A to Z of Roads, Life & Zen

Lots of my time is spent driving to places I have never visited before. So far I have resisted the urge to get a Sat Nav preferring to rely instead of my sense of (improving) direction and my trusty A to Z. Before I set off on my journey I will have consulted my A to Z or a map and then off I go. So far I have managed to find every one of my destinations. As I set off in the morning, depending on where I am heading, several routes will form in my mind. Sometimes admittedly, like this morning, I forget where I am headed and take the wrong route, but most of the time I can rely on my mind map.

Apart from taking the wrong road this morning today has been great. It is not that often a day goes so well. At the first meeting the child we were discussing has come on in leaps and bounds. His mother cried tears of joy, a stark contrast to our first meeting 6 months ago, not long after her son was diagnosed with Autism, when she was still reeling from the news and crying tears of shock, sorrow and grief. My next meeting also went well. Everyone was on board with the plan I proposed and I was given excellent feedback. The afternoon was spend with colleagues I haven't seen for a while and it was great to catch up, particularly as things at work are so dire at the moment with the threat of redundancies hanging over us. Rumour has it 25% of us will be losing our jobs. After all the upheaval of teams being decimated and reformed we learn that not enough money was saved so jobs will have to go. Still at least Mr Diamond will get his bonus. Believe me a man that unattractive needs a big bank balance.

Getting back to Sat Navs - will the continual use of Sat Navs cause us humans to lose our sense of direction? Ratty investigates:

The Ecologist website says - Post-modern homo-sapiens expect instant gratification. We buy automated pet-food dispensers (where do I get one of those?) and ready-peeled potatoes. It is hardly surprising that satellite navigation (sat-nav) systems are so popular. There are more than 14 million users in the UK: half of all drivers. But far from empowering, this so-called advance is starting to disconnect and de-skill people. We urgently need to regain our sense of place, and claim back the talents which our society has lost.
Read more at - http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/out_and_about/361029/where_am_i_the_world_beyond_satnavs.html
Just as I thought.

The Mail have been running a series of articles about a 'magical' (their word) new book 'The Alphabet of the Human Heart' by Matthew Johnson and James Kerr http://www.alphaheart.com/ . This promises to be the 'A to Zen of Life.'


Some of the feelings they say will ruin our lives (and yes, they run from A to Z);


Boredom


Jealousy


Negativity


Liar


I am hoping the Mail and not the authors list these as feelings. The headline also describe them as 'Toxic Emotions'. Ahem.


On a brighter note today they published a section called the 'Alphabet of Joy' again listing joyous feelings for A to Z. Included in 'Joy' was the following:


Balance


Imagination


Friendship


Meditation.

 'Z', in both Toxic and Joy is....wait for it....Zen.


'Toxic Zen'  is described as;
 Zen is a state of being. Of Silence. Peacefulness. Mindfulness. Balance. Your being and your life will be in Balance.Live right and everything will be in Balance. Sit in Stillness and Silence. Turn your eye inward.


'Joy Zen' is described as:
 You may recognise Zen from yesterdays Alphabet of Toxic Emotions. That is because it is were the negative meets the positive. It's a neutral state of being. Of Silence. Peacefulness. Mindfulness. Balance. Your being and your life will be in Balance.Live right and everything will be in Balance. Sit in Stillness and Silence. Turn your eye inward.


Eh? What a load of bollocks.


Messirs Johnson and Kerr are either rehashing something that has been written about a thousand times in a lazy manner or the Mails features writer has cut and pasted indiscriminately!

Money for old rope!