You can be happy under any circumstances. That is my promise. Does that also apply during the current crisis? With rising energy prices, inflation, scarcity…
Translated from Dutch with Google translate
I'm bringing it up now, because the prospect causes at least as much sadness as the drama itself. If you're already feeling down, my advice may hurt you. Because the law of happiness says that you create all mental pain yourself. But if you accept that it is your own thoughts that make you gloomy, then you have taken the first step towards personal freedom. You can always think differently.
A story comes to mind from the big book—I won't say which one, I promised my marketing agency, it could cost readers—to make it clear. Names in the parable below are fictitious. The Fonz helps his mates out fishing on a good day. They are sitting in their boat. Caught nothing all day. "Throw your nets on the right side of the boat instead of the left," suggests Mister Coolio. Those guys look at him like he's out of his mind. In the same water? However. They do. And hop! Full of fish. Perfectamundo. The message of the parable: you always have the option to look at a problem from a completely different perspective. The fishermen symbolize your conditioned behavior, The Fonz is a symbol for your true self.
Rethink
How to approach the crisis from a new angle? First of all, it helps to accept the drama. The scenario that is unfolding now is like I wrote in mu latest movel. It helps to stay cool if you know what's coming. Because if the perceived reality matches your expectation, you will be spared the emotion. But didn't you see the crisis coming, the zen advise: accept your circumstances. This is a classic in Eckhart Tolle's Enlightenment thinking. He explaines how to surrender to the present. He calls it the power of now. If that's a step too far for you, take comfort in my prediction that we'll be rescued just in time. As soon as inflation skyrockets and food shortages threaten, the government will intervene. Together with the bank. They will introduce a new coin. A digital one. You will then receive a blockchain tenner from Lieftink. So. Those circumstances…it's all relative.
Four beers for all of society
Who threw a spanner in the works of my foresight last week is Bob de Wit. On Tuesday I visited his lecture in the Achterhoek. If you have been reading my columns for any length of time, you know that I once managed to calm down a mob of wild farmers over there. De Wit also has that gift. He's great. A head taller than me. Not only does he have a serious answer to the crisis, he is able to explain his vision in a way that a child can understand it and he is a professor at Nyenrode. His proposal: Society 4.0. A society in which the citizen is in charge. Where products are produced and purchased locally. One that is organized bottom up, instead of top down, as we have been used to since the industrial revolution. With its multinationals, bankers and governments that make decisions for us.
Witte de With, or whatever his name is Bob, calls for power to be taken back. Just like we did at the beginning of the Golden Age. When we (remember?) kicked out the Spanish king. It is in our Dutch blood to do what we want. That makes us happy.
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