MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

The "Peace" Rose (photo LP) This morning, when I returned home after a weekend away, enjoying the spring blossoming native wildflowers during  my walks,  I was delighted to see that the first of the spring roses had bloomed.  This rose is called "Peace" and comes from a 50 year old bush which was given to me by friends who were demolishing an old house;  the rosebush would not fit with their new garden. Geraldton Wax, a native bush which parades it's beautiful flowers only in Spring (photo LP) Some details about the "Peace" rose from Wikipedia:  It was developed by  French   horticulturist  Francis Meilland  in the years 1935 to 1939. When Meilland foresaw the German invasion of France he sent cuttings to friends in Italy, Turkey, Germany, and the United States to protect the new rose. It is said, that it was sent to the US on the last plane available As Meilland sent his cuttings just before the war, communication b...

This morning The West Australian newspaper published an article about Notre Dame University fighting the spread of "digital stress"by urging staff to switch off their email for one morning a week and talk to each other instead. The Chancellor was quoted as saying that apart from being distracting and time-consuming, emails had a higher likelihood of being misinterpreted because they were not accompanied by eye contact, body language or facial communication. The term "digital stress"has been coined to refer to information overload caused by too much multi-tasking on digital devices.  The article resonated with me because I have had a interesting week presenting The Percy Institute's  Strive for Corporate Success program to an international humanitarian organisation, and also a top tier legal firm. My program content is tailored for each client but there are a number of areas of interest which are common to two such diversified organisations. When t...