NicP

I am happily housed in the body of a 50 something South African male with a brain (no, its not a contradiction in terms) powered by the wonderment of a child.

I did many things in my life starting with the mistaken belief that academic training was my thing. It wasn’t. Dropped out in time to save me from being locked in the wrong profession and becoming a frustrated antique. Took me years to come to terms with the fact that the world has a place for everyone, including those that do not conform to tradition. That led to the view that no-one necessarily thinks good of you, so you may as well think it yourself.

Did everything my hand found, none of which contributed to my other half’s emotional security. Became a journalist and editor of a community paper at an “advanced age” and was retrenched after delivering the promised closure of a competing paper. Retrenched a second time halfway through my life (the plan is to go for 104) after infuriating a (very) senior traditional floater who did not understand or care for progress. That convinced me that I should not frustrate floaters in big companies with my continuous questioning of the status quo or my presence.

Took the idea I had for the newspaper and made it into my own project with my son, the computer programmer. It proved my accusers correct that I was an obnoxious, always-know-better, pain in the ear. They are probably right but I learned early in life that people have a view about you, regardless of whether they actually met you, and that you might as well just keep on being your perfect self. Because whatever you say or do, it is not in the interest of mediocre people to help you become successful or accepted.

My only real success in life is a son and daughter who I am immensely proud of and who did not become great adults because of their dad, but despite him. My 30 year marriage is more the success story of my other half.

Biggest failure is probably that I will never be a specialist in any area as the volume of knowledge that continuously become available, keep on reminding me of how little I actually know. Therefore my life is based on two questions: “Why do I say that?” and “How do I know that?”

I care for:

babies because they are helpless;

children because they look with new eyes;

young people because they think adventurous;

very old people because they are helpless;

I don’t care for:

people who don’t find it necessary to learn new skills;

people who think they are too old to use the Internet and technology;

people who think their little piece of the truth is the whole truth;

people who have little regard for the young, old, meek and disabled;

people who are scared of acquiring knowledge and insight because it might disprove their convictions.

I believe people are inherently good and that the world has an exciting future.

I learned:

people do not hit you as long as you smile;

people can’t hit you in the face if you run away;

hitting each other does not bring peace, getting to know each other does.