Live while you are alive
When I was seven years old I was sent to a boarding school. There I was cheek by jowl with the other little boys, sharing ice-cold baths in the morning and crammed into small rooms with eight other boys, teasing and being teased. There was no privacy whatsoever. On to the next school at 13, which …
Continue reading ‘One person’s (very personal) journey towards Epicureanism’ »
Don’t smoke The Hisayama Study, an ongoing investigation of a suburban Japanese community, has found that smoking in mid to late life not only raises the risk of lung cancer, but also ups the chance of developing dementia. Smokers who quit, even in their 40s or 50s, didn’t see the same rise in risk. Don’t …
According to data produced by the General Social Survey Americans are getting more miserable. On a scale between 1 and 3, where 1 represents “not too happy” and 3 means “very happy”, Americans on average give themselves 2.18. In 1993 the figure peaked at 2.26. The downward trend has been confirmed in the latest World …
The following poem is excerpted from “ The Rueful Hippopotamus”, an anthology of light verse by the present author, published by ByD Press and available on Amazon: What will they say of us when we are gone, When it dawns on them all that their grandparents knew (As they wrestle with flooding, starvation and storms), …
Seneca commented on what is at stake when a person asks, not to mention demands, another’s time — an admonition that applies to the incessant requests for meetings, for donations and the barrage of People Wanting Things: “All those who call you to themselves draw you away from yourself.” I am always surprised to see …
