Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Peace of mind on Halloween

It's funny how much we value the simplest of things: a ray of sunlight, a walk on leaves in the park, the noise of falling water, hearing small birds sing...all for the precious peace of mind...

So here comes my question:
If our conscience were clear, would we really need peace of mind?

Let's say the problem is that we are so chore-absorbed every day, that we sometimes need to be reminded it still doesn't take much for us to find a corner of tranquility. I dread to think what we will do without the little nature that human kind has got left. But it's more than that, it's like every day we are confronted with situations that make, at some level, question our integrity.
For instance, I recently tried to get a signature from my dorm building landlord, in order to prove that on October 1st, I was in the country, fighting with the bureaucracy of my beloved Romania and my esteemed college representatives. He had to sign a written declaration (written by myself, because he didn't know what to write in order to prove that I truly, personally picked up my dorm room from him on the previous mentioned day, despite the several official papers I had signed then).

The declaration was inspired from a declaration of income I had found on the net, so it had the following final print: "I hereby recognize that this is a public document and I take full responsibility in the court of law, according to the penal law, for the inexactness or falseness of what has been declared."
The landlord dreaded this final phrase so much, that he refused to sign a document with no falseness and no inexactness in it. An the thing that surprised me the most is that, he agreed with everything else written there, that means agreeing to the the part where "I state on my own responsibility that...", which was the first part of the declaration. So the first part and the final print seemed so different to him, that he refused to sign the declaration.

The funny thing is, even without the final print, if he signed the rest, he would have still been responsible in the court of law, because that declaration was a public document.

Therefore, returning to the main idea of this post, people have a lot on their conscience, a lot that gets triggered by expressions like: take responsibility for one's acts, court of law, law etc..

The feared equation for a guilty conscience is:

TODAY+RESPONSIBILITY FOR DONE ACTS=DREADED TOMORROW

I guess we all have our conscience spooks haunting us every, not just on Halloween :). This actually reminds me of a very interesting commercial.
Try guessing what it's for!(don't cheat by first looking up information about it :D!)





Happy Halloween for those who care!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

nush daca numai peace of mind este ceea ce cautam. in cazul meu, ma caut pur si simplu pe mine. mi se intampla sa ma pierd printre atatea discutii reci si de suprafata, prin rutina, prin cursuri, examene, prostii, si uneori, cand imi dau seama de asta, ma opresc si incerc sa stau putin cu mine. as putea spune ca e cam acelasi lucru cu peace of mind, dar asta ar insemna ca notiunea asta sa fie ceva mult mai general decat ce spune efectiv ca ar fi.
mai grav e ca mi se intampla sa imi dau seama ca ma pierd in porstii si sa nu am timp sa ma opresc pentru a ma trage din ele. asta e cel mai frustrant..sa vezi cum te pierzi in fiecare zi in tot felul de actiuni care nu te reprezinta in nici un fel si sa nu poti sa te opresti pentru tine.
nu e vorba numai de constiinta, numai de mind, e vorba de ceva mai profund, care nu poate fi exprimat, dar care cu siguranta depaseste rationalul.

(scuze ca tot scriu in romana, dar mi-e dor de ea)

Anonymous said...

is it an insurance company?

Anonymous said...

hmmm...i was close :P

Lumi said...

Nu e nicio problema ca scrii in romana. Esti de-a noastra :).

Ma uitam astazi la un articol din presa on-line, care spunea ca romanii sunt cei mai tristi oameni din Europa. Motivul principal invocat a fost saracia.In acelasi timp, romanii sunt oamenii care muncesc cel mai mult (ca timp alocat) din Europa. Concluzia logica ar fi ca romanii muncesc mult pe bani putini, iar lipsa asta de eficienta ii face tristi :D.

Tristetea, nu stiu, de fapt, exact carui fapt se datoreaza, dar pe la noi este palpablia. Nu stii cum s-o alungi; in special in zile ploioase de toamna cand nu ai chef sa mergi la cursuri sau sa faci un proiect cu deadline maine.

Peace of mind, nu am pentru ca nu-mi pot canaliza gandirea pe un singur lucru. Fac proiecte si ma gandesc in acelasi timp la...sa spunem ca proiectul e the last thing on my mind.

I don't know if that makes sense, I'm really a mess today :(.

Lumi said...

...and you were actually correct with your guess :D, because life insurance is one of their biggest products.

http://www.winterthur.com/

Anonymous said...

hmmm...am mai gasit un site winterthur-life.com parca, a une companii de financial advisers, deci tot pe acolo