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Converge attends the Innovation Summit in Cape Town
Sept, 2018
Converge attended the Innovation Summit in Cape Town this week. It was great to see so many minds, hard at work through applied technology and innovation, all working towards a transformed and better tomorrow. It was here that we also met the team from Cancer Dojo (https://cancerdojo.com/) and they immediately impressed us with their zeal for life and their offering. What they do aligns 100% with our own company cause, being Cancer, Thyroid and Antibiotic resistance. It was not long after this meeting, that we nominated Cancer Dojo as a beneficiary of our corporate social investment. In a world where news is often not good news, we can do with a little more positivity and hope, which is what Cancer Dojo offers.
This event, along with the unnecessarily early review of goings-on via News24, was once again inspiration to one of Johann’s monthly newsletter, shown below.
PERSPECTIVE
It’s 6am. The sun is only just surfacing from behind the mountains, where it has been hiding from the cold winds hurling itself relentlessly against the snow-capped mountains. I’m staring at nothing in particular, looking through a faint reflection of myself against the airport lounge window, into the scenery beyond.
I’ve just skimmed through the headlines on News24, and in spite of getting up with gratitude, peace and purpose, I now find myself swinging between concerned, angry and hopelessness. It took all of five minutes to see the chaos that we humans visit upon each other with such passionate vigour; the hatred, the envy, the greed, the entitlement…
…as we break through the clouds, Cape Town becomes reduced to a million flickering lights. The news, still front of mind, takes on a different dimension. From here, removed from the rush below, with the ability to see things from a different perspective, the headlines seem surreal. From here, the earth looks peaceful, beautiful, even inviting; like a place where I could imagine myself to be at home. I remember briefly, the angry or empty expressions of some of the people I saw on the road this morning and failed to reconcile that with the picture I was now looking at.
Perhaps this is the answer, at least, it might be one of them; perspective. Perhaps we ought to give ourselves a break from being knee-deep in the news and just elevate our thoughts, so that we may again, experience the beautiful potential of life. Here, briefly removed from the harsh lights and incessant noise – with stars above and lights below – I was able to think more clearly about life and what it means; about people and how to love them, about problems and how to solve them, about the future and how to shape it, about diversity and how to embrace it, about knowledge and how to apply it, about forgiveness and how to give it, about hope and how to spread it, about peace and how to obtain it, about joy and how to share it.
And I realised in that moment, that the news is not something to be frowned upon, or to be feared or to invoke anger, although it tends to emphasise the darker side of man. Instead, it is the challenge. It is the call to all men and women, to determine what we are made of. Has any man every grown to be better, without challenge? Is it not resistance that builds muscle? Is it not darkness that makes us appreciate the light? Sure, there is reason for concern, even anger. Absolutely, there are groups of people who are trading in warmongering. And yes, there are those who hide behind what is constitutional versus what is ethical. This is not new. This is merely history repeating itself with new faces playing old roles.
Perspective. The question is not what our circumstances are. The question is, in the midst of these circumstances, who are you and what is your purpose? Perhaps we each need to assign a quiet moment to ourselves for five minutes every day, where we put the world aside, so that when we invite it back in, we have a clearer mind and a crisper purpose. Perhaps then, we will be more equipped to not just read the news, but make the news, and more importantly, make it new.
