As I sit writing this in my apartment in New York a blue balloon floats free across the window. It is a clear sunny day and the apartment looks out over Central Park. The blue balloon is climbing freely into the sky. What will happen to that balloon eventually?
It may tangle with some tall building - but it is already higher than most of them.
The helium may leak out of the balloon, which will then fall back to earth.
The hot sun might damage the rubber and the balloon will burst.
The balloon may rise and rise until it bursts in the upper atmosphere.
For the moment, however, the balloon is free and floating.
It is not doing its own thing but is carried along on the currents of air.
So much depends upon the time slice you are willing to look at. As Keynes once remarked: "In the long term we are all dead".
Does the ultimate fate devalue the moment?
The question of course is: how long is the moment? What is the ration of the upside and the downside? An upside of a few moments compared to years of downside does not make sense.
But an upside of years compared to a downside of a few moments could make sense.
Another blue balloon goes floating by. Would it have been better off stacked on a shop shelf? Perhaps the purpose of blue balloons is to float freely over Central Park.
Edward de Bono nmt
19th April 2003
New York
