Kindness

 

Whenever the topic of kindness comes up everyone assumes that we refer to being kind to others. "Being kind to oneself" is often pushed to the background if it is discussed at all. In this article I am suggesting not only is being kind to oneself underappreciated it is necessary to be kind to you first. This is because unless the individual has a chance to look at themselves and resolve their own issues around being appreciated and receiving kindness from themselves they often mildly corrupt the kindness they try to apply to others.

--- You can think of this as a mild form of sabotage.

On the other hand if you have honestly reviewed what you are feeling taken steps to improve your personal situation in a way that allows you to put down some emotional baggage, then you are in a much better position to truly show kindness to others. If on the other hand you find that whenever you are kind to people or even a certain person there is a negative effect for you. For example you feel tired after interacting with them or showing them generosity, that is a clear indication that you have some personal work to do regarding being kind to oneself.

It is my personal opinion that North America has placed a huge focus on the external world rather than paying equal attention to what's going on with the individual. This is equivalent in my book to running a car at full speed and being astonished when either the battery or the gas runs out. Perhaps because of my physical disability I am more aware of my internal world because for the most part mother nature gave me no choice. I had to learn to work with myself because the standard playbook of being completely unaware of the limits and indeed ultimately the insights my situation posed simply were not going to work if I did not pay attention to them. Actually I feel very lucky and am very appreciative that things have worked out the way they have.

Challenges can give a person the opportunity to look at a situation from many different viewpoints and from the inside as well with the external. I see this is a real gift. I can sympathize with the difficulty that many people experience in life because I could not ignore my own. The more you know about your self the better you will be to help others and adapt.

One of the things I see in my assisted-living facility is many people avoiding change. Trying to say the same or achieve again what they once had. "Why?…" I find myself asking. Things have changed and you must as well. If you don't all that happens is you set up a conflict. A never ending struggle that will draw your energies away. Approach the situation in an alternate way. If you have lost the ability to do something find other ways to achieve the same goal. If you can't tie your shoes for example with one hand anymore. Don't waste time and effort putting them on the old way. Perhaps think about a different design of shoes or one of the many devices available. This gives you insight to yourself and the ability to help others and as a side effect empathize and practice being kind to the world.

Look inside and be kind to yourself. That is the first step and it will make all others much more attainable and your appreciation of the greater world will indeed increase. A video on this very topic will appear on this website very soon. For now take care of yourself give yourself the permission to be kind. And then move on.

Patrick 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.    

 

What Is the Very Essence of Problem-Solving?

 We all have a friend or a family acquaintance who is the go to person when it comes to resolving device issues or even understanding the latest smart TV. What makes them so good at what they do? Is it a skill that can be learned? Or is it some "magical power" they received by virtue of watching 60 years of Star Trek? 😀

In this article and accompanying video I would like to break down what I personally think are some of the key attributes of such people. Let's start with a short list: This is from my own perspective. You may definitely feel differently about the following four points.

1. They come in every issue with a completely open mind. And have a tendency to look at the issue from multiple perspectives. If they could they would indeed try to walk a mile in someone shoes.
   
   One of the most important skills in problem solemnly is the ability to step out of your own mental framework of limitations. Most of us spend the day in this framework because it makes the mental load light on the brain. There is a structure to your reality and everything it's interpreted and filtered through this reality. Being able to put this framework aside makes it possible to be open to unconsidered possibilities. This is the biggest aspect of the essence of problem-solving. If you can do justice first step then you are 90% there to fixing what ever the issue is.
   
   You would be surprised how many people can't or are unwilling to go outside of their framework of reality. I have seen people stop dead in their tracks, hold up their hands and say "I don't know how to make this thing work." Even though the answer may be right in front of them, but not presented in a way they are used to.
   
   A real-life example: Someone bought an Amazon TV and couldn't get the built invoice assistant to work. Here's what they were doing, momentarily pushing the correct button on the remote control and speaking in to the built in microphone. They try this over and over… To no avail. If they had bothered to glance up at the TV while momentarily pressing the button they would've seen a larger message on the screen which read "Press and hold the button down well speaking." Instead they were just pressing the button momentarily and completely ignoring the message on the TV set. The answer was there all the time but they were locked in to their framework which said "You only press a button on a remote control briefly."
   
   
2. They aren't afraid of saying "I don't know.". Then there mind starts to search for possible ways to break the problem down.
   
   Sometimes you are confronted with an issue which is completely baffling or you don't know how to break the various aspects down in order to search for the appropriate answers. Good problem solvers will always ask for alternate input and ideas. This includes using AI to gain further insight or fellow colleagues. Sometimes you just have to sleep on the issue as well, until you get one of those "Eureka" moments. (I find this happens quite a lot with me.) A key point here is, if something isn't working using one approach, don't just repeat the same approach over and over. The open to asking others or stepped back from the problem for a while. Very often an answer will come to you later in the day.
   
   
3. They cultivate emotional awareness in themselves. This aids in the ability to look at a situation in different ways and identify biases they may have which could block the solution.
   
   Additionally, cultivating your own emotional awareness allows you to adapt to other people's way of explaining an issue. In its most basic form this could be just recognizing and adapting to the fact that the person who you are trying to help solve a problem has a completely different way of describing the issue than you're used to. To use a computer as an analogy, you may be completely clear on exactly what a "Drag bar" is on a typical computer screen. The person with the problem on the other hand may have no clue as to what you're referring to. They may see the exact same object and call it a "small rectangle". Emotional intelligence allows you to adapt to another way of communicating with the world under the circumstances. The first step in adapting is to understand how you communicate and how you interpret things. Then using this awareness to translate appropriately in order to make the communication between all parties clear.
   
   
4. Not only do they love to solve problems, they love the entire process. They may experience a little let down if the solution is to easy. 
   
   Oh, this one is so applicable to me! 😊I do love the thrill of solving a problem. I really do love the difficulty. There is one little downside you have to be careful though, and that is knowing when to move on in order to keep a project or other activity on schedule. Left to my own devices I would focus on one aspect for an entire day. Getting everything perfect! Well this can also be a way to shoot the project down completely. The good news is I am slowly learning not to get stuck. But I admit I still love perfection. And I am finding a happy ground between "Too Easy" and achievable.  

Edited photo of a Stella d'Oro Daylily. 
Just thought it looked nice with this post.
Download full size by clicking on image (3285 x 2266) 11 MB

You may have a different order or additional items than the ones I have indicated above, but I think the essence of problem-solving is in these four steps.

Problem-solving is a critical skill, and it is something I do every single day. Indeed I welcome the various challenges and I am the first to say that I actually enjoy difficulty in a variety of aspects. To clarify that previous statement, "difficulty" in this context refers to having to do additional work to find an answer and making progress during the process. Just making something difficult without any reason or expected outcome is a waste of time and can only lead to polite frustration.

There will of course be and accompanying video once I have fleshed out the points mentioned in the above list. For now however, take care and have a great night or morning where ever you are.
 

Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

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Reframe, and you will see opportunity everywhere

 

I talk a lot about opportunities. But I've begun to realize that there are even more opportunities available then I had first thought because initially I had imposed a set of restrictions which I wasn't aware of on what exactly an opportunity should look like.

This is something we all naturally do, however if one removes the subtle preconditioned we place on any given opportunity which might arise than a whole range of possibilities opens up. For example, let's say we are looking for an opportunity in a certain field, let's say the nonprofit sector. Further presume that we already have an idea in our heads which we believe would be of great benefit to a particular community. We've done the research, added up the various costs and the pros and cons of slightly different approaches. Then we approach a few organizations and are very surprised as well as disheartened to find that we are turned down after a series of very polite meetings.

What just went wrong? In this case the reason was because we didn't demonstrate any previous experience in the nonprofit realm. Of course the agencies would be nervous about funding an idea and a person who had no previous experience and was a complete unknown.

Now let's approach this same opportunity in a different way. Rather than beating the door down and visiting the agencies as a complete unknown, we instead volunteer with a nonprofit group. Getting to know how things work, and a much better overview of issues. Not to mention networking with various people. Then once we have a bit of a track record we pitch the very same idea and this time we get support and some small funding for our idea.

Green Timbers Park Surrey BC July 24, 2026

The difference between these two approaches is obvious, the first one we attempted to bulldoze what we perceived as a marvellous concept. In the second situation we work with the group gaining a track record and understanding along the way. We approach the same opportunity in different ways and one way led to success. Maybe not the full idea which is often what happens when you are asking for funding but we made a step in the right direction.

Opportunities really begin to appear when you think incrementally. The steps involved toward an ultimate goal, rather than trying to achieve everything all at once. When one approaches a situation in this slower more methodical way there are many benefits. A deeper understanding is acquired which can only be gained by going through the more detailed process. Additionally your network of acquaintances grows tremendously. And let me tell you that network may be important throughout your entire life not just the project at hand.

So when you are looking for new opportunities, make sure to consider the situations which might help get you part of the way there rather than attempting to reach the full goal all at once. I can guarantee that when you adopt this approach you will see many more "opportunities" available to you.

Have a great day!
Patrick

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.    

Completion Adversion

 

 

 

Have you ever collaborated on a project, either personal or for work, in which there is almost a resistance to getting the job done on time? 

The effort starts out simply enough with the concept and intermediate goals set out plainly. But as the project gets underway the goals keep evolving, meaning that a great deal of time is just wasted, because parts of the undertaking have to be redone.

I have seen the above scenario play out several times now with different groups, and persons. As a matter-of-fact my brother Tim who was very creative would often fall into this trap. His projects would grow, and grow. Eventually it was almost guaranteed that he would give up in frustration. Sometimes his undertakings would consume almost half a year. Thinking about my brother, I now wonder what was going on? To be clear, when he would undertake a task and get caught in this loop, it was not a pleasant experience for him. You could see the frustration build. What was once a weeklong project had become months long. What was preventing him from sticking to the original idea and timeline?

As I think back on this now, it is likely that completing the task was not the real goal, rather it was being "in the process", then nuts and bolts of the activity itself. In that kind of scenario, one would not want to reach completion because it would then be like falling off a cliff. There would be nothing left to do, and that would be depressing. So one way to avoid this would be to continually move the goalpost, a little farther ahead each time. But of course if one does not recognize what's going on and what is truly motivating the person, the result is built up frustration which would cancel out for the most part any beneficial effects of the experience.

Please feel free by the way to comment on this post if you have another point of view.

Speaking personally, I have a little bit of this behaviour, but I recognize it and can usually bring myself back to focusing on concrete goals. This took quite a few years of learning however. In my 20s and 30s I was notorious for starting projects that would quickly balloon into unmanageable situations. For me what began to break this behaviour was something that terrified me called a deadline. Now I am not terrified by imposed schedule because I learned that when one keeps things attainable, one benefits from success. In this case that "success" is the completion of a job or project. I'll be the first to admit however that it is always very tempting to go back in and add one more little adornment.-One more little future. Then I think about my dear brother Tim and common sense returns.

This is just a very short post to see if anyone out there has a similar experience. I also find as everyone gets busier in their daily lives, counterintuitively, there seem to be more people with a case of "Completion Adversion".

Have a great day and comments are always welcome.
Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.  

Compartmentalization Of One's Place In Society

As many of you know, I live in a supported living environment, which simply means the due to my physical disability I have 24 hour care. On the whole however I am quite independent and am always up to some activity. I really do have a curious and thoughtful mind. This is in sharp contrast to many of the people in my building who for lack of a better phrase, regardless of the severity or mildness of their condition don't have a "life" outside of the institutional framework. That is everything about their existence revolves around this facility. They may go outside but only to the local shopping mall or occasionally a movie theatre. There was a constant complaint that they are board or in other ways disgruntled and yet they do nothing to alter that state. As you can imagine, this results in a very routine life. For them every day is essentially the same as the one before it and frequently the names of each day don't seem to matter. A Wednesday has just as much importance as a Friday, which anyone working a standard week would know is definitely not the case. Friday is the beginning of the beloved weekend, and it still issomething I get excited about 😃

I've been in this facility for about seven years now and many times I've tried to encourage people in the building to broaden their horizons and do more. I mean we live in a day and age where we are simply flooded with information and opportunities… How could one not have an outside interest or opinion upon which to expand their life upon? Whenever I bring up this point, people asked me what they should do instead of looking inside of themselves to consider what they want to do. 

"You will never be satisfied with life, if you ask others what to do. You must ask yourself, what you want to do with life."

This cyclical behaviour of people asking others what they should do and then rejecting the suggestion, only to go back into the same routines repeats constantly. Honestly this is now something I find a little annoying, because many of the people living in my building could be doing something more rewarding with their lives, but there is always something that has blocked them. I think, I might have an idea now what that issue might be.

Is it possible that they have locked themselves into a social caste like system? Perhaps they believe that because of their condition and because of where they live that they are compartmentalized into a limited set of opportunities. Very much like the caste system in other countries. You are born into a level of society and that is where you must state. That may sound like a ridiculous thought, but I am reminded of a friend who during a meeting of one of the groups I belong to, and I'm paraphrasing said "We are the elites, of the disabled in our age group. "At the time I thought this was a very arrogant statement. But now I am reconsidering this, although not from such a literal point of view. At the time the group I was attending we were talking about the geriatric disabled. People born in the early 1960s. The group grew up in a totally different culture especially in the early days, there was an implied social caste: "You are not normal. You are different. The opportunities in life for you will be very limited." While this is an exaggerated statement, we did take subtler messages like this to heart and even to this day at 66 years old I still have to fight the occasional belief that I feel pulling me into this limited set of opportunities. I think that is what my friend meant. Analogous to electrons trapped in the valence rings of an atom. Each electron stays within its own orbit until forcibly nudged out of it. It is not a perfect analogy and I am by no means a chemist so please take only the very general concept of this idea, in other words don't shoot the writer of this article for being inaccurate. What I mean to say is our people locked in their own or mental orbits in my facility? Do they just feel that they are part of this caste system and must stay within their own orbit.

As we all know, even though we are thinking beings of emotions can override logical thought. And if you think you belong in one orbit, or one caste you emotionally hold yourself to that level. This way of approaching the problem does make a lot of sense to me. I am not sure of the solution, aside from nagging everyone around me to death to get off their butts and do something with their lives. Which I will continue to do, so not to worry. But, if what I propose here is true, then there are undoubtedly others who are equally compartmentalized and limited by the very nature of the way they are feeling and thinking about their lives. So this is no small matter and I shall take it with me as I moved through my various activities moving forward.

Down the road there will likely be a video companion to this article because it is rather profound from my perspective. Videos however take time to get right and in the meantime I would love to hear from you, dear reader.

 As you can see the, I have created a companion video. The more I think about this topic, the more profound it becomes. I really do believe that a lot more emphasis needs to be placed on it. Being visible issues are easy to see and therefore simple to focus resources on, but it is ultimately the subtle beliefs and behaviours which have the long term impact.

While I was making the video there was a concern in the use of the word "Caste" was inappropriate, but I think it is perfectly accurate. It describes an involuntary classification placed on the individual-based only upon the situation they were born into. More importantly, as the person grows up this often becomes a self reinforcing belief so that it is fundamental in everything they do. If we step back and take a wider perspective you can see the limits and judgements being placed on many people.

To a greater or lesser extent I think everyone knows about this but I think it is been vastly underestimated. Just because something is subtle only means that it may go on unnoticed by the larger public. It does not mean that it is any less deserving of attention and ultimately resolution.

Do you think the ideas put forward in this article have merit? Let me know your experiences and thoughts. In the meantime of course have a great day and take care.

Patrick

** NOTE: The pictures and the thumbnail of the video are from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement. 

 

Change May Bring Discomfort But...

 ...It Is Guaranteed to show you something positive you didn't expect.

It is always wise to remember that no matter who you are and how observant you are there will be many times in the life where one becomes, quite accidentally, a little too comfortable.

That is, in the absence of an external force acting on the human being, we have a tendency to stop our own evolution by becoming a little too comfortable with whatever the current situation is. This stops most people from developing further. That is until something comes along and shakes them up a bit so that they continue on the road of life.

Everyone falls into this trap many times over a human being's admittedly short lifespan. When people become content for a long period of time they inevitably stop evolving. Which  is a shame, because that is the very time to undertake something new and shake up the tree. To be clear I don't mean you have to do this every day, but I do you mean that it should be frequent enough that you are keenly aware of the benefits. And what might the benefits be you ask?… Far too many to mention, and for each person the list is unique. I can tell you however that it keeps you engaged with the very process of life. Allowing you to notice things you might otherwise have not seen. I bet you as a matter of fact that when you see something new especially if it's unexpected, there is always something deep within that feels a little uncomfortable. That feeling of being "uncomfortable" is an extremely important sign because it means that you are looking at an opportunity to change. You may not like what you perceive as the change, and indeed there may be a fair bit of resistance to the new concepts you are confronted with, but I promise in the end you will gain more than you lose. Usually in ways that are imperceptible to other people. But you know what has occurred.

Click picture to view / download full
resolution printable copy.

This artwork is hereby placed in the
public domain and is based upon material
in the public domain. Patrick Clark

So please don't allow yourself to become overly comfortable or complacent. You should always try to shake each day up a little bit. Because the only meaningful constant in one's life is "change itself".

 So go out and do something you were not quite expecting today. Shake up the day!

Feel free to let me know in the comments if you had any Eureka moments 😉

Take care Patrick 

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

 

Where Will Your Magic Moment Be Today?

 

Somewhere, in the next 24 hours you will experience something positive. 

It will be amongst a flurry of other activity. The challenge will be to notice it.

We are also busy with activities and obligations, while at the same time, being not so subtly, attuned to the negative things that we frequently don't notice small moments of enlightening pleasant events. Now evolutionarily the human species is more attuned to the negative things. After all if you were in the wild you would want to be aware of that line hiding in the bush. Trouble is that advertisers and other influencers have learned to manipulate this trait and the things have gotten out of hand. We are absolutely bombarded with the darker side of life so much so that it takes some effort to see the more positive things out there. I promise you however they are there. Small little dots of pleasantness or calmness scattered about.

Make it a goal today to notice these little moments of uplifting insight. They may be very short, but don't discount them. Indeed, add them up and see what the average amount of daily positive insights there are. To this over a week and I'll bet you will be surprised.

One of the things that everyone has to deal with now days which is unique to our generation and those coming after us, is information is coming at us and an incredible rate. Everything is delivered to us almost instantaneously now. We don't even have to type in a query on a keyboard anymore, you can just ask the question directly and for the most part you get an answer. I find that amazing personally on one level, because I see the potential of this technology, however I wonder on average how this technology is used every day. It is used to uplift, or is it used to depress? Give me a moment, I am going to run off and ask "Gemini" this question right now. The question I posed and the answer will be posted immediately below this text.

The question: "Are there any statistics on whether questions posed to Artificially Intelligent services like yourself or chatGPT are of a negative nature versus a positive query?"

Google Gemini produced quite a response, a mini report on the subject. 

As always take everything produced by an AI system with scepticism. I have not verified any of the information contained in the report. Use at your own risk.

Having said that, it does appear to ring true to me. One thing I take from this output is questions to such systems I won't be as "flowery" in my queries.

 Google Gemini's response begins now:

The question of whether users are "nice" or "mean" to AI is a significant area of study for researchers. While there is no single, real-time "dashboard" for all AI queries, several large-scale studies and dataset analyses provide a clear picture of user behavior.

 

Generally, the data suggests that most interactions are neutral and task-oriented, but a small, vocal minority of users engages in highly emotional or "negative" querying.

1. The Majority: Neutral and Utility-Driven

Most users treat AI as a tool rather than a social companion. Analysis of public datasets like ShareGPT and WildChat (which contains over 1 million real-world interaction logs) reveals that the vast majority of prompts are:

●     Informational: Fact-checking or asking for explanations.

●     Productive: Writing code, emails, or summaries.

●     Creative: Generating stories or brainstorming.

A 2025 study by OpenAI on "affective use" found that while users do occasionally personify AI, the majority of users engage in relatively neutral ways. The emotional or negative queries typically come from a "tail set" of power users who use the AI for more personal or experimental reasons.

2. The "Politeness" Statistics

Interestingly, there is a distinct divide in how people frame their prompts. Some users include "please" and "thank you," while others use blunt commands.

●     The Accuracy Paradox: A recent study from Pennsylvania State University (2025) titled "Mind Your Tone" found that rude or blunt prompts actually resulted in higher accuracy (84.8%) compared to "very polite" prompts (80.8%).

●     Why? Researchers suggest that polite language often adds "linguistic noise" or "redundancy" that can distract the model from the core instruction. Direct, imperative commands (e.g., "Solve this.") provide a cleaner signal to the AI.

3. Negative vs. Positive sentiment

When researchers perform sentiment analysis on user prompts, they typically find the following distribution:

Sentiment Type	Characteristics	Estimated Prevalence
Neutral	Fact-based, coding, "how-to" instructions.	70% – 85%
Positive/Polite	Including "please," "thank you," or "good job."	10% – 15%
Negative/Hostile	Aggressive commands, testing "jailbreaks," or venting.	5% – 10%

4. Sentiment Mirroring

A phenomenon called sentiment propagation is often observed in AI interactions. If you are negative or aggressive, the AI may inadvertently mirror that tone (though safety filters now "soften" extreme emotions).

 

●     Positive Prompts: Tend to increase the "verbosity" (length) of the response.

●     Negative Prompts: Often lead to a decline in factual accuracy (up to 8.4%in some tests) because the model may shift toward more speculative or defensive language.

Summary of Trends

●     The "Venting" Factor: A small percentage of users use AI specifically to vent frustrations they wouldn't say to a human.

●     The "Test" Factor: Many negative queries are not "mean" in intent but are "adversarial"—users trying to trick the AI into saying something offensive to see where the boundaries are.

●     The "Directness" Shift: As users become more "AI-literate," the use of social pleasantries like "please" is decreasing in favor of efficient, direct prompting.

 End of Google Gemini's response.

 

Now let's get back to the topic at hand and that is being aware of the positive events that occur every day in your life and mine. Remember to when you're speaking with people to give them the benefit of the doubt and not to check everything so personally. If need be step out of your comfort zone for a moment and look at at the bigger picture. Even if your Magic moment isn't immediately apparent stepping back from an event often gives you some insights which can allow you time to mold your emotions and indeed see the magic which may be just around the corner.

As you can tell, this is how I tend to approach every day. Knowing that somewhere in the next 24 hours there will be something unexpectedly pleasant. Maybe very brief in duration, but it will be there.

Have a great day and don't forget to keep looking. Maybe make a journal of the events you are now noticing which you might otherwise have ignored. You may be very surprised. Let me know in the comments.
.
Patrick

Differently Interacting with the Physical World

What I find most fascinating is how different people interact physically with the world. The subconscious decisions about where things are placed it's actually quite a study. I see these small automatic choices being made because I view my environment from the perspective of someone in a wheelchair.

Even trained staff who are more physically where than the average person fall into these automatic decisions; a cup get placed on a table within their comfortable physical range, which may or may not be useful to me. Of course I correct them when necessary, but I do find it fascinating and often watch the physical choices they make throughout their work day in regards to the placement of things. This is only scratching the surface though, it really gets one thinking about how people interact with their physical space around them and one may infer from such observations a fair bit about the person.

Original photo

Click photo download original untouched image
Hereby placed in the public domain by photographer Patrick Clark.
Photo taken on: 2015-08-07 2:50:25 pm
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

 

 I don't remember too much about this particular photo except it was a nice August day and I was wondering around Vancouver British Columbia. Something about the simplicity of the simplicity of the image just appealed to me. Feel free to download the full untouched photograph by clicking on the above image. 

 

Some people are deep thinkers who naturally taken a lot of information about their environment. You can see the wheels turning in their mind as they figure out how to best solve the problem. Whether that be comparing items when shopping or simply the placement of a cup on a table. They tend to be very creative in some of their solutions. It is marvellous to discuss with them almost any aspect of life. Of course occasionally these deep thinkers can overthink the situation aswell. They end up going for the most complicated answer only to realize that something simpler was the best solution to begin with.

Some people are efficiency experts. They tend to move through their environment a little more quickly and the placement of items may not be optimal for everyone or indeed themselves. But it is what is most effective for the moment to achieve the task at hand. As a rule I find they like to move in an orderly manner from one task to another, "A to B and then on to C". Once a pattern is established they tend to stick with it, even if it is not producing the optimal outcome. They don't readily tend to think as deeply unless something surprises them. They prefer a routine which allows them to achieve their daily tasks in a predictable manner. This does not mean they are not aware of their surroundings, they prefer however to get things done and then move on to the next task. This makes a lot of sense, in our busy multitasking world.

The last group tends to boggle my mind and I end up wondering how they make it through life. These people are pleasant but deal with things, for lack of a better phrase, "at arm's length". For every task they want a step-by-step breakdown of how to accomplish it. They do this not in order to understand the situation but rather to avoid thinking about it. They tend to be very regimented in any given situation and are seemingly oblivious to nuances. Once again these are very nice people but you will never have an in-depth conversation. They just don't work on that level. One gets the feeling that they would prefer to have a step-by-step manual for life. People like this fascinate me because their approach to life is so different than mine, bordering on alien.

When scientists gets to the stage where can actually decode messages in the human brain sufficiently to construct the individual minds reality I think we are in for a big surprise. I don't think human minds process reality as uniformly as we are given to believe. That is I think the human experience is very different between people. I hope I live to see this because it will force a reevaluation of not only social norms but deeper considerations. Hopefully this will have the effect of expanding understanding and inclusion.

From the basics of how we individually interact with the physical world and our own environments, to deep considerations of society and the world as a whole. I didn't expect this short little article to go down such a rabbit whole. If you've never considered such questions spend the next week or so observing how different friends and people interact with their environment. Or just consider how you personally interact with it.

For me this way of looking at things and how people work with their world allows me to custom fit my reactions to each individual person and when I can I try to step into their shoes and consider the world from their perspective. It sure makes one appreciate the diversity of life and experience.

Have a great day! 
Patrick

You Are Alive; Why Would You Not Take Advantage Of It?

 

WOW, life... I am going to take advantage of this!

Image generated by Ideogram AI.

Imagine for a moment, that you are a sentient life form on another planet and just like human beings you live and die a certain amount of time. But you know for certain there is no afterlife. Would this affect how you approach your existence?

I ask this question because I find an ever-growing number of people don't take advantage of what their life offers. Put simply, that is that they are aware they exist; they can affect change in their environment and yet they do not alter their situation in a positive manner but instead reinforce negative behavior, and all the while completing bitterly about the situation. This is analogous to putting one's hand in very hot water and yet insisting that they do not want to take their arm out of the scalding liquid, because that would be a change. For years, this same group of individuals keeps stating that they are unhappy but they keep doing the very things that entrench their discomfort. Any change in the status quo is met immediately with negativity. Offer to give them empowering tools and they resist that too.

 The only way I can rationalize this in my head, is that they must be waiting for some marvellous afterlife. But I'm willing to bet they would resist that change as well. This boggles my mind. Yet I know people just like this today, in the 21st-century. A time in human history when there are so many opportunities, regardless of your physical or mental situation. It does take a fair bit of work in some cases to utilize these opportunities. One may have to negotiate with funding sources for equipment, or take a field of study. In the situation where the person cannot do any of the things necessary to utilize opportunities, they can form a group which could assist them in reaching a goal.

 To illustrate, the other day it occurred to me that anyone can create artwork. You can literally give one the many AI services like the online service IDEOGRAM a description of what you want and it will produce an image for you, this service has a free option so to create this image would cost the person nothing. Then they could dictate the text to go along with the image to their phone or computer. Again this is free to do. So basically you could write a book complete with images. You could then use this new book to mobilize others to assist you further. Perhaps form an organization which would then in turn qualify for funding. You could then pay your self a salary.... This is an oversimplification but you get the idea. The old axiom comes to mind "Where There's a Will There's a Way."

 The older I get the more enthusiastic I get about what life has to offer. Because I now know that the opportunities are short and should not be taken for granted. I have also seen what "The other side of the coin" described above, looks like and to me that is mediocrity at best and indeed a waste of life at worst. I shall scream: "That Ain't Me, Baby!" Until the end of time.

 Maybe things are too easy and the beginning of the 21st-century. When you think about it, it's the challenges in ones young life that build the skills of self-reliance and deeper understanding. Do any of my readers remember learning how to use a physical card catalogue at a library? If so leave me a comment. That one skill brought together many aspects of awareness and understanding. 

 

The card catalog in Manchester Central Library
March 2010. Photo: Ricardo Creative Commons License: CC BY 2.0

 

Now you just go to your favourite search engine or A.I.(Artificial Intelligence)  resource. There is no need to work out a solution, now one just tells the machine what you want and poof the answer is there. There is no need for the individual to change or evolve. Maybe that explains some of the behaviour I described above. These people are waiting for something else to do the hard work of finding a solution. Then again it is unlikely that the solution would work if the person was not willing to adopt alteration in their behaviour.

 I was told of a similar situation earlier this year and involved a person on welfare. To be clear they were very poor and just getting by. This year the provincial government made available at extra $200 per month for people who also havw a disability. The person I am talking about would indeed qualify for the extra money in this case. But there was a catch, there was a separate application process. To this day they still have not filled out the one form in order to get the money.

Ministry of  Social Development and Poverty Reduction June 20, 2025 
News release: "B.C. helps people keep full federal Canada Disability Benefit" 

I am so grateful that my life experiences have shaped me in a way that allows me to see the possibilities. Difficulty is not a problem, it is an asset,  an opportunity to get creative, and thereby in solving the problem one gains a slightly deeper understanding of the world Add up these difficulties and their respective solutions and what you are left with is quite in the encyclopedia of understanding. The ultimate toolkit for life if you will 😀

 This Christmas was particularly shocking in the supported living building I am a member of. Most tenants actively argued against Christmas celebrations or decorations. In the six or seven years that I've been here I have never seen it so bad. Yet as mentioned above by maintaining the negative status quo one only entrenches and makes worse the situation. Dr. Seuss's the Grinch could take lessons from this crew. However the staff were able to break out the ornaments and festivities that go along with them at the last minute. It did result in a mild elevation of the buildings' mood. So there is a way to improve the situation.

This pleasant turnaround in the atmosphere actually really surprised me. I was convinced that absolutely nothing would break them out of their "Ebenezer Scrooge mindset". As I have said before in this blog, I think mindset plays a major role in one's life. (Click this link to see all the articles dealing with mindset and motivation on the blog.) Much larger than it is given credit for. I would go as far as to say: "your mindset, not only affects how you see things currently, it can affect your long term health". And I don't suggest this idea likely. Since a person's mindset has an impact on their entire perception of the world, I don't think it is too much of a reach to suggest that it may have a health impact if the same mindset is held on over a longer period of time.

 What I'm suggesting is that a profoundly negative mindset and open you up to a whole variety of health concerns. Maybe not biologically but definitely because you are not going to see the warning signs. I have noticed that many people in my facility have verily shallow inner awareness. Most of their stimulus comes from external sources like the Internet, various substances, all of which are just a form of distraction.

 This reminds me of the old story I was told as a young child about the ostrich which would stick it's head in the sand so that it did not see the approaching threat. Or to put it another way, "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind". Of course this behaviour doesn't do the ostrich any good at all except it is a virtual guarantee that the poor birds life will be shorter. The same holds true for anyone who holds on to a negative mindset or seeks constant distraction from a real-life.

 It can be very difficult to break this pattern, but as the short Christmas experience positively by the tenant in my building has shown it is not impossible. So, since you are alive and reading this or watching the companion video, please take the time to do something large, or small, with your life right now. That step may be all it takes to change your perception and have a great new year in 2026.

 Take care Patrick

 

** NOTE: The picture "Image generated by Ideogram AI" displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

Your Mental Margin

 "Use It or Lose It" holds true for your mental well-being as well.

Ever since joining a cognitive therapy group I have become very aware of the way people process their environment and indeed their own sense of reality. I joined this group because I am 66 years old and even though I am in good health I have noticed a slight decline in my memory and cognitive skills. So when the opportunity arose I jumped at joining the group.

The adage "Use It or Lose It" really has come into focus for me as I look around and I see young and old people mentally drifting through life or taking things for granted. Assuming that the facilities for have now, they will always have. Mind you I think everyone does this at different stages of life to some degree, I recently saw a video clip of Arnold Schwarzenegger who is now 78 years old, as of the writing of this blog post, commenting that when he was 30 years old he never thought about losing muscle mass. Especially with the incredible amount of exercise he committed to every day. The idea even if it occurred to him what it seemed inconceivable. What makes "Use It or Lose It" even more important is, we live in a world that is much more interconnected and technical on all levels. Society and individuals simply cannot afford being ignorant of society and technology. The late astronomer, Carl Sagan said, and I'm paraphrasing this: 

"We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces."

It is my point of view that in order to get the best out of life, one must be fully involved in all aspects. One must avoid taking things for granted or as I've mentioned many other times in this blog going on a kind of mental autopilot. The more you exercise your mind and body the more margin you build up. To put it another way, the more reserves you have to deal with the challenges of life the better. A little bit of difficulty throughout one's life is necessary. Try not to become overly comfortable in your lifestyle or routines. Make a commitment to do something uncomfortable and potentially productive every few days or weeks. It is these uncomfortable activities which tend to break down the walls of isolation and help to keep you connected to the society and realities around you.

When was the last time you read a physical book? The act of reading something written or printed on paper is very different than reading the same material off a screen. Come to think of it when was the last time any of us read a book or other physical medium like a magazine or newspaper from beginning to end.

It is these kind of things that help you stay connected and alive in the world. It helps build up your mental and your physical margins, so that when your help does decline you have a much better chance of enjoying your later years with friends and family.

I probably will add more to this article in the next few days. But for tonight I wanted to get this out there just as a starting point.

Second instalment: October 18, 2025

Speaking about "mental margins"and really using the facilities of one's brain to think and consider a person's environment. I keep meaning people who really don't understand at all how different things in their life relate to each other. This leads into a real difficulty for them when they try to use technology. For example a friend of mine recently bought a Smart TV. They asked me to assist them in the set up and I realized partway through that they did not have any comprehension of what was meant by a "smart TV". As a result they are having great difficulty using it. When their PVR (Personal Video Recorder) had a momentary glitch in a recorded program and froze for a few seconds they immediately thought it was a problem with the new TV. They don't see the separate components which make up modern media experiences. To them the television set is all encompassing and so when I explained initially that they had to use two remote controls one for the PVR  and one to control the volume on their TV they really got confused. It was not until I realized how they were looking at the devices that I understood what the problem was.

There are extenuating circumstances here which I won't go into but it still remains that a great number of society's people are now using hardware and services with no understanding of how it all works together. This is a point of greatest concern for me because it guarantees that not only will the devices not be used to their best advantage, it is for certain there will be confusion and problems down the road. Yet I am also reminded that there are many very creative people out there still. But when I run into people that don't want to learn or expand their boundaries I get a little frightened. It reminds me of the movie "Idiocracy" (movie trailer) which takes place in the future in a city where everybody has been dumbed down. It is a comedy but the underlying message cannot be ignored. "Use it or lose it"

There has been a shift in attitude toward knowledge and learning

In my family, understanding a concept or discovering how something worked was a real sign of achievement, as a matter of fact I remember the expression on my father's face when he would describe some little aspect of an idea, there was sheer joy in his face. The message and the behaviour were transferred directly to his children. At the time we might not have understood what he was describing fully, but we got the message that it was something worth striving for. Now, knowledge and learning seemed to be, if not devalued, taken for granted… After all there's always "Google" or ChatGPT to fall back on.

What's missing is the sheer excitement which I still experience when I discover and understand something new. I still have quite a number of eureka moments in my life 😀. This means that many people also don't really appreciate discovery and achievement anymore. Especially if the undertaking involved some commitment over weeks or months. In part, this is likely due to everything being viewed as transitory, as well as what now qualifies as a lengthy commitment.
 

Take care Patrick

Side note: The Rose photograph (More about the creation of this image in the article "Find Some Time to Disconnect from All the Chatter") depicted at the top of this article is based on images generated by an AI initially and then slightly adjusted by me. The moment I saw the Rose I thought:" It be great to have this backlit in a light box. Wouldn't you know it, I did some searching and there is a small company on Etsy which does just that. Here's a link to their storefront: Q AND L GIFTS. You do have to provide the artwork as a very good scan but I have been most impressed I must say. This is not an official endorsement of this product and I am not being reimbursed I just thought others might find this beneficial.