What have I learned in 2019? Lots of things that are really a bit embarrassingly obvious and even somewhat childishly obvious to reveal, stuff that most folk have picked up without the fuss and bother I have expended in the effort. But, like in aikido, the slow learners make rather good teachers to others with learning difficulties...I flatter myself but there you are. Now, the main thing that has been interesting me of late is the notion of PLORK. Yes, PLORK. Plork is neither work nor play. It is working with a playful attitude or playing at something that delivers what others call work. I used to think that once you turn a hobby- say writing- into a job you lose the magic. You soldier on turnin' out the words but it is never quite the same. Now I realise that this experience just one more on the true path of PLORK. Take today for example- I could be out like in previous years doing something fun and playful like taking photos of beach gun emplacements (yes, we all have to get our kicks somehow) but instead I am at home typing away (while listening to autobahn by krafterk on spotify) and doing what others might see as work. It isn't. But neither is it what might be thought of as play. It is PLORK. The ability to turn something that looks like work into something with a playful element, without losing out to either, indeed, benefiting in a synergistic way from both. It is a very necessary thing I feel. it has all sorts of beneficial ramifications too. I believe it may even be a bulwark against the kind of automatic thinking/action that leads to horrible human excesses in business and war, not necessarily of course, but maybe- you could imagine someone 'playing' at chucking garbage into the sea, but perhaps you get a hint of where I am going with this. Working at driving a van struck me as being rather playful- and that job was indeed a jolly good one as jobs go. Jobs per se are anti-plork so you want to limit their encroachment on the rest of your life, but a job with plork is not to be sniffed at, and most jobs can be PLORKED so to speak. Once you know about PLORK you don't need to schedule in the hours of faux play encased in drinking, partying, viewing and doing pointless stuff. Why do traditional folk have such rather limited 'playtime'- because they are masters of PLORK. We are either poe serious of half drunk with soccer chanting glee. Both lack good sense. Whereas including dancing in a business meeting is genius. Dancing should be a feature of all working practices when it is not a safety hazard to do so- binmen and posties, nurses and doctors should dance round the roads and wards if they are not doing so already...I jest, but only just...indeed I PLORK. Contrast this with going to a special place to dance - it's a bit silly isn't it- so we have to have a drink beforehand. Once when I was in a meeting with a Naga tribesman who wanted me to visit his far off village he started a very impressive dance then and there in the hotel room- not just showing me what I could expect on arrival, but also a necessary expression of the eager anticipation we all felt about making such a visit. Making a cool routine of something can be PLORK. Working like Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke while shovelling tar can be PLORK. In fact plorkers can be much 'harder workers' than resentful clock punchers and skivers anyday. But they need that skill, that slivver of insight so easily damaged by the laziness that is part of creativity...All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy- maybe- and all play and no work makes Jack a poor poppinjay- but if Jack learns to PLORK he gets the best of both worlds. Plork brings humanity into the work space. When there is humanity in the workspace we may just act a little better all round, but just as important we end up thinking what we are doing is more meaningful than either dogwork or horseplay. A very happy new year to all my readers and may the PLORK be with you!