Poetry is something you write. If you read it, you might read it on prescription, on advice. Yeats poem, Easter 1916, when read out loud is powerful. Like a song.
We all spend too much time worrying about how our bodies look when we really should learn to appreciate what our bodies are doing for us. We should learn to accept the bodies we're in. We are humans, but we live in diverse bodies.
In the public conversation, it’s our duty to build an argument, not just spout opinions as if we were entitled to them without substantiation. We have to learn to construct and defend our opinion. To build an argument for our beliefs.
Life has no meaning. We give it meaning by the stories we tell of ourselves. Work is part of the story we tell of ourselves. Work gives people an identity, a place in life, and meaning.
In 2050, every fourth person will live in Africa. It’s not just Africa's economies that are growing; the continent's population is expected to expand to 2.5 billion, while the rest of the world's population has almost stopped increasing.
There is a climate crisis in our schools. We are wasting human resources by forcing every student into the same mould. Too many people leave school thinking they are stupid and go on to live a life they don’t enjoy, but they have learnt how to get on with it.
There is no ultimate recipe for how to live life, but knowing we contain all the ingredients for a contended life makes it easier to pursue purpose instead of elusive happiness.
I never told my children not to use certain words; instead, I taught them the usefulness of words, and the potency of words.
Ireland has come out of its sexual dark age, but comprehensive sexuality knowledge is still not part of young people’s education. The link between Catholicism and Irish sexuality is still troubling.
When we look at Russia, food is not the first thing that comes to mind, but during the nineteenth century, Russian food was one of the world’s great cuisines. Russia is far from the stereotyping of potato eating and vodka drinking Russians too many associate this huge country with today.
Calling a public health crisis a war against an invisible enemy has serious consequences. Viruses are part of our environment. Viruses are natural, unlike wars.
High sensitivity is neither a disease nor a condition but an innate temperament trait, part of the personality we are born with; the rest we develop ourselves by processing our experiences. The processing is very different for highly sensitive people. They dive deep. Immediately.
Humans are flawed. Cancel culture is our time’s lynch mob, and their job is calling out real, not ideal people. People are good and bad, right and wrong. Humans need to learn how to love strangers, forgiveness, and collaborate across imaginary borders to save the planet.
Both introversion and extroversion are at the heart of human nature, but extroversion is the favoured one. We have built our societies on extroversion and let the introverted adapt. It's time to learn from the introverts way of negotiating the world.
We have lots of words describing time. Traditional passages of time are seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia, and all are real but also illusions.
To live an inspired life we have to choose to do so and we have to manage without too much discipline. To flow we have to stay open to change. Inspiration is joy.
If we want creative and critically thinking students, we have to change the education system. We have to put students in charge and remind the adults what imagination is — the ability to access cosmic consciousness and create what is not yet real but can be. Imagination is futurising.
Coffee connects the world. Humans consume over 2 billion cups of coffee every day. The whole world joins in the daily morning ritual of drinking coffee. This ritual is seen as basic and not at all the luxury it is.
The harmful effects of ageism, and why talking and educating more about older adult sexuality is important.
Astrid Lindgren was a Swedish children’s fiction author and a children’s rights activist. Both Astrid and her characters like Pippi Longstocking championed children. Her speech "Never Violence" changed legislation, and Sweden became the first country in the world to ban corporal punishment.
Choosing the person you think will break your heart is also the person who will make you feel the most, and feeling deeply is a gift.
We all pay a price to live in a society. Nothing is free, not even freedom of speech. Human knowledge is social. It’s not enough to talk about freedom of speech; we have to express ourselves. Only then will we know how much it cost.
Existentialism is a philosophical way of thinking about our existence. Existentialism is old but still alive and relevant today. Existentialism helps us feel less helpless. God is not in charge; we are. Existentialism is naturally non-conformist.