Something about the way you look at things determines what you see. Perhaps it's the whistle a happy tune philosophy. I'm not at all sure. Something about the way you look at a thing determines what they are. At least it determines what they are in you.
Each situation is unique. Moment by moment. We all build our world by comparison with what has gone before, but it can be difficult, because how you look determines what you see. It is not really surprising we all have problems with new situations and change. It is difficult. Somehow you have to measure the similarities without letting go of the differences. The size and shape have to be assessed in terms of previous experience but the essential quality is unique and has to be guarded as unique. The moment you let go of that you have lost your grip on reality. Sacrificed it for a reassuring measurement against the familiar. Progress is about change not about familiarity. It is not about comfort but about change. The security of certainty is not really anything to do with reality. Reality is never that comforting. Every situation is unique. The moment you cease to see its unique properties and measure it solely in terms of past experience you lose your grip on reality.
Bob is going to be photographed and he is not at all sure that is what he wants. He wants the publicity but is noit at all sure he wants to be photographed.
To be saved from one disaster only makes you eligible for the next. It only makes you eligible for the next.
Come up to the enquiries desk, at the end of the counter, look. The bank was busy today when I went in. There were three cashiers working hard on concentrating on the money and as much as possible ignoring the customers. It becomes not the industry of serving people but of filing banknotes in their proper places.
Dear sir I would be grateful if you would ensure that no further overdraft facility is offered to me in the future. When my current personal loan is repaid at the end of the year I will be closing my account with your babnk. After five years with your branch it becomes clear that banking is not a service industry. I cannot in that time ever recall leaving your premises smiling. I have decided at this point that I do not need the services of a depressing agency. After long consideration I have begun to appreciate that your staff are there to concentrate as much as possible on the welfare of the banknotes and as little as possible on the welfare of the customers. To focus as much attention as possible on the filing of banknotes and as little as possible on nthe customer. This sad state of affairs is entirely in accord with the modern movement to systematisation and depersonalisation which I accept as a commercial necessity on your part. However I do not have to participate. I will in future be resorting to an older less mechanised system. I am going to put my money into a box under my bed. I would rather be burgled by a person than depersonalised by your system. My thanks for your tolerance of my personal idiosyncracies over the years of our acquaintance. That is hoe I feel about banks. Just in front of me was a blind lady with a guide dog. She had two bills she wanted pay by giro. She took them to the counter and the assistant said she would have to sign them at the bottom, look! The lady was having a hard time with her guide dog as well. I don't think it liked the place either. To be saved from one disaster only makes you eligible for the next. I was rather sad to see that the system which was so slick for people like me and you, which was so simple and convenient was so cruel. It had conspired to make this lady feel particularly disabled and personally inconsequential, as though blindness itself was not enough. She carried a white stick and wore a fluorescent reflective green jacket so that nobody would find it too simple to run her over. That is why I don't like systems that are not flexible. That is why I will not stand for depersonalisation. It is not for me. It is for the npeople who do not slot into them as easily as I do. Personally I rejoice in slick systematisation. But thatb is no reason toi make the world more difficult for other people. Systems have to work as well for all their customers not just the predictible majority. There has always been somerthing here that has made me sad. I accept I have no right to change the system, so my only choice is to avoid being sullied personally by contact with it. Thank you and goodbye.
I walked up to see Pete, who had not been well yesterday. And he was digging out his garden to make it level. So the grapes I brought you because you were sick - I ate them.