1 May 2016

Pain and anger

Pain and anger – by P.K.Odendaal – April 2016

The ideas which I wish to explore today relate to emotions and I wish to explore two aspects of it:
·         Is it possible that the intensity of emotions might follow the curve posited by Malthus in his Malthusian Growth Model?
·         Can one emotion be replaced by another emotion as a surrogate such as when we replace sugar with honey?
These are two weird and totally unconnected ideas, so we must accept that they are valid just becasue they are weird. It is only the obvious ideas which turn out to be fiction.
To explore that we need to know what the Malthusian Growth Model is.

3 Mar 2016

We become like the things we touch


We become like the things we touch – by P.K. Odendaal – March 2016


I received this adage by inspiration in a vision, and not wanting to let the opportunity of understanding it better slip away unguarded, I decided to pursue the meaning of it as it impacts our lives. I must admit that after contemplating it for some time, it opened new vistas and perspectives far beyond my imagination or expectations and I regard it as a truth which may add new meaning and purpose in our lives. In this article I will try to address some of its more direct implications, inept as I am to realize its full meaning.

13 Jan 2016

The Truth is not Politically correct


The Truth is Politically Incorrect – by P.K. Odendaal – January 2016

It is time someone stands up and expose these hypocritical and paranoid frauds.
To tell a liar that he lies or a moron that he is a moron is not politically correct. It is now expected of us to say that a jihadist self-bomber might have acted just a little bit kinder towards his victims. Maybe he should have put their execution to the vote and let them also participate in that vote. The two victims having democratic rights in the vote against the twenty jihadists who want to kill them. Now, that would be politically very correct indeed.

27 Nov 2015

Marriage – or Forward to the Past


Marriage – or Forward to the Past – by P.K. Odendaal – December 2015

 

Whether it is forward to the past or back the future, I do not really know or care, because what is important is that we do not want to go here – a place we call today. I mean with regard to marriage, the family, education and cultural and social affairs. We have seen enough and we have had enough. Who will save us from ourselves?
When I wrote A Parody on Marriage, there were just too many questions, idiosyncrasies, pretension and contradictions to keep a rational person sane in the dichotomies which developed from the conclusions. So, I had to rethink and relive the whole thing. What was clear, however, was that the way of choosing a spouse today was just not working anymore and was leading us nowhere, if such a destination could be found at all. In fact, the remedies we are applying to save our marriages are exactly those which destroy it.

19 Nov 2015

The Market


The Market – by P.K. Odendaal - November 2015.

If there is one which interests me immensely, it is the Market, but for totally different reasons that you might think – and it is totally non-market related.
I was inspired to write this article after my excursion, in my previous article, into the realms of Cause and Effect, which led me to apply it to the Market and Economics and their offspring called Supply and Demand.

9 Nov 2015

Cause and Effect


Cause and Effect – by P.K.Odendaal - November 2015.
Up until now I have broadly written about cause and effect as if everybody knew exactly what it was, but on reflection I realise that I have buttered over its more serious and subtle aspects and paid lip service to its own cause and effect.
As a start we all know that every cause has an effect and some causes have a multitude of effects called ramifications, but I have not yet stood still to consider who or what causes these causes. We should also realise that many or most effects are again causes in themselves, if they are not corrected or relegated. They can in fact be managed and altered quite successfully, and the earlier you start, the easier it gets to change them.

30 Oct 2015

Finding ourselves


Finding ourselves – by P.K.Odendaal – November 2015

I have heard many people say that they want to calm down their lifestyle to find themselves and I have also in the distant past made this remark, but what bothers me really is that none of those have ever told me that they have indeed found themselves. This was rekindled in my mind a few days ago when someone repeated that desire in my presence, to which I replied: Forget it, nobody has ever found them self.
Or have they?

15 Oct 2015

The Gift of Flight - Part 5 - Learning to fly

The Gift of Flight - Part 5 - Learning to fly – by P.K. Odendaal – October 2015.
Twelve years later …
I have a Consulting Engineering practice and I work on diverse sites spread all over the province I live in. A simple building foundation inspection takes me thirty minutes, but I have to drive there for five hours and back for five hours. It cannot go on like this for long.
And then I had a dream ...

10 Aug 2015

The Gift of Flight - Part 4 - I learned to fly


The Gift of Flight  - Part 4 - The I learned to fly – by P.K.Odendaal – August 2015.

Last night I came back from a flight to Zimbabwe where we were for the annual church conference of our congregation there, having had to fly the President of the Mission to attend it. It is the last leg of our journey and I take off from Polokwane, where we went through immigration and customs and where we refuelled. It has just become dark and the lights of the city are so beautiful when I climb out after take-off and turn left onto my course for Witbank where I live. It has been some time since my last night flight and I have to concentrate to fly on instruments, because the night and country is quite dark as we leave the ambits of the city.

30 Jul 2015

The root of suffering


The root of suffering – by P.K.Odendaal – August 2015

 

I think we have lost the thread somewhere or we got blindfolded by the biblical axiom.
The biblical axiom says that the love of money is the root of all evil. If that is so then we are exempt from the injunction that we are the sinners – money really is; so that cannot be, as we know too well. Giving money the blame for all our sins will just not fly. I think we read that axiom incorrectly or our deduction of the relationship between sin, evil and suffering is wrong.