Reflections 19th September

On my mind this week.

I sometimes get frustrated by the mass invitation to helplessness displayed by media and politicians n the face of what we know are natural cycles; some shorter, like a year, some a little longer, like businesses, on upwards through our own lives, to civilisations, to aeons.

A chance comment made earlier in the week stayed with me; that the music of the 1970s and '80s was generally more optimistic than we hear today. So perhaps there's an element of nostalgia there, but generally, I think the speaker had a point. If it was the case, why might that be?

Everything has a cycle, a pleasing wave pattern to it; it's just that we can't see that wave while we're in it. We spend the first twenty years or so of our lives, if we're lucky, preparing. The next thirty establishing ourselves, the next twenty harvesting our work, and then reflecting as we prepare to leave. In businesses, we hatch an idea, get absorbed in establishing it and enjoying the success, and often far too l…