resilience

Thursday Open Thread 3-15-2018

An introduction to world religions in college explored the idea of learning how other cultures viewed the world around them as a method to clarify ones observations regarding their own culture. Internet Sacred Text Archive opens the door to thoughts and opinions from different times and cultures.

If using a non-native language to think about an solve a problem can improve rational decision making and reduce cultural bias, imagine the potential benefits of applied cultural literacy.

Thursday Open Thread 3-8-2018


Over the years I have become more disillusioned about accepting science as the primary reason to adopt a solution to a problem. Instead of a discipline of discovery and method to identify best practices, products or solutions it has become a tool of marketing to push one product over another or to discredit historical practices.

In November of 2011 I traveled to China, with other pharmacists on a cultural exchange of medical practices. In Xian (location of the terracota warriors) we explored some of the work being done to compare Western treatment methods with TCM (traditional chinese medicine). One of the obstacles to direct comparisons was how medical conditions were defined differently. For example diabetes was not considered a singular condition and monitoring blood sugars was not part of any treatment protocol or diagnostic process.

Interesting new overview of diabetics
in Sweden and Finland will be changing the way diabetes is managed in the future.

Thursday Open Thread 2-22-2018


Yes, the lemons are blooming, two ready to harvest and outside is 4 F. A microclimate that provides a different reality for plants than the overall climate found in its geographic location of the world. Is it a fake reality? Maybe. For the moment it is the reality for the lemon trees. They may live a full lifespan without experiencing the hardships of the local climate. The outside plants experience a different reality. The map says any zone 7, low humidity and dramatic temperature fluctuations create an environment where zone 4 & 5 plants work hard to survive and thrive. To truly evaluate hardships and benefits a detailed look is necessary, not general judgements.

Our lives are lived within a personalized microenvironment within general status of society and economics. Was 19 the first time time the government sent a notification informing of my poverty. I had a nicer roof over my head than most of my relatives, a roommate to keep it affordable, food in the pantry and tuition paid - did not feel poor. Creating and adjusting microenvironments in life has been more successful than any national and global efforts I have participated in positively effecting lives.

The reverse of a negative microenvironment is also true. An individual or family cash income may not reflect actual financial or quality of life being experienced. Extreme poverty is bigger problem in the United States than most citizens want to believe.

Thursday Open Thread 2-15-2018


Stock market wobbled, property values and rents rising, major disasters with insufficient federal assistance, homeless up, gas prices up, multiple mass shootings, increased talk of war and increased military spending. Our decline as a society is being discussed in foreign press as respect for our government continues to decline.

It is easy to get overwhelmed.

Pages