I (and probably only I) have long held the view that though considered different, and perhaps odd, I am basically misunderstood rather than just bad. you know the kind of thing we used to say sarcastically at college about Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin and the like, rather than own up to our own irritating proclivities and idiosyncrasies. When a man who ended up becoming a dear old friend saw me on the first day of college, he said, "you must be an engineer.." of course if he knew that I had the mathematical competency of a frog, he may not have said that, but looking at me, he could be forgiven for thinking so. How was he to know, I am in fact an artist trapped in the body of a cage wrestler with an IQ of 165, but it was an honest mistake.
All that to say, that appearances can be deceptive, and one always needs to go deeper. The world is complex and people are no different. I had however noted some common traits though that I noted in all people, so I framed a concept to simplify the erratic and complex people of the world in to this rather simple statement.
When you peel back the culture, shave off the training, ignore the environment and skin the outer appearance away... Deep down,everyone is either and artist or an engineer. The problem is that they often hide in strange places and professions, for many reasons, denying their true and inner reality and personhood.
For instance we know that Architects have to draw well, so you could assume that they are Artists, but they can end up looking like engineers with their measurements, calculations and load bearing stress members and all that. An accountant may look like an engineer, with columns, figures and calculations, but in reality could be an artist who sees the flow and form in numbers beyond the digits, who picks out shapes and art in deficits and credits, and through it all weaves a mystical path to the true and beautifully formed bottom line.
Even a theologian can see structure, mathematical precision and linear progression, rather than intimacy, grace, sacrifice and love.
The point I am making, is that we need to deal carefully with each person we come across and look beyond "their profession" in every sense. Then, we will know how best to appreciate them, and know more fully what really drives them. Knowing that, will aid us best in releasing their inner skills and discerning what is their true calling, skill and passion.
Does this hold true at the level of the nations? I believe it can be applied there also. Most would assume that the "Germanic" nations are predominantly engineers and even in music, Beethoven and Bach do nothing to dispel this classification.
The "Roman" nations are clearly artists with their excessive gestures, histrionics and Ferrari cars, and who could ever think that a Lamborghini was a mechanical device rather than the most exquisite pasta. That is the artistry of the Romans.
So what of my own fair nations adopted or otherwise. When I categorize the British or the Americans in this way I find myself calling upon the title of this blog to highlight something I was made aware of that helps us decide which beat we follow and which drum we march to. You see for each and every one of us, there is something that beats that is of the utmost importance to us all, and to which we all must march. I speak of the heart of course. It is in the heart that the engineer and the artist are formed and later, expressed outwardly in our actions. it is also the heart that is the one drum that we will all march to, or...not.
3xl thinks that though we British have had many engineers of world renown, we are at heart rye, melancholy artists, especially we Celts. Americans in general however,are defintely order seeking, mess managing, project coordinating engineers.
Let me conclude with an example...
CPR(Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation...yes I do know) as well as being a mispelling of the acronym for Queens Park Rangers is also something very dear to the heart of all who have died, and lived to tell the tale. The problem is, that everyone has a medical opinion on the best way to do CPR, and "best practice"(you really should!!) changes frequently, depending on which last research survey someone in power decides to go by.
The recommended compression rate, or how often the nice person saving you presses your chest in when you are dead, has been changed regularly and needs to be constanly re-learned which can be confusing. Also the engineer like precision needed for timing the compressions, should not really be left to the free time, improvisational skills of an artist. Some rubric, matrix or key needed to be found to be consistent.
The choices of the British and the American musical aide memoire for this, turned out to be startlingly revealing and fitting. Do not be surprised then, upon dying, if you feel yourself rising out of your body heading for the light in your autoscopic state and hearing two different songs.
If you are in America you may hear the strains of the Gibb brothers singing "Ah ah ah ah staying alive, staying alive, which turns out to be exactly the 100 beats per minute required for CPR. How fitting a choice from the positive, peppy and hopeful, can do Americans.
If however you are jumped on by an English person while dying, please do not be too disturbed to hear the pulsing rhythm of the iconic Brit band Queen, as your last hope of earthly ressurection, sings, "duh duh duh another one bites the dust...." which also has the same beats per minute.
Of course at that point you are already dead, so it should not be too disheartening or demotivational for you, and you may be forgiven for assuming that things could only get better. You will, however, if not one of their success stories, go in to the light humming one of these songs, thinking, ah those engineers, or artists, as the case may be.
3xl signing out saying keep on marching to the beat of that little drum, and keep creating, what ever it may be.
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