Thursday, 13 October 2016

A five part life



I have been chatting with various people these past few days. They all have idiosyncratic ways of understanding their culture.  These ways are determined by the totalising trinity of nature, nurture and serendipity. There are of course individual differences in the details but, by doing a helicopter, five common processes emerge :-

Parenting --- schooling --- working --- playing --- dying

I don’t remember much about my parenting and schooling nor about the working which was in six countries. I am now in my mid sixties, retired, and with Parkinson’s Disease. My present ‘playing’ is a modified version of long standing ‘lesson preparation’. If a story is to be written, (eg a biography or autobiography) the following table can help to make the research systematic. 


                                                                                                                                                                             
The story can be understood by looking through different lenses eg neuroscience, anthropology, sociology and psychology. The latter can be of a positive or evolutionary orientation.

As an author you can hang around waiting for ideas to emerge. When you are blocked it is useful to have some tools to fall back on eg


  • the above table.                                                      
  • My six good friends are with me now - who why what when where and how.
  • The five whys. Ask a question and turn the reply into a why question.


(More: Knowledge in a nutshell - http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/nutshell/

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