Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The struggle to find a life's purpose...

Dear...

Imagine you were born a few thousand years ago, you didn't have to make a choice what job you were going to do or what profession you have to learn. You would live in a time where you had to take care of everything yourself, hunt or gather your own food, prepare your meal, you made your own entertainment, fixed your own housing and was your own medical service. You would not be stuck in a role that wouldn't fit you, because there was only one. There were no specialists only generalists.
Society, especially in first world countries, have changed dramatically. You can be a general thinker, but there are almost no real 'general jobs' anymore. Just some decades ago, when someone asked you what do you do for a living, a simple answer like I work at an office, I work in a factory, I work on the land was sufficient.  Everything was more general. I think its great that nowadays we have so many specialists in so many areas. But what if you are not wired liked that and you are stuck in a "specialist's job" but your nature forces you to always look more at the bigger picture of things. There is no education for that and there are no jobs like that either.
If people like this grow up in an environment where this 'general' way of thinking is recognized and stimulated they will often be very successful in life. However when people like this grow up in an environment where this thinking is not taken serious and even suppressed, they will often live a life full of struggle and in many cases lead a life of depression, obsession and  addictions.
People who recognize themselves in this tend to look different at the world. They have a natural drive to seek answers to the bigger life questions like: where do we come from, what is the meaning of life, is there a purpose of life etc. If life philosophy was a common profession then that's probably where you would find these people. Most other people would call them dreamers with less sense of reality. The truth is that these 'dreamers' just look different at life feeling they can only be happy when finding their life's purpose.
In my to be published book I'll paint the picture of such a dreamer and his life long struggle to find his purpose in life.

Jeandorff@googlemail.com
http://facebook.com/jean.dorff
http://www.pinterest.com/jeandorff/inspiration/

"Be inspired and you shall inspire." ~ JD

Friday, December 6, 2013

Santa and his older colleague

Dear...

Today is December 6. I was born in the Netherlands and December 6 is a special holiday for it is St. Nicholas day. St. Nicholas from Myra was a Catholic bishop who lived in the 4th century AD in a province of Byzantine Empire Anatolia, now in Turkey.  He was famous for his generosity especially to the poor. In European countries like Belgium and Germany, but especially the Netherlands, St. Nicholas was depicted as a person with a long white beard and wearing a red cape of traditional Catholic Bishop clothes.

All the kids are led to believe that St. Nicholas still lives in Spain and that once a year he and his aides come over the Netherlands in a steam boat to celebrate his birthday on December 6. The kids present on the night before his birthday.  It is the children's belief that St Nicholas rides with his white horse over the roofs of each family's house and that he delivers presents by having his aides climb through the chimney. St Nicholas keeps a book with records of the children's behavior and all the kids believe that you only get presents if you behaved well.

Since most of you are not Dutch and might not have heard of St. Nicholas, you probably think this story looks incredibly similar with the story of Santa Claus. Even the name looks the same. Well, that is because the legend of Santa Claus is derived from St. Nicholas. He became Santa Claus in the 16th century due to the reformation, where reformers like Luther wanted to ban the belief in the 'holy' people of the Catholic church (St. Nicholas was considered 'holy' by the Catholics).

St. Nicholas day is still celebrated and many children in the Netherlands received presents today and yesterday. Now Santa is not really a Dutch thing, so he won't bring presents on the 25th, although I guess my kids are lucky since they grew up in the Netherlands and in the US, so both Santa and his older colleague, St. Nicholas both pay them a visit each year.

jeandorff@googlemail.com
facebook.com/jean.dorff
http://www.pinterest.com/jeandorff/inspiration/






"Be inspired and you shall inspire." ~JD