Through My Eyes

A painting of an outstretched nude woman by the early 20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani sold for $170.4 million with fees, in a packed sales room at Christie's on Monday night, the second-highest price paid at auction.

The painting became the 10th work of art to sell for nine figures." The New York Times' headlines screamed at me this morning, as I yawned and wiped the sleep from my eyes. I thought to myself, "Gosh, someone bought himself a cool present." But I can't help to think that nothing is what it seems and that the real story is somehow being subjugated.

George Santayana is often quoted for the aphorism that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Looking back on the financial crisis, we can see why the study of history is often so contentious and why revisionist histories are so easy to construct. There are always many factors that could have caused a historical event; the difficult task is to discern which, among a welter of possible causes, were the significant ones - the ones without which history would have been different.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that we live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, and we all need to understand that the period of relative stability that we are enjoying right now is extremely vulnerable and may not last long.

Recently the Bank for International Settlements issued anew report,which warns that "dangerous new asset bubbles" are forming, which could potentially lead to another major financial crisis. Do the central bankers know something that we don't, or are they just trying to place the blame on someone else for the giant mess that they have created?

The World Bank is warning that "now is the time to prepare" for the next crisis.

I guess the saddest statistic is that, we, the citizens of the planet are more than 223 trillion dollars in debt, and "too big to fail" banks around the world have at least 700 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.

So who in their right mind would purchase an Amedeo Modigliani painting for $170.4 million? Things are definitely not as they seem.

As millions of people are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet and as we move further from abundance and closer to survival, I guess its encouraging to see that there are still some fat cats who are not concerned with the doom and gloom of the economists forecasts.

On our side of the globe, we have our own challenges not only economical but also social, structural and environmental. But you know what? We are not letting that get us down even though our economy is struggling along, we are still smiling.

Have you noticed? Fewer people complain about South Africa and it seems like the negativity has certainly been minimisedits all about perceptions, gratitude and positivity.

So even though we will not be buying an Amedeo Modigliani painting for $170.4 million anytime soon, we can embrace our situations with humble humility and recognise our daily blessings.

Have a fabulous week and stay grounded.