Treasure Hunter | June 2020
It seems that June was the last month of lockdown. Portugal is opening up quite quickly and it seems that we will be ready to return to the new normal from July onwards. We survived! I’d like to share some of the goodies I came across during the month of June.
1. On Character: My Grandmother
This Month I would like to start with listening to Edith Piaf — Non, je ne regrette rien. This was a song that reminds me of my beautiful grandmother. It was a song that we use to sing together and dance to and listen to when things got hard. Unfortunately, this month, my grandmother chose to move on to higher grounds. We celebrate her life. We celebrate her influence and I can only say a huge thank you for her always being there next to my side, even when I would not allow her to fall asleep in my endless hours of practising the piano when I was little. Non, je ne regrette rien! That’s a beautiful moto for life. Myliu Jus Mociute!
In my grandmother’s funeral, they said that it really helps those that leave this world to show them that we will be OK. To not hold on to them and let them transfer to the next world on their own in an easier form. I hope my grandmother will receive the peace that she deserves. We love you.
2. Mini Series — Normal People.
This is a book adaptation by Sally Rooney, an Irish Author. The series was recommended to me by my friend Laura, who said that she has never heard such a story before. My other friend Esther in Australia said that recently she binged watch the series and she loved it so much and watched it all a second time. It’s a miniseries of 30 min episodes. I Highly recommend it.
3. On Character — Charge your batteries.
Charge your Batteries
A quick video from Arianna Huffington reminding us to recharge our batteries as leaders in the times of coronavirus.
Don’t Sell Your Soul
Wisdom from Alicia Keys, Don’t sell your soul.
4. Series — The Politician
The second Season came with another entertaining twist. I really enjoyed the conversation in Episode 6, “What’s in the box?”. Payton speaks to his mother Georgina for advice regarding the morals and ethics of getting to where he needs to be in life. It went something like this:
- “I’m is experiencing moral dilemma. Or is it ethical dilema? I can never remember the difference.”
- “Ethics are the rules that social systems provide us. Morals are the principles which we govern ourselves by.
- Am I confused about what I’m supposed to do because the culture says that it matters to do the right thing? Or does doing the right thing actually matter to me?
- who cares?
- I care mom.This is a defining moment in my life and my career. Every politician has come to crossroads where they finally had to choose one path over the other. So do I tell myself that no matter what I have to do or what rules I break, people I have to kill, backroom deals I have to cut, I’m still the white knight because I’m fighting for what’s right? Or am I a man of core values. am I a champion of truth and integrity who is willing to sacrifice what's good for what's right. am i ethical? or am I moral? or neither? my ambition frighted you? did you always know that I had the capacity to live outside the normal boundaries of ethics and morals?
- you felt guilty for being dishonest, but after a while when you realised that you haven’t been caught, you would start to relax. You would get a skip in your step.Because for you the best part realising that you got away with it. You are who you are Paton. I think you have known exactly from the start what you would do with that ballot box from the moment you saw it.Your struggle is not deciding what you going to do. It’s accepting who you are.“You are who you are, Payton”.
Payton heads to the campaign office and says they are going to do nothing with the ballot box; he says Alice left him but he only has his career left and he will lie and cheat if he has to get to the White House. The penultimate episode surfaces Payton’s character, making him the most authentic he has ever been since his mother’s love gave him a sudden realization of who he is.
5. Movie — The King of Staten Island (2020)
6. Book — Conversation with God Book 2
This month I also read the second volume for Conversations with God which focuses and challenges our understandings of relationships amongst people, our social structure and challenges to think if Hitler did a wrong thing. Yes, I know! It’s a wild thought to understand, but there is another perspective that is interesting to consider. Some quotes from the book available here.
7. Magazine — What do People do?
This month I came back to Lithuania unexpectedly and my sister recommended me to check out this magazine called “What Do People Do?”. It’s created by a fellow Lithuania from Klaipeda city who after returning from living in London wanted to understand what creatives are up to in our capital city. I really enjoyed the podcast version of the magazine, however, this is currently only available in Lithuanian.
Other things
- The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
- Burlesque (2010)
- Beyonce New Song (2020)— Black Parade here
- Frozen — “When I am Older” One day when I’m old and wise I will realise that these events will make sense.
- Coming up next month: “Let My People go Surfing”
“The drive for quality in production in any organisation has to go beyond the products themselves. It extends to how we organise ourselves to get a body of work done, how we beg, borrow, and steal good ideas from other companies and cultures, and how we approach the question of the way things are and how they should be. That begins with an attitude of embracing change rather than resisting it — not just chaining without reflection and weighing the relative merits of the new ideas, but nonetheless assuming that if we only look hard enough, there may be a better way to do things.
We should borrow and adapt ideas even from unlikely sources. McDonald’s is as far from Patagonia as you can get in its image and many of its values. But I respect one thing it does. No one at McDonalds ever tells a customer “Sorry we’re all out of iceberg lettuce today”. It successfully organises on-time delivery every day of the week, and I think Patagonia could learn a lesson from McDonalds’ and the symbiotic relationships it enjoys with its suppliers.”
