Chapman's Odyssey

A book I’ve read recently, Chapman’s Odyssey, is about an old man, Harry Chapman. He is an actor and author who has wrote a lot of books in his life and came up with a lot of characters all with different personalities and histories. Unfortunately Harry is getting ill and has to be at hospital where he waits for himself to get better. While he balances at the threshold of consciousness he receives visitors like his characters, his dead family members and also his living friends. As a reader you follow Harry until he dies at the hospital. During his journey when he slowly sees his life march past he gets to know his visitors better and he also understands his parents better.

I think it’s a beautiful book about a curious man with a lot of thoughts. Which I think is good for his in his situation when he can’t do anything but stay in his hospital bed waiting for his recovery without knowing when or if it’s coming. I think it’s easy to get mad in that situation which you might consider that he becomes when he goes back in his thoughts and hear voices from long dead family members and former lovers. One of the good things about Chapman is that he is all through a nice person and even though he is so frustrated because of the pain and not knowing if he’s ever coming out of the hospital he is nice to everybody that surrounds him (with exception from those times when his dead mother yells at him). He is becoming a friend to the nurses and doctors at the hospital and he’s telling them beautiful poems that he remembers from his long career as an author and actor. I’m not saying that it’s hard to be nice to people  but as I’ve spend a lot of time working with caring of people I know that it’s hard to hold everything back and it’s much easier to throw it at someone nearby. How to react in a situation like Harrys is individual for each person. Not only in a hospital situation, in all situations it’s easy to get irritated at people without them actually not doing anything wrong. I can tell by myself in situations of hunger and tiredness that it’s hard to keep the good temper up. Does it have to be that way? Of course we all have our bad moments but it helps you so much if you have someone that understands you in those situations, and of course a little extra effort from yourself.

The Story Of Stuff

The first thought that came into my mind when I started watching the film ”Story of stuff” was that it were just another tearful film that makes "the stupid Americans” to see that their perfect world is falling apart (no offence). Annie Leonard keeps talking and I keep listening and she really gets my attention. Then I think a little longer and realise that some of us, living in our unconsciousness, might also needs a wake up call. I mean our use of nuclear energy. I know this subject is very sensitive for many people and especially for some of the    people that I study with (we avoid that conversation) but I think Annie has a good point in her film. Today almost 40% of our electric power is generated by nuclear energy. Clean and quiet, that’s what many of us feel about that. That’s just a little part of a dirty truth that makes many people keep their eyes shut. 

The nuclear fuel is created in poor countries for example Namibia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine. The winning creates a nuclear waste which ends up in the surrounding nature, which leads to water and nature pollution. The inhabitants is exploit as cheep labour and they suffer and get disease. Just like Annie declares. Also, there's always two sides of the coin.

Snooping Bosses

I guess nobody is surprised that the control systems exist and is used today. Some people have a need to know where people are, what they are doing, what there habits are and so on. Facebook is just one example of another tool for finding this information easily. The question is, are we really feeling better getting this control? 

I think that, particularly in work relations you have to keep it professional and don’t control what other colleagues of yours are doing, both as an employee or an employer.

Maybe if your company gets bad results during a long time even do there’s a good market for the products that you make, then it might me time to check what your staff is doing at their work. Isn’t it better to just have a meeting with them and tell them how the company is doing at the moment? Instead of snooping around. I think that if you are in charge, you have to be open to your staff to feel mutual trust and respekt for one another. Then you might not have to control your employees because you work as a team.