I don’t do new year’s resolutions since they’re usually a flop by early in the new year. Instead, I pick a theme that will inform my thinking and behaviour (hopefully in positive ways) for the year. I’ve been thinking a lot about balance over the past few months. And as we start a new year it seems appropriate to adopt balance as my theme for … Continue reading A new year and a new theme: balance
Recently I was re-reading Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, a moving letter from prison that looks at spirituality and faith from the depths of despair and degradation. This particular quote stood out for me, especially the notion that we do not know ourselves very well. “But with the dynamic forces of life, and those in whom those dynamic forces become incarnate, it is different. People whose … Continue reading De Profundis: The final mystery is oneself
Each year, instead of making new year resolutions, I pick a theme for the year. That way when I get sidetracked (as often happens) I can simply return to the theme. Also with a theme there are often many different things I can do to support it. This year my theme is: compassion, composure, and flow. This theme came to me as a I wrote … Continue reading Theme for 2012: Compassion, composure, and flow
No, I’m not talking about social media. This is about real life. And I think that Gandhi summed up a lot of what the #Occupy movement is on about in his note on the Seven social sins. “Politics without principles Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Knowledge without character Commerce without morality Science without humanity Worship without sacrifice Naturally, the friend does not want the … Continue reading Worth thinking about: Seven social sins (not about social media) | via M. Gandhi
There are so many angry people these days. It’s something I don’t really remember from my youth and childhood. Only in recent years does it seem that everyone is angry. I’ve been trying to understand why there should be more anger now than in the past. It might be something to do with our standards now. Standards for everything are so much higher now than … Continue reading Are we living in the age of rage?
Quite often there’s an article that bundles us all up into handy age-based cohorts (a.k.a. ‘generations’). Behavioural phenomena are neatly explained by the characteristics of the particular age cohort or generation. Based on the theories of Strauss and Howe generations have been adopted as a popular explanatory model for people’s behaviour, and demographers like Bernard Salt and Mark McCrindle have done very well in explaining … Continue reading Generational theory cannot explain how people behave
I’ve had a very lucky life in many ways. But along with that I’ve lost a lot of people in my immediate family over the years – parents, aunts, cousins, grandparents – to untimely death. No great traumas. Traditional family illnesses mainly rather than accidents. The thing I’ve learned through all of this is that we need to honour those we love and those who … Continue reading Staying human
Many people have pondered my fascination with lolcats. The answer is simple: humour using animals as a proxy allows us to delve deeply into the human condition, to reveal our foibles and frailties. A good example is the recent post I shared from icanhascheezburger. It highlights the dangers of success for human beings. We strive and strive to achieve power and status and then often … Continue reading Why LOLcats are important
“Sometimes life happens and you can’t stop it. Now is that time. When it happens, you discover where true love lies, and where it never existed.” A good friend said this very recently in response to a significant life event. It got me thinking about how much time and energy I have wasted on things and people that have nothing to do with true love. … Continue reading What’s real and what’s not
Many people who were vaccinated as children do not realise that by the time we’re all grown up some of our protection no longer works. In the case of whooping cough, or pertussis, the protection can wane in as little as six to ten years. This means that many of us are wandering around at risk of catching whooping cough ourselves or asympomatically transmitting it … Continue reading Protecting babies: whooping cough vaccination boosters for adults
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