web-logging: This Journal’s Double Century Is Just One Tiny Step
There are now two hundred ‘article’ postings on this website. Over the past year the style has changed and so has the emphasis. Are we, as Tim Berners-Lee has said, at the beginning of the ‘second generation’ of web-logging – perhaps a phase in which not only the technicals but also the social networks will change fundamentally? This journey takes us from CERN all the way to Six Apart.
It’s always difficult to recall what things looked like when one’s been involved in them for a while; and for me, this weblog is no exception to the rule. There are some two hundred posted blogs on this website now, and the terrain has changed.
Certainly, we can all see that the ‘product’ is now sometimes crisper and often more colourful (in the literal sense..) than the original, but that’s different from remembering what it felt like when I embarked on this adventure.
Perhaps on reflection what intuitively attracted me to web-logging is the idea of universal space which, as long as we remember the ‘rules’ of sensible evidence and behaviour, we can all share and use together.
Anyway, I’m glad that I decided to go ahead with my weblog / journal.
Thinking things through
I’ve mentioned before how I feel that writing about things in this quite abbreviated (for me) way is helpful in getting my thoughts together, and how I enjoy taking the photographs and finding appropriate books to illustrate and animate my text. This, to my mind, is much more interesting than just a quick blast at something and a half-finished comment without back-up.
And now, fifteen years after Tim Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web (WWW), I am reading that others too are getting into web-logging in a more formal way. It seems that a lot of web-writers (if that’s what we are) are beginning to acknowledge that there’s something to be said, as Berners-Lee also emphasises, for using weblogs to make the ‘argument’ as well as just the odd comment.
More structured debate
Good. I always hoped that weblogs like mine could become the focus of debate amongst people who have thoughtful things to say. I don’t mind at all if someone disagrees with what I say, as long as they can back up their argument with reasons, and can also recognise why I / others have adopted whatever position is in dispute. That’s how we all learn.
It would be a disaster if the WWW became, as its inventor and many others fear, a place simply of scurrilous half-truths or worse – though I recognise of course that sometimes news and views have to emerge in roundabout ways, and the WWW is ideal for this strategy where it’s needed.
But in the end, something which can’t be substantiated is often of less value than something that can. That’s why in academia we have peer-review, referees and gatekeepers, to ensure the quality of published work. (Yes, I know that process sometimes backfires, but reasoned and / or evidence-based debate is fundamentally still a good, positive way to proceed.)
Everyone can have a say
So now we have Wikipedia (‘What I Know Is…’), first launched in the original English version on 15 January 2001, and other recent e-inventions which allow everyone a say – on the condition that they don’t mind being challenged or put right if someone else thinks that should happen. The pros and cons of how successful Wikipedia can be remain to be seen, but the admirable concept behind the idea is now established.
This is knowledge democracy in action, open to all. In a way it’s the dialectic of learning by discussing – a method previously available to those of us who went on to higher education, but less so to everyone else. Now virtually everyone who wants to can find out about things and join in the discussion. How much better is that?
Business, commercial and community, too
Nor ultimately does it matter that interactive blogging is becoming a business and commercial activity, as well as a voluntary one; either way, people are connecting. The massive market leaders, companies like YouTube, MySpace and Flickr, have their part to play in the engagement process, as do the newly e-friendly business interests which now offer interactive websites – BT amongst them.
Of course there are issues around the strategies used for ‘fooling’ the search engines, so that certain names and topics rise to the top of the list; but that probably applies as much, say, to film and book sales as to the web itself. (My own website designer, Nick Prior, offers a valuable insight into how search engine interest can be attracted legitimately.)
And now we have an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) report telling us that smaller community groups should do the same. I think they’re right. The more ideas are shared, the better. Being on the WWW doesn’t, after all, preclude also being on the radar of the local newspaper or even just the local gossip.
But still there are people, such those discussed in Mike Ion‘s blog, who doubt the web has relevance to the lives of others ‘in the community’.
‘Good’ weblogs vs ‘bad’ ones
The race is now on between those who could damage the good intent of Tim Berners-Lee, who gave us all the WWW for free because he believed it should be available to everyone, and the rest of us, who admire this generosity and vision.
Very few can achieve a great impact in going for a positive future for the WWW, but it’s nonetheless an ambition for many of us in our own small, often minutely small, ways to do what we can. The more people ‘connect’ in this activity, the better, as far as I can see. And don’t just ask me. Look at the way innovations like Mena Trott’s Six Apart (which ‘owns’ the Moveable Type facility which I’m using here) are developing….
Agree only this…
This is just the beginning of what could be a very long debate. Being ‘accessible’ may not mean being ‘free at the point of delivery’; that could even become impossible if there is to be any proper regulation of quality – without which access is in any case of little value. Nor does a new emphasis on social connection eclipse the technical aspects of the semantic web and e-intelligence. These are critically important matters for future consideration.
For now the only thing we have to agree to agree about as a general principle is, as Berners-Lee says, that “We’re not going to be trying to make a web that will be better for people who vote in a particular way, or better for people who think like we do…..The really important thing about the web, which will continue through any future technology, is that it is a universal space.”
Dreaming Realist 