I get Gurteen's Knowledge Letter, each month from David Gurteen, a Knowledge Management Guru I’ve known for quite a while. The letter includes lots of snippets and links to interesting information, and I’ve been reading the letters for a number of years and, in-spite of the fact that I no longer have a ‘proper’ job, I still do. If you’re interested, David has what he calls a Blook that has lots of information around ‘Conversational Leadership’. In this month’s newsletter, David includes a quote about continuing to plant apple trees.
The full quote is “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree”, and although it’s often attributed to Martin Luther or Martin Luther King Jr., this is apparently not the case. Anyway, I read the short piece on planting apple trees (that has not a lot to do with horticulture), and it got me thinking...often dangerous I know, but there you go.
To quote another source, this time a little less serious, in recent years “my life got turned upside down”; this is from the lyric by DJ Jazzy Jeff for the theme tune for Will Smith’s Fresh Prince of Bel Air...a show I still watch occasionally; I quite like Will Smith and watch a lot of his stuff, but that’s beside today’s point.
Mine isn’t the only life that got turned upside down in recent years, I know this, but it is the one that affects me most. My upheavals were not due entirely to Covid: along with the loss of income caused by Covid lockdowns, my sister died, my cat died to mention just a couple. Still, I’m off the meds now, and am sowing a few seeds.
I subscribe to a number of newsletters like David’s that keep me in touch with things going on in the world of ‘real-work’, and in recent weeks I’ve been wondering why. I’m also studying (self-directed at the moment) Philosophy, Psychology, Complexity, Knowledge Management (mainly Cynefin related...we blame Dave Snowden for that...I’m now reading Explorations in Information Space by Max Boisot (et.al) after chatting with Dave). I’m also trying to keep up the dancing and am exploring new possibilities there too.
But I often wonder, especially in the down days, why I bother: why not just read some Asimov, Feist, Tolkien, or Herbert just for fun? I’m getting a bit long in the tooth at 63 for yet another change in career; by the time I get going I’ll be drawing my state pension for one thing.
David Gurteen’s snippet on planting apple trees answered that question for me. I study these things because I can’t not. I need to keep the old noggin active, and I need to be useful and productive. Some folks in my life at the moment don’t seem to understand that, but those associations will be short lived. The studying is my version of planting apple seeds in spite of what’s going on at the moment, ready for the time when I can use the fruits productively. It’s also quite nice watching things grow, and come together.
So, thank you David, March’s Knowledge Letter has re-motivated me
'til next time 😀
