Landschlacht, Switzerland, 18 August 2016 As those who read this blog regularly know, I enjoy hiking in nature: fresh air, surprising encounters with flora and fauna, the solitude that allows me the freedom to simultaneously think as well as forget about the problems of Life for a while. But I have another addiction, another obsession,… Continue reading Shining through
Category: Psychology
The Name Game
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 16 August 2016 Recent events have made me aware of the importance that humanity gives to names. A colleague and her husband, both good friends of mine, brought a new soul, a baby boy, into the world at 12:27 pm today. This past weekend the mother was honoured with a baby shower – a party… Continue reading The Name Game
Yesterday’s children
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 9 August 2016 Yesterday, one of my Facebook friends posed the question: Considering your life experience, what one piece of advice would you pass onto others? My answer was: Don’t wait, for time belongs to no one. None of us know how long we each have to live nor how long our loved ones… Continue reading Yesterday’s children
The economics of love vs freedom
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 7 August 2016 Single people, aged 25 to 29 in eight rich countries – the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Spain, Italy, France and Germany – have become poorer over the last 20 years compared with the average population. People aged 25 to 29 who live by themselves have less post-tax income in… Continue reading The economics of love vs freedom
Best kept secret
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 7 August 2016 In preparation for my Friday morning conversation classes and in an ever valiant quest to bring order to the chaos that is our apartment I have stumbled upon an “old” article from the Independent. And it has got my mind spinning in a variety of directions. The article is about how… Continue reading Best kept secret
Artistic differences, dogs and cats, earth and sky
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 7 August 2016 One of the dangers of spending “quality time” with a significant other, especially if much time has passed since the last period of “quality time”, is the need to “discuss the relationship”. Spend any significant amount of time with a member of the opposite gender and you quickly come to… Continue reading Artistic differences, dogs and cats, earth and sky
The Battle Electronic
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 23 July 2016 It´s 5 am and my wife is still asleep in her bed while I stare at an electronic screen willing it to magically put scattered thoughts into sensible prose for public digestion and edification. I think of the number of topics and events I have yet to write about and… Continue reading The Battle Electronic
Canada Slim behind bars 5a: Arrested development
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 18 July 2016 Somehow it feels like it’s time. After decades of silence and sifting of memory, as more years lie behind me than ahead… When the headlines of the moment evoke so much emotion and recollection within me… I read of the injustice of America and its treatment of its minority populations by those who… Continue reading Canada Slim behind bars 5a: Arrested development
Canada Slim behind bars 1: Voyeurs of tragedy
Dorchester Prison, Dorset, England, Saturday 9 August 1856 A day of drizzle, a crowd of 4, 000 people of all ages gathered to watch a woman swing from a prison scaffold. Before the gallows, Martha was counselled by the Reverend Clementson, the prison chaplain, so she faced her death composed. Elizabeth Martha Brown had been… Continue reading Canada Slim behind bars 1: Voyeurs of tragedy
Shame denied
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 16 June 2016 “You can judge a nation by the way it treats its most vulnerable members.” (Aristotle) “…the best test of a nation´s righteousness is how it treats the poorest and most vulnerable in its midst.” (Jim Wallis) In St. Gallen stands a man, a beggar named Bruno, who hangs around outside… Continue reading Shame denied