Had enough of bad news? Go to goodnews.com.............

The News.

A human invention supposedly made for the purpose of

keeping us informed as to ''issues'', (as deemed 

by the publishers)regarded as important, significant, relevant,

and....oh, yeah,...... before the event of ''fake news''.... truthful.

According to Alison Holman and some of her colleges from the 

University of California it seems that news coverage is far

more than a source of benign facts.

What they have discovered is that it can sneak into our subconscious

and interfere with both our mental and physical health/well being.

Being peppered with bad news from morning

to night affects our emotions, we can become anxious, depressed,

and at times experience a sense of hopelessness.

Before there were podcasts, social media and websites, it was far 

easier to switch off the news if one wanted to.

All one had to do was to not read the papers and turn off the 

radio and TV.

These days however, most of the population on this planet carry with

it a 24/7 ''news delivery device'' aka a mobile/cell phone.

Phones are forever ''pinging'' everywhere you go with 

(at least in my case) news updates.

Since tragedy and disaster sell more ''clicks'' (papers),

good news stories hardly ever make the ''front page''/views.

Us humans are prone to negativity-bias, which means we pay

more attention to ''blood and guts'' than ''butterflies and

rainbows''. 

Not only do we pay more attention to negative stimuli, but

we also tend to dwell on it. 

(Ex: ''Building collapses and kills 4 children and injures 56.''

Why not: ''Building collapses and injures 56 children only 4 died.'')

Friend: ''I love your new place, it's so fresh and light and the view is

fantastic, but, it's quite small isn't it?''

You: ''Small? What do you mean small? I don't think it's small.''

After your friend has left what is the word that sticks?

Fantastic? Fresh? Light? or small?

I'm guessing that for the next few days you'll keep pondering 

if your new place perhaps is too small.

We dwell on the one negative aspect even if it is wrapped up in a 

thousand superlatives. Some say that we do so because

it helps us to deal with possible threats.

Hm. I don't know about that.

Right now I have a feeling that inserting a few more ''good news'' 

stories amongst all the ''bad news'' ones could be a

good idea. Because, here's the thing, good things happen

every day just like bad things. We're just not told

about them as loudly and as often.

Some years back I decided to just check and see if there

was a Good News site, and lo and behold, I found a few.

Just Google Good News and you will find them.

Does the heart good methinks.

Once upon a time, the news used to be synonymous

with facts, with accuracy, with objectivity, and an

adherence to ethics and throwing light on subject

matters hidden in the dark.

But sadly, I'm not so sure that this is the case any more.

When you hear/watch/read the news, how often do

you take the time to find out how secure or sound the

source of the information is?

Is the source biased? Is the source reliable? Is the

source well-known and generally well-respected?

Do you only go to one site for the news or 

do you ''surf'' a few?

Do you seek confirmation only for your own views or

do you include opposing views as well?

News always go through a bias filter.

The bias of the person who owns the site, the bias of

the editor, the writer, the photographer, the site designer,

the printer, and so on.

To be a human is to be biased. We have never seen our faces

with our own eyes, we have only ever seen our faces

in the mirror, and what we see in the mirror is a mere reflection

of what we think we look like.

''Fake news and rumors thrive on line because too many

of us fail to take the time to check the veracity of what

we read. Often we merely seek for content that reinforces 

our own biases.''

(Citizen Z)

about the image: Ink on paper, some editing in Photoshop

What is the soul? James Brown or...?

Browsing through a magazine I came across a photo of

this young man. The caption beneath it read: Young soldier

on the way to his first deployment.

 Some say that ''the eyes are the window to the soul''.

 Judging from the intensity in this young soldier's eyes,

I sensed a troubled and anxious soul.

Soul, in my view, is one of those ambiguous words that

is commonly used but when it boils down to it,

 can be very hard to define.

Some say that the soul is the incorporeal essence of

a living being. Others extend the meaning of the word to

include other very ambiguous words such as: conscience, reason,

 memory, thinking, perception, feeling and many more......

Ambiguous in what way? you may ask.

For me they are ambiguous because they are ''intangible''

concepts and the meaning we assign to such words depends on

our individual perception of them.

(Most of us would probably agree that living beings

have a soul, but exactly where it resides in a living being,

well, that's a different story.)

The first time I heard the word ''Soul'' was when my sister

came home with a Sam Cooke record.

I was instantly hooked and listened to 

''A change is gonna come'' over and over.

Something about the music and words just rang true to me.

Mind you, at that time I was barely a teenager and

only spoke Swedish, yet I still knew that Soul Music was

''real''. 

Compared to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and other pop

groups at that time(-60's), Soul music had nothing to

do with ''celebreality'', nah, it was all about rhythm and

groove, with tinges of Gospel and Blues.

It was music you could really feel all through your body.

One after the other Soul artist and group hit the music

scene all over the globe. We were ''Sitting on the 

Dock of the Bay'', ''Dancing in the Streets'', showing

''Respect'', ''Stopping in the Name of Love'', and

''Getting Ready'' and ''Uptight''.

Soul Music was ''black'' music and often spoke of

 the difficulties that the African-American people were

enduring during the turbulent and often very violent 60's.

I still remember the first time I heard Marvin Gaye sing

''Trouble Man'' and Swedish though I was, somehow

music composed and performed by Black artists appealed

more to me than any other kind of music at that time.

It had........well, soul. (=deep felt emotion)

Some of us may believe that the soul is a term for 

something, an essence, that is immortal.

Something that after we die leaves our earthly bodies

and joins ....well, something eternal.

And comforting as the thought may be,

as yet, there is no real evidence for such being the case.

But then again, there are many things we consider as

''real'' though all we have are words and not scientific 

evidence to support their/its existence.

Take for instance; mind, consciousness, love, soul, time,

reality, truth, etc. etc. aka things we have words for

but we can't really prove exist.

Some things, in my view, we simply choose to 

believe to be ''real'' because we want it to be.

''I have come to realize that our soul is not a static element

or something we can ever put into words. 

It is something we find and embrace in bits and pieces

flowing through an endless journey of life.''

(Debatrayee Banerjee)

about the image: acrylic on canvas filtered in Photoshop

''I think I better dance now.......''

 My mother used to dance. Ballet that is.

Some people hear music and then instantly feel a need to

start moving their body. 

Me? Not so much until I heard ''Killing in the name of'' with

Rage Against the Machine. Truth be told, I'm not sure that

one could call what I did ''dancing'' exactly. Jumping

around would probably be closer to what I did.

''Rage'' tends to do that for me. I think it's something to

do with the energy they produce. My son loves all types

of "Metal'' as in Avant-garde, Black, Alternative, Fusion, etc..

When asked what he liked about ''Metal'' he answered: The energy.

The energy? I was perplexed. I had never thought about music

in conjunction with energy. 

Speed/tempo yes, but never the kind of energy that different 

genres of music may evoke in the listener.

Take ''relaxation music'' for instance, a billion dollar

industry. In my view it's a low energy music that helps many

of us to slow down, to relax, to chill out.

Rather than feeling the urge to get up and dance to it, most

of us would probably feel the urge to be still.

Regardless, music even if it does perhaps not entice us to dance,

it does more often than not evoke an emotional response

in of us.

I remember as a small child wondering why some music

made me feel sad and some made me feel up-beat/happy.

 Wondering why music affects our emotions/feelings

the way it does, is now a matter for serious scientific research 

by some scientists. 

What they have discovered is that

the brain does not have one special place where it analyzes

music, rather, different parts of the brain analyzes different 

parts of the music such as; melody, harmony, rhythm, 

speed/tempo, volume, instrumentation, etc. etc.

What they have also discovered (with the help of MRI, 

Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is that depending on what

we are doing, different parts of the brain ''light up''.

What they have found is that the

 parts of the brain that deals with emotions also 

light up in response to music. This, they believe,

indicates that music is directly connected to our 

feelings.

If we consider music from a global perspective, 

one may wonder if what constitutes ''sad'' and ''happy'' music 

(commonly used terms)would not perhaps vary 

from culture to culture.

 A group of researchers, 

(sorry, but I can't remember the source right now.) 

studying this particular subject decided to look into it.

     Armed with five images of faces showing different

emotions; happy, sad, angry, confused, fearful, 

and pieces of music that in their view corresponded with

those images, the group traveled across the globe

to the most remote places they could find.

What they found was that although the test subjects

had never heard the kind of music they were

subjected to, somehow most of the time they still 

connected the faces to the music ''correctly''.

Music is important, important because it connects us

in so many different ways, and it needs no translation.

At basically every significant event we take part in, there will be

music. (Imagine if there wasn't!)

We use it to celebrate different communal occasions such as births,

 weddings and funerals, dances and sports events,

parties and other kinds of gatherings, religious and

non-religious rituals, festivals and feasts, etc. etc. etc.

''Music can name the unnamable and communicate

the unknowable.''

(Leonard Bernstein)

''Where words leave off, music begins.''

(Heinrich Heine)

''Music produces a kind of pleasure humans can't do without.''

(Confucius)

''Strange though it may so seem,

 sad, sad music can actually heal.

It can be a most treasured friend,

your heavy burdens it will tend.

It can set free your hidden tears,

deep felt emotions, locked up for years.''

(Citizen Z)

Oh, I just remembered another time when

I heard a song that made me want to dance.

Well, jump around. Unfortunately I was in

my car on the way home from a gig at that time

so I had to settle for boogie-ing in my seat.

What was the song? ''Bring me to life'' with

Evanescence.

about the image: acrylic on large canvas

title: Dancers waiting for the accompanist

Just start......take the first step

The first word in the letter said: ''Congratulation! You have

won a 1.000 pound voucher at Boosey & Hawkes.'' 

''How?'' I wondered. When I bought something in a music shop in

 London my receipt had apparently been entered into a 

competition and as luck would have it, I won.

Going back to the shop to redeem my prize I decided to

use the money to buy a soprano saxophone. 

Holding the glistening, beautiful, instrument in my hands

it dawned on me that I had no idea how to play it.

As out of nowhere I suddenly remembered a Chinese saying:

''Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.''

''Just start" I said to myself and so I did.

A year or so later I realized that I needed recording equipment.

The goal was to produce a Demo and hopefully gain some

interest from a Record label. 

I went to our local music shop, had an in depth conversation

with the proprietor as to what I needed to purchase in order

to set up a small recording studio.

''It's all about digital these days'' said the proprietor.

''Do you know anything about it?'' he asked.

''No, but I know that every journey of a thousand miles

 begins with a single step,'' I answered.

When the boxes with all the new equipment arrived

I said to myself: ''Just start.''

I made a few demo's, sent them off to a number of different

Record Companies, got a fair number of interviews, performed on

British TV and a number of Pubs and Clubs. However due to

family circumstances, we had to return to Australia.

Coming back to Australia I joined a pop band as a keyboard player,

formed a Jazz Quartet as a tenor sax player, and entered the

Conservatorium of Music.

Pondering how I was going to be able to do all these things

at the same time I said to myself: ''Just start.''

Eventually, everything fell apart. My best friend died in a

car accident, my partner wanted a divorce, my son,

a sensitive 13 year old, was bullied mercilessly at school,

and I was diagnosed with Anorexia. 

When my hair began to fall out and my doctor told

me that unless I put on weight I was going to die,

I knew that I had to sort out my life, but how?

Just start.

When my son was 17 years old he left home

and moved in to a share house with some ''friends'',

friends who turned out to be dealers, addicts and thieves.

 So began a nightmare that lasted for over ten years.

When he eventually returned home he was an alcoholic,

 diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality disorder,

and a broken man.

How does one deal with that?

Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,

just start.

I started by accepting that I couldn't go this alone.

I needed help.

By chance I found a psychologist

who introduced me to mindfulness, and to Dialectic Behaviour 

Therapy. 

With his help I no longer had to travel my journey

of a thousand miles alone. Each step I took, he took with me.

Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder are not

mental health issues that can be cured. 

They can only be managed. 

So with the help of my psychologist and a lot of

reading and researching I gained a much better understanding

of the ''demons'' my son has to deal with.

Why is getting started sometimes so hard?

A few suggestions:

Because it involves change, and for some of us,

any kind of change can be experienced as scary.

Because some of us are scared of failing.

Because some of us are scared of looking silly

when we try something new.

Because some of us are scared that we may seem incompetent.

Let me ask you this: what would you start doing/saying/thinking

if there was no risk of you failing or looking silly?

What if there is no such thing as failure, only a less desired

outcome?

Planning to make a plan is not making a plan.

so, 

Just start.

''It's in starting with the first step other steps

become clearer.''

(?)

about the image: water colour on paper