Archive for November, 2007
Today is Remembrance Sunday which commemorates the official ending of World War I – when, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month Germany signed the armistice with the Allies. It’s the day when we remember those who died in all wars.
Out in the New Forest today we were on the final day of the NLP Core Skills programme and we agreed to take a break at about 10:55 a.m. to allow people to recognize the moment in whichever way they considered was appropriate for them.
I spent a few minutes walking almost ankle-deep in autumn leaves among the trees and listening to the birds. Somewhere in the distance was the sound of a volley of gunfire to mark 11 a.m. and, curiously, just at that moment a huge hawk swooped down almost to ground level about 50 yards in front of where I was standing… Right at that moment a dove might have been more appropriate, perhaps, but it was a wonderful moment.
We have a saying in NLP that “if you always do what you’ve always done you always get what you’ve always got.” (It’s not exclusive to NLP, I know, but it’s one of the ways in which we encourage ourselves to become more adventurous and more flexible in how we deal with situations.)
And, as I walked back to the training room, I tried to imagine how the world would be if political leaders had to prove their worth rather than their wealth and cunning before they were allowed to have power. And if, as part of proving their worth, they had to study the 15,000+ major wars in the last 5000 years of world history to recognize the futility of war – especially ones which are designed to change people’s beliefs.
Yes, I agree, it was just a fantasy… but it might make a difference – there’s a saying: ‘those who aren’t prepared to learn from history are destined to repeat it.’
