First Gentleman with Wilson Orhiunu
Email: babawill2000@gmail.com Twitter: @Babawilly
The good experiences of the past speak in hushed tones while past tragedies continuously thunder their identities least they get forgotten. The wise ones will strain the ear for the positive memories. Unlikely possibilities can hijack our attention and make us wrongly think that the rare occurrences are the norm. Most things actually work out well and the vast majority of journeys end at the intended destination but that will not stop some people thinking about a plane crash every time they see an airline ticket. The mundane can be ignored for the sensational story, so the thousands of meals eaten in the last five years are all forgotten with the exception of that fish that gave us diarrhoea.
Waking up in the morning should be taken as an achievement because to arise from sleep means the heart, lungs and brain lasted the night. A full bladder forcing one out of bed means the kidneys have been busy working on the fluids absorbed from the gut and there is no problem with incontinence. By the time you make it to the loo the eyes, ears, nose and most muscles in the body would have been put to use. The simple things achieved need so many things to be working just right. The preparation, eating and digestion of breakfast will require hours of lectures to explain fully. However, with so many things going right in the body it is possible to get depressed that the air outside is too cold.
This must tell us that it is harder to seek out the things working in our favour even if these things are right under over noses. People value sight when the vision starts to get dim the same way some celebrate past fitness which was largely ignored when it was resident in the body. Not appreciating the present will definitely produce a low mood and longing for a past and faded quality will definitely cause depression.
The solution is to strain the ear to hear the positives and drown out the complaints which are usually about minor and irrelevant things.
Looking at what people generally talk about proves to us that Vilfredo Pareto was a clever man. He came up with the 80:20 rule that is widely quoted. Using Pareto’s rule we could postulate that quality conversations occur only 20 per cent of the time. 80 percent of conversations are nonsense; gossip, fake news, speculation, fear and repeating bad news. Using the 20:80 rule further, 80% of people will spend all their time feeding on the loud and useless conversations and have their minds ruined with even more fear, paranoia and complex conspiracy theories.
Fake news has never travelled as fast as it does today in the history of the world. In addition to the technological ability to disseminate information, we now have a willing cohort of people who believe everything is bad and negative but want reassurances daily about how bad things are. They thus rejoice when they get a text message about a new negative story. Like addicts they devour the news and pass on their electronic poison.
Because everyone is talking about something (i.e. it is trending on social media) does not mean it is true or that it is the most important thing on the planet. Your liver working well is more important to you than any trending musician on social media.
Of the gasses that make up the air around, us carbon dioxide trends the most for obvious reasons. However despite the huge ‘social media foot print’, carbon dioxide constitutes only 0.04% of air while the almost never talked about nitrogen makes up 78.09% of the air we breathe. Nitrogen, that silent majority is quite similar to the good things and opportunities we have in our lives at present. Not talked about, ignored until we are too old do anything about it. A change in attitude is an option for the wise.
