Journalled on Tuesday, 7 November 2023 | Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro: 25 degrees, warm, sunny, and slightly overcast.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busiest days, as I’m giving in-person classes to Dona Vera in Copacabana while also trying to complete my dental treatment before travelling.
I had a one o’clock appointment with Dr Thomas, the dentist. I like him very much. He clearly takes pride in his work and enjoys what he does. He’s the only dentist I’ve stayed with for so long, so he must be very good.
Today I should have finished treatment for three implants, all in the upper part of my mouth. I have had gaping holes on each side for the last seven or eight years, and only now have I managed to resolve this.
The colour of the implant teeth didn’t match my teeth well enough. Doctor Thomas was not pleased with the match; the colour difference was too significant. As a result, he had to send them for recolouring to achieve a better match so that the laboratory could redo the teeth.
I was a bit disappointed, as I had expected to leave the clinic with a mouthful of teeth, or at least some new ones. The teeth will be recoloured and repainted in a week. A week, compared with eight years, is nothing serious and is part of life. Nothing goes exactly as we would like. Perhaps our results will always be the same, but the journey there usually differs each time.
Sometimes, what we expect and the final result are completely different, and the journey to get there is different, too.
But at least we have the tenacity and perseverance to finish what we began. In life, we always have to finish what we start, even if neither the journey nor the final destination is what we expect.
It is a little like reading. Sometimes we start a book and may not like the first few pages or even the first chapter. Even when we persist, we might not find ourselves engaged with the story, so we give up. Let’s seek out another book. We begin that new one, only to discover it does not meet our expectations, and we give up again.
In hindsight, we often realize we have a multitude of unread or unfinished books. I have often told my daughters that when you start something, you should see it through to the end. So, with a book, even if we do not enjoy the story or the writing style, we should still finish it.
There is always something to learn from a book, whether we like it or not.
This is a fundamental principle of life: whatever we begin, we must complete. I know many university students who started with one subject, but after two or three years they stopped and moved on to another, and another, and another. Now, eight years into their university studies, they still haven’t finished.
It sounds so simple and obvious, yet many people make this mistake regularly, both consciously and unconsciously. Perhaps it is because we live in a society that constantly offers immediate pleasure. With cable TV, you can switch channels instantly. With social media, you can move from one account to another instantly. Everything is immediate, and if you don’t have immediate pleasure, well, we can switch.
Again, we need to be self-aware and police ourselves in such situations, so we don’t get pulled into the hamster wheel of repeating the same mistakes. We must break the pattern of errors we create for ourselves to grow, improve, and become a better person. One of those is to finish what we begin.
I did a strenuous exercise on Monday: squats. I always hurt myself doing squats. Every time I do them, the results are very good for my whole body, tightening up all the muscles, etc. But the next day, my legs are really sore and aching to the point that it is sometimes difficult to walk properly or even to bend down to pick something up from the floor.
All day, I have been walking around like an old man of 90. I have heard that squatting is one of the most effective exercises, and probably because of this, I’m a mess the next day. Last week, I opened a new bank account. Now I will have three cards to travel with: two credit cards and a Wise debit card. If one doesn’t work, I can use either of the others, so there should be no problems when I travel.
One of my main materialistic goals for travelling is to buy one or two cameras for content creation and some long-sleeve jumpers/pullovers, Steve Jobs style.
I love these pullovers; you can wear them normally on any occasion, or, when it is cold and the weather is not so nice, wrap them around your shoulders over another shirt, jumper, or jacket. It is simple and stylish. Women love it.
I’m going to bed, all broken up from the day before, but no problem. I will exercise tomorrow morning, even if it is not how I usually do it, because I have to finish.
In bed by 10 p.m.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
