How many hats can we juggle at the same time? It's a question that intrigues many of us.
One at a time.
That's what I've been learning from Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats. On this point, I concede that I'd been multitasking a lot. I guess it's fine as long as I switch my hats one by one. Or chapter by chapter. And it's true that I like to embark on several books before finishing each one.
In the middle of Six Thinking Hats, I picked up another book UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World. That's a parenting book with sage advice on raising empathetic kids. One of the crucial steps is to develop reading habits. It doesn't matter if it's a picture book or text-heavier chapter book. Stories or literary fiction is all that matters. The more literary fiction we read, the more we feel with the characters, the more we mirror their actions, and the more we stretch our "empathy muscles." Once I finished the chapter on Reading to Cultivate Empathy, I could practically hear my synapses fritzing and sparking. Hmm, did anyone of you long to start a fiction? I know mine did.
That's why I'm now reading Elizabeth Strout's Anything Is Possible, before finishing Six Thinking Hats and UnSelfie.
Monday, June 26, 2017
Monday, June 12, 2017
Veterans
One hot Sunday morning this summer, I picked up my casual footwear and started running. It seemed like a nondescript day. But this kick-started a healthy habit. Right away, running feels like the next right thing. I ran again the next day, and then the next, and the next after that. Ballpark figures showed that I've run for more than 15 kilos during my first week.
It was a hockey stick moment. Even more so for a bookworm without exercises for years.
Go read any book on distance running, and you'll notice that runners starting after age 40 are being referred to be veteran runners. I'm obviously qualified for that title.
But what, anyway, is old?
I am not even eligible to join the Fifty-Plus Runner Association. Plus, a review published two months ago in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases suggested that an hour of running statistically adds seven hours to our life expectancy. My friend, let me keep my running log, and sooner or later, I'll be younger than you.
It was a hockey stick moment. Even more so for a bookworm without exercises for years.
Go read any book on distance running, and you'll notice that runners starting after age 40 are being referred to be veteran runners. I'm obviously qualified for that title.
But what, anyway, is old?
I am not even eligible to join the Fifty-Plus Runner Association. Plus, a review published two months ago in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases suggested that an hour of running statistically adds seven hours to our life expectancy. My friend, let me keep my running log, and sooner or later, I'll be younger than you.
Friday, June 9, 2017
Superdad
Father's Day is just around the corner.
The best celebration is my daughter's annual school event: Father's Day Challenge. A very special day. We dads can't go to children's school that often. That is a brilliant idea to bring daddies to have a challenging game with kids at school. Every time I joined this event I registered a nice jot of energy. Year after year after year, I kept my promise to join my daughter at school, feeling uplifted.
That also reminds me of a story book Superdad's Day Off.
The story of Superdad goes like this: the greatest superhero dad on the planet works six days a week. He saves the world from disasters and bad guys. Friday is his day off and he always spends it with his kid. By no means do I compare myself with superhero. It just so happens that Father's Day Challenge is scheduled on Friday every year. My Friday's off for this event, it turned out, has been often eventful. One year ago, that's a 19-year-old patient of mine with lung clogged up by blood clots. Alas, I diagnosed a serious cancer, Burkitt lymphoma, in my patient today when it's my Friday half day off to join Father's Day Challenge. Yes, a challenge. It is.
The best celebration is my daughter's annual school event: Father's Day Challenge. A very special day. We dads can't go to children's school that often. That is a brilliant idea to bring daddies to have a challenging game with kids at school. Every time I joined this event I registered a nice jot of energy. Year after year after year, I kept my promise to join my daughter at school, feeling uplifted.
That also reminds me of a story book Superdad's Day Off.
The story of Superdad goes like this: the greatest superhero dad on the planet works six days a week. He saves the world from disasters and bad guys. Friday is his day off and he always spends it with his kid. By no means do I compare myself with superhero. It just so happens that Father's Day Challenge is scheduled on Friday every year. My Friday's off for this event, it turned out, has been often eventful. One year ago, that's a 19-year-old patient of mine with lung clogged up by blood clots. Alas, I diagnosed a serious cancer, Burkitt lymphoma, in my patient today when it's my Friday half day off to join Father's Day Challenge. Yes, a challenge. It is.
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