like teaching guitar to an old fart

Art Burshy had watched a nice concert of Paolo Conte...
Nice to see an old fart like Paolo still being able to sing...although it seemed to be quite an effort...would he really like it or just play for the money...
Art realised that musicians are not known for great financial planning...like artists by the way...and so they ended up without a 'pension' performing until they are old fossils

More than the singing actually Art liked the guys in the band..especially on the different guitars
Somehow this very quick guitar string-magic had really touched Art...the way it gets you all active and wanting to dance and make weird sounds to the music.

So Art Burshy came home all inspired; he wanted to play guitar too.
And well, his daughter played some guitar and his son played drums...so why would it be impossible for the father to play an instrument?
Completely inspired Art went out to buy a guitar...and he came back with a beauty...nice wooden guitar with warm sound...
Art realised he was acting like a stereotype man, as what he was doing here was similar to what he had read recently:
women shop more often - but small amounts, while men shop less frequent but when they buy, they buy expensive gadgets.

Art locked himself in his atelier and looked up guitar lessons on youtube.
He found 705.000 hits...so where to begin?
For beginners...yes...
But starting with the real basics or maybe playing-a-song-with-two-chords...?
He tried both
The basics were boring and you felt you would never ever come to a real song.
The chords seemed easier but it required him to watch timing, strings, hands and video at the same time...

His son had heard Art play and came in...and with his dry humour suggested Art should maybe try air guitar.
Not really what Art was waiting for; a son making fun while he was seriously struggling to learn...
He wondered:
- how is it that children learn these things so quickly?
- would he ever be able to master it?
- why was he actually trying? Only for himself? Or maybe also a bit to show off...?
- if he would fail, would he project his failure on his children...like so many people project failed ambitions on their kids by pushing them into sports in a very competitive way...?

Well, Art Burshy tried and tried improving his guitar skills, focusing on movement of his hands and fingers...
The phone rang...and Art snapped out of it...
while walking to the phone slowly he reconnected with reality...
Art h\always had this ability to escape into his bubble, relaxing by pushing away everyday shit and issues.
It was already dark outside...had he been playing for that long?
It was his wife on the phone... 'had we not agreed to meet at the cinema 15 minutes ago...?'
Hardly ever they went to the movies, and now he had screwed up...big time...
Art's eyes were wide open now and his body was filling itself with adrenaline, while he held back the worst curse words...Damn...Sh*t...he had completely lost track of time.
He changed clothes rapidly, put on his shoes and was about to run off...

Just before leaving he took his guitar, held it in his hands for some time as if he was watching an extraterrestrial device...he walked up to the room of his daughter and knocked...she opened
"Dear, I bought this for myself, but maybe it's better that I give it to you..."
His daughter was speechless..such an unexpected act of kindness from her father...but before she could react Art had ran off.

When running down the stairs a most terrible thought or rather insight ran into his mind:
"F*ck...my life is too short to follow all my dreams!"

Arts 10 commandments

Art Burshy walked towards the local church this morning. He had some paper under his arm, a hammer and some nails...he had no idea of the intense discussions he would be having just an hour later...

Art was early as he intended to be there before the crowds were visiting the church, although he was not aware how many people were actually still visiting that church. Would he have a larger audience when putting his papers up at the door of a mosque?

Art had taken his decision over the last days, with all discussions again about fanaticism in religion... people wanting to fight for freedom of religion...people wanting to fight for ensuring others respect and adopt their religion...and others fighting with words to say nobody should be fighting. Art Burshy felt that all these acts of religion were very far away from the true origin of most religions... love, respect and living by your values.

The left hand held up the paper against the closed wooden door and a nail between his fingers...his right hand threw the hammer with decisive force against the nail... the sound was impressively loud, as if he was pounding a drum that was as large as the church itself...Art was somewhat overwhelmed by the sound but after a short pause he firmed up and continued. Within a few minutes it was ready... the 10 commandments of Art Burshy were decorating the church door like once Luther had nailed his 95 statements on the Wittenberg church door in 1517.

The largest surprise was to come...when Art wanted to take his stuff and leave, looked around, he saw that there were some people watching him. One man stepped froward and asked Art what he thought he was doing....
"I try to remind people of what religion originally was about...
And I thought chance of reaching religious people was larger at a church than at the supermarket..."

"Well, you ruin the church door...and do you think it really works to put some statements out there?" the guy asked, probably not really to get a full answer.
But Art was triggered...
"You are right, telling people they should not do certain things does generally not work.
It is like when your friend is crossing a narrow dangerous bridge and you yell at him 'DON'T LOOK DOWN'...
His natural reaction will be.... to look down.
That's what our mind does to us.

So, when people show wrong behaviour you can tell them what they should NOT do.
It is better to tell them what they SHOULD do.
Basically we can not unlearn behaviour, we can just replace old behaviour by better new behaviour.
So why do people tend to emphasise what others should not do?
Well, because it is so easy to tell others they are wrong!
It is more difficult to actually come up with what should be a better way of doing things.

Like in companies.
You can repeatedly tell people to be 'customer focused'.
That is an easy message and a nice start.
Yet, it provides the following challenges:
- all people always think they do the best for clients
- it is not clear which undesirable behaviour should be replaced by which good behaviour
So nobody feels urgency to change anything, and if they do they have no clue how.
After all, if it were simple people would already have changed it themselves, wouldn't they...

Instead you could explain people what you expect as behaviour, which can be at very different levels:
- make sure the client likes you by inviting them for drinks or giving them nice gadgets
- be focused and spend time on those customers that could be interested in your product
- help clients and explain them why certain things don't work...
- understand deeper what your clients need before offering anything
- engaging to understand what would help your client save and earn money, and then create the product that fits with it..."

"So, you actually say that your commandments are set up incorrectly, as they say what people should not do..." provoked the guy.

Art Burshy looked up while taking a moment to think.
Then he went back to the door, removed the nails and took back the paper.
And he started walking back.

The man that had raised the questions had a 'victory'-smile on his face.
Art turned around one last time:
"Yes, you are right to criticise, 
I made a mistake to copy old behaviour that has not really been effective...
but don't laugh too quickly...
I will improve my list based on your feedback... 
and I will be back.
Thank you for helping me!"
And there Art Burshy left, heading home with a determined pace....leaving people behind in a state of confusion....

the reason of reasoning

"We are a product of western society...
We get taught and raised in tradition of structure and reason...
We learn to put our structure on the world...
and when that does not work we learn to push harder.
But that does not always work and we need to learn following the flow of life too.

Like when you are a mouse trying to steer an elephant...
and when the Elephant is out of control and starts running...
you can try to hang on to its tail and steer...
maybe better let go of its tail though...
We are so much raised in the tradition of reason and thinking that we think it is the truth, it is part of nature and part of logic."
It was Art Burshy talking to me again with loads of passion, conviction and maybe some frustration.

"But Art, look at all civilisation we created with our science and logic, are you denying that reality?"

"No, probably large part of that is sort of real.
Interesting is that we are just building reason and understanding on empiric evidence...we find the truth we are looking for.
When we see correlations we try to prove them, and when it is 70% of the cases in the study, we consider it proven.
In a way we are creating stereotypes of reality; we fill our lives with assumptions.
- we project cultural stereotypes on people; 'you are blunt because you are Dutch' or you should be elegant as you are a woman
- research shows that people do not really learn when older than 35...but do you give up on people because of that...?
- more immigrant kids commit crimes...but is that because they are foreign or because they have tougher lives, worse role models, less wealth or anything else...?
In a way reasoning and sense of knowing-it-all takes away hope and magic....
It takes away the wonderment, the believe that things can come true, that this world is special and we have to keep it that way.
And we have been wrong in many occasions, changing views dramatically in many areas of science"

"But if we can not rely on all that research and reasoning, what do we rely on?" was my surprised question.

"We need to learn to feel and trust.
Like an artist we need to be willing to unpeel the layers of our onion..."

"But Art, sorry, but what does this have to do with onions...?"

"We are like onions in a sense that we have many layers that have been added when we were young, by our parents, by our schools, by our religions, by the examples we have seen and the behaviour that has been rewarded.
All these layers we consider as true and the basis of our values and reasoning; challenging these layers is like having to rediscover yourself and accept that we do not know what we thought we knew.
We should not be afraid of not knowing; we should enjoy exploring every new situation, every new challenge, every pain, every new person, every new colleague...and enjoy it...
We should unpeel and while peeling we will learn more about ourselves, but also more about where we grew up, about what our context has added to our nature, about our culture...
And we need to re-learn how to feel, empathise and judge what is good and how to do good.
And we should pick our leaders from the people that honestly searched their souls, that have built understanding and realise they need to keep searching humbly, guide others but being ope to follow others..."

"But we are not all artists, how do non-artists do this?"

"Hey, I do not have all the answers, but there are more ways than through art.
Art is just for the purpose of the artist; dealing with all questions around purpose and existing.
By itself truth can for example be found in spirituality; understanding that you are only part of something much bigger. Although in many cases religions actually prevent you from exploring too far and being open minded.
You can dive into other cultures to learn to see the differences and challenge your own reasoning and values.
You could read, reflect and discuss with friends
You can learn from your children; kids are still what we call naive and less conditioned.
We can find truth in music, in caring for people or animals, we can probably find it in anything."

I went home after this conversation.
A conversation that started by Art Burshy telling me about the lecture he had joined and the questions he had raised.
The teacher had been dismissive, not open to Art's views and statements.
And I sensed Art was frustrated.
Was it just frustration that made him challenge our whole system of thinking?
Did he just want to get back to the guy who had not been willing to agree with his opinion?
Or did he actually have a point?

Well, when home I decided to play with my youngest child, humbly sitting down next to him on the floor trying to enter his world...a world in which everything seemed possible...

Setting up animal unions

This time Art Burshy prayed to animals and compared humans to lemmings...let me tell you the story...

In the morning we left early, heading for a 'modern' animal farm.
Art Burshy wanted to see how animals are really being treated in modern farms.
Art had tried to understand different sorts of supermarket animal products...about environmental and animal-friendly certificates...
But all these certifications seemed really vague and left loads of room for interpretation.
What does 'free range' really mean or 'biological' which seems the best thing around.
And 'free access to outside air' or 'only chemicals that are available in nature'...

We arrived at the farm that Art had looked up...it did not really look like a farm...
I asked Art: "so how did you plan to get in?"
A woman approached us...in a hurried pace and clearly suspicious, but before she could speak I heard Art say:
"Hellooooo, what a wonderful farm you have, amazing so green, so neat and such a beautiful house..."
The woman's expression changed, the frown disappeared.
Art: "We were just out for a drive, and I told my friend...look at that wonderful farm...I so much empathise with farmers
- poor farmers are squeezed by the large supermarket chains
- hardworking farmers are the closest thing we have to nature
- clever farmers have gone through so much innovation and change adjusting to many challenges, it is just amazing...
Would you allow us to admire your farm, seems very advanced and futuristic..."

The woman finally allowed us into the barn, where we witnessed thousands of chickens...walking around on a small piece of surface...the smell was terrible...but Art did not seem to care.
At some point I saw him engaging with one chicken, talking to her...and it seemed he was sort of praying, or rather apologising...
I keep getting surprised by this crazy artist...now he is praying to a chicken...

On the way back I asked him quite some questions and he explained:
"Of course the woman let us in...
When people are suspicious or under pressure you have to make them feel at ease:
- throwing compliments at them
- avoiding the sensitive subjects
- showing understanding their point of view
- show an interest in their challenges
This will kill the barrier between you and them and help get to share real information.
Sure it requires some acting, but it often just takes a few minutes and in a way these people are in a struggle and often do not see themselves why what they do is not good.
Often these people see themselves as victims..."I need to keep up with the competition" and "everyone does it like this" and "there are places where situation is worse".
Basically humans are great in cognitive dissonance - hiding away from undesired insights...
And this is why we hide these farms far way from the city, from where we buy our steaks and chicken fillet...
We are too afraid to harm or kill an animal ourselves, yet we have them massively killed by others and by machines.
And these chickens have no life, their life is a few months of suffering....
Imagine yourself in such a situation... like in The Matrix-movie, but then it is reality and even worse...
And for any religion; would any God now agree that we adequately 'care' for the animals...
And does society have enough ways to correct these undesired situations?
Will companies find an incentive to change the way they 'produce meat'?
Do methods like LEAN and Six Sigma in business solve such sort of problems?
Not necessarily, as these methods look to satisfy client demand... don't they?
If the client does not see the issues, the owners of the company want revenue and nobody represents animals and nature...who will have an incentive to make a change ?
And if customers ask for biological food, the producer will meet the requirements set by himself, his industry or in best case of a certification institution.
But in the end when the intention is not there, it will be a race to the bottom...produce lowest price products by respecting the minimum of requirements..."

This is why Art asked forgiveness from the chicken..." because mankind is just like lemmings; the population of that animal grows and grows until a moment where they blindly follow each other... jumping of the cliffs."

"And probably the time is right to set up animal unions...sure many animals are clever enough to go on strike and hold demonstrations"