1. Always write them down

That’s it basically. Nothing else is required. All you should need to do is remember it from the time it pops in your mind until the time you put in your notebook. Which brings me to a sub-point  or let’s just say:

2. Always have a notebook with you

Any idea, however important it might be, should find some space in your notebook. The sheer concretization of an idea in words involves not just loose thought to run around your mind but puts them in real words which you can follow up later on.

3. Work with your idea

You now have a notebook with ideas, thoughts, sketches and many other things you think about saved and preserved for the future. From now on, you can add, extend and question what you think at another point and develop it.

Usually, when you have an idea two things can happen.

a)      You forget it, which happens in most cases. Remembering it afterwards can prove to be highly difficult and a pain.

b)      You look it up in your notebook, which should make point a) obsolete since you’re reading this post.

I hope that this post pointed out the obvious and you know just as much as you did before.

Today was different. Tube services did not work obviously. It was shocking when I found out that Leyton station was closed entirely and most of the Central Line was not operating. Newspapers have warned citizens of the capital to be ready to face difficulties but no one really expected that it all would be sort of paralysed. For some people it seemed that bad for some it didn’t. The Evening Standard reported that the strike did not affect people as bad as predicted. Still, it took me double the usual time to get to work.

A good thing though is that all zombie commuters who just get on the tube, go to work, have lunch, work more, go home and watch telly were woken up of their trance. People had to start thinking about how to get to work. New streets were discovered as people attempted to arrive at work on time. It’s so easy to take everything for granted. When you look at it from that perspective it’s pretty good that there was a strike. People were thrown out of their routine which is good sometimes. Take the bike, boat or try even walking for a change. It’s not as you have to walk a marathon but a bit of walking won’t hurt.

On the other hand, people pay for a service and do not get it. Strikes are as far as I know mostly based upon either not accepting or not being able to understand a matter. Just like in France where people currently strike as well.

It is completely understandable that machines replace parts of our everyday’s life because it is more convenient. So, Oyster refill, renew, purchase machines replace people who sometimes sit around all day. Not all but many. Some won’t accept it. Especially, when you are affected yourself. You could even promise that they would be redeployed and trained to fulfil another function. This could for example be an implementation of 24/7 tube service during weekends. Loads of people would be needed for that and many would appreciate it enormously. You probably still will refuse to accept that you can be replaced by a machine and therefore protest.

Often people protest because the age of retirement is being raised. In France 60 will be replaced by 62 and that again in a couple of years will be updated to an even higher age. This is simply due to the fact that people are getting older. A government cannot pay their citizens if they life 10 years longer than 50 years ago. (Completely invented numbers which actually could be true but I was too lazy to look them up.)

Tomorrow, however, the strike will continue and I will enjoy it. I find new ways to work and since my boss told me that it is not bad if I came in later as a result of the strike I really don’t mind. People wake up! There are other things to worry about than arriving to work on time when over 7 million others have the same problem too. It will be tolerated; it is not your laziness. You should view it from an observers point rather than from a victim’s point of view. It is an opportunity you should seize and the best excuse to come late for work since you have all newspapers of London to prove it.

I grew up in a small village. Now, this village still is a small village and has slightly more than 3000 inhabitants. A lot of things have changed in the world and so many things have changed for me. While the village has also changed a bit, some people there haven’t. I mean young people who are supposedly modern and open for the world. But, sadly that is not the reality. I saw young people I went to school with a few days back and they did not seem to be grown-ups at all. They were the same childish, narrow-minded people they were 5 years ago. Why is that? In the meantime, I have worked with many different people, seen many different countries and learned things about many cultures in the world. I claim to be a grown-up now, who is open-minded. I am not the only one who has seen various parts of the world, many have but I’m interested in that small portion of the village which has not. Why are they the way they are? No matter if they are 20 or 30 years old. I’m not offending people’s intelligence or education here, it’s something entirely different. I’m wondering about it, nothing offending, right?

To get back to the narrow-minded part I have expressed above. Of course you can’t take it as a rule that young pupils are narrow-minded or anything. But quite a few are which is usual and not bad. I mean, first you get to know yourself. Afterwards you start becoming a part of a community. And there is quite a chance that you will spend your time with people with the same background and interests. What I want so say is, we don’t like anything that’s different, and at least this is the case at first. By the time we turn twenty or so, however, we should have let that barrier behind us and be open for all kinds of things and all sorts of people.

But what makes some people dropping this barrier? When you are little you ask why people look differently than you, no matter what ethnic group you belong to. Later you ask why other people’s names sound so strange and even later you ask why they say things that are not congruent to the view you were taught. I learned to accept views from others. I am not judging people by anything but what they do. I try to be free of prejudgements as good as I can. People I know very well are prejudiced and never stop to be. I’m not a saint, but I try to do my best.

After I gave this quite some thought I came to the following conclusion. People that stay at one place for their entire life cannot be anything else but judgemental. I am apologizing if someone feels offended since there are exceptions to everything. Still, referring to those I talked about at the beginning who are people who went to school in a village, they learned their profession in the same village and work at the exact same village for the rest of their days. Well, I can’t see how this could turn out any differently than to be narrow-minded to some degree.

On the other hand I know people who travelled the world and are very open-minded. But it doesn’t matter if you travel the entire world or just go for holidays in the South regularly. It seems to be highly recommendable to visit other countries and discover cultures in order to broaden your view on things. Observe and respect other traditions and bear in mind that people in a foreign country value them just as you do yours. Numerous women and men with who I had the pleasure to talk with about topics like racism, tolerance and such were not disrespectful but understood problems and conflicts very good. Thanks to those people’s time they spent with people who do not live in the village (the village becomes more and more a metaphor (and yes, I really should become a rapper)) they see why people act differently. Thus, it enables those open-minded people to find resolutions.

No one is born open-minded or narrow-minded. It’s how society shapes us and more importantly how much of a risk we dare to take and visit regions beyond the village. Once the border is crossed a new world of beautiful variety offered in an ocean of cultures and peoples are ready to be explored. A journey that enriches mind and soul can be taken by all of us; the question is only if we want to.

…see…no reason to be afraid