Learning from Wave Rock

If you’re reading this article in July of 2024, there’s a good chance I already have climbed or am currently climbing Wave Rock. Called Katter Kich in the Nyungar dialect, Wave Rock is an enormous granite cliff face in the shape of—you guessed it—a wave that protrudes from the surface of the earth in the middle of Western Australia’s Wheatbelt. It forms the...

Going fast and going far

For Kade Davey, being the best isn’t enough—he wants to go the distance.

The relay of small acts of kindness

In chaos theory, there is something that scientists call the “butterfly effect”—a seemingly insignificant event triggers a series of other events that later acquire significant importance. The butterfly effect has been used outside the realm of science as a metaphor for small things that have a considerable impact. When it comes to kindness, few things could demonstrate the butterfly effect better than the...

Why we should say sorry to our kids

There are two main reasons why we find it difficult to apologise, particularly to our kids.

How old is sadness?

“My sadness hears the unborn dogs / barking at the unborn people.” (Romanian poet Nichita Stănescu)

“Miracles” | Book review

"Miracles"[1] is one of C.S. Lewis's most cherished works of apologetics. In an age when belief in miracles seems somewhat anachronistic, this book is all the more important.

Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law: a recipe for positive interaction

A common source of jokes and stories with subtext, the relationship between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law appears to be characterised by particular sensitivities.

Raising future gentlemen

In a world of rising toxic masculinity, here are some basic foundations we can provide to ensure our sons grow up to be men who make us proud.

Let there be light? Is it really that simple?

When we are stressed, our sympathetic nervous system prepares our body for one of two possible responses: fight or flight. It does this by channelling most of its resources to our vital organs and muscles. The unknown, along with the absence of the familiar, is a major source of stress.

The self-esteem movement and the unhappiness of a generation

They say self-esteem is a vital ingredient for success in life. But what if everything we were taught about self-esteem is wrong?

The gospel of consumerism: How shopping became our church 

"When I could not decide between two shirts, they encouraged me to buy both." This is a line from the postmodernist novel "White Noise", written by Don DeLillo. This way of thinking encapsulates one of the defining features of consumerism: the idea that more is better.

Do children ruin marital happiness? How to manage the changes generated by the birth of children

Describing the breakup of her marriage after the birth of her children, journalist Nora Ephron writes that a child is a grenade for the couple’s relationship. After the explosion, when the dust settles, “your marriage is different from what it was. Not better, necessarily; not worse, necessarily; but different.” [1].

The need for meaning: life’s oxygen mask

“Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.”— Bertolt Brecht

The invention of movable type

"The world concedes without hesitation or dispute that Gutenberg's invention is incomparably the mightiest event that has ever happened in profane history." Mark Twain

Codependency: a concept too widely used to have a single definition

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day. – Emily Dickinson