1: Wilful Misunderstandings - the birth of an idea

Wilful Misunderstandings

Richard Foreman

27.1.16

Just what the world needs, eh?  Another blog by a writer seeking to promote his work through this wonderful and baffling medium.  

So what is a 'wilful misunderstanding'?  Google these words and you get a link, interestingly, to a page about climate change denial.  I guess that's a good one.  Take the words of a bunch of scientists who have gathered a bunch of generally convincing evidence that the Earth is heading for hell in a handbasket if we don't take some drastic measures right now, and twist them around some to make out that they are all tree hugging lefties and the evidence is by no means clear cut.  Big topic.  We'll leave it there for now.

The point I'm edging towards is that we make our own realities in so many ways, and one of them is by saying so.  Someone from within the UK National Health Service says: 'We are in crisis.  We are desperately short of money, we can barely cope with the demand and it's still increasing.'  One reality.  Someone from the government says: 'We are putting more money into the Health Service than ever before and cutting waiting times.'  Another reality.  The first, it could be said, is based on experience, the second on statistics - but each is real enough to the person who uttered those words.

How do we get out of these impasses?  I don't have a road map, but I reckon that some form of mental flexibility is part of the answer.  To that end, over the past 5 or 6 years, I've been experimenting with an exercise in mental flexibility. I don't expect it to change the world overnight, but from small seeds...

Next entry I write here, I'll take you into it and we'll go where it took me.  Til then, take it easy and be kind to one another.