Everyone does whatever – including your colleagues

The sun shone this weekend, we paddled through the Utrecht canals in a kayak, we saw a funny dog ​​along the side, we drank wine in a brown bar and there were moments when it seemed like spring and there was no war.

But of course he was always there, the war in our backyard. That is the principle of great misery: if you don’t think about it for a while, it will come back all the harder later. Like a boomerang that you forgot you threw away just to get rid of it – pats, there it pops into your neck. Just when you closed your eyes in the sun for a moment.

How do you keep yourself on track while Ukraine burns just 1,500 kilometers away? How do you keep working without worrying about the war? I find it hard. Because I keep thinking about the rows of refugees, the blood on the streets – you are powerless. Then I’ll just transfer money for help, and know that it will never be enough.

What helps me a bit is the motto I’ve stuck to for years: ‘everyone does whatever, including your colleagues’ – strangely enough, that reassures me.

Just as protocols, procedures, performance appraisals, purposes, deep dives and targets are often no more than an appearance at work, creativity, luck and timing are often so much more important at the highest diplomatic level. The unexpected that no one thought of.

In the same way, I hope that somewhere in Europe that one ray of sunshine arises from humour, improvisation and intuition. Combining coincidences, trying something out, thwarting and hoping that everything will be okay again. Just like at work.

Of course. Wars can arise from ‘everyone does whatever’. But large-scale invasions with outdated equipment and a lot of men to keep under control are more likely to fail than smart, quick, original ideas – I hope.

So I’d like to say to Putin: ‘when you’ve got everything sorted out, beware of the domino effect’ – speaking of great mottos. It once came from Loesje and has been helping me put things into perspective for thirty years.

For example, there are more mottos that people draw hope from these days. A friend emailed me that he was a big fan of the ‘inconsequentialism’ that philosopher Frank Meester wrote about in his book Why we can’t make the world go round†

“Free yourself from the idea that everything you do has to be consistent or consistent,” my friend wrote. “We are all just messing around, and one time you are nice and principled and you can’t stand injustice, the other time you are just a limp sack who lets himself be walked on. Very good, that saves a lot of stress.”

Forgive yourself for not knowing right now, I would translate it in the current juncture.

Getting a history book also helps him, he says. Then he looks back 100 years, or 1,000. “That often makes you a bit happier,” he wrote. “I can’t think of anything that went better then than now.” In the Middle Ages you had war every week. Putin is ‘controlled’ by the open social media, Stalin could do his thing in the dark, the EU is more united than ever – those kinds of ‘uplifting’ thoughts come from that principle.

You can also look ahead, 1,000 years, 100 years – then we are all dead. Some people cheer that up. Just like the motto: ‘don’t panic, it’s just chaos’, which a reader sent me, also from Loesje, and also a timeless reassurer.

I also think ‘Do it for your children’ is a very strong one, a statement by Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. He had said that during his inauguration in 2019, I saw on Twitter, where his words were readily shared. †I don’t want my picture in your offices”, he then told his officials. “The president is not an icon, idol or portrait. Hang a picture of your kids instead and look at it every time you make a decision.” A very strong idea for all town halls, ministries, boardrooms and company canteens. Everywhere.

My mother always says: “everything will be fine, and otherwise it won’t” – that also calms me down. But she is Groningen, and that raw realism is not for everyone. ‘We’ll see and otherwise we’ll see’ comes from a little more southerly, I think from the east. A reader sent it in as another motto to stick to.

In any case, let’s share our hope. If you see a post that could be inspirational, share it, we need it.

I saw a mural on Twitter from Paris, of a little girl with flowers in her hair trampling Russian tanks, a waving Ukrainian flag raised high. I thought of Marianne on the Bastille and it moved me and made me militant at the same time. Next week we’ll have everything back together.

However?

How was your week? Tips for Japke-d. Bouma through @Japked on Twitter.