My grandfather passed away over the weekend, he was born in 1924 in the former Yugoslavia and embarked upon an epic journey to safety in Italy during WW2. As the post-war dust settled, he eventually came to the UK to start a new life, never again returning to his homeland, living to the age of 94.
His passing leaves me with a whole range of emotions and invites deep reflection on the incredible shift that he witnessed during his lifetime.
When he was born, there was no such thing as intercontinental flights, no space station flying around the earth, no weapons that could end all life as we know it, and there certainly wasn't Amazon, that could complete orders from your phone to your home in <24 hours.
All of the incredible stuff that we take for granted wasn't only not possible in 1924, it was barely imaginable.
How quickly the unimaginable can become possible is a lesson I'm truly grateful for my grandfather teaching me, especially when it comes to geopolitical stability.
He didn't imagine as he was growing up, that he would be caught up in the midst of a terrible war as a teenager, that would force him to leave his home country and walk through hell in order to find safety.
We're all guilty of falling for the illusion of stability and fail to imagine the unimaginable, but can we look out into the world today and be so sure:
- That the supermarket shelves will always be so full?
- That the governments have our best interests at heart?
- That our currency won't keep being devalued by quantitative easing?
- That our communities are resilient enough to handle chaos?
It's easy to keep our heads buried in the sand whilst our needs are being fulfilled by this dying system, but these are times to think, prepare and build resilience. We're all participants in the future that we want to see!
Thanks for reading this far!
<3
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