It’s Father’s Day tomorrow. My father passed away on February 4th. I posted this blog 5 months ago, but it feels like yesterday. It feels like a right time to share again. Happy Father’s Day to all fathers, and all the cherished memories of fathers. Could God have created a better way of living than as families?
… More Capital D: Dad, Duty, Dignity
I’m not buying it!
Companies tout themselves as ‘sustainable’. Then dare to sell me consumer goods designed to be obsolete in an all-too-short while.
I’m fighting back! … More Black Friday: I’m not buying it!
My great-grandfather Maurice Elliott died in 1944 after the uninsured barn on their farm burned to the ground. He left behind his widow and nine children.
Only as an adult did I come to know his death was a suicide. It wasn’t my grandmother or father who told me. For them, it was a deeply buried secret.
We now have the science available to look at someone’s brain in an MRI and diagnose whether or not that person is depressed.
With other health challenges—cancer, heart disease, kidney stones–we rely on diagnostic tools and trust the science.
How do we get to that same level of certainty and acceptance with brain health? … More Brain Health: Of course we can do better
Making or influencing or blocking a decision that affects others is a big deal. It’s a choice, a skill and a responsibility. Marrying dignity to decision-making is an investment not only in the humanity of our choices, but also in the potential of actually getting something done, of actually moving forward. … More Who is making your decisions?
The Mafia is still alive in Sicily, Italy. And people are fighting back. This blog takes a look at modern-day Sicily, and their transition from an honour culture to a dignity culture.
… More Dignity and the Sicilian Mafia
What does work mean to you? How has work shaped who you are and how you think about yourself?
Business risk-taking is increasingly institutionalized, often via detailed policies, and the discretion of individual workers is constrained. To the outsider, the result can look like rigid, inflexible, intransigent attitudes by employees. To the insider, the tight reins can diminish an employee’s sense of self-worth.
Imagine the potential if the dignity of workers within large companies could be recovered on a system-wide basis. … More Work & Dignity
Understandably, one of the reactions to times of great uncertainty and to any attack – whether real or perceived- is an increased receptivity to top-down direction and powerful leadership, for example, forceful security measures to counter terrorists or even aggressive tweets in the attempt to deter rogue states threatening nuclear war. We want someone to fix the problem! And, yet, in addition to the minor indignities, the hassle of security checks at airports, there are serious implications for personal dignity that we are wise to consider before being seduced into avoiding or succumbing to the turbulent emotions that accompany uncertainty. … More Preserving Dignity in Uncertain Times
What I’m wondering about is the effect of “America first” on how we, as Canadians, see our own economy, and choices. We can:
1. Respond in kind, with our Canadian brand of national pride. “Canada first!” With honour and pride, it’s our reputation that makes us honourable or proud and we have to respond, aggressively, to aggressors, or risk losing that sense of worth. Revenge, retribution, vendettas, and ‘Tit-for-Tat’ reactions, are expected.
2. Be the victim. Be a David to the American Goliath. Attract global sympathy, not by emphasizing either our own strength or inner worth as Canadians, but by complaining about the America-first trade aggressions. Focus on our powerlessness.
3. Act with dignity. Operate from the belief that all people, and arguably, by extension nations, have dignity, inherent worth that exists independently of what others think. Yes, insults and attacks can try to take away our dignity as Canadians but, we can choose to exercise self-restraint in the game of “Tit-For-Tat” and direct our energy to negotiating agreements that reaffirm the soundness of Canada as a strong and resource-full trading nation. In any circumstance, we can act as masters of our own fate. … More Protectionism, Global Trade and Finding Our Dignity in a Bottle of Ketchup!
I’m looking for politicians who preserve their own sense of dignity, and who likewise can recognize the dignity in me, the citizen. … More Is Dignity on the Ballot?
What moves me, listening to Dr. Al-Guneid tell his story, is his commitment to preserve his own sense of dignity, whatever the circumstances. What is most deeply disturbing, is taking in how this family, or any displaced family, bears the weight of not-knowing. He has lost access to the sovereignty of his home country. Without a sense of this being temporary or permanent, how then do people actually settle? … More When You Can’t Go Home
This is the excerpt for your very first post. … More Looking for Dignity
