• FOR MOST PEOPLE, “NO MEANINGFUL LIFE IS STRESS-FREE, but the big challenge in managing stress, which can otherwise “open the door to ‘Burnout’ – a toxic mix of exhaustion, reduced efficacy and increased cynicism about work, affecting some 2/3 of full-time workers at any given time (according to Gallup research) – is poor self-awareness… Managed correctly, stress can actually be an engine of growth & peak performance… What triggers a stress response is unique to each person; some become aggressive, others withdraw. Similarly, methods of recovery are unique, like riding a bike versus reading a book… Execs and Managers who typically equate success with pushing boundaries to excess, fighting through problems, and never admitting weakness” will find a very useful article from McKinsey Consultants: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-accelerate/our-insights/how-to-turn-everyday-stress-into-optimal-stress?cid=other-eml-alt-mcq-mck&hdpid=c7c44434-c4ea-4f6d-b46a-58f0ba9c14be&hctky=1767214&hlkid=f07a324806d5474691ed93064491c0ef
  • A GENERALLY UNRECOGNIZED AND UNFORTUNATE IMPACT OF ‘SOCIAL DISTANCING’ because of Covid is that people have been “deprived of human physical contact – the handshakes, pats, squeezes & strokes that warm daily interactions… The fact is that ‘touch’ is as necessary to human survival as food & water, enabling us to detect such stimuli as pressure/ temperature/ texture, without which we’d be unable to walk or feel pain… Stimuli applied to skin activate a nerve fiber to the brain responsible for pleasure (releasing dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin which sooth anxiety and make us feel happier)… as well as depressing the cortisol level which relieves stress and attacks viruses & bacteria… Studies have shown absence to touch also slows down children’s’ development of cognitive skills , and is linked to adult loneliness, depression, mood & secondary immune disorders.”  Post-Covid behaviors will likely continue in the form of  ‘Me-Too’ lessening of office touching, policies banning teachers from touching students, and virtual relationships replacing live connection.  [ECONOMIST – 2/20/21]  
  • “THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION THAT AMERICA IS UNDERGOING, between Gen Z and many millennials on the one hand versus the rest of America on the other, goes beyond traditional left-right or liberal-conservative disconnect of decades past. The religion of ‘wokeness’ professed by our credentialed class, especially those just coming into adulthood, is fueled by an unquestioned moral superiority, full of disdain animated by an unshakeable sense of purpose to ‘reeducate’ the country and save it from the stain of injustice, past and present. Aided by their adult enablers in academia/ media/ politics/ corporate world, they appeal heavily to emotion, repeating with an almost religious-like fervor the mantra of eliminating ‘privilege – an amorphous and ill-defined term used to besmirch one’s opponents, while failing to see the biting irony of their own station in life (among the most privileged and pampered groups in this nation’s history).  This moral certitude carries with it the seeds of a totalitarian impulse and categorical imperative to stamp out what it deems to be evil… Gen Z has been molded by an educational system that no longer instills in its students anything resembling a coherent and balanced narrative of the American nation, instead indoctrinating Identity Politics as the dominant narrative, and that America is an oppressive, perhaps irredeemable, land… Like every cultural revolution, the ideological zeal of America’s radicals should eventually subside and fizzle but, like all past revolutions, the scars it leaves on our society and our democracy will be permanent.”  [NATIONAL REVIEW – 2/17/21]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

     The ‘art’ auction market continues to eclipse all sanity. A white, wooden Toilet Seat, purportedly belonging to Adolph Hitler and maintained by a Nazi soldier for decades, just sold at auction for $18,750 to someone who may perceive it as Hitler’s throne.

     Last year, thousands of Mexican women took to the streets to protest women’s needs being ignored, and may be doing so again, in response to Mexico City’s new ban on ‘single use plastics’ as a token step to environmental protection. Effective 2021, women were surprised by sudden inability to procure tampons – especially since they are equally polluting as pads, and since male condoms were exempted by the law.

     Latest CDC ‘update’ data suggests the country has been shut down for what turns out be less than 14,000 deaths attributable to Covid — only 6% of the number reported nationwide every day.  Doctors were encouraged to report EVERY death during this period – even people already in hospice when the virus broke – by the CARES act authorizing 20% extra Medicare compensation for Covid-listed deaths