I want to reflect for a moment on what a great man Dennis was - not because of any earth shaking achievements (although raising my wife Kerrie and her two siblings to be the fine people they turned out to be definitely counts as a great achievement) but I want to celebrate the simple things about Dennis, that in my view made him someone to look up to.

Dennis achieved many of his dreams. He learned to fly a plane. He owned his dream car. He provided for his family of five, he was completely loyal to his lovely wife Ailleen and he did all this without ever having to utter a harsh word. I never knew him to be angry or vulgar and this behaviour appears to rarer and rarer to me these days.

I think a lot could be learned from someone who held values that allowed him to be a good neighbour, great friend and dearest family member. In a world where the pace of life has accelerated, I feel that we are sacrificing decency for ambition, when what is really required is decency combined with industriousness.

Also a sense of home is important and being able to be industrious in the home over the weekend. I assisted Aileen to get a handle on the computers and office Dennis had set up in their house, and I saw via Skype his home fax machine sitting by his desk.

It struck me as an anomaly, something obsolete yet not disposed of, because of its residual usefulness. Yet there is the challenge: how do we dispose of the obsolete and yet keep what works still.

That Dennis had a Fax machine by his desk was a function of his having been industrious. That it was a fax though meant, that his office had obsolete technology occupying pride of place.

It made me wonder what new technologies there are to make it easy to be more industrious at home, as its the values that Dennis represented that could, if they were applied in a modern context with modern tools, be a productive combination that might benefit many more people.

There are some really excellent tools to work from home these days which are listed among the links right next to this column.

These are all legitimate places where you can find small paid jobs to unleash your industrious and polite side to create value for people while being paid, and I am sure that those who offer good service will be abel to reap sufficient reward and thus support their own dreams.

Also, platforms like Wordpress allow for people to make money while not being part of the rat race. To eschew the rat race and live a life of decency while being industrious and creating value is, I think, a worthy goal. To operate on the basis of quality over quantity, of service over fame, of caring selflessness over raw ambition and a desire for sufficiency, rather than riches, are all hallmarks of who Dennis was. In the modern world with newer technology, perhaps there is an opportunity for a welcome return to these values for us all.

(Bill Liao/news.ch)