Making Sense of it all
I have spent much of my life trying to make sense of one thing or another. Perhaps you have too!
And more often than not eventually I managed to make sense of it. However, no sooner have I made sense of one thing, a new twist appears or something else doesn't make sense…and so it goes…
Of course some days it all makes sense and some days nothing makes sense.
The list of things that I have been trying to make sense of over the past 60 or so years is an ever changing and growing list and is usually based on a question. But more importantly as I make sense of these things, the better I understand life and these questions turn into important life-lessons, which has helped make my life better. And it is these life-lessons that I wish to share with my children, my family my friends and anyone else who ios looking to make their lives better
And perhaps the best way to get started is to start at the very beginning, with the first such question that I can remember …..
This is a list of things that I have been trying to make sense of over the past 60 or so years.
It all started around 1960, just after the revolution of 1958 in Pakistan when Gen Ayub Khan declared Marshall law and took over the country….
I remember, I was about 8 or 9, laying on my charpayee (cot in Urdu) in my veranda in my first house(home at 39E Jahangir Road West, Karachi, Pakistan), looking at the sky with millions of stars, admiring what beautiful creation by God, as I was raised to believe, which in that context made perfect sense.
Then I wondered, when God got finished creating this magnificent Universe, whether he was inside or outside and if the universe is infinite what is outside and with this nagging thought I fell asleep and although I forgot that nagging question in the humdrum of our daily life, the quest to make sense of it all persisted in the background (subconscious) for almost 60 years before I was able to make sense of the question ‘Is God inside or outside”..
Meanwhile there were many other things in the humdrum of daily life that didn’t make sense.
Why does Dad have to go away every day and I have to go to school, what does Mom do , etc. etc….….
And while intuitively I understood that all of these things have to be done in order for us to live, which means having food, water, shelter etc… And that in order to [provide these necessities, Dad had to work and make money, which Mom would spend for groceries and other essential needs. This also explained the importance of money, as it was to currency for acquiring those essential resources.
This made sense to answer the question: why do we do what we do or what is living or life(human).
It is basically to acquire the resources needed to survive or in other words the pursuit of financial prosperity..
This also explained why most people were obsessed with money and believed that Life is the pursuit of money or more generally financial prosperity.
While all this made sense for not just our family but for all families, however what did not make sense was why some families, like some of my friends, had a lot more of this stuff than we did. In other words why this discrepancy between the haves and have nots. Over the years this question persisted and evolved in to the modern day, question:
It will be a while before we get to this question, what was an even more immediate question,
Yet I could see that for many who had achieved financial prosperity, it wasn't enough. there were other things which were important. So life wasn't just the pursuit of financial prosperity. So what was it? It appears over time that for many people their health was very important, especially for those who were not well. I call this personal prosperity.
Yet there were many who had their health and lots of money but were not happy and did not appear to be satisfied with life. These people seemed to be under stress, often as a result of their pursuit of financial prosperity. These people seemed to be lacking what I call emotional prosperity.
It is basically the pursuit of total prosperity, which is a balance between personal, financial, emotional and spiritual prosperities . Each of these achieved, though, Health, Wealth, Stress and Relationships management, respectively.
The driving force behind our actions is the pursuit of prosperity.
This consists of:
Health Management to achieve Personal Prosperity,
This consists of acquiring resources; air for breathing, water and food for nourishment and shelter for security and sleep. Acquisition of resources requires financial prosperity.
Wealth Management is the way to achieve Financial Prosperity,
Wealth management is
Stress Management to achieve Emotional Prosperity,
Relationships Management to achieve Spiritual Prosperity,
Clearly, in the pursuit of prosperity, each of us need help.
With reference to ‘In or Out’., it was in 2022, when I was teaching an IB HL math class and talking about, Geometric series and the notion of infinity, when it suddenly hit me…
I paused, looked at the class, which had fallen silent at this unusual occurrence, of me silent, gathering my thoughts ... .until; I finally spoke…
You know guys, I have been struggling with this question for over 60 years and I think I finally have the answer and it all makes sense now…
And proceeded to tell them what is ‘In or Out’ and told them how and why it all makes sense.
But to fully understand this phenomenon required a lot, almost 70 years, of background information and a lot of other things had to make sense …..
And as these things began to make sense , they also became lessons for better living, which is what I wish to share with
Some of these things which had to make sense for me before it all made sense are:
Why do some people have more stuff (money) than others ?…..
Why do we do what we do ?…..
Is that what Life is? The pursuit of prosperity.
Why are Credit Cards dangerous for the public.
Why is 'fastfood"dangerous for the public.
Why are 'drugs (not just illegal ones)" a major danger for the public.
Mathematics – what is it really about and why is it so important ?
Since everyone seems to be chasing wealth – how to become wealthy?
Is there more to wealth than money?
The increasing gap between the 1% and 99%
Are corporations ( a special form of an organization) are responsible for this gap and thus bad for the people?
Why do we create them anyway?
What exactly is an organization?
Is a ‘family’ the most basic form of an organization..
Meanwhile, as we try to make sense of the Big Picture, so to speak, there are things in our day to day life; big and small, global and local, which we should also try to make sense of, especially those events which supposedly make sense according to the experts, but somehow don’t add up . For example:
While no doubt Trump is, perhaps, the #1 manipulator of all times, who has been the puppeteer to not just many prominent people such as Gov. Christy, poor fool, but the whole of US. However there is an old saying that the easiest person to con is a con man. So it is that Trump, the puppeteer, has been a puppet to many a puppeteer. Let me give you three real examples, while they are they are fresh in our mind, one puppeteer at a time:
Puppeteers – Darren Woods & other Oil co. executives — the jig – we need to increase oil supply to compete with our “Saudi Friends” – go get Venezuela. Of course they don’t say ‘go get….’, No instead they say US is lucky to have you , the greatest deal maker of all times but this is a huge task, may be even tough for you( nudge nudge wink wink…..), Can you do your magic etc. etc.
Puppeteers –Zuckerburg & other Tech co. executives — the jig – we need special minerals for our chips etc. and don’t want to depend on “Chinese Friends” – go get Greenland Of course they don’t say ‘go get….’, No instead they say US is lucky to have you , the greatest deal maker of all times but this is a huge task, may be even tough for you( nudge nudge wink wink…..), Can you do your magic etc. etc.
Puppeteers –Netanyahu — the jig – we need more land – go get Gaza for starters and while are at it and everyone is focused on the genocide in Gaza, go ahead and take care of Iran, the only thorn in our side. Of course they don’t say ‘go get….’, No instead they say US is lucky to have you , the greatest deal maker of all times but this is a huge task, may be even tough for you( nudge nudge wink wink…..), Can you do your magic etc. etc.
If you want to figure out how a magician’s trick works…. Identify and analyze the distractions…. And the on the fluff
The so called ‘Board of Peace’ if there ever was an oxymoron, this would be it.
Trump wanting to acquire ‘Greenland’ — how is that different than Putin wanting to takeover Ukraine?
