№ 533. In the beginning....

Why is the first instinct for many to volunteer and donate after a natural disaster? One reason is that as humans we’ve evolved to survive in groups, not alone. Rallying together makes us feel less alone in the experience, explained the sociologist Christine Carter, a fellow at the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

“When our survival is threatened, we are going to reach out and strengthen our connections with people around us. We show generosity. We show compassion. We show gratitude. These are all emotions that function to connect us with each other,” Dr. Carter said.

Scientific evidence supports the idea that acts of generosity can be beneficial when we volunteer and give back regularly — and not just after a natural disaster. Volunteering is linked to health benefits like lower blood pressure and decreased mortality rates.

 

№ 533. Happy New Year 2021

 

№ 532. G for Generosity

 

№ 531. V for Vaccine

 

NYTimes.

 

"I think the vaccines are the way to go. But people seem to have a view of it will give me 100% protection -- no vaccine does that," Collignon. And even if someone is vaccinated, scientists don't yet know whether it's possible that they could get the virus and spread it, even if they don't get sick themselves.

 

It's likely that even once there is widespread vaccination, we might still have to live with the virus. After all, only one virus in human history has been declared eradicated by a vaccine -- small pox."

 

№ 530. The Politics of Spam

I am in good company. The war-time delicacy is also known as Special Army Meat.

Who knew The Iron Lady shopped for Spam? Who knew Spam also fed the Soviet army in World War 2?

Spam was my go to staple at 11pm dinners after work from Makati. 

"In his memoirs, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev writes that "without spam we wouldn't have been able to feed our army," while British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher recalled serving spam and salad to friends over Christmas in 1943, along with "one of our very precious tins of fruit which we'd saved from the pre-war days." Even decades later, when she was living in Downing Street, Thatcher still bought a can of spam as part of her regular supermarket shop."

 

 

№ 529. Many Words, Many Worlds

Brad Veley

 

Sometimes a word is not enough. You have to string a number of them to describe one confounding reality. Complexity is in the details. The words help untagle these layers of little gods and tiny devils.

"It was the first thing I found strangely fascinating about German: a word that went on and on until you ran out of breath or got totally lost in the middle. Invariably it had to be hyphenated on to the row below. Geschwindigkeitsbeschränkungen, all 30 letters of it: a very big word for a fairly simple idea (it means speed limits)."

 

№ 528. Rule of Law

William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!” 

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?” 

William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!” 

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!” 

― Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons 

 

Adam Zyglis

 

 

 

 

 

№ 527. Hope

 

Orange County Register

 

Life blooms. Hope claws up and out. 

From dark rotten things, 

both seek light and wait for rain.

 

№ 526. Boston

Pinterest

 

The keys taste icy, 

salty in this blue morning.

Wrecked pianos litter our shores.

 

Uprights gasp the foams

as their last songs drown in the tides.

Rusted strings claw sand.

Sunrise lights the sea.

As bards sing of running 

away to Boston.

№ 525. Otherness and Prejudice

The least. The last. The lost. The minority. The fringe.

Speed Bump