Poise, bravery, and hope

New Year’s resolutions usually aim at doing something, either more or less. We may intend to do more sports, eat less, smoke less, or even work less. Could we also aim at changing our attitude and state of mind to a certain extent? It may be needed in this time when everyone around us seems to be in deep despair about our future, whether it relates to work, war, immigration, climate, or the dangers of eating Christmas trees.

In this valley of tears, there is really a lot to worry about. Although there is always a slight irony in my blogs, our common tendency to be pessimistic is not totally unjustified. Our fears are triggered by the incredible rate at which everything changes. We are missing solid structures in our lives. The solid structures of religion, marriage, family, work often turn into liquids, and it sometimes looks as if we always need to restart reconstructing them like Sisyphus. It makes us extremely vulnerable. Even worse, pessimism may become self-fulfilling.

My New Year’s resolution would be to stay steadfast in the face of uncertainty. We can’t really decide never to be afraid. Fear is an emotion and usually catches us unexpectedly. We can however try to keep our poise and stay brave in the face of what is coming. The brave attitude is certainly less comfortable than the ‘run away’ or ‘blame it on the others’ attitude but it is the one which we regret the least later on. What keeps us going is the hope. The pessimists may be right but hope never dies.

Picture: pedestrian bridge in Tours, France 2019 ©Wim Lahaye

Ode to EYE

On December 17^th, 1994, exactly 30 years ago, on a dark rainy Saturday morning a few European young engineers gathered in the town of Ghent and signed a Declaration of Intent, which led to the birth of EYE six months later.

In my view, this was the most decisive moment in the genesis of EYE. At that time, I was president of the Young Flemish Engineers’ movement K VIV-Jongeren. Earlier in that famous year 1994, the Dutch young engineers of KIVI (Alex van der Veen, Roel Coppoolse) had come to Antwerp to convince us of starting a European Young Engineers’ movement. It didn’t take them long and soon we started editing a ‘Declaration of Intent’, together with Philippe Stas, Luc Bongaerts and with Jan De Strooper, the young VIK president.

We discovered the Dutch had a national reality, whereas we Belgians lived in a regional country, where several organisations may co-exist in different regions. This difference between Belgium and the Netherlands proved to be fruitful in the long term. It required some diplomacy to develop a first declaration which would be suited for all European countries, and which would later become the basis of EYE. December 1994 was the moment the whole machine needed to get started; at the same time the moment we had invested so much time in. 

When the Declaration of Intent was signed, I referred in my speech to the symbolic nature of the town of Ghent, be it with some black humour. We had signed our treaty near the place where in 1576, the Pacification of Ghent had been signed between the states of Holland, Utrecht, Zeeland and a number of states in today’s Belgium. Only six months later, on June 16th, 1995, the first general EYE meeting took place. England, Finland, Germany and Ireland were among the first nations to join us.

Therefore, as this is also Beethoven’s birthday, let us play his Ode to Joy, the European Hymn!

I refer to EYE, the origins and to my blogs: “European Young Engineers” and “The Dream of the Silent” (Dutch).

Picture 1: Afbeelding van Niek Verlaan via Pixabay

Picture 2: Oldest EYE group picture in front of Gravensteen, Ghent, 17 December 1994

Let so much suffering not be in vain

"Tantus labor non sit cassus" is a sentence in the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) sequence (form of poem – song). The cheerful subject is the end of man and the end of the world. The man who anxiously awaits his final judgment begs to be saved. The title sentence is a sort of warning, almost a threat: if at least a number of people are not allowed to be saved (including me), then the suffering of Christ will have been in vain. So don't let the first happen (and save me) lest the second happen. One might even recognize in the sentence a certain moral blackmail against God: if He does not save me and my peers, then He will have made the suffering of His own Son meaningless.

We can also apply it to the salvation of our world: "Let so much suffering not be in vain." The Church regularly points out that man is appointed to the management of nature and that he must be accountable for it. If man is letting the world perish by continuing his clear-cutting, then all the sacrifices made by Christ and his followers, including all the sacrifices made by climate activists, will have been in vain.

It can be good to be reminded of this every year. Do I consider the climate activists here to be the modern-day followers of Christ? In a certain way, yes. Of  course, the climate deniers also have their arguments, but in general I do advocate caring and good stewardship with our earth and it is a good time of the year to bring that up again.

I also refer to my blog: "Day of Wrath".

Afbeelding van Peace,love,happiness via Pixabay

The Art of Delegating

The work around us tends to multiply. Even and especially at peak performance in our work, we need to think timely of new employees and potential successors. If we don't train them in time we may get lost on our lonely island of work and be forgotten by mankind after our death. Workplaces don’t carve the names of the deceased in stone, not even in sand. Without successors it is not only us who will be forgotten but even the fruit of our work will disappear for good.

Breeding new successors requires trust. A successor can only continue your work if you took the time to make him/her familiar with your work. You also need to allow him/her to make a contribution to your work so that your work also becomes his/her work. Your successor also needs to trust you otherwise he/she will not take care of the continuity of your work. A successor doesn’t only need your knowledge, your skill or your craftsmanship. He/she also needs your motivation and your fire.

Therefore, let us slow down our current work a little and talk to potential successors. In the long run our work will not have slowed down and it will be our successors who will bring our work to completion and fulfilment.

Picture: Thorbeke Monument in the Hague via Pixabay.

The Legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld

63 Years ago on September 18^th, 1961, UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash near Ndola in Zambia. The plane crash happened in suspicious circumstances. The TV documentary “Cold Case Hammarskjöld” sheds some light on these circumstances, but the truth remains hidden in secret circles and may never be revealed. Whatever happened, Dag Hammarskjöld is a person worth remembering because of his unwavering integrity and his willingness to do the right thing. There is no doubt about his good intentions. He surely wanted to bring peace and justice to the people of central Africa.

His legacy also includes his writings. His book Vägmärken or Markings reveals a vulnerable soul, willing to bring sacrifices for the greater good of mankind. He was a man of great spirituality.

His death was predicting the misery central Africa would go through in the years after and up until this day. May his remembrance be a stimulus for bringing peace to this part of the world.

Beatus vir qui sperat in eo – Blessed is the man who puts his hope in Him.

I also refer to my blog: Truth and Justice are not found through Alliances

The Green Leaves of Summer

Every year, I go through two periods of melancholy, one in June after the high feasts of spring, Easter and Pentecost, and one at this end of summertime. In Dutch we use the word ‘weemoed’, which is somewhat less sad than melancholy, and closer to the German ‘Sehnsucht’, the most romantic of all words. Etymologically you could try to translate weemoed as woefulness, but woe is a bit too sad in English. This limited sadness if of course related to our yearly duty to leave Lazy Tasty land and return to the land of cold, darkness and work, the land of reality.

We had a particularly wet summer season this year with the advantage that we could enjoy the green leaves of summer for so long. The link brings you to the song sung by the brothers Four, slightly different from the original soundtrack of the film The Alamo (1960), directed by John Wayne.

In the Ardennes, we could relive the school excursions we did at the age of ten. We did the walk along the river Hoegne as well as the walk on top of the Gileppe dam. It is a way to reconnect with the past, a way to reconnect with ourselves.

Picture: courtesy of Bernard Gastmans 2024

Seek for Advice

Life has always been complicated. Sooner or later in their lives, all people ran into situations where they needed some kind of advice. In the old days, you could get this advice from shamans, priests, counsellors, teachers, witches or just from good friends, which was probably the best. The ancient Greeks, if they were wealthy enough, could travel to the oracle of Delphi to get some advice on what to do next.

In our society, seeking for advice looks easy but may not be that easy. A first impediment for seeking advice is our obsession with autonomy and self-reliance. Everybody is very busy appearing autonomous. Asking for advice requires a certain humility. You may need to recognise someone else for his/her specific competence. Even worse, you may discover you got it all wrong to start with. Any kind of advice, whether free or paid, may require a certain gratitude from you. Gratitude is sometimes difficult to convey.

A second impediment for seeking advice maybe the fact that we feel bombarded by advice already. In the good old days, we needed to ask for scarce information; nowadays information is abundant and thrown at us at megabytes per second. As a result, we develop a defensive attitude towards advice. We remain just as helpless as before as we now need to filter out the rare useful information from the information ocean. Therefore, we still need personal advice, more than ever.

Let us think this week on what topics we may need advice. You can't honour your fellow human being more than by asking advice. Saint Paul's advice would be “to put on the new man” or as we say in Dutch “Enrobe yourself with the new man (person)”. (‘Bekleedt u met de nieuwe mens’). Be a brand-new person. Good advice may lead us to a good life and to reinforced friendship.

I refer to my blog Dare to Expect.

Picture: Delphi, Greece, picture taken in 1991 ©Wim Lahaye