↑Panayotis's blog

A friend of mine Stamatis, during my university years in Heraklion, Crete, was going to the bus station a very rainy day. The moment he was arriving, he saw his bus just leaving the station. So, he started running in order to catch it in the next street lights, which were red. He made it, and since the bus was stopped, he started knocking on the door and shouting "please open!" (remember that there was a heavy rain at that moment). But the driver replied "I cannot!". Then Stamatis, with a very dramatic style which is very difficult to express in writing, shouted "Please try!".

(he didn't open)

This is just to remind myself that he believes that everything is a matter of effort :-) After vacations I need a lot of it to get back to my normal rhythms of working ...

I really believe effort is a very important concept and it is closely related to fear and insecurity (I think). Many people are afraid to try because then they will not have any excuse for not succeeding. On the other hand, those that try and succeed forget their effort and think falsely that they are somehow "gifted", "superior", more clever. The amount of effort (given a result) "reveals" somehow our "given" capabilities and people feel very insecure about them ... of course this is not the only dimension in this complicated issue ... but I think it is one ...

My climbing on mountain olympos (my first stop this summer in Greece) was a perfect opportunity to take "effort" photos but didn't think at all about this ... these are the only ones I took by chance ...

effort

exhausted

happy

Next time ... olympos is so rewarding ... it worths the effort 100% ... it is not a coincidence that it was the mountain where greek gods chose to live :-)

I was watching these days the games of the greek basketball team for the european championship and I was surprised by how wise is the coach (his name is Panayotis Yanakis).

He was always positive after each game independently of the result and he was repeating: "What I try to teach them is that a mistake is already gone (it is past)". (his philosophy and overall profile has a tremendous (positive) impact on the team). I think this is one of the most important (and difficult) things to realize in life. It is similar to a favourite quote of mine: "If it can be fixed why are you sad? If it cannot be fixed why are you sad?"

By the way, as I did in my previous post, he always highlights the fact that effort is what we need in order to achieve our goals ... I told you he is wise :-) ... and moreover his name is Panayotis :-)

By the way (2), I read that quote in the book "Io Speriamo Che Me La Cavo (Me, Let’s Hope I Make It)" written by D’Orta, Marcello (one of my favourite books).
Description: An elementary school teacher, is a collection of some of his third graders’ essays. These children live in a small town near Naples, and most of them come from desperately poor families. Their personal stories of survival will tug at your heartstrings and make you cry and, at times, laugh. The reader is made aware of the serious economic problems that still exist in southern Italy and of the tragic impact of these problems on the children. The well-known film director Lina Wertmuller was tremendously moved by this book and directed a film based on it entitled "Ciao, Professore."

The following translation was taken from here (but it is not one of the best in my opinion). Here I have copied the greek translations of my favourite ones and some day I will translate some of them in english (it is not easy because there are many idiomatic expressions ... but since greeks and italians are "una fatsa una ratsa" it is easier between these two languages)

Your teacher talked about Switzerland. Can you summarize the most important points?

Switzerland is a small country in Europe that borders on Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. There are a lot of lakes and mountains, but there isn't any ocean, especially in Bern.

Switzerland sells arms to the whole world so they can kill each other, but Switzerland doesn't ever have even a small war. They build banks with all their money. But not good banks. The banks are for bad persons, especially drug addicts. Criminals from Sicily and China put their money in these banks. The police go and ask, Whose money is this? and they say I don't know, I'm not going to tell you, it's none of your damn business, the bank is closed. But the bank is really open!!

In Naples, if you get cancer, you die, but in Switzerland you die later or maybe you live. Because the hospitals are beautiful. They have carpets, flowers, the stairs are clean and there are no rats. But you pay a lot of money. Unless you sell stuff on the black market, you can't afford to go.

Is this long enough?

... when they sound they don't smell bad! (think about it)

(some may argue against this relation between sound and smell in the case of farts but I think that, at least statistically, it holds ... and, seriously, for the case of bad thoughts I am sure... but you have to do it quickly ... the more you try to hide them the more they will smell if you let them out at the end ... exactly as farts!)

An alternative formulation without the sound/smell property could be:

"Bad thoughts are like farts ... we all make them, but always (try to) hide them"

or maybe

"Bad thoughts are like farts ... you should never let them out in front of a woman" (this is a joke ... you should)

Or just

"Bad thoughts are like farts" :-) (this is not a joke!)