For the past weekends, we have been playing pickleball with our friends in a nearby park. Usually in after afternoon on Saturdays or early Sunday mornings. These games usually end with lunch or dinner at our friends' house, where we end up sharing stories and playing Phase 10 or some other card or board games. Pickleball is a very easy game to take up and does not require significant physical exertion, so the games usually end after several changes of partners, with singles, doubles matches occurring multiple times. It is a very pleasant way to spend one's weekend with friends all the way into the evenings.
These weekend get-togethers are a welcome respite for me with the strains at work, with multiple projects that I work on. Currently, my workload is a business continuity project, an export paperwork project, an external app obso project (which is soon ending), and the recent application asset removal project at 4 different sites in the US, Central, and South America. These projects require me to write emails, organize meetings, and have several group chats in the course of planning, organizing the maging these projects to a successful conclusion.
The work has obligated me to be more efficient and use AI tools like Microsoft Co-Pilot and tools like Loop to keep on top of things and keep me organized. Artificial Intelligence allows us to record meetings and summarize them with notes and next steps, which keeps everyone on track, as well as have tracking sheets (in Loop and Planner) to keep the team moving forward and collaborating effectively. The seamless integration into our daily workplace is impressive, like sliding into the future with these applications embedded in our software.
People don't realize how we have suddenly entered into a new world, like the Trump takeover, that is heralding a change in the way the world works. I have had a career in the midst of globalization and diversity, riding a wave that allowed me to work in different countries and thrive, and being part of the community where I relocated, whether in Singapore or the United States. This is the old world now, it seems, with hostility to open trade and immigration and a diversified and progressive world.
The government shutdown, the divisiveness in politics and society, and continuing turmoil in Europe with the Ukraine and Russian war, ICE deportations, and National Guard units in cities paint a picture of disorder. Nevertheless, I continue to overthink and do too much, such as buying a Segway scooter, learning pickleball and racketball, running 5k races, borrowing many books, and watching movies when the proper approach is to pull back, meditate, and restore a sense of calm and balance.
But that does not seem to be the way in these times of technological breakthroughs, political upheavals, and change. One must keep moving and understand the new zeitgeist or get pummelled and buried into insignificance. In our storytelling last night with our friends, we were reminiscing about the old times, of moments with old friends in other countries on journeys in the past, of our children growing up, and our generation receding into old age and insignificance. Listening to the NYT interview of Anthony Hopkins talk about his life and book feels like a summing up and reckoning is coming with our life's meaning.
