Cover Ups

September 21, 2011 by Gail
Filed under VPL

Although centuries apart, my mother and the great Persian philosopher Rumi were in cahoots together. They were! Neither of them willingly stuck plasters on anything, for no reason. Not scraped knees, not shingle embedded in my elbow after a fall on the driveway, nothing. He said, “The wound is where the light enters you” and she said, “looks fine to me!”

VPL

VPL is short for Very Penneylane. They’re my take on everyday lessons from life. Lessons learnt and others where I missed the boat completely. Life’s long or short, depending on which end of the paddle you draw. Either way, being stuck up a creek without one makes for some interesting observations.

About that Lesson

See what I mean! It strikes me that after all these years, practical wisdom might be on it’s way back in again. Good. It’s been MIA for some years now while we’ve been blinded by technology and science.

We’ve been like kids in a lolly shop. And while I’m all for advances in both fields, I also happen to believe science and technology are only as good as the people they serve and where heart supports this intention as a guiding force.

Innovation for innovation’s sake or to have a paper published to win funding is a little shallow if you ask me. Applied Science on the other hand has a point to it and shouldn’t life always be larger than itself, beyond a poor imitation of art? I think so.

Business also has its own spin. It links innovation to strategy that drives change. Personally I think the biz speak around this is like a dog chasing its tail. Innovation is often strategically linked to beating a company’s competitors so as not to end up obsolete. In my opinion it’s a good way to become irrelevant too! Me, I keep the equation simple, innovative heart + people focus = biz win.

So that thing with my mother and Rumi, no point getting plastered over it, they were right all along. So maybe they ought to have the last word too, he said “All medicine wants is pain to cure” and she said, “Go to bed, cover up and keep warm, you’ll be fine in the morning.” And more often than not, I was.