Time Out

When there’s an important soccer game on TV, the smaller shops in our neighbourhoods suspend all activities and the people gather to watch it. Concentrate on the things that matter.


I recently read an article by a Swiss journalist who asked people how much of their success and wealth they thought they owed to their own efforts. Most answered something between 40 and 60 percent. He then went on to name all the factors that contributed to their situation that they owed entirely to luck or coincidence: the country they were born in, the parents they had and the values these conveyed to them, the education they received, the people they met and made friends with, etc. etc. The bottom-line of this text was that very, very little of the situation we live in is a result of our own efforts – practically nothing, he concluded. You could argue with him over some minor points of his reasoning, but it got me thinking.
He was basically describing my life. All the important things were given to me. I did nothing to earn them. On top of that I had a Dad who taught me photography since I was a kid.
So, when I read all your comments on my profile, I couldn’t help but ask myself: “What did I do to deserve all those wonderful words?” I honestly don’t know. Much of that praise goes to the circumstances I happened to find myself in.
I don’t have the right to keep those things for myself that were given to me in exchange for nothing. They don’t belong to me. So I try to share them whenever I can. That’s the driving force also behind my blips. And I know there are many, many blippers who blip for the same reason, sharing the beauty that was given to them one blip at a time.



And, no, I didn’t ask or pay those feet to wear blue shoes.


(Another huge honour right here.)