RESPECT & CURIOSITY: On Elephants and Others
<1281 words> I have a great deal of respect for wild elephants and am careful to show that respect by backing out of their way when they come walking down the road towards my car. I believe I’ve learned a thing or two about elephant culture in my multiple trips to various game reserves across Africa […]
Like a River Flows
<1230 words> They say that our thoughts naturally turn to contemplation of the future when we watch water in motion. When I was about to turn 60, my brother, Guillaume, died of a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumour and I came across ‘The Waterfall’ by Zen philosopher Shunryu Suzuki. It is his reflection on life, upon a […]
THE SEVEN CARDINAL RULES IN LIFE – YES, BUT…(or the more PC Yes, and…)
I often wonder how deeply folks think about all the sayings they circulate and receive on social media, forwarded emails, and the like. At first glance they always seem to make sense. They’re sometimes attributed to well-known people like Albert Einstein or some ancient sage – always from ‘away’ as we say in Nova Scotia. I’m a contrarian. I am as naturally drawn to an alternate perspective (or lens, as we say nowadays), as a fish is to water, and so I decided to be more deliberate about one of these circulating messages, and here it is: My take on the ‘7 Cardinal Rules in Life’.