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"Why it makes sense" - Column by Gery Seidl

Gery Seidl

As I grow older, I realize how quickly the years move into the country. "The kids watch the passing of time," is a saying, and I was forced to pause for a moment after saying that phrase for the first time. At the children you can see it. In the mirror too. Are these wrinkles? And if so, are they laugh or worry lines? They are laugh lines. What luck. Witnesses of a successful joke.

"Who can I thank for being born in this oasis of bliss?"

I often take the time to think about where I am right now. In society, in my life planning, as long as you can plan a life, where my path should lead me. Thousands of thoughts. Time to process what you read. Thoughts and experiences of others. How am I doing, how are others and who am I allowed to thank for being born in this oasis of bliss? More and more, I try to identify a larger context behind what's going on around me.

Why does something happen? Who are the winners, who the losers? Why are there currents in society that deliberately control some things in ways that harm people? Those who go for their own profit, for supposedly more prestige in the "society", for power over corpses. Karl Valentin once said: "Man is good by nature, only the people are a rabble." If we assume that the newborn human is good by nature, then it must be the society that makes him so can be, as it ultimately is. Since we are all society, it is also me who carries "guilt" for so many things that get out of hand. There is no point in pointing your finger at others unless you've done your own homework. That's why I try to start all over myself to find out why I am the way I am. Parenting, experiences, moments of success and failure have made me who I am today. When do I know everything? When can I say I'm done?

"Karl Valentin once said: Man is good by nature, only the people are a rabble."

Finished? By far not! I am on the way, but a person has joined me, who now asks me many questions, assuming that I have to know, because I am the daddy and he knows everything. Sometimes I stand in front of my daughter and think exactly the opposite. I often think, "Tell me, because you are still completely free in your thinking." Refreshed to approach a thing without prejudice, that's the art. Children do research because they have the urge to discover. How does the cake dough feel before it is pushed into the pipe and how, when you put two hands of it in your hair and how, when you go with your hair to the curtains to process the dough? A compact research program. Children want to know everything. And ask and ask and ask. And sometimes I catch myself not listening carefully. Because the many questions do not fit into my schedule. Most of the philosophers who lived before us left more questions than answers. I think that's the key to a better world.

WHY? I think that with this question at least half of all projects can be sent back to the start, if the answer is not "because it is good for all of us." We do not prevent the construction of the automobile, which is also powered by hydrogen because it is good for all of us. Covering up a financial scandal and obstructing education is not good for us all. The pharmaceutical industry, which invents diseases to sell products, does not always like us all well. Neither does a nation conjuring a war to sell weapons. Endless you could continue this list and eventually suffocate under its burden. Enlighteners of our time can sing a song of it. After all the facts they put on the table, all that happens is to muzzle those unpleasant people as soon as possible. The results of their disclosure work are disregarded. No consequences for the fault. But that does not mean everything has to stay that way. Let us create a mature society!

At the theater there are the three "W". Who am I? Where am I? What am I? But ultimately there are these three "W's" not only in the theater, but also in real life. Max Reinhard said: "Theater is not transformation, but revelation." The theater is a protected space in which one can experiment. There is such a room outside as well, at least it should be there for our children. This protected space should be primarily the family and subsequently the school. The family is supposed to be a harbor where you can run in when the sea gets rough. Here are all questions allowed. Family is the place where you are loved because you are the way you are. Family and good friends. Good friends are, if you are lucky, a few people who like you - even though they know you. I am in the lucky position to have both. Unfortunately, not everyone can say that for themselves and so I see the school as a safety net for our children.

Perhaps this view is a little blue-eyed, but for me it is the ideal if we want to be in the future a society that deliberately deals with the resources of the next generation, if we want to have a society in which we treat each other with respect and respect Decency and if this access at some point in the policy is reflected. So it makes sense for me to meet people who have a different perspective on a thing than mine. Recognize new approaches. It makes sense for me to try things out. All the easier if you have a net that will catch you if necessary. And so it makes sense for me to spin our web together so that those who do not yet know this feeling can also be caught.

That in many areas people still sit on the levers that do not think so is an existing evil, but it should not stop us and not rob us of the courage to do it differently from today. Time is on our side if we do not grind our children, our uncut diamonds, but let them shine. Then the world will shine in new splendor.
Thank you. I'm looking forward.

Photo / Video: Gary Milano.

Written by Gery Seidl

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