One week since I made my last entry, but I have a reason, several in fact. There was the big election drama in the US, which needed to be followed. Secondly I needed to prepare for my talk of last Sunday, which was different from all the others. Finally there was the final mounted print of the Mandala photo that was ready to be picked up, which with Michelle’s help was accomplished. However, it was mainly my talk preparation that kept me occupied, on which I will elaborate below.

Michelle was so good to offer me a ride to the photo studio at Glenmore Landing to pick up the said photo and I invited her for a coffee at Good Earth afterwards. There we made a plan to stop at the Kingsland market where we located a walk way to the Heritage LRT station.

Thanks Michelle! I enjoyed this shopping trip in retrospect, as I had not done a trip like this for many years!

Then it was on to the Community Food Coop at Chinook and Staple’s next door, which was followed by an impromptu visit to Memory Express. This took quite a while as Michelle wanted details about a possible laptop she has in mind buying. From there, it was homeward bound by around four pm. Thanks Michelle! I enjoyed this shopping trip in retrospect, as I had not done a trip like this for many years!

Right now the first laundry load is washing away and due in fifteen minutes, after which it will be time for coffee. By the way, my desktop gives me an error message since last Wednesday. It says that the EC-flash is corrupted and to contact Asus, after which it shuts down.

I called John instead, but he couldn’t come down until this week. So, I have my Toshiba as backup computer, but that makes updating my website more complicated. We’ll see.

Back from the laundry and now backing up my Toshiba system on a new disk labelled TONY-VLIET-PC 14/11/2016 1-:03AM. It needed my previous disk from 2014 to close it off, before it would address my new disk that had been sitting in the drive for several months!

Some remarks on the mentioned US election results are due. Donald - The Menace - Trump, now US president elect is the object of much analysis and commentary, as well as anticipation. I read the Globe and Mail’s Saunders, the national Post and Trouw as well, besides others.

What Trump pulled of is truly astounding and totally un-anticipated. This is my clue.

What Trump pulled of is truly astounding and totally un-anticipated. This is my clue. We do not know what he will do, nor can he himself anticipate the consequences of that what he does do. I’m waiting and anticipating.

The post WW2 institutions need a shake up and realignment, such as the UN-Security council, the IMF and World Bank, Nato and the UN organisation in general. The UN Blue-Helmet force now counts over one hundred thousand man mostly and some women, soldiers in other words. This may very well be largest standing army on the planet.

In the USA itself there is much to be done, but that will be up to the local politicians. On the international scene Trump is on deck with a new set of companion leaders. They are Xi, Putin, Modi, Duerte, the newly selected UN-Secretary and the Pope. The waiting is for Europe to find a new leader to match.

The new century of global politics has started and the buoys will be shifted and reset after all is done.

The new century of global politics has started and the buoys will be shifted and reset after all is done. This morning I compared Trump symbolically with the griffin symbol of Persian mythology. Both combine disparate aspect of power into one representation. We will have to see how Trump will be able to bring his combination to bear to beneficial effect.
<pre-noon.
At 3:16pm>
After some rain, the sun comes through to treat us to its brightness before setting soon.

My talk of last Sunday titled “Human Destiny” went well from my perspective and was also appreciated judging from the comments of the ‘hearers‘. I had really struggled with this particular presentation, because I wanted to express the need to let go of the old handed down teachings as being prescriptive for our lives today. Not that such teachings should be discarded, but rather that they should be used as a reference to inform us as we conduct ourselves as independent adults in our modern world.

One example of such a modern value is that we must practice tolerance towards other believers and respect differing cultures. Such values also need to be taught before they can be practiced and that is the ‘other shoe’ in this process, so to speak.

Just as people in the past have made rules for themselves, so should we in our own circumstances and based on our own experience and knowledge.

In the mentioned talk I wanted to make clear that we today must write our own rules and add them to those that were taught us from the past. Just as people in the past have made rules for themselves, so should we in our own circumstances and based on our own experience and knowledge. The older is not necessarily better, but neither is the newer; both must be tested for applicability and value. However, just because a teaching has been passed on for a long time does not mean that we should not re-examine it.

So, I was engaged in striking a balance between the authority of the old trusted sources and the newly required, for which we are now our own authority. It strikes me a bit like the leaving of the elderly home and striking out on your own as an adult. The human record here shows that lest we think of ourselves as incapable, our progress as humanity has certainly been beneficial for most humans.

This is as clear as I can express my intent at this time.
<3:51pm and 7:07pm~