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This blog is written in International English, the fluid ever evolving dialect of people in the Western World who are broadening their mental horizons, exploring different ways of being beyond their own cultural programming.


One request to all readers, but especially the native English speakers: please assess the quality and usability of the texts on this blog using the dictionary and grammar book of your soul.


I write on this blog what I feel inspired to write, when I feel inspired to write it, in no particular order. I hope you'll enjoy the fuzzy logic behind it too.


21 Jun 2015

Model of the world

Yesterday, when I felt slightly ‘off’ and didn’t do any computer work, I finished reading the first murder mystery novel I read in years.

It used to be my preferred genre of reading. For at least ten years in a row, I used to go through three of those a week. I developed a taste for mysteries, detectives and psychological thrillers written by women. Sorry guys, but a couple of hundreds of books under the belt..... I just find that the chances of finding satisfying depth and convincing dialogues and characters are higher with female authors.
I also had a tendency to favour European writers over Americans for the very same reasons.

What made me decide to read this first murder mystery in years, written by an American guy?

The fairly limited choices in Dutch books in this English household in France, may play a part in that.
The fact that most books in this household have a military theme, may have something to do with it too.... not my cup of tea.
As well as the fact that somebody else said he really enjoyed reading it and recommended it to me.
That Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung figured heavily in it, probably settled it.... having just read an intriguing book about Carl Jung’s life, seen through the eyes of a friend of his.

What drives a person? What motivates a person to do what he does?

Fascinating question to play with. ( To me... I play with it every day)

The author plays with drip feeding clues, so that there is enough confusion created for the reading experience to be interesting throughout the book.
The detectives, trying to figure out in the book ‘ who did it’, are highly aware of the importance of this question. Not only because there is always a reason for a crime to take place. ‘ Who did it’ seldom comes without ‘ why?’.
But also because there are many reasons why the offender is covering up for having done what he did, what makes finding out what happened in need of ‘ hard evidence’ .... undeniable truth, challenging.
What other people say and do, is usually not ‘ hard evidence’ either, since those people might have various motivations to be economical or fictional with the truth as they see it, or blind even to obvious clues that may lead to less desired outcomes.

When everything ‘ falls in place’ and all motivations and all available clues fit together ... the mystery is solved. Relief.....we have reached a model of the world that fits. All discomfort in all the confusion has disappeared... we know now.... we understand it too.
Could that be what motivates us? A drive to see that the model we have at hand, fits?
Yes, we are highly intrigued by the models other people have of the world and how people behave under various (challenging) circumstances. Why else would people read stories and watch movies and television?

How do we use this information on what others do and say?

Are we prepared, willing and able, to let these other models be of significant consequence to the development of our own?

So to me, maybe even more fascinating that ‘ what drives a person to do something, within his model of the world’, is the question ‘ what drives a person to change his model of the world’?
The only correct answer to that questions, I think right now, is:” When the discomfort and confusion of seeing that the model at hand doesn’t work anymore, it doesn’t completely fit anymore and the model doesn’t serve the purpose anymore.”

In some stories (lives) this process of sticking to a model takes all the pages.
In all stories (lives) it is the curious investigative character driven by a desire to see the highest truth, who is willing and able to hold over and over new models of the world to the light, incorporating along the way more and more of what is clearly ( observable) known about a situation. The ability to understand the model of the world of people as they present it in words and deeds and relating all that  to ‘ own gut feeling’ (vibes) seems to help developing new models along quite nicely.... solving a couple of mysteries along the way too.

Is the amount of flexibility you built into your ability to remodel your model of the world according to your own experiences, strongly related to what you define as its purpose?
What happens when ‘the way, the truth and the light’ becomes ‘ the purpose’ of our being? A lot less discomfort, confusion and unfair-to-others, with deceit covered up actions maybe?

How are we than going to keep all the pages of (the books of) our lives interesting?

Lies there the origin of the apparent difficulties of remodelling our model of the world in such a way that we believe (to the core)  it is possible to lead an interesting life, with everything we need in it, by being honest to ourselves and others, aware of how the truth serves the bigger picture of ‘our wellbeing’?

Do we assume that life couldn’t be interesting and surely wouldn’t give us what we personally want for ourselves from it, without keeping quite some relevant information on what is going on in our lives covered up?

I don’t know, with a 100% sureness. However.... the hypothesis that this is what is going on under the bonnet of ‘mankind’ alive on this planet right now, would make a lot of sense, looking out on the clues I get from it .

Writing this, I have to confess.... this is obviously all a construction in my model of the world...
Ha, ha... . who is to say that I am not writing all this stuff from a far too large imagination, trying to spice things up!!?? 

But wait a minute... if I am the offender here, I shouldn’t be confessing that that is a possible truth!
I gain nothing by doing that, I might even lose my sanity, thinking this.
That is not comfortable and very confusing!

Which, in turn gives clues that being open doesn’t mean letting go of the sensations of a tantalizing level of  discomfort and some unsettling confusion. 

So life could still be interesting, even in an open honest model of the world.....?





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