Der Wald sprach zu mir und ich war stumm, und folgte dem Ruf Schritt für Schritt, denn die Stimme, sie war mir vertraut. Ich schwöre, die Welt hatte sich in Schweigen ertrunken, denn alles, was ich hörte, war meine innere Stimme, Widerhall des Waldes Rufes. Mit jedem Tritt wuchs das Gras und teilten sich die Bäume. Langsam beschleunigte sich mein Herzklopfen. Ich wusste, jetzt kommt Magie, jetzt kommt Zauber. Doch als der letzte Baum hinter mir verschwand mit Wald und Welt, fand ich – am Ende meines Weges – aufschauend, nur mich selbst. Und ich habe mich seit dem nie wieder verloren.
Santa and Satan are spelled with the same letters.
I just noticed it, please don’t crucify me.
Just know there’s a thin line between the two.
Sometimes when you think you’re looking out through a window, you’re actually looking at a mirror.
Saw this picture and liked it.
Something is buried in your heart and it could be anything. It’s probably everything.
Some pains will stay forever – well, probably not forever. Until you change and forgive and let go. Or until you die, I mean really die. Even when you forget, still you feel the pain and don’t know why. And then you remember – but you still don’t know why you took that first wrong step into the future.
But when you look at the serpent well, sometimes it seems as if it’s rising up to strike or writhing in treachery and deception. And sometimes it feels as if it’s begging for help and crying for forgiveness and looking for redemption. But some unsuspecting fool will pass by and think they’re looking at a heart. But you know better. You know you’re looking at a warning.
If you want to know people
Observe how they are
When they don’t have to be kind
To get what they want
When they don’t need to be nice
To secure their existence
When they don’t have to put up a show
Of strength or weakness
To protect their safety and preserve their advantage
When they have you in their power
Within the boundaries of their Circle of influence
On their sovereign soil
At their mercy
This is when you know a people
This is when you know a human being
When they have the opportunity to do anything with you
And get away with it
This is when you know yourself –
When you have the opportunity to do something
And get away with it.
What if Rosa Parks had got up from her seat?
What if Churchill had agreed to negotiate with Hitler?
Sometimes even when you are down
Still you must refuse to bow down.
What if Dundee had not pushed out Clay in Round 5 against Liston?
What if Ali had kept his belt and gone to Vietnam?
Sometimes you have to face your opponent blindfolded, because that moment is your destiny and you just have to fight on.
To resist evil, no matter what
To do the right thing, no matter what
To stand to your conviction, no matter what
To keep on fighting, no matter what
A thousand years are as one day
And the way seems to last forever
Sometimes, like now, I feel so strange to myself
As if I were someone else
Somewhere else far far away
Awakening inside me
And, even though I don’t understand it
I just have to let it continue
To take over me,
No matter what.
Der Mensch warte lieber auf seinen Seelenheil
Als beim Teufel mittlerweile zu weil’
Kurz wird die Zeit, egal wie geil
Und kürzer noch: ihm wird die Ewigkeit nicht zu Teil.
How does a nation communicate with itself? How are messages passed, orders given, thought patterns and processes prescribed, and proscribed, consensus reached, an understanding made binding on all? Without words.
How does a nation tell itself what to believe, what to say, how to act, where to go, which lie to tell and which truth to reveal? How does a nation converse with itself, argue with itself, consult with itself, agree with itself, without betraying itself?
Long before the Internet, long before the television and the radio, long before telephone and telex, long before railways and planes, long before highways, long ago, when not everywhere was motorable and some places were unreachable and remote, and journeys were laborious dangerous enterprises that took weeks and months. Long long ago, when Human was young, how did Nations learn to think as one and to perceive as a unit?
There is something that unites people deep down in their souls sometimes, the reverberations of a common Inner Voice. And so, one word can last them a thousand years and sustain them and not go out of fashion and never be misinterpreted by them, because at its origin they all gave to it the same meaning. It becomes like a root, and however far and wide their flowers flourish or their fruits nourish, they draw from the root of the same word. And that word is their secret ancient name, in which their destiny is encoded.
Nations have changed so much. Sometimes it‘s hard to know to which nation you belong – and when you know it, you cannot find it anywhere. And when you find it, you do not belong there where you think you saw it. Everything is in daily motion, and tomorrow the world will mix up the different parts again.
Once upon a time, there were nations and you belonged to one of them. Today, when you feel lost, close your eyes and listen for those whose Inner Voice are similar to yours. They are your Nation.
It takes courage to step into the ring and fight an opponent. If you doubt me, try it.
Well I grew up doing Karate and Taekwondo. But I last competed when I was 17 or 18. I stopped training for more than 20 years. A few years ago, I realized that I missed it badly – training and sparring. I decided to start keeping fit again. There was no Taekwondo club near me, so I joined a boxing and Thai-Boxing/Kick-boxing Club near my house (Challange Club Sachsenhausen).
When it came to Thai- or Kick-boxing I could hold my own a little. But I was woeful at Boxing and got regularly and properly beaten during training and sparring. But I liked the exercise of it and the fun of it, and it helped me gradually regain a little of my condition and stamina and get somewhat back into shape. I also gradually got a little better at Boxing, although really Taekwondo is still my natural fighting art.
Anyway, 6 weeks ago, Udo the manager of Challenge Club asked me if I would be interested in fighting (Boxing) at the next Fight Night. I was like, “Hello. I’m 44. My fighting days are long over. Besides that, I’ve never been in a Boxing fight before.” But then I thought about it and said “Why Not? Might be fun.” and I agreed, and I henceforth upped my training schedule.
And then, just when I thought I was in some sort of shape, in the week of the fight, disaster struck. I came down with the flu. 3 days! It knocked me down until the day right before the fight. I couldn’t work, couldn’t train, nothing! Had to go see the doctor. My goodness. I almost called off the fight, but I told myself to wait until the morning of the fight and see how I felt.
When I woke up that morning, I felt weak but a bit better – it’s incredible how much muscle mass and stamina you can lose from just 3 days of illness. But I decided, “My man, you grew up fighting. Just go into the ring and fight, full stop. No excuses.” I know the jitters before a fight. I know the nervousness. I know everything. They are my friends. When I feel them, I know I am in good company. So, really, I was good. No shaking.
But I knew nothing about my opponent, not his name or age or size or if he fought right- or left-handed. I just heard he weighed 100kg (I weigh 95kg), so that was OK. Well, I got to the venue (Challenge Club Offenbach), our stats were on the wall in the dressing room. I saw he was 22 years old. I was like, Okay now. Half my age and probably twice as strong and fit. No yawah. When you enter trouble, enter it with open eyes, strongly and without fear.
So I warmed up in the dressing room with my coach Manuel “Manu” Moreno, an ex-professional and the best Coach in the world. You hear his voice in the video throughout the fight, calming talking me through. And my friend and former junior world champion in Muay-Thai Ibra Senghor came into the dressing room and gave me some tips (PS – you can catch both of them in the video of my song Music Makes Me High which I did I think 2 years ago now https://youtu.be/hFjzvqCb-Po ). My pal Marlin was also in the crowd, rooting from ringside, and that meant a lot to me.
(Btw: Coach Manu, 60 years and still going strong, also fought an exhibition-style Oldies Fight later that night and showed the crowd that he’s still got the moves and the boxing intelligence).
Anyways, next issue: I was told the fight would be without head gear. Got into the ring and saw the big young man wearing head gear. Hm. That’s a disadvantage to me, because he can take my punches and keep on fighting as if nothing happened (which indeed happened) – he would just re-arrange his head gear and keep on boxing; but if he hammers my head I’m sure gonna feel it. Ibra was like, “Well, you have to hit the front of his face, and his nose, ‘cause he won’t feel anything else.” And he kept on shouting it throughout the fight.
It was a nice feeling, though, to be in the ring again in a proper fight (not sparring or training etc – because a real fight is SOMETHING ELSE, believe me). I felt all of my 44 years 😂. I have to think twice before I try this again. Boxing is a young man’s sport.
But I did come through. After the fight, I felt a great respect for my opponent because I know what it takes to decide to fight. And he did it and fought bravely. It takes courage to step into a ring and fight an opponent – any kind of ring in any field of Endeavour in life. If you doubt me, try it. 😉
One thing is for sure, though. I’ll never let myself fall out of shape again.
What really runs a country is a system of thought, habits and behaviour to which a group of people subscribes. Not politicians. Not civil servants. Not a constitution. But simply an inner life in which all participate, and from which an intangible system of thinking arises that unites everybody who ascribes to it. It unites them and “runs” them according to a set of core rules which these people, in their inner being, unthinkingly believe to be the true reality.
This hidden level of surrender to their version of reality lies deeper that what is generally called culture and tradition. On the contrary, culture and tradition arise gradually from this foundation, simultaneously influencing its further development reciprocally – positively or negatively – even as it itself continues to reinforce the culture and tradition it birthed.
And then, after the level of “culture and tradition” has been formed, they in turn midwife the mentality that thinks out not just the surface laws and constitution of a country, but also the understanding of whether these laws are to be obeyed at all or in what way they are to be interpreted, implemented or circumvented. A recognizable national “way” comes to life which becomes attributable to that nation by everyone who visits it or lives in it. You just know: this is the way these people are.
Thus to influence or direct the path of a nation, you have to have power of this hidden level of reality, power over the nation’s inner life. You have to understand it, be homogeneous with it, so that you understand it and it understands you. You have to know it’s fears and hopes, the sources of its joy, and what is “real” to it. Only when you have mastered it on this inner level, will it follow you when you pull. You have to be it, but the better version of it. Sometimes, though, unfortunately those who grasp this are also the worst version of a nation’s inner life.
They have come to grasp that it is not really they themselves personally that rule the country – all they do is guide and manipulate an animal that already exists. Their job is simply to understand and feed the animal, by swinging in unison with the nation’s inner life. Because it is this hidden inner mentality that really runs a country, chaperoning it from generation to generation, reacting or not reacting to globalization and digitalization, focusing on the issues it focuses on, condoning the things it condones, evolving in its own way, determining its place on the global theater of nations and peoples, characterizing it as either a pawn, a puppet or a captain of its own ship.
