I’m going to stick my neck out today. I’m going to talk about something I’ve been avoiding for certain political and professional reasons for some time now. A topic that is close to my heart. As it turns out, aircrew are extremely reluctant to talk about mental health. On the rare occasions I’ve brought it up, I’ve seen Captains visibly squirm in their seats. They … Continue reading The Elephant in the Cockpit
We are born with brains, so we come into this life with the basic equipment needed to think, but that doesn’t mean we all have the innate ability to think well. I guess this is analogous to the fact that we have been given arms, but the average bicep looks and functions considerably differently from the bicep of a world-class bodybuilder. In other words, not … Continue reading Building the Muscular Mind (Installment One)
Hi everyone! Happy Sundays! This week, I want to talk about the lack of perfection in life: there is no point in life where everything will be perfect in the way we understand life. When I think about each phase in my life, I can find many goods about each phase. But I cannot find a phase where everything was good. For example, let’s say … Continue reading Is there a perfect life?
Happy Saturday, all! I struggled this week. I wrote three or four pages on a topic that I thought would become a blog I could publish today or tomorrow, only to discover that I needed to hold off on posting it. Midway into the piece, I realized that my ideas hadn’t yet ripened and thus I’d be sharing something a mite inedible (perhaps even bitterly … Continue reading Projects and Podcasts
Hi everyone! Welcome to Wise & Shine! I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend! How we define difficulty or problems is variable, or it should be. What is difficult for someone might not be so for another. Likewise, when we look at someone’s life and feel like they have everything perfect, we should not assume that they do not have problems. Sometimes, because of … Continue reading What is a difficulty?
Prime time cable shows aren’t interested in prompting informed debate. They are indignation dispensaries Continue reading Please Stop Assuring Me I’m Right
If you’re a long-time reader of my blogs, you know that I spent about two decades living the life of an expatriated American. I am proud of that time in my life. I first went abroad as a Peace Corps Volunteer, to Poland, not long after the collapse of the Soviet system, and then lived in the UAE, Turkey, and Egypt. Prior to my leaving … Continue reading Beware: Garbage In, Garbage Out
Hello my fellow bloggers and blog-lovers. Today I am writing this entry from a sleepy town in Montenegro, Bijela, to be specific. Not much happens in this provincial, coastal town, which means I’ve been doing more reading than touristing here. Particularly, enter today’s topic, translated literature. Over the past year, I’ve developed quite an affinity for translated literature. Authors around the world pour their life’s … Continue reading Translated Literature: A plea to bolster your reading palate
Hello to my fellow bloggers and blog-lovers! I’m Elle, or E.L. Jayne as my pen name states, and I’ve embarked my own rendition of an Eat, Pray, Love trip this summer, albeit, without the dramatic divorce and existential crisis at the onset, luckily. Deciding to travel for 4 months made me reflect on the catalyst that drives people to travel in the first place. Some … Continue reading On The Different Reasons People Travel
Disclaimer: Previously known by the Anglicized spelling of Turkey, President Erdoğan has asked the international community to recognize the nation by its Turkish spelling, Türkiye, on June 28th, 2022. Türkiye is a country distinguished by it’s blend of European and Asian culture. Although after speaking with some locals, they consider themselves not to be European, Asian, or Middle eastern, but to be Turkish is to … Continue reading Turkish Literature: Where diverse culture meets unique literature
Women stripped of bodily autonomy. The Environmental Protection Agency handcuffed in fighting climate change. Public money allowed to fund religious schools. Gun rights expanded. These are recent decisions made by the United States Supreme Court. Continue reading July 4th Celebration? No Thanks.
I’m amazed by how my mind works. I never know when an idea for a blog is going to come to me. For example, this morning, just after pulling into a parking space upon arriving at my work and then killing the engine, I immediately realized that I do a lot of the same things in my job that engineers do in theirs. So why … Continue reading Pardon Me While I Get This Off My Chest
I confess to not ever being comfortable with having pride in the country you were born in. Conceptually, I think it’s a flawed idea from the get go. A recipe for provincialism and a potent catalyst for intolerance and violence. Having said that, I admit there have been moments I’ve allowed myself to warm my soul near the glow of its fire. Like a good … Continue reading June 24th, 2022
Japanese people have an incredible ability to recover from catastrophes of any kind. After World War II that left the country in ruins, in just thirty years Japan became the second largest economy in the world, becoming leaders in the electronics sector in the eighties and nineties. How could the Japanese economic miracle happen? The answer has to do with an expression that we should … Continue reading How to Overcome Difficulties with the Ganbatte
Towards the end of the 19th century, a group of economists from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland studied the social inequalities in Europe. By analysing the tax data of several European countries, they found out that in each of them about 20% of the population owned 80% of the wealth. Today is even worse, but this is another story. This discovery was a real … Continue reading Do You Know the Pareto’s Principle?
Last week I was on vacation in the beautiful village of Lu Bagnu, located in Sardinia, Italy. I had the chance to read more than usual and I found an interview to Pamela Paul, author of the book “100 Things We’ve lost to the Internet“. The book presents the world before cyberspace. If you are a non digital native like me, you will know what she … Continue reading Things We’ve Lost to the Internet
This past Saturday, I got up early because I had a Zoom meeting with a Pointless Overthinking colleague who lives on the other side of the planet. Despite my best efforts, I’d gotten up a touch late and was in a hurry to get breakfast eaten so I wouldn’t be tardy for our online rendezvous. For quite a long time now, right after breaking my … Continue reading It’s Not a Bug; It’s a Feature
San Antonio, Texas, the city where I currently live, is located about eighty miles away from Uvalde, a town that has been in the news a lot in recent days. Unless you’ve been doing a Rip Van Winkle lately or are someone who lives outside the United States, I probably don’t need to tell you that in Uvalde, a little town of mesquite and pecan … Continue reading Uvalde, the State of the Electorate, and a Rant
Our lack of action to curb gun violence sends the message that we don’t care about the problem, even if it means dead kids. Continue reading We Don’t Care About Dead Kids
I spent a good portion of this past Saturday helping my wife with her small business. She is a master baker and makes a variety of Mediterranean breads and desserts. Her goodies are artisanal and high-end. She sells them each Saturday at a farmer’s market located in Boerne, Texas, a town with a large German-speaking population and a place where people have money. About noon, … Continue reading Sacred Places
