Still very cold and sunny .. looks like the temperature last night dipped to 23° F (-5° C) and will only reach 36° F (2° C) today. SOO .. 2010 is bidding us good-bye! Shall we make like the Japanese? : drink up at year-end parties known as bonen-kai – ‘forget-the-year’ gatherings : )
For me 2010 was The Year of The Tiger, learning so much about China and about the cultural differences between East and West. I made 8 trips there, each three or four weeks long (with some weekend trips to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Bangkok), and one trip to South Africa. I did not learn nearly as much of spoken or written Mandarin as I wanted. (But then one has to work for what one wants, right?).
With it being the year-end, let me quote something philosophical from an article in Bloomsberg Businessweek that profiles an Irish father-son real estate developer team, Paddy (father) and Simon (son). During the real estate boom years they borrowed €800 million (that’s almost 1 billion $US) from the now-infamous Anglo Irish Bank to buy hotels and build golf courses. They are now €700 million in debt. The reporter says Paddy now looks back and offers many philosophical asides, this one among them. Ready?
The illision in our lives is attachment. Yesterday’s history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift – and that’s why we call it the present‘.
