On the BBC today, a beautiful tribute from farmer Lee Wilson to his wife Renee:
Happy Anniversary Mr and Mrs Wilson!
A recent article in The Guardian noted that employees in retail situations in the US are not only banned from using chairs whilst working, some have removed access to seating during breaks:
“I think it’s a very classist thing,” Zay said. “No one would dare criticize a lawyer for sitting on the job. But in retail or the service industry, when the job is deemed to be unskilled labor, people get irrationally offended when they see you sitting.”
With the aging workforce this is an issue which needs addressing, but workers of all ages see it as disrespectful and unnecessary:
'Zay, the Georgia worker, quit after her boss took away seating. She says she wasn’t the only employee to put in their notice after what her team has started to call chair-gate. Ultimately, she said, the move was emblematic of a toxic workplace in general.
“I want to point out that it’s employers like these who go on and on about how no one wants to work because they can’t accept the simple truth that no one wants to do back-breaking labor with insulting pay all for a boss who couldn’t care less about their wellbeing,” she said.'
At 85 years old Jain philosopher and activist Satish Kumar continues his lifetime's quest of speaking, writing and activism for global peace and ecology. He founded Schumacher College in England for ecological study, and still contributes to Resurgence and Ecologist magazine.
This year he published an updated memoir of his 1962 walk from India to Washington DC via Moscow, Paris and London, Pilgrimage for Peace: the Long Walk from India to Washington, a journey from the tomb of Mahatma Ghandi in Old Delhi to the grave of John F. Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery.
Life is a journey. I want to travel through life as a pilgrim.
-Satish Kumar
Mark Williamson
"About Mark:
Mark is a co-founder and Director of Action for Happiness. Mark has taken Action for Happiness from a concept on paper to a mass participation movement with hundreds of thousands of members and a wide range of activities. Mark has a long-standing interest in happiness and well-being and is passionate about creating a more balanced, collaborative society that focuses less on consumption and material wealth and more on helping people and communities thrive."
https://www.happinessroundtable.org/mark-williamson.html
About Action for Happiness:
"Action for Happiness is a movement of people committed to building a happier and more caring society. We want to see a fundamentally different way of life - where people care less about what they can get just for themselves and more about the happiness of others."
https://www.actionforhappiness.org/about-us
New York Times book description: What we call Alzheimer's disease is actually a protective response to a wide variety of insults to the brain: inflammation, insulin resistance, toxins, infections, and inadequate levels of nutrients, hormones, and growth factors. Bredesen starts by having us figure out which of these insults we need to address and continues by laying out a personalized lifestyle plan. Focusing on the Ketoflex 12/3 Diet, which triggers ketosis and lets the brain restore itself with a minimum 12-hour fast, Dr. Bredesen drills down on restorative sleep, targeted supplementation, exercise, and brain training. He also examines the tricky question of toxic exposure and provides workarounds for many difficult problems. The takeaway is that we do not need to do the program perfectly but will see tremendous results if we can do it well enough.
‘Simple illnesses such as pneumonia versus complex illnesses such as Alzheimer’s. Simple illnesses may have many contributors, but a single one is far and away the dominant, and therefore a single drug, like penicillin, is often curative. In contrast, complex illnesses may have many contributors, but no single contributor is the clear dominant, and therefore identifying and addressing multiple contributors with a precision protocol is the most effective approach to treatment.’
Page 7, The End of Alzheimer's Program: The First Protocol to Enhance Cognition and Reverse Decline at Any Age, Dale Bredesen M.D. with foreword by David Perimutter M.D.
'The cornerstone of LEAP is reflective listening. It is also the one feature of the method that immediately turns down the volume on everyone's anger, builds trust, and mends fences. The reason is that you listen with only one goal: to understand the other person's point of view and reflect your understanding back to him. You don't comment on what he said, point out ways in which you think he's wrong, judge, or react in any way. ( Sounds easy until the person starts talking about the fact that there's absolutely nothing wrong, and he doesn't need treatment! )'
from 'I AM NOT SICK I Don't Need Help! How to Help Someone with Mental Illness Accept Treatment' Xavier Amador, Ph.D 10th Anniversary Edition 2012, P 66-69
L
listen ( 'reflective listening' )
E
empathize ( 'learn when and how to express empathy' )
A
agree ( 'find common ground' )
P
partner ( 'achieve shared goals' )
'I believe that Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically. He is the patron saint of all who study and work in the area of ecology, and he is also much loved by non-Christians. He was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the poor and outcast. He loved, and was deeply loved for his joy, his generous self-giving, his openheartedness. He was a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.
Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is to be human. Just as happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into his praise. He communed with all creation, even preaching to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason”. His response to the world around him was so much more than intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection. That is why he felt called to care for all that exists.'
