The beginning of the year started with critical minutes of being at the wrong or right page at the right / wrong time, taking in the “lessons learned” and see what we can do to help ourselves, our neighbors, our globe 🌍 whether it’s climate change, a tragedy, and even an opportunity that you have not “noticed” before. Let’s reframe!
We have witnessed entire towns and villages in Turkey 🇹🇷 and Syria 🇸🇾 disappear almost 30K dead according to CNN news, with estimates over 40,000 people possibly gone due to an earthquake of the worst in the 21sr century besides the 9,5 Richter scale in Chile in 1960. Be aware of what to do to protect yourself in event of an earthquake as CDC advises for prevention!
This morning in this little church of Saint Gerasimos in the city of Patras in Peloponnesus, I heard the priest say to a very stressed videographer preparing for a christening, “don’t stress because you might not be here tomorrow”… perhaps 🤔 he was referring to stress related issues as this is February the month of preparing for heart ❤️ health, or maybe due to the massive loss in the neighboring countries. I listened to these words of wisdom and appreciated the time I had to pray 🙏🏼 for all these lost souls, and pray for the living !
Then we had the snowstorm “Barbara” did we think that it “inconvenienced” us or perhaps helped us gain some snow literacy ? In some parts of the globe it’s natural to get “snowed in” we may gather supplies and equipment great for a few days, and be realistic to ask questions of the local municipality and government. Streets which have constant potholes less room for parking will suffer more when the snow falls as snow ploughing may be difficult. In other parts of the globe local contractors help with small trucks so as to take the ownership off the government.
Let’s enjoy each season for what it gives us, let’s imagine a work of beauty (like the Hogwarts castle!)
Elon Musk gave us his recommended reading list for the past year of 9 books (reinvent life !) and it still seems that some still like to read, while younger generations spend more time on social media and everything online and don’t read enough (except the comments on YouTube or TikTok videos!?). After a very stressful last two years finally many people are rethinking their life, beyond the New Year’s resolutions. Maybe the year of the rabbit 🐇 will finally help some of us move on for things we were stuck in our minds! Let’s turn the page …seeing new horizons and help protect our earth 🌍 as reminded by our Mardi Gras (also known as Carnival) statuette in the city of Patras waiting for their big Carnival event!
November 19th is International Men’s Health Day reminding men to keep healthy, among other things special focus on heart 💜 health, skin health, and checking for testicular or colon cancers (talk with your doctor or paediatrician— yes testicular issues can happen with teens too!). Let’ normalise our body for better health….. it seems that our media alters our perception about being ‘perfect’ and so this post is dedicated to the many males that have told me about their health and sexuality issues, in my attempt to help them continue to ask questions and seek professional advice. Furthermore, I was sent this ‘talisman’ from an archaeologist friend to prompt interest in this area… after all ‘sex sells’ as they say. A 2022 article in Men’s Health focused on the Best and Worst Cities for Longevity but one may not be able to afford good food, have little time to exercise, and their immediate environment may be dirty, have toxins and in essence be hazardous for their health. Hopefully history can help us learn more, and continue to increase our health literacy.
1) The talisman of the phallus for “good luck and fertility/ health” from Roman times, gives historical context of the importance to men and women. Interestingly around the globe (except in Greece) there are temples dedicated to Priapus however he was banned from Olympus, perhaps there was a reason? Aphrodite (‘Venus’) in the statue found in the Archaeological Museum in Athens shows amusement but is ready to ‘strike’ with her sandal a very ‘eager’ Pan, while Eros holds him back…..
The ‘reverence’ of the Penis but also showcasing the human body, throughout history. Many cultures from Ancient Greece and Rome to Ancient Egypt, and statues found in Latin America prove this.
2) The statue of Don Quixote (Quichote) and and his trusted companion sidekick is his squire Sancho Panza found in Madrid, Spain.
Sancho Panza is a short, pot-bellied peasant (reminding men to keep healthy and share their problems with smart witty friends!)
Don Quixote of La Mancha was published by Miguel Cervantes in 1600s and considered a worldwide classic!
Don Quixote & Sanchez — photos by B. Kondilis (c) 2022, Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸
Freud talks about ‘penis envy’ but one could argue there is also ‘vagina envy’ and it seems more men like to cross-dress than women do, so that says something. Furthermore, since it comes up ⬆️ often in discussions (pun intended)…we thought to share about the “obsession with the penis” — read more in Science Direct article by K. Wylie published in 2008. There is also a very extensive blog post about “the Phallus in Ancient Greece” making the point that many ancient cultures revered it as a symbol of health and fertility. Beyond this, I published in 2006 about AIDS research 🧐 but we are still dealing with an endemic situation… Good to stay alert 🚨 and be safe.
Autumn is here and we are loving the rain and cooler days. For many world regions floodwater has destroyed property and land a bit apocalyptic for some; flooding is concerning due to continued climate change.
Time for the Earth to bare her last fruit/veggies as she, like us ”takes a rest”. Fall or Autumn (from the Latin autumnus) reminds us of the year passing, as we take out out warm sweaters and comfort foods.
What is your Fall Season “comfort food”? Perhaps a morning oatmeal with a bit of maple syrup reminding you of the colors and the beauty of autumn.
In times of “low energy“ it’s to your benefit to add some extra vitamins with pumpkin seeds, cranberries, some goji berries … good and extra yummy!
Wikipedia defines comfort food as something of nostalgic nature from our childhood usually that makes us feel “cared for” and indeed a hot breakfast around cold Fall and winter days makes us feel better. A reminder that “all that falls” could be your mood and a bit of seasonal depression so do something, be active, put on that warm cuddly sweater and make something good for yourself !
Breakfast, the most important part of your day so start your day with energy!
Demeter, goddess of agriculture, harvest and fertility, is a reminder of seasonal changes, human bounty, and potential loss. Gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece mirrored human nature, one may say as a mother she surely felt a great emptiness when her daughter Persephone was lured by Hades into the underworld disappearing from beloved earth grounds. Hades, a dark figure (may be something like a modern Darth Vader) convinces the kind-hearted Persephone to fall for him offering her a pomegranate.
By eating a few seeds she consummates this relationship so that even the great leader-god Zeus could not intervene, thus Persephone travels to Hades part of the year, and as she re-emerges her mother, Demeter brings flowers and the budding of Spring — a beautiful myth!
Writers talk about the necessity of change, darkness being a necessary part of our healing (Thomas Moore “Dark Nights of the Soul”).
The continued pagan tradition of the pomegranate, a bittersweet food of seeds or squeezed into juice, rich in vitamin C and anti-inflammatory properties, is added with barley / bulgar wheat, to commemorate death of loved ones as part of the memorial services of several Eastern Orthodox traditions (called “kolyva” κόλλυβα).
There’s a great list of benefits including helping weight loss indicated in a popular fitness magazine, Shape (pomegranate info).
There are the RED types
And the PINK types (regional differences and sweeter) are both equally delicious!
Fall healthy eating tips:
Eat more pumpkin, lotus, and any beta carotene rich vegetables and fruit
Pair your leftover Halloween 🎃 candy w/ some Omega rich nuts !
Take a walk in the woods and gather some chestnuts ? Remember 20 mins a day, walk briskly.
This October we celebrate Domestic abuse awareness, health literacy month, Breast Cancer Awareness, and it’s time for the annual mammograms for women over 50 years of age … pink ribbon 🎀 to commemorate and a beautiful Bougainvillea tree this year as a reminder!
Remember to check for any odd lumps as there is a recommended way to do self-checks – Mayo Clinic
Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com
And if we can think that we are checking for lumps the size of a pea (not a nut!) for primary prevention this is most important. Jennifer Garner, American actress recently shared the importance of mammograms check out Hello Magazinearticle and video.
Our friends the squirrels 🐿 look for 🌰 nuts, they are celebrating their own October month too … (Squirrels US National Awareness month) important for our globe’s ecology.
At the recent Europe in Discourse III Conference held in Athens, we presented on some very important health communication issues part of a global health literacy panel including:
Oral health and interrelated global health issues (Kritikos)
After school language program curriculum building for awareness of smoking as prevention (Dimitsanti)
Refugee crisis and health literacy (Ioannidi)
Violence against women and “femicide” (Argyriou, Kondilis)
😓given the event in Iran 🇮🇷 about the death by “moral police” violence of Masha Amini, this was timely
Graffiti in times of recent economic and covid crisis in EU (Kondilis & Kountouris)
If we could wave a magic wand in 2022 it would take us back to pre-covid “normal”. Tinkerbell used her magic stardust for Peter Pan and why not for us?
Oximeter
Does anyone get the feeling that we are living another reality? A recent meteorite just ”skimmed” past our planet 🌎, major catastrophes, earthquakes and tsunamis, some people could benefit from snow literacy, and all benefit by touching faith.
Major economic power countries have so much ”space junk” floating around (check out Business Insiderarticle); yet, media is so focused on this “little bugger” Covid. It’s been proven as a blood clotting disease 🦠 attacking lungs and other vital organs, while we are all learning Greek letters one painful Covid strain at a time (Delta δ , omikron ο)…. I loved reading about the creative writing student who wrote about the Greek letters protesting about their reputation and losing ”face” as someone wrote “can’t wait for the letter pi (π) it will just be going to infinity” 🤓😩😮
The scientific community is still at odds about mRNA vaccines and the ”architect“ of these vaccines stands with over 16,000 scientists planning for a protest in Washington DC soon which will add yet another dimension to our own confusion.
One thing is for sure, Covid is highly contagious, hospitalization may be an unpleasant result for some due to infection, continued fever and trouble breathing as oxygen intake hypoxaemia or other concurrent health issues may even lead to core damage or death (the ”cause of death” is another contentious issue for many countries’ data bases).
If you’ve ever made any arts and crafts in grade school with glitter you know how it sticks to everyone… it’s exactly how covid transfers from person to person. These winter months so does flu, the common cold and now there is a new category of both flu and covid 😵💫.
Take care of your health and if you do not only believe in “luck” you’ll surely make it out ok ✅, but please stick to the recommended 15-day rule of self-testing everyone or rapid/ PCRs for your home (close contacts) and requirements for travel. As global citizens you owe it to be responsible, vaccinate if its appropriate and recommended for your age, remember medical staff are overwhelmed. Alas, this 2020 WHO poster is now becoming a reality; there are many cases of people needing surgeries or other care, and not getting it due to the Covid pandemic…..understandably a big problem.
Think about it… don’t overuse the health system … and focus on prevention and early treatment.
“One only understands what one tames”, said the fox 🦊 to the Little Prince. We must be patient, deal with our inner gremlins even our idealizations, realizing we all have something to offer each other. Perhaps this needs to be our “great reset” button this year, not focusing so much on conspiracies.
Contributing to your health literacy, with some health tips (remember severe pain or fever, may signify a more serious condition, you need to consult a medical provider):
wear a mask 😷 tight around the nose, when you’re indoors in crowded spaces, for those who are sick at home cloth masks are just fine (always wash your hands and wear clean masks every few hours)
rest, sleep 😴 🛌 is the best medicine
don’t panic 😱! Look at the data, most people make it through just fine, and be more diligent about self-care if you have a chronic health condition.
Good Mental Health is key 🔐 reframe the ”little bugger” (positive Get a little crazy …mindset) as it helps your physical health
check your oxygen levels using an oximeter (they are cheap) and body temp with a thermometer 🌡. Remember an oximeter is essential to detect hypoxaemia, the source of oxygen which may be too low and you may need to be put on a ventilator or worse clinical distress and need to undergo endotracheal intubation.
Intake plenty of fluids, antioxidant vitamins (C, Zinc), garlic, propolis, a bit of 🌞 sun for vitamin D (15 minutes near a sunny window, think like a cat!) Echinacea works in the very first symptoms as its more preventive
rinse out mucosal passages morning and evening before bed (throat and nose — saltwater is great, lemon with honey and a bit of hot water is equally soothing for a scratchy painful throat),
some indoor/outdoor exercise like walking and even lung “workouts” (there are plenty youtube videos especially by Ayurvedic physicians).
One additional thing that helps any flu or lung-type cold is heat. Tried heating a large stone/brick in a stove (not microwave) or in the summer sun —> a porous large stone or brick are best, wrapping in a soft towel and putting on chest (shirt required to prevent unwanted burns, and adults only!) until heat runs out, about 10 mins.
eucalyptus type creme or gel on chest and nostrils 👃 may helps free up clogged nasal passages as some are not keen . A few essential oil drops from eucalyptus or lavender are great in a humidifier too!
Honey with lemon and a bit of hotwater in the morning, later on with your herbal tea, and in your cough syrup is great medicine! Honey honey honey! 🍯
There is a rainbow after every major difficulty…. Rainbows 🌈 for all.
“What makes the desert beautiful,’ said the little prince, ‘is that somewhere it hides a well…”
They are handsome, debonair, can talk you to the moon 🌝 and back again…but as with that, some dark sides of the moon we cannot see clearly until it’s too late. I cannot say how many times I’ve heard this. The experience of the ‘blame game’ where partners take no responsibility, some using their physical or economic strength (if their partner/wife is raising the children and do not work) as male privilege. Worse, the intentionality of a crime where many wives and mothers, girlfriends, are killed as a “result” of their wanting to leave the relationship — perhaps with building pressure from job loss or stress of COVID, who knows? Fits of narcissistic rage, long-standing anger builds to the point of abuse and death. This borderline personality of “I love you but I hate you” is alive and well within all levels of society. There are many sites we can refer to better understand what the POWER & CONTROL issues are and in order to help our friends, neighbors, fellow citizens become more aware of anger management, domestic abuse, and issues of equality. The best model by far is the ‘Duluth Model’ developed in Minnesota in the 1980s as it is still used and modified by many counselors, organizations, and advocacy groups today.
The recent Greek murder case of the 20-year-old Caroline Crouch, beautiful and talented, experienced kickboxer, a mother of an 11-month-old infant, who wanted “out” from a relationship with her husband of almost twice her age, is now dead. Murdered by her husband Babis Anagnostopoulos, who recently confessed …. a national shocker for the country and now the world, for what seemed a ‘perfect crime’…. her personal data watch helped crack the case. It brought me back memories of an older crime from the 1990s in Boston, Mass, a story which also made national headlines with 3rd party accusations — another Carol, and her husband Charles Stuart. She was very pregnant, family issues no one was aware of, and her husband became greedy. In a scene between Rey and Ben (a.k.a. Kylo Ren), the intensity between the characters and being ‘put down’ to feel emotionally vulnerable ….the “Join Me” scene….it is subtle, but the moment of weakness is evident.
The intense ‘Join Me’ scene between Ben (Kylo Ren) and Rey (Star Wars The Last Jedi)
Confronting fear and looking in to the dark side to find the “ray” of light was an intentional part of Star Wars. An enjoyable post by Digital Spy shows how Rey helps Ben (Kylo Ren) ‘escape’ from the dark side. Indeed, this is what many women do, as natural caretakers, to help or ‘save’ partners in the name of love. We all need to be in constant check ourselves of our behavior and choices. But as the story made horror film of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde goes, it may be our chemicals and our becoming possessed from this darker side that leads to unexplicable reactions.
Many of these “princes” are indeed fabulous in the beginning of relationships…. until the children come and/or the stress builds …. a large falling out can happen to many who experience the stress of a new baby the first couple of years. For men who may not comprehend that a wife /mother has her priorities on her baby/young child until the balance is resumed, can experience intense emotional conflict. Many of us have been there….with this experience of the “fairytale gone bad” due to longstanding narcissism, borderline features, some traumas (untreated), all too familiar. It does not matter who you are, but it seems that if you are younger, alone or isolated, these ‘characters’ can take this as part of an advantage….
Patterns of behavior can start young … some relate to developmental immaturity, others carry throughout life.
During one of my graduate public health classes years ago, we had created an intervention for violence prevention emphasizing how younger relationships may sometimes end up in dating violence — examples of “power” struggles and use of force (physical, sexual, psychological) because of fear of loss and intense jealousy (i.e. breakup) which can end in a horrible situation, even death.
Communication skills and empathy building, anger management (building EQ) are critical.
Any intervention should include both the perpetrators and the victims. As one teacher friend did by building a communication “card” for her students to deal with bullying, we all need one through life!
Seek counseling and spiritual guidance.
Share your stories so that others can learn from them.
Personality is complex, aspects build over time, the side that past psychoanalyst Carl Jung referred to as our dark side is sometimes unknown fully even to us! Spiritualists call this evil. I recall this pictured vividly in an older film movie “The Ghost” as life circumstances and jealousy lead to extreme actions. The shadow, the anima, the animus, and the Self – as Jung wrote has both a light and a dark aspect… modern research indicates that we CAN help others control these ‘inner demons’ with meditation, prayer, and cognitive restructuring, NLP (or whatever works for them). Of course meditation helps with depression — longstanding depression or intense anger issues, one should always check with a professional! Many Bible verses call for protection, and can be found on-line. If this is something one wishes to seek out, then practice reading these daily!
Is Pinnochio just a childhood story ?
The “dark triad” of personality, such as the one that may be indicated in personal or workplace relationships, is one that develops over time. It is a combination of narcissism, sociopathy and Machiavellian traits. Wikipedia lists the “Prince of darkness” as being either Satan (in the Biblical sense) or Machiavelli the statesman historical figure of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 -1527) whose cunning political prowess kept him in power at the helm. You might think his childhood hero was Pinocchio, an innocent and manipulated wooden puppet who eventually developed remorse for his actions….not sure about Niccolo! He wrote the infamous book, The Prince, which some say he was writing about himself, while others think was about what he witnessed around him. It’s worth a read, as we all need to keep these dark sides “in check” as when we allow the ‘takeover’ we can destroy our own life as well as that of others….
If you are READING this, and you recognize some of the emotional instability patterns in several relationships (frequent break-ups, rage at others especially if they ‘don’t pay attention to you’, emotional up and downs) it will benefit you to seek professional help.
Austen Lennon, M.D. has a newer book (2018), a ‘must buy’ for those who want to help people with borderline personality (see GoodReads here). Several sites refer to POWER & CONTROL issues, intending to help our friends, neighbors, fellow citizens become more aware of domestic abuse and issues of equality. I liked this site developed both in Canada and in the U.S. to Reach Out and ‘help a friend’ (webpage). The video below is a ‘taste’ of some of the issues of an emotionally abusive relationship (Duluth Center). You can try to kiss the toad, as that childhood story goes, but they might be one of these very ‘dark’ princes…. so keep your eyes on your inner mirror.
April is National Poetry Month, in the U.S. Inspired by the successful celebrations of Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March), the Academy of American Poets established National Poetry Month in 1996.
I have been writing poetry for a very long time and only recently during quarantine had a bit more time in my plethora of life and work matters, to pick up some poetry books to read, and of course write more. Why not published….. hmm? Too busy reading articles. Part of inspiring hope is through literature and poetry. Poetry can take many forms, it can describe a mood, reflect on subconscious or conscious thoughts, history, fantasy or reality. Quotes and poetry add great depth to our lives, to inspire, to make a difference, so dream and think like a poet!
Robert Frost, and many of his writings are classics, one of my favorites, as also the metaphysical poet John Donne. Andrew Spacey in Owlcation poetry analysis of Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (written in 1922) provides a great analysis by stanza (group of lines divided into groups and separated by lines in a poem). Indeed some of Frost’s lines are “dark” but then, a lot of music and poetry is. It describes our mood, subconscious thoughts or simply a state of mind. Frost has that ‘hunky sensitivity’ — endearing to many of us romantic types — this poem is indeed reflective of isolation, and if anyone travels to Vermont or New Hampshire during the long winter months, they can understand the context of a seemingly mundane world.
This may be how some people even view the current pandemic. Mundane and isolationist.
Diseases categorized as ‘pandemics’ used to travel very slowly, in older days. So slowly that it took decades and even hundreds of years for these to reach continental Europe from places like Asia. Although it has been documented that quarantines helped control disease spread in the Middle Ages, we as human beings cannot live very long in isolation. We do not travel solely on ships anymore, we are ‘airborne’ — and this is the issue of the current COVID-19 and related SARS family of diseases. COVID continues to get the reputation of being a ‘clotting disease‘ and unfortunately damages multiple organs. We keep losing people, the medical community is overburdened and fatigued.
One of my students recently lost his wife, mother of two, ages 13 and 9, may she rest in peace. Others we know had been hospitalized, some ‘survived’ but still report extreme exhaustion and having ‘fuzzy’ unclear thinking processes.
Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) another American favorite wrote more than 800 poems found in her family home in Amherst, MA. Influenced by her context, a strict father, a mother who was crippled from a stroke.
It takes time. We want to believe that self-tests will shed light on the “Typhoid Mary” types of of our communities, the Spreaders and potential Carriers. We hope that having a substantial proportion of the population vaccinated will help humans move forward so it is not as in ‘the end of days’ or some version of the Apocalypse. We need to go back to the basics of trace data, inform close-nit groups, and train community health aides.
There is confusion, an anti-vax movement, and for sure no perfect solution. As with everything, we need to take action, to educate, and to empower. A recent March correspondence article “Covid-19, cults and the antivax-movement” in The Lancet, I am aligned with this: “Burgess and colleagues drew attention to how people who might have suffered disproportionate economic and health consequences from COVID-19 are now being asked to trust the same structures that failed to provide adequate resources and social protection during the pandemic…..However, Burgess and colleagues make a distinction between ‘people wholly opposed to vaccinations (anti-vaxxers) and…vaccine hesitancy.’“
MUNDANE
War, Blood,
the tears of pain,
of victory, of power,
the story of greed.
Walk, journey,
the birth of life,
of growth, of courage,
the story of survival.
Hope, fear,
the light of truth,
of freedom, of serenity,
the story of peace.
(B. Kondilis, 1991)
Photo by Alex Green on Pexels.com
We start with a few, and keep adding…. this is how preventive education starts. Individual is good but population-based even better. Meaning the “biggest bang for your buck.” No one knows it better than people trained by the CDC or similar entities. As it seems, it makes no difference if we were trained 20 years ago or 40 years ago. Whether it was the AIDS epidemic or the Covid Pandemic, increasing health literacy remains a consistent goal.
We are trained to give information, to work with teams and media (radio, TV, internet, magazine, newspaper, you name it), for any type of disease (chronic or infectious/ communicable). Mental health trained clinicians deal with loss, help people better understand their strength and resilience, to ‘have a chance’ and make the world a better place to live. We know there is mistrust, but we also know how important trust-building is to the patient-provider relationship. Healthcare professionals, allied health professionals, mental health professionals all bring their ‘arms’ to the “Round-Table” if there ever was a health communication ideal of ‘Camelot’….
Barbara Kondilis & MaryLee Behrens, lifelong health educators during an online session with health psychology students
We can take time this Hallowed eve of “Halloween” to reflect on the good spirits of departed loved ones. There is a grief process and taking healthy actions to increase health literacy around health and mental health topics as what we do on this blog.
Beyond the fact that October was health literacy month, it was also Breast Cancer awareness month. Reminders for self-testing, getting necessary tests like annual blood tests, Pap tests (women) and mammograms for the over 35 group, colonoscopy, particularly those at high risk. This article by Medical News Today was very useful in understanding how and why we need to check our body’s “nodes” (axillary nymph nodes in this case) for any swelling and changes and get to a doctor!
Recently losing a friend to an up-and-down battle with cancer makes me think of all the people I’ve worked with (or was friends with) that got sick, some survive, some do not. There tend to be personality characteristics of people who tend to get sicker, but a big piece has to do with how their environmental stressors and even unhealthy living areas contribute to this. This is indeed the nature-nurture link. Fall is generally the season of pomegranates and thinking of loss as we head into the long winter period of darkness. Maya Angelou’s poem “When I think of death” helps in expressing grief but also a fact of life.
What is your grief? Poems
We grieve, remember, and remind others to self-care
There are several bloggers who write about cancer and many NGOs dedicated to “spreading the word” on such ailments as breast cancer — in the U.S. it is the Susan G. Komen Foundation (similar org called “Alma Zois” Άλμα Ζωής in Greece). This was the first year in a decade we didn’t do their annual fundraiser walk/run and so the necessary funding and advertising for these agencies is reduced. This makes it impossible for people to do the necessary work.
There are also reminders for getting to a doctor and the necessary treatment especially in Covid19 lockdowns ….. thus sharing this blogger’s content here —
“… knowing you are going to die makes clearing out the cupboards so much easier!” The sound of choked laughter came through the phone. “You should write that,” said my friend, once his calm was once more regained. The sentiment had, I think, taken him off guard, but it was a simple observation. Even in […]
These are tough weeks worldwide with COVID-19 rising death tolls as all market sectors are affected. An unlucky Friday the 13th as several Forbes articles are predicting a range of problems from technology to delays in college applications.
Health messages can be very powerful if they come from well-known sports figures, local and international movie stars. We need this on a daily basis if we are to motivate change in stopping the transmission of viruses like the Coronavirus, also known as CoVID-19. ife Rita Wilson who have contracted social stigma (reminds many of the first years of HIV in the 80s and 90s).
Tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas did a brilliant for public service announcement for the Hellenic (Greek) Ministry of Health with the directive to “sing Happy Birthday to You” 2 times as you wash your hands! Besides being an Orlando Bloom look-alike, talented sportsman, he has a great career as a public health communicator! Go Stefanos! Many efforts are made to increase awareness of how the disease can affect all sectors and e-learning may help curb the issue at least from school – college.
Recent cartoons help “spread” the word
Local stars in Greece like Sakis Rouvas who are promoting the “Stay Home” for 2 weeks movement. We say that as long as stars “practice what they preach” they can reach millions much more than any politician …though the current Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis is doing a very good job with communicating risk. In times of critical incidents how political figures and governments “handle” situations either builds or breaks trust. Mr. Mitsotakis you’re doing a good job with tough historical issues — one side the migrant crisis and hybrid war and on the other the virus 🦠 and the economic recovery, Bravo 👏!
Speaking of inspiration and stars ⭐️ here is an open-air “cafe” moment, before the ‘lock-down’, with my friend Antigone D. who creates amazing Electronica music ranging from epic classics to 80s 90s with the magic of her keyboard…. Check out her single “Electro Infinity” from the album Next Generation on YouTube.
Best to keep our distance and no excess show of affection like kisses 💋 and handshakes 🤝 which were a historical “given” in almost all Mediterranean cultures. But as a more recent Guardian article seems to suggest, we are evolving our social etiquette from handshakes, to using elbows and footshakes, during this critical time.
Hands off we say with Antigone D.!
“It’s over now the music of the night…” 🎶 as is sung by the Phantom in one of my favorite plays The Phantom of the Opera ….or is it!? Yes, bars and restaurants will close for 2 weeks to promote the “Stay Home” 🏠 Movement for prevention. But we can still be smart and enjoy shows via video and livestream to eventually close the chapter of another Deadly vires.
Be smart and be patient friends, social distancing is “in”!
She was #166 waiting patiently her turn in a public hospital while others (and she) were unaware of her condition eventually aware she was carrying the Co-VID19. She took responsibility and informed others for the need of quarantine.
She was Asian who was living in Northern Italy and was told “go away, we don’t want your virus!” She wins the approval of her colleagues as bystanders intervened and she’s now trying to be see how and what we need to work on in the name of prejudice and in times of panic.
She baked all day, kneading the dough into perfect braids with her arthritis ridden fingers. Those infamous Greek koulourakia. They were given to several people living alone, in need for comfort food, and even some intergenerational fun.
Koulourakia for a better world !
I did my part Recently in an internet radio station in Northern Greece in educating the lay public on associated issues, the need for preventive measures of viruses, and the importance of health literacy (Watch/listen to this). We might be getting better in containment but still as with all serious health threats a “thorny” situation (take a read of “A rose in winter”) You may not know these women but you can relate to their actions, and we want them to keep healthy and strong!
May you blossom like the almond and cherry trees as they quickly change leaves to form fruit. You are vital to humanity’s survival. Congratulate and hug a woman today for just being her. March 8th, International Woman’s Day!
May you blossom like the almond and cherry trees as they quickly change leaves to form fruit. You are vital to humanity’s survival. 
Build health literacy for life 