Are you political?

We discussed this question at a university alumni meeting earlier today. Is our work political? Are we allowed to be political at work? Is it possible not to be? What about in our private lives?

As those who know my blogs subtitle know, I believe that we, as active beings in society, are inherently political. Sure, some more than others, and some people's politics affects more people than others'. Being political does not only being a politician and being part of a political party - so take a minute to think about how political you are. And maybe you would like to be more vocal about your politics? There's so much to do, so much to change, so much to improve in this world.

But why you? Why try to affect things that cannot be changed, or are too complex? Because they can be changed, because they change because WE change them.

Take a speaker as an example who spoke to our alumni group today. A former Israeli ambassador, who gave a brilliant overview of the situation in the Middle East, and in particular the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's a conflict I've followed with interest and hopeless apathy in turn. So awful - and so hopeless. But the speaker made such a great speech, could give such a clear take on the different problems, and most importantly - how these could be overcome. As political as can be - but just the act of sharing his views with us was a political act. And intently listening and thinking? Something political is triggered by that as well - although on this, I am not "active" politically, although I do have a strong opinion on the conflict. Do you?

(I'm skipping parts of our reunion program before heading to dinner - enjoying catching up with some Lana del Ray, Florence and the Machine and Adele and random doodling around - was inspired after watching the movie Gatsby yesterday!).