What Comes at the End of a Life?

 

What Comes at the End of a Life?

Jack Thomas has been a journalist for the Boston Globe since 1958 and recently learned he has months to live due to a cancer diagnosis. So he wrote an article about what his impending death means.

As the saying goes, fate has dealt me one from the bottom of the deck, and I am now condemned to confront the question that has plagued me for years: How does a person spend what he knows are his final months of life?

Atop the list of things I’ll miss are the smiles and hugs every morning from my beautiful wife, Geraldine, the greatest blessing of my life. I hate the notion of an eternity without hearing laughter from my three children. And what about my 40 rose bushes? Who will nurture them? I cannot imagine an afterlife without the red of my America roses or the aroma of my yellow Julia Childs.

We told each of the three children individually. John Patrick put his face in his hands, racked with sobs. After hanging up the telephone, Jennifer doubled over and wept until her dog, Rosie, approached to lick away the tears but not the melancholy. Faith explained over the telephone that, if I could see her, she was weeping and wondering how she could get along without her dad. Now, she is on the Internet every day, snorkeling for new research, new strategies, new medications. My wife cries every morning, then rolls up her sleeves and handles all doctor appointments and medication. Without her… I cannot imagine.

OUR POLITICAL CLASS IS LOOKING TO CHINA AS A MODEL:  Hong Kong protester convicted in 1st trial under Chinese security law. “Leon Tong Ying-kit, a former restaurant cook, volunteered as a medic during the 2019 pro-democracy protests that rocked the city. He was convicted of terrorism and secession and faces a possible sentence of life in prison.”

All around the world, the global ruling classes are trying to bring the proles under firm control.

Stirring the Embers of Faith Commonweal Magazine “I like Graham Greene (He is great paired with Gore Vidal).”

Forget morality aeno. Aargh. I have two simple reasons for disagreeing. One is the notion of revulsion, that some acts are so horrid (like eating your children) that everyone recoils from them. Second is that every social animal species exhibits cheating behavior, which in turn often leads to altruistic punishment. I personally waste more time and energy than I should on altruistic punishment and applaud others who do too.

The Unmaking of Biblical Womanhood New Yorker (furzy). More interesting than you might assume.

The philosophy of porn Prospect Magazine

Burnout, anxiety, depression rising in college students amid pandemic.

 Something in Patients’ Eyes Could Reveal The Presence of ‘Long COVID’, Doctors Say.

 

When a picture paints a thousand words that reveal the truth- Minamata.

 

In the quest for truth and justice, the media holds up a mirror that reveals what is hidden from our eyes but is often done in our name.

Tomako Uemura in Her Bath helped raise global awareness of industrial pollution of marine habitats elsewhere. “Photography is a small voice, at best,” Smith famously said, “but sometimes – just sometimes – one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our senses into awareness …”

When a picture paints a thousand words that reveal the truth- Minamata.

Dolphin rescuers take cues from whale stranding to move mother and calf to clear water ABC Australia

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Protecting your liver with coffee.

29 elegant archways to inspire the structurally minded

What’s Up with all the Lady Parts in Medieval Prayer Books?

Let’s say you’re flipping through a medieval Christian prayer book (as you do), and suddenly you come across a curious illustration amongst the prayers and psalms of something that looks unmistakably like female genitalia. A scolding voice in your head tells you to get your mind out of the gutter. But you wouldn’t be alone.…

Photographer Catches Whale Breaching Next to a Fishing Boat PetaPixel 

Paid for their Tears: The Peculiar Profession of Professional Mourners

The business of death is one as old as time. Today the market size of global death care services is valued at over $100 billion annually and it’s expected to double in the next decade too (an increase attributed to more demand for lavish funerals). But there’s a lesser-known “service” of the industry which those…

Seaweed Farming: Could This Carbon-Negative Crop Help Restore Our Oceans? TreeHugger 

TED: The ancient origins of the Olympics

 Thousands of years in the making, what began as part of a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus in the rural Greek town of Olympia has today become the greatest show of sporting excellence on Earth. 

TED: The ancient origins of the Olympics

FOLKLORIC - FINALLY: Break Dancing Will Be An Olympic Sport In 2024.

Want To Spread A Complicated Idea? Social Media Influencers Can’t Help

Surprisingly, the researchers discovered that new and provocative ideas emerge at the edge of networks, from people with fewer contacts and little obvious pull. - Fast Company

English spelling is ridiculous. Sew and new don’t rhyme. Kernel and colonel do. Why?   … Why 

How US Teen Culture Took Over The World

Universal secondary education not only elevated Americans by spreading relevant knowledge and skills to the masses. It also gave rise to a more complex social and cultural transformation, as the adolescent period became pivotal in shaping who we are. - Aeon

New York’s Dreamy, Disorienting Reopening (photo essay) The New Yorker. 

'Athletes are Human Too': A Reading List

You need to take care of yourself ... You can’t help other people or do your job if you don’t help yourself’

Just take the mental health day. Here’s why more of us are 

Ted Lasso, the Olympics, and Talking About Mental Health

A Toxic Workplace Triples Your Risk of Depression, a New Study Finds

I BELIEVE IT:  Living With Chronic Pain Can Disrupt Your Emotions at a Chemical Level, Study Hints.

As the latest in a series of high-achievingpublic figures who has taken a step back from work to focus on their mental health, Simone Biles has reignited an ongoing conversation about mental health, disclosure, and stigma.

But public figures are not alone: More and more people are talking to their bosses about their mental health. Surveys show employees want to work at a company whose culture supports mental health; in fact, it’s becoming one of the most-requested benefits in the wake of the pandemic. This is especially true for young workers: In a recent Deloitte survey of more than 27,000 Millennials and GenZers around the world, nearly half ranked mental health as their first or second priority.

Navigating Mental Health at Work: A Reading List

College Students Report High Levels of Anxiety Amid Pandemic

America’s mental health moment is finally here There’s a mental health moment in America, and athletes are leading the way  

MENTAL HEALTH ≠ WELLBEING There’s a growing tendency to link mental health and wellbeing as an inseparable conceptual couple, but the two concepts have very different connotations

One thing is clear. Employees are hesitant about admitting that they needed leaves for emotional health. And what option do they really have?

Break the stigma: Time to make mental health part of sick leaves

Workplace Mental Health Study Findings a 'Wake-Up Call'

As employers deepen their focus on mental health, many may still be missing one of the most important conversations in this space: the positive one. While addressing stress, burnout, and mental illness is critically important, flipping our lens to promoting well-being can highlight new opportunities to move forward. Organizations should ask the question: how can we make the workplace a center for the resources, skills, and connections that workers need to thrive? Beyond avoiding negative impacts, how can work proactively help employees improve their well-being?

Bringing A Positive Lens To Workplace Mental Health

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg – who died of coronavirus in his Californian home today – says it is not Facebook’s role to be the arbiter of truth for everything people post online.

The billionaire tech whiz, who tested positive to COVID-19 last week before being admitted to hospital on Sunday, said Facebook had a very different view to Twitter, which recently started fact-checking President Trump’s tweets

Mark Zuckerberg – Dead At 36 – Says Social Media Sites Should Not Fact Check Posts

CDC Director Alarmed After Googling ‘Covid Cases’ For First Time in Weeks The Onion

Languages are teetering on the budgy end of extinction: Chinese hackers stole Mekong River data

“Professor Rob Pensalfini said that many of the old words and phrases that were dying out, such as cobber, cooee and stone the crows, conjured up the image of a white colonial man. “The fact is that the faces of Australia have changed ... And the slang that is coming in from second-generation migrants, like habib and bro, are the linguistic equivalent of saying this is what it is now to be Australian.

Like Dr Amanda Laugesen, he admired Australians humour and creativity with the language. His favourite - a phrase under consideration for the dictionary - is: “We are not here to f--- spiders.”

(courtesy of my Wickenby hero ) 

Social trends created expressions like fauxgan (a fake bogan), latte belt/line/landand smashed avo. Recent political contributions include democracy sausage and Canberra bubble. 

At the same time, many old phrases, like cobber and cooee, stone the crows andstrike me pink, were used less frequently. And like the phrase, “how good is”, they were increasingly used ironically or self-consciously, said Dr Laugesen.

Indigenous words and phrases were also entering the lexicon rapidly, particularly those relating to First Nations culture as well as Aboriginal names for flora and fauna, and the seasons. During the Olympics, non-Indigenous commentators have been using the Aboriginal Australasian expression for excellent, “deadly”.

Australian English isn’t being taken over by Americanisms or Bohemianism. But it is changing

Hundreds of our languages are teetering on the brink of extinction, and as Rachel Nuwer discovers, we may lose more than just words if we allow them to die out.

“I know this seems counter-intuitive but don’t worry about the numbers. They are an ok metric for how you are doing overall and maybe from time to time but they are not what really matters. What matters is the impact that you are making and the lives you are able to touch. Even if that is ONE person on any given day, that is a blessing.”

 –Nitika Chopra, Founder of Chronicon

“Never, ever get into a fight on social media. The world is too complex to be argued via 280 characters.” –Kathryn Finney, Founder & CEO of Genius Guild

FRANCE WARNED THE US IN 2015 ABOUT THE WUHAN LAB IT HELPED BUILD, FORMER COVID-19 INVESTIGATOR CLAIMS.

‘I HEARD YOUR TALKING POINTS AND I’M TIRED OF HEARING THEM,’ TOM COTTON SLAMS COCA-COLA EXECUTIVE: “You’re afraid of what [China] will do to your company if you say a single word, like for instance, saying that both the Biden and the Trump administration are correct when they say that China is committing genocide against its own people.”

Blogher: Learn From The Mistakes (And Lessons) Of These Top Creators & Entrepreneur

What a gift the human self is. It enables you to sense and reflect upon your own existence; examine the past and plan for the future; check certain impulses in order to reach for other aims; and conceptualize how others see you, allowing you to better connect with them.

But, my guest says, the blessing of the self also comes with a curse, one we need to get a handle on if we’re to live flourishing lives. His name is Mark Leary, and he’s a professor emeritus of psychology and neuroscience and the author ofThe Curse of the Self: Self-Awareness, Egotism, and the Quality of Human Life. Today on the show, Mark unpacks exactly what the self is and its vital benefits, before delving into the downsides that also come with having a self. Mark then shares how people can make the most of the advantages of the self, while mitigating its disadvantages, including the practice he most recommends for quieting the kinds of self-related thoughts and ego-driven behaviors that can make us miserable.

Resources/People/Articles Mentioned in the Podcast

• Self-Serving Bias
• Illusory Superiority
• AoM podcast #661 on insomnia and how we can stress ourselves out of better sleep
• AoM podcast #644 on how to develop greater self-awareness and the potential downsides of introspection
• AoM article on meditation
• Escaping the Self: Alcoholism, Spirituality, Masochism, and Other Flights From the Burden of Selfhood by Roy Baumeister

Connect With Mark Leary

• Mark’s Website
• Mark’s Blog on Psychology Today

The Curse of the Self: Podcast and

Pornhub Is Giving A Tour Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Arts Nudes

Chinese hackers stole Mekong River data from Cambodian ministry – sources Channel News 

Getting Breathing Space: How I Saved the World

 

NOW OUT: From Jesse Watters, How I Saved the World. I heard the author on the radio last week and I need to get this book.

HEALTH:  Moderate drinking linked to lower heart attack risk, study says.

Covid marches back east with an IGA supermarket locked down and HUNDREDS sent into isolation - as 49 sites including nine Woolworths, three Coles and a Bunnings are exposed - after another surge in Sydney infections