Related to ideas for the future.
Tribalism is a primal human instinct that surfaces at times of crisis and threat, as it directs action toward survival and protecting those who are part of your mob. Given there is safety in numbers, and avoiding ostracism and isolation from a community that will otherwise provide emotional refuge, people will strive to stay connected … Read more
Sport can have a higher purpose, other than the pursuit of victory. As athletes, coaches, teams, and organisations embrace honourable behaviour, it is possible for them to transcend mediocrity and the mundane, to achieve something so special, so rewarding, so exultant. Our collective humanity is enhanced as we become the greatest versions of ourselves, not … Read more
Trauma is a memory problem. A trauma experience may interfere with our ability to establish and maintain a coherent network of explicit and implicit memory about an event. Trauma occurs when the combination of conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) memory systems related to a very frightening or confronting event lose connections in the brain (central … Read more
The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) have published a very helpful guide to how the Covid-19 transmission rate is tracking, and the one number we need to be most aware of. There is also comparative data for other countries tracking this. Of course, such data is only helpful when (1) the method of collecting and recording … Read more
Sure, it is so much easier when we contemplate risk at the individual level. When people take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. People will risk death, as improbable as that might be, in the pursuit of adventure, exhilaration, exploration, research, innovation, to be the first, or to become elite. So many reasons. And … Read more
In these unprecedented times, when we are prevented from accessing our usual leisure and pleasure activities, when self-isolation, loss of employment or purpose, significant anxiety or substantial stress are taking an emotional toll, take every opportunity to stay connected to nature, to reset. Watch a sunrise or observe a sunset from a beautiful vantage point … Read more
In our reckoning, humans as higher order animals are stricken with the phenomenon of becoming anxious as they imagine a possible future. We can contemplate various and divergent possibilities but sadly for many, it is the belief in the likelihood of a worst case scenario that causes the most angst. Now. To spoil the present. … Read more
We are living in uncertain times. In all parts of the world. And no one it seems actually knows how all this will end. Or how soon. So what do we do? How do we cope, when someone we love could die from this contagion? Or not. Or be just fine, mostly. The serenity prayer … Read more
I visited a beautiful place. But there were signs there warning of danger lurking. Indeed, my freedom of movement was curtailed by the closure of my intended pathway. Starting innocently with joy in my heart, I ended with the mixed emotions of exhilaration and mild fear. So how does one proceed when there is a … Read more
As the sun sinks on the second decade of the 21st century, here is hoping that our political leaders across the world can gain some ‘2020’ vision, to see the short term climate situation for what it is, and so act in the longer term interest of this planet’s inhabitants, being all sentient beings, flora … Read more