Hemingway. I've always been drawn to my picture of his lifestyle, and especially his sitting at cafés writing all day. A story I was told the other day keeps popping up in my head. A friend of my sisters, he has studied philosophy at Lund University for 10 semesters, has a "nudity chair" at home. He gets up early every morning and sits naked in the nudity chair, drinking a strong black cup of coffee, reading the cultural section of the morning paper, uninterested in the rest of the squabble. "That's how you become if you study too much philosophy", was the harsh conclusion. But I want to be a writer and a philosopher. Thus, I'm sitting at an outdoor table at the trendy café close to where I reside in Stockholm, having finished my lunch, reading the cultural section of the morning paper, although it's way past that time of day. The café isn't called "Harry's" but "kaffe P". I'm trying to write this second week letter. As I'm typing away on my Psion 5 palmtop computer (BUY ONE!), people are saying things like "who the hell wants to work" and "I'll call you, no, I'll mail you", or "it's just a matter of time before I meet Jay drunk downtown, and then the deal is in a box" or "fuck you guys, man!" (a pathetic attempt at trying to be cool by speaking English) when they're not screaming into their cell phones. I think the gang at one of the tables are professional DJ's. Many people and cars rush by, fully focused on whatever it is they "do in life". I wonder if they - like I do - think about Dharma, their work-related purpose in life. Presently, I think my Dharma has to do with helping organisations gaining strategic advantages through IT. After all, my initials are PC, plus my salary doubled when I changed job from corporate finance to management consulting. How does the fact that I like the Balanced Scorecard (linking vision with operations, what I presently do) projects best, fit into all this IT Dharma? It's Monday, I drove up from Falsterbo yesterday, and I've set this day aside to get organised at home before starting to work again. It's getting way past when I should go home and get organised. But I will finish this letter before I walk home. Who knows when I will get a chance to sit down and write again?

SIMPLICITY

I've read quite a lot of books about eastern religions, especially Buddhism. Some things they have in common when it comes to actions, is to do some spiritual practice for at least 30 minutes in the morning, and 30 minutes in the evenings, practice self contemplation, to focus on love and to simplify your life. But they don't tell you HOW to simplify your life. One thing I've done to simplify my life is phone-related. I have decided to have only 1 (one) phone number. When people want to reach me, they shouldn't have to worry about where I am. All they have to do is to call my cell phone. If I don't answer, they can leave a message (I like the ones when people say what they want best - i.e. not simply "call me") and I'll call back. I also like to turn the phone off, when I do qigong, or just to be alone with my own thoughts, or rather - more to the point - to take away the stressing possibility that someone might call in the middle of some profound self-contemplation.... - 'cause I'm DEEP... I found some inspiring ideas on simplifying your life in an article in the Fast Company magazine. They were things like living close to work - freeing up time to do something more meaningful than commuting, getting rid of things you never use and thus being able to move to a smaller and cheaper place thus not having to work so much, not buying anything until it has passed the 30 day test (whenever you want to buy a new thing, write it down, then force yourself to wait 30 days before buying it - if you're still interested that is). I probably wouldn't have bought many things had I enforced the 30 day principle. (You can find the article at www.fastcompany.com, search for "simplify" in the magazine / article archive. The theme for that issue is Get-a-Life. Scary, it forces you to reflect about what you are doing with your life...)

MY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TV

It's bad. I spend WAY too much time staring at it. Most of the time I don't even like the stuff I end up watching. I can spend HOURS watching it, until I feel REALLY sick from over-consuming lousy programs. I only have 7 channels, but Bruce had 50 more and still complained that there was "nuthin' on". No, what I want is TV on demand! I studied my diaries a few years back, and realise that I've had the same TV thoughts for many years. They mainly consist of "Just say No to TV" or the slightly more flexible "only watch what you planned to watch and limit the TV watching to 2 hrs per day (I got this idea from Jan Guillou, a famous Swedish journalist and author)". But in reality, I end up watching WAY more. The most common scenario: I come home from work, starving and tired. Thinking that I have to eat before doing qigong, I fix something (usually a microwave meal - it's quick, requires no effort and minimises dishwashing), and then feel it's too boring to eat it staring at a wall. Alas, I decide to eat whilst watching TV, making holy vows to stop watching when the food is finished. With eager expectations of the excellent programs that will be showing, I turn the thing on. And end up watching stuff like Ricky Lake, or even worse such as one of those Swedish debate programs boosting a good-looking, brain-dead girl trying to regulate the audience arguing on topics such as "whether people living in Stockholm are smarter than people living elsewhere in Sweden or not". Anyway, after eating I figure "I have to digest the food for at least 30 minutes". But, for some inexplicable reason, I remain seated in my comfortable chair, watching way past my bedtime. Then I realize that the way out of this is "Just say No to TV" or the slightly more flexible "only watch what you planned to watch and limit the TV watching to 2 hrs per day"... Speaking about Ricky Lake, I read an article where someone launched the conspiration theory that this show was really part of a smart plan by the CIA and FBI. The aim was to convince the rest of the world that all Americans are so mindbogglingly stupid that the USA poses no threat, military or other. I think this guy watches even more TV that he doesn't like, than I do. WELL, that's it for this time, I have to walk home and finish unpacking.

CIAO FOR NOW,

Peter

ALL WRITINGS (C) PETER CEDERHOLM they may not be distributed in any way - except sending the link to this webpage - without my written approval.