Word play?

Just another spring Friday, another lazy afternoon coffee or two, gale force winds outside the café but only the sunshine peering through the glass washing up on my back. And the conversation steers to contentment; and why not? Isn’t it these small things, these small moments that define it? But peace of mind, now that is a whole new place to visit. Or so I think.
Are content people at peace with themselves? And are people who are at peace with themselves likely to be content? I think peace of mind is quite separate from contentment. Having peace of mind involves knowing your strengths, using them to improve yourself, surroundings and in general making a dent in the world perhaps. It is also knowing and working with your limitations to minimise their shortfalls. Contentment is being content with both. Not necessarily the same.
I do not understand the motivations of content people, but I see the beauty in being at peace with yourself. People who are content don’t get bothered by injustice, people who are content don’t see the place for change, people who are content don’t see opportunities aplenty. But people who are at peace with themselves know how to choose their battles, they know and understand the motivations to fight them, they take a stance because they are not fighting internal wars. They don’t let their fire burn them. They are at peace with themselves so they can look outwards and question, or appreciate or even; if luxury would have it theorise, improvise and invent. These luxuries are the cornerstones of progress. Contentment is based on this very progress.

Who's doing it?

I have discovered recently that most often what I call ‘lack of inspiration/motivation’ or plain old ‘block’ is a fear for lack of originality.
My thoughts take me to weird and wonderful places but then I come back down feeling that most of these thoughts must have occurred to someone else too, and what’s so profound about mine? More importantly what’s new? I wonder if this is because I spend more time reading others’ thoughts? But then, when I read good work by others I wonder why I don’t mark them down for repeatedness (if it’s punishment enough, I tend to flip a page if THE goes on and on about RAE and funding).
So I have decided (naively I suspect and hope) that instead of waiting for big original ideas, I should just go ahead and talk of the same old boring things that human kind has been banging on since probably Noam Chomsky came up with the new syntax theory. LET’S change a few words to the left or sometimes to the right of the first original sentence and just go on pretending. You know by now where I am going with this one? Yes to the neighbourhood DIY store.
Is it just me or plain old stupidity that is so common that we can’t see it like the smog? Add a bit of a catchy jingle and an inclusive word to the world’s most popular Swoosh tag line and what do you get? Still PLAGIARISM darlings. Well now you know why this blog takes such a while to get updated.