In Buddhism we know something called: Gute Wünsche machen. Doing good wishes. I actually cannot remember a time in my life in which good wishes have been more necessary. I feel the stress of my friends and colleagues because of the situation we are all in. I get notes saying “let´s hope for a better week next week”; “let´s try to focus on the good”; “I am physically exhausted”. – I feel the same: I am tired of all the hate. So, I try to distract myself: From the alarming news about an expected Iranian attack as well as from antisemitic incidents and Jew hatred in our capital Berlin and elsewhere.
Last week my work focused on reviewing some of my writings I did in the last six months. This is the usual procedure for an author: Writing, sending the papers, waiting for reply from the publishers, asking for reply from the publishers, waiting even more and at some point the texts return. Also, it is customary that the publishers set a deadline for the review. One would expect that there will be enough time for the author then, because the publishers needed already months for their answers, but this is certainly not the case. The usual timeframe an author gets is a week. I do not think this is very fair, but working in this business for some years now, I developed a strategy to deal with. Last week I was actually dealing with three different projects: two books and one book chapter I will get published within the next 2 months (if the publishers and others who are involved will manage 😊) .
I worked with a new author and reviewed her work, attended a workshop about some new developments one of my customers wants to implement and did tons of emails about potentially new opportunities. I will have several meetings next week about these new options. Stay tuned.
I also planned some trips for the next months, booked hotels, checked out distances and time frames and gained a broad overview of potential flights.
A new order to structure some learning environments and do a new design was accepted by me, too. I try to declutter the learning design and make it easier for kids and students to work with.
On Tuesday I participated in a meeting organized by “The Institute for the study of global antisemitism” https://isgap.org/ Florian Markl from Mena Watch” https://www.mena-watch.com/ spoke about “United Nations Against Israel”. It was very interesting talk and although the facts were not really new to me, I heard lots of details to extent and density, I was not aware of.
I also got a new order to check out some AI (so called “artificial intelligence”) controlled learning tools before the launching of the tool. It is interesting, but I do not see that AI (or as I call it: the learning machine) will replace learning, reading, and writing – at least not at this point.
Sorry, kids and students, learning remains your responsibility!
And as the new week gets closer, I would like to encourage you, to join me in doing good wishes. For those who are in great distress, for those who need help. What I learned over the last six months stuck in the madness of the world: The most important thing is to keep in touch with the people you love. So, write a note, call someone you haven´t spoken to for some time, talk to the person next to you – let them know you care about them. Let them know they are precious.
PS: Before you ask: I haven´t found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow... not yet 😉