The novel coronavirus is unknown and rightly frightening. Like some terrible ghost, it seemingly defies all borders and boundaries.

Columns share an author's personal perspective and are often based on facts in the newspaper's reporting.

The novel coronavirus is unknown and rightly frightening. Like some terrible ghost, it seemingly defies all borders and boundaries. Many hoard toilet paper in the flimsy hopes of sopping up fears of helplessness. Others horrifyingly stock up on guns. Those on the more anxious side of the personality spectrum redouble efforts at meditation and breathing exercises. But just as scary as the COVID-19 virus itself is its unleashing of the worlds two oldest pestilences, irresponsible ignorance and its twin evil, scapegoating. We need, now more than ever, a double dose of the Enlightenment.

The era of Enlightenment advanced many values. On the one side were reason, rationality, and fine-tuning the individuals moral conscious against the sway of unfounded tradition. But the Age of Reason was hardly an emotionless machine. On the other side were compassion and humanism. Amid the current epidemic, both sides of The Enlightenment seem scarcer than a bottle of Purell in a Wal-Mart.

Consider the Oval Office. The current administration has abdicated its duty to promote what the Preamble to the US Constitution a great exemplar of the Enlightenment - calls the general Welfare. The president has set his illogical crosshairs on both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In another stroke of willful recklessness, he jettisoned the National Security Councils Office of Global Health Security and Biodefense. Of equal folly was appointing the vice president as chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force (which is more than 90% male). This medieval man lacks any background in medicine, science, or public health. He denies global warming and the connection between smoking and cancer, refused as governor of Indiana to address the AIDS epidemic, and attacks one of our most important and heroic healthcare organizations, Planned Parenthood, with the zeal of the Spanish Inquisition.

Moving from unscientific folly to intolerance, it hardly needs saying that there is no such thing as the Chinese Virus. So why would President Trump and his followers insist on using the slur? Most likely, to further his political platform of xenophobia. In times of crisis, its always easier to point the accusatory finger at someone else, preferably foreigners. Its a time-honored political tactic, fine-tuned especially by those who excel at demagoguery. But it has no basis in fact or scientific nomenclature, only in fear and prejudice.

Of course, the president has plenty of company in this bigotry, as the rising tide of racist tirades, assaults, and harassment against anybody who looks even remotely Asian amply attests. The FBI warned us as much only a few days ago. News media have amply documented instances of illegal hostility towards Orientals, a term that refers not to real people but to a stereotype wherein Hmong or Thai, Japanese or Indonesian American, it makes no difference, they are all some Typhoid Mary. CoughingWhileAsian is not just a twitter hashtag but a justifiable dread of extremist violence. The model minority, as many headlines proclaim, has rapidly turned into the yellow peril.

Jews, the original model minority, know this slipperiness well. Indeed, the coronavirus fright has also fomented resurgent anti-Semitism. In the eyes of many, were poisoning the wells all over again. Florida pastor Rick Wiles, who previously dubbed the impeachment effort a Jew coup, recently thundered that the Almighty is spreading the virus through synagogues because the Jews are guilty of deicide: Repent and believe and the plague will stop. (Perhaps he reads from the same hymnal as the Iranian regime?) One might dismiss the good pastor as a kook except that his news service, TruNews, has been granted press credentials by the White House.

Of course, the pandemic has also spawned no shortage of religious madness. The irrational fear of rationality also afflicts those who are themselves targets of bigotry. A few communities of ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Jews (as they prefer to be called) shun basic science as much as many fundamentalist Christians, mosques, and church leaders from Brazil to St. Petersburg. Too many clerics seem intent on shepherding their flock into the emergency ward. A few of the faithful may welcome a fast-track to heaven but those of us who know better prefer to hang on to our mortal coils just a little bit longer.

As a cultural anthropologist, I am fiercely and unapologetically dedicated to cultural diversity. Yet belief is no excuse for ignorance. That was a central tenet of the Enlightenment that we desperately need today. Religion often soothes angst. But devotion at the expense of science is a danger we hardly need today. And scapegoating, while a convenient way to avoid your own culpability in a situation run amok, always proves rather less convenient for the person just spat upon.

Theres nothing like a pandemic to expose the dangers of self-delusion and xenophobia. Neither hair shirts nor hurling invective were much use before the Enlightenment. They certainly are not now. We should have learned that lesson four centuries ago. Its not too late.

Eric Silverman, a former Research Professor of Anthropology, is a Senior Scholar at the international law firm McAllister Olivarius and affiliated with the Brandeis University Womens Studies Research Center.

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Column: COVID-19 and the Enlightenment - Opinion - MetroWest Daily News

Image Source: Scopio.

When we practice samatha and vipassanawell, practicing samatha and vipassana can be seamless; but they dont have to follow one another a series of events start to occur through practice:

1) Our concentration becomes unwavering,

2) We develop clarity and insight,

3) With the power of our focused concentration we might exhibit some special abilities. Personally, I develop a very strong sense of intuition; or bear a strong inkling towards an ambition that seemingly fosters greater good: well, specifically meaning, I get inspired to inspire others in mindfulness.

4) Our eternal and looming queries about everythingour lives, the universe etc.get answered automatically, or that we stop beating and haranguing ourselves to go seek out answers of questions that go in similar line.

5) We somehow develop wisdom and therefore courage.

6) I, for instance, constantly find myself mulling few questions: How are you coming to terms with your own life? What does it mean?

7) Your physical and mental sense of awareness heightens. They sharpen, so to speak.

We seek enlightenment through meditation. But what is enlightenment? Enlightenment is nothing; its understanding that there is no understanding; and its about understanding nothing and being nothing; its about going nowhere and being no one. Yet its about being alive and fullalive and full and breathing in/through this mortal body, through this mind, through the open, expansive, spacious, timeless, deathless and all-invincible mind, all the while remaining joyous and free. Enlightenment is about entertaining a sense of aliveness and fullness in and through ones mind and body and body and mind, understanding emptiness of it all (and understanding emptiness), and yet welcoming the concomitant fullness. That is what enlightenment is all about. Simply life. Simply life is simply enlightenment. Embrace life. Embrace Buddhas teaching on mindfulness meditation.

Finally, lets recap about the steps of vipassana meditation:

1) First, start by observing your breath.

2) Then start noting whatever arises nonjudgmentally and gently.

3) Then perform counting of your chosen object of meditationlike one, two for the inbreath and the outbreath.

4) Watch and observe your thoughts, emotions and discursions of your mind. Watch good thoughts; and watch bad thoughts. But do not get involved and engaged. Just watch. Observe. They are mere neural activities; those thoughts will disappear if you sit stillin body, in mind.

5) Consider difficultiesin meditation practice or in lifeas your teachers; those difficulties will help strengthen your skills in meditation. Alleviate obstructions in meditation like sleepiness, boredom and sluggishness. And how do you do that? You dispel difficulties in meditation by remembering that just the way its difficult to learn good and valuable skills, learning to meditate is not easy. It entails some effort on your part. You need to remain mindful and watchful: of your tendency to slip into laziness. You also need to check your own tendency to slip into negativity and pessimism.

6) In vipassana, you try to observe the non-self in you which is your awareness. It is timeless and empty, yet all-encompassing and all-powerful.

7) Let your meditation practiceor your breaththe in-breath and the out-breath guide you to work through any physical, emotional and mental pain: both in your present and your past.

8) Understand this: that your mind is expansive, open and already fulfilled. There is not even an iota of difficulty and anxiety there. Rest there. That is your abode. That is the practice of meditation: of vipassana.

9) Practicing vipassana meditation is also about practicing and understanding the nature of your mind. And the way your mind worked. Your mind is the seat of your happiness and pain.

10) When your mind is still, you can foster amazing power. You might develop the capacity to remember your past life, or your future life; you might see supernatural events like seeing visions of Buddha himself. But thatgaining such powersisnt the goal of meditation. Transcend such capacity or powers and try to be silent and calm.

11) Whatever arises in your consciousness, note them and label them. If you experience distraction, say distraction, if you notice overactivity of mind, say overactivity of mind, if you react with anger, say reacting with anger. With practice, you will be silent and your meditation practice will be better. Sometimes, it takes years of practice to arrive to this avenue. So, in the practice of vipassana meditation, note and label events from both your body and mind.

Vipassana meditation should come to you easy. Why? Because youre a human-and how rare and precious a human birth is!and you can acknowledge and understand your own life processes and your own motivations and inspirations, and you can observe and study the activities of your own mind; your own comings and goingsyoure in a way living a vipassana-inspired life when youre living mindfully alone (your mind is so powerful!). What do I mean? When you develop mindfulness, you develop openness and clarity; when you develop openness and clarity, you develop concentration and Insight.

When youre not thinking anything; when youre quiet and not exactly asleep and when youre also not meditating, your lifeyour entire lifewill flash right before your eyes. That is a vipassana moment: the non-thinking activelybut your life flashing right before your eyes .

This article was first published as a component of my online course on Udemy titled Principles and Practice of Mindfulness Leadership: Coaching Insights and Inspirations from Buddhism. Learn the actual practice of Mindfulness Meditation!

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The Practice of Vipassana - Thrive Global

This is the fourth installment of our Home Movies column by Philippa Snow, about what we watch when no ones watching.

Watched this week: Enlightened (2011-13) | Mad Men (2007-15)

A few weeks before the lockdown, I began re-watching Mad Men for the second time, so that I reached the final episode somewhere around day five or six when things still felt unreal and spooky. I have always felt the last scene of the show, in which Don Draper meditates and ends up conjuring the 1971 Id Like to Give the World a Coke campaign, to be one of the ugliest, most nihilistic endings in the history of prestige television: the twinning of advertising with enlightenment, suggesting that there is no higher plane for the shows alcoholic ad-man than the one where he sells soda and Vicks VapoRub to mothers in the suburbs, is at best bleakly amusing, and at worst a total disavowal of any and all progress he has made in the preceding ninety hours. Mad Mens ending is the thing that tips it over into genius, a boldly downbeat period on the last page of a long, elegantly-crafted novel about mid-century media, and America, as meaningful as anything by Philip Roth or Thomas Pynchon.

Curiously, I noticed that a still of Draper meditating, dressed in white and looking without context like the very picture of enlightenment, kept reappearing in my Twitter feed in the days following my re-watch of the show. Evidently, Esquire had begun to use it in an article about the usefulness of meditation in the current crisis. The effect of seeing Drapers failure to connect with any higher power than capitalism used to illustrate a story about inner peace for a luxury magazine is twofold: the image is made both funnier and sadder by its placement. If we judge Don for his inability to clear his mind of advertising, his belief that even racial harmony and togetherness can be marketing tools, we can scarcely claim to be immune to the same pressures, particularly in the age of targeted advertisements and social media influencers. (So stop buying things, Don tells his hippy niece, facetiously, when she says advertising is pollution. They both know that the suggestion is rhetorical.)

HBOs Enlightened, a 2011 show about the stark impossibility of balancing a corporate life with spiritual ideals, is in some ways the antithesis of a long-running and universally respected show like Mad Men, canceled after just two seasons and still cult enough to feel like a discovery. The shows protagonist, a frazzled blonde named Amy Jellicoe, begins the pilot episode having a breakdown; after two months at a woo-woo health retreat, she returns to the world of work with a new outlook. There are warning signs that Amy might not be as placid or enlightened as she seems from the word go, the first sign being a bipolar diagnosis, and the second being the fact that Amy Jellicoe is played by Laura Dern. One of our foremost interpreters of middle-aged female madness, Dern is all tense smiles and frightening, clown-like tears. Where Hamms performance as Don Draper relied on a certain stoicism, the ability to frown without much troubling the perfection of his face, she is elastic to the point of possible derangement. David Lynch, I think, was right to campaign for an Oscar nomination for her work as somewhere between three and five characters in his 2007 magnum opus Inland Empire, even if he did not necessarily need to involve an actual cow: few actresses can split themselves with such alacrity, her light and shade brighter and gloomier than most.

This is either the blackest comedy to hit TV in a while, a review at Entertainment Weekly shrugged after Enlighteneds pilot aired, or the most pointlessly histrionic drama. It is possible that I was not supposed to cry as much or as consistently as I did while watching Enlightened, thinking about how painful it is to remain hopeful in a situation where hope feels ill-fitting or nave. It might be because for the last week I have been confined to bed with a mild case of COVID-19, feeling increasingly helpless; it might be because for all of Amys do-gooding and growth, the show does not forget that there is no real, lasting way to game the system. Amys affable ex-husband, Levi, is an addict who does not end up entirely redeemed by the last episode of season two; Amys father killed himself when she was in her early teens, and Amys mother has been distant and disinterested since. For a long stretch, she has no friends and many enemies, her personality abrasive enough to make her off-putting even after her epiphany. Still, she believes in goodness, a world in which it possible to overcome the terror of existence with sweet thoughts, kind words, wise deeds. How strange is this life, she murmurs, in the voiceover of season twos last episode, to be born into a body to certain uncertain parents, in this beautiful, upsetting world. It is hard not to think of Portia, in Shakespeares Merchant of Venice: How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

Portias line is most often remembered as referring to a weary world rather than to naughty one, perhaps because it is more palatable to imagine ourselves living in a world that is not wicked, but exhausted. Abbaddon, the health and beauty company that Amy works for, is for some reason named after the Hebrew word for the place of devastation, a detail that would be stupid if it did not somehow chime with the rest of the shows pitch-black, vaguely surrealist sensibility. A lot of placessandwich shops and baby showers, cheap motels and clubs and campsitesprove to be places of devastation for Enlighteneds heroine, her anger bubbling over at the dawning realization that half of the people in her life have behaved naughtily, and half are too exhausted by the relentlessness of their misery to care. Enlightened is, at its most desperate, galling, a reminder of the fact that those who seek to change things for the better are invariably fighting against currents nearly too strong to resist. By the finale, Amy has exposed the companys malpractice, and is likely to be sued for money that she does not have; her efforts to teach Abbaddon a lesson will not, in all likelihood, affect the many other companies committing the same crimes. You just have more hope than most people do, her former husband tells her. Its a beautiful thing to have a little hope for the world. It is beautiful, her optimism, in the way a dream is beautiful: difficult to hold on to in the unflattering, unforgiving light of day.

Then again, some people are simply more capable of staying optimistic than the rest of us. It turns out I was wrong about the meaning of the Mad Men ending, or at least about what its creator had intended to suggest with his appropriation of the happy, clappy Coke advertisement. In an interview in 2015, Matthew Weiner expressed a certain sadness at the idea that reviewers had interpreted the meditation scene as bleak, or existential. Its a little bit disturbing to me, that cynicism, he mused:

Im not saying advertisings not corny, but Im saying that the people who find that ad corny, theyre probably experiencing a lot of life that way, and theyre missing out on something The idea that someone in an enlightened state might have created something thats very pure that ad to me is the best ad ever made, and it comes from a very good place.

He remains at pains to point out that for nearly all of Mad Mens characters, life is a little better at the denouement than in the pilot. People reunite, end up promoted, form new businesses, get married, declare love. It is beautiful, but once again, beautiful in the manner of a dream: nothing is quite as settled as it first appears. Peggy has a new position, where she will no doubt encounter the same sexism as in her previous job; Pete, who might be an actual rapist, ends up back with his ex-wife. Betty is still alive, but knows that she will die within six months. We leave everybody slightly improved, Weiner told Variety. But isnt that exactly what all the best advertising doespromise us a new version of ourselves thats better, even if its only on the outer surface?

Link:
On Reawakening - thepointmag.com

Spoilers for 'The Midnight Gospel' Season 1

Netflix's latest animated offering 'The Midnight Gospel' surpasses anything and everything you have ever seen before. Created by Pendleton Ward (of 'Adventure Time' fame) and Duncan Trussell, 'The Midnight Gospel' is an extension of Trussell's very popular 'Duncan Trussell Family Hour' podcast, and a perfectly fitting one too.

Through eight episodes of varying lengths, the series launches an investigation into several topics ranging from drugs, death and enlightenment to meditation practices and life philosophies. Clancy, who is voiced by Trussell himself, is a spacecaster with a malfunctioning multiverse simulator that projects him into space to different planets and worlds from his home on something called the Chromatic Ribbon. In every new world, Clancy meets new beings and together they explore a plethora of subjects. These interviews are accompanied by mindblowing animation by Titmouse.

In his interview with Dr Drew Pinksy, they talk about drugs and meditation. With Anne Lamott and Raghu Markus, Clancy discusses death. He talks to Damien Echols about magic and enlightenment and explores forgiveness with Trudy Goodman. With Jason Louv, suffering, existentialism and rebirth are discussed.

It finally reaches more intense subjects such as death and the cycle of life. The series finale is a heartbreaking, emotionally powerful episode that features Trussell's late mother Deneen Fendig. Together they discuss the miracle of life, the suffering that existence brings to the human life and the detestable pain that death brings with it. The wondrous cycle of life has never before been portrayed with this ease and yet with such hard-hitting poise that it will bring you to tears.

Through eight episodes, Trussell explores subjects that have titillated a universal interest. But in the final episode, he gets extremely personal. Discussing the deep sorrow he felt after he lost his mother to cancer, Episode 8 titled 'Mouse of Silver' is an in-depth lesson into dealing with the loss of a beloved.

It is also evident that Clancy has been avoiding a lot of his problems through the season and refuses to confront them until Episode 6 'Vulture With Honour, where he is forced to face reality. The cycle of life and death is a continuous, ending process and one cannot escape it. But how do you get over the loss of someone, if at all you can?

Trussell's mother has a simple explanation "you cry," she says. It hurts, there is no doubt about that, but it doesn't always hurt and eventually, the hurt also dissipates. Why? Because underneath the hurt and the pain, you discover what you are feeling is love. And like his mother says, that kind of love never goes away.

The episode is so beautifully made that it will break you and reduce you to tears. And just that like, his mother leaves him sucked into a black hole that has no known beyond.

By now, the magistrate's police have reached Clancy's simulator. Earlier in the series, he received a warning from a fellow spacecaster about the law catching up with him for Clancy's work. And now, in the finale, they are finally here. As the police get closer, Clancy is still inside the simulator filled with grief over his latest interview. The cops begin destroying the simulator, eventually dying in the process themselves a massive explosion reduces everything to nothing.

A second-long blackout later, Clancy along with his trusted dog Charlotte is picked up in a bus. Inside, there is every one that Clancy had interviewed through the series and died. He asks his neighbor if he is dead, only to get the response, "Just be here now." And off goes the bus on a hypnotic path.

So is Clancy really dead? Will we get a Season 2?

We do not know yet. In fact, we cannot even predict if there is anything beyond for him. One of the things the series conveys is that it is important to live in the moment. We can only hope to see more of the visual masterpiece that is 'The Midnight Gospel', until then, do not mind us. We are going to rewatch this a couple of times.

All episodes of 'The Midnight Gospel' are currently streaming on Netflix.

Go here to see the original:
'The Midnight Gospel' Season 1: Heartbreaking finale will hit you hard and leave you hungry for Season 2 - MEAWW

As a service profession dedicated to democracy and freedom of information, library work does what it can to elevate what it is and how it is seen in the world. There are some problematic pieces to this attitude, which Fobazi Ettarh brilliantly lays out in Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves. While that take is absolutely valid and one I support, I feel there is also staunch rationality in examining one of the primary documents that upholds the ideals of library service and professions and, perhaps, rightfully lends a deserved sense of aweat least in this instanceto libraries and what they stand for. The Library Bill of Rights, developed by the leading professional library association, the American Library Association, in 1939, reports the seven rights and guiding principles in library service. While library users may not be strictly aware of the Library Bill of Rights, knowledge and understanding of the Rights can improve experiences at libraries of library users.

Below are the Rights in their original text taken from the American Library Associations Library Bill of Rights page, accompanied by explanations and examples of how library users might apply them in their own use of their libraries and how things have shaken out in the real world.

Right I: Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

What It Means: A primary purpose of the library, according to Right I, is to provide resources to a group of people in pursuit of meeting the various educational, cultural, and other needs of those people. Library staff working to develop and maintain the collections of their libraries should use data and feedback from the community they serve to inform their purchased and discarded materials. Materials include books, audiobooks, movies and films, databases, and any other materials (yes, cake pans, etc.) the library collects. Staff must use their professionalnot personaljudgment when performing collection development and maintenance. This means that it is up to library users to determine the credibility of the sources they encounter in the library. While library stafflibrarians, generally speakingare trained to offer assistance in finding valid resources when asked, we cannot vouch for every piece within the library (print, digital, or otherwise). We can provide the tools and, to some degree, guidance or training on how to assess resources, but to only select materials for the collection that are verifiably true is not only impossible, but in contrast with this first right.

Category ID: 45597

Category ID: 2822

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Example: The Denver Public Library in Denver, Colorado, like many public libraries, posts their collection development policy on their website. This policy echoes much of the language from the American Library Associations Right I. Right I is, in part, why you may find materials you personally object to in a public library. A library should not, according to Right I, outright object to a new book by Richard Dawkins, for example, simply because of his contentious, controversial, and sometimes offensive views (Wikipedia sums this up nicelyyes, Wikipedia is a legitimate starting point for research; signed, a librarian). They must instead evaluate the material on its own and determine whether the piece meets the interest of the community, regardless of the reason behind that interest. And some people love to hate read, thus providing legitimate interest and, consequently, sufficient reason to collect a given title.

Right II: Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

What It Means: Similar to Right I, Right II explains the responsibility of libraries to offer varying perspectives. This means staff should not collect only materials or resources that hold one point of view. Instead, staff should provide as well-rounded a perspective as possible through the collection of various materials. This allows library users to draw their own conclusions from the evidence presented, as is the case with nonfiction, for example, rather than being led solely by the judgment of the library staff responsible for designing the collection and who certainly have biases of their own.

Example: Many users may believe the inclusion of a book arguing for eugenics, for example, to be abhorrent and to have no place in a library. However, Right II protects the right of that material to exist in the library. From a personal perspective, I find thinking this way about cases like this to be helpful: Having material that argues against your own beliefs allows you to be better informed about the oppositions position, and thus better able to defend your own. This isnt the only reason Right II is important, but it can help soothe the discomfort library users may encounter when they happen upon something they find distasteful or wrong.

Right III: Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

What It Means: In the event a group or individual attempts to have materials or resources removed from the library, the library should resist. Right III is also a natural companion of Rights I and II, as library users are very likely to find, as a result of Rights I and II, materials that are personally or otherwise objectionable to them in a librarys collection. However, regardless of whether a library or its staff agrees or disagrees with a given challenge (say, to a book), it is the librarys responsibility, according to Right III, to thwart attempts to make the material unavailable. This can happen on both macro and micro levels. For example, an individual or group may request that the library remove a title from the collection entirely, making it unavailable for everyone in a macro case. In a micro case, an individual (often, a parent in relation to their child) may request that the library make a title unavailable to another individual. In both cases, the library should resist complying with the request in accordance with Right III. The latter, which can appear to be stickier, can be explained as such: the library cannot act in place of parents and does not have the capacity to allow or disallow particular titles to particular individuals and not others. In the case of a parent and their child, it is the responsibility of the parent to address and manage their childs exposure to materials, not the librarys.

Example: If youve been following library news, you may have heard about a proposed bill in Tennessee that would grant a board of elected officials power to remove materials from a library. The Tennessee Library Association has been standing in opposition to this bill, which would effectively stand in direct contrast to Right III. Challenges to books are, sadly, not uncommon. The American Library Association encourages libraries to report challenges to materials and beyond and, over the years, have compiled data on challenged materials. Certainly not every instance of challenges is reported, however, so despite the lengthiness of the available data, there is more going on than what we see, making Right III incredibly important in combating attempts to abridge access to information and materials.

Right IV: Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

What It Means: In hand with Right III, Right IV simply requires that libraries work with individuals and organizations whose mission is to prevent censorship and promote freedom of information.

Example: Right IV reads more like a guideline than a right, but would suggest that libraries work with organizations such as the Sunlight Foundation, which advocates for transparency. To prevent censorship and promote freedom of information is broad, however, and certainly does not end with efforts from the Sunlight Foundation. The language of Right IV strikes me with a pause, however, and perhaps suggests things in the world of intellectual freedom are more black and white than they really are. A person or group concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas may easily feel differently if the topic in question is in contrast with their beliefs. We might instead interpret Right IV as if it read Libraries should cooperate with all philosophies and ideas concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

Right V: A persons right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

What It Means: A central ideal of library service is that the library and its materials and services must be made available to all. It is, however, perhaps less observed than we would like to think as things like library fines, the requirement of a photo ID to obtain a library card (and thus access services, materials, and resources), the physical accessibility of libraries due to lack of transportation or ADA compliance, and a number of other barriers can get in the way of potential user access. There are also, of course, library staff with discriminatory views and biases who may intentionally or unintentionally allow their views and biases to impact the degree and kind of service they offer to different individuals. The idea of Right V, then, is to combat these instances case-by-case and en masse.

Example: Berkeley Public Library has made some adjustments to open access further for homeless customers with a policy that does not require proof of address, a standard that is typical for many public libraries. Still, most public libraries will require some sort of identification to obtain a library card.

Right VI: Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

What It Means: Exhibit spaces and meeting rooms should be, according to Right VI, treated the same as books, movies, and other traditional library resources and materials. Access to these rooms should not be denied to users for reasons such as conflicting beliefs or identity.

Example: This particular right met a good deal of discussion in summer 2018 when the American Library Association updated its stance around the use of meeting spaces by hate groups. Shortly after scores joined the conversation on- and offline, ALA opted to revert to the previous interpretation of Right VI which, while still fairly broad, does note, However, if a groups actions during a meeting disrupt or harass others in the library, library policies regarding acceptable behavior may apply. Users of the library could theoretically, then, point out that the speech happening as the result of a hate group meeting in the library is, in fact, an act of or an incitement of violence, and therefore harassment of the target of hate. Right VI continues to be a difficult challenge to balance for libraries.

Right VII: All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect peoples privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.

What It Means: All library users should expect privacy and confidentiality in their use of the library, defined as broadly as possible. This includes their presence in the building, the materials which they access and view, questions they ask of library staff, and any other activity relating to library use. This can again come up against traditional societal standards, particularly in light of parent-child relationships (especially when things like library fines are added to the equationfor example, a parent may wish to know what materials checked out to their childs account accrued fines, but to share this information would, technically, be in violation of Right VII). However, as the Right notes, the right to privacy and confidentiality in library use should not be abridged regardless of any part of the users identity, including age. (Some libraries may get around parts of this issue in their policies by allowing users to list individuals who, perhaps with photo identification, are allowed access to anothers account. This is useful for folks who perhaps are unable to leave their homes and direct a caretaker, for instance, to retrieve their library holds with their consent. Depending on local laws, this becomes more complicated when considering the case of children, who may not be able to legally consent to giving access to their account to another individual.)

Example: The easiest-grab example of Right VII in action is the library response to the 2001 Act of the United States Congress known as the Patriot Act. In response to the Act, libraries resisted and reported government requests for information and some posted signs warning patrons of the implications of the Act in the context of libraries.

Though the Library Bill of Rights may not be a document hanging on the wall of every household, its value to both libraries and library users is undeniable. That said, the discussion above is by no means perfect or exhaustive. The Library Bill of Rights has room for interpretation and that interpretation can easily shift to meet how society evolves over time. Check in with the official Library Bill of Rights every now and then and keep a finger to the pulse of library news to see how different libraries take the Rights and implement themor notin their own communities.

Next time you visit your library, do a little observing: How does your library match up to the Rights? Are there policies or other aspects of the library that could be better aligned with the document? Did any of the rights surprise you? Check in with us on Twitter to let us know.

The rest is here:
The Library Bill of Rights: What They Are and What They Mean for You - Book Riot

Herman Hesses proposal of life through self-discovery in Siddhartha is appealing, yet somewhat problematic, Andreas Charidemou writes.

Content Note: This article contains brief mention of suicide.

Your soul is the whole world, Siddhartha pondered before he began his journey of self-discovery.

Quarantined at home after leaving Cambridge, still shocked by the abrupt end of my second year, I felt rather disillusioned. I sought a read to take my mind off things. My brother recommended Siddhartha; a surprisingly fitting classic by Herman Hesse, which earned him the Nobel Prize in 1946. It takes place in India, and follows the spiritual journey of a young man in the age of Buddha (who cleverly shares his first name), as he attempts to discover a higher state of being, or Weltanschauung of a philosophy of life. The book is short, the prose beautifully written.

The problem does not lie in finding perfection but instead in achieving completion.

Siddhartha begins his life as a Brahmins son, and is on his way to become a promising Hindu priest. However, one day he realizes that his soul has been left unsatisfied by his devotion to duty and religion. He is at a dead end, and leaves home to become Samana, an ascetic monk. By experiencing the extremes of deprivation, he hopes to empty himself completely of all physical desires in order to hear his soul and find peace. This brings him no closer to happiness. Hes reluctantly convinced by his companion Govinda to go and hear the teachings of Gotama Buddha, a man who was said to have achieved the blissful state of Nirvana they are seeking. In one of the book's most iconic passages, Siddhartha encounters and converses with Buddha, then spurns him. After meeting the best teacher the world has to offer, it becomes clear to him that the way of salvation cannot be taught, that words are empty sounds, and that each man must find his own way.

The autobiographical elements of the story are thinly concealed. As young man, Hesse himself rebelled against the orthodoxy of his parents. Afirm believer in self-education, he rejected their strict religious beliefs and ran away to shape his own life. This aligns with the main truth highlighted by the book, which appears to be the impossibility of achieving enlightenment or Nirvana through learning and religion; it is made clear that this can only be reached through self-reliance. This work, alongside Hesse's other novels, were considered the literary gateway drugs of the youth of the 1960s and 1970s, primary symbols of the counterculture. In the wake of two World Wars, the possibility of asserting the meaning of life appealed to many.

Searching for meaning in life through self-discovery and distilling wisdom from experience are wise occupations for the solitary weeks ahead.

In the second part of the book, Siddhartha experiences the material world. As a merchant, he experiences the heights of opulence and becomes the lover of the enchanting courtesan Kamala. Worldly affairs gradually enslave him, making him feel more lost than ever. He abandons everything and is close to committing suicide by drowning in a river, when the mysterious word OM, a Hindu word signifying the essence of the ultimate reality, comes to his mind. Following this revelation, he becomes a ferryman and devotes his life to understanding the secret of the river. The secret appears to be that the concept of time does not exist. The river has no past, no future, no beginning, no end: it is merely present. The protagonist discovers that happiness is real only when causality or time ceases to exist for him. The problem does not lie in finding perfection but instead in achieving completion.

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However, one cannot help but feel frustrated with the inherent arrogance and selfishness attached to the individualistic philosophy of life that Hesse advocates. In order to reach enlightenment, Siddhartha must abandon society entirely, this including his companion and child. His attitude towards humanity is patronizing, belittling; he consistently refers to normal human beings as children. Hesse seems to suggest the fundamental incompatibility of living with people and being authentic, of forming bonds of friendships and remaining true to oneself.

This is a view that I find hard to accept. The parallels between this philosophical position and Hesses own failures as a father, husband and scholar during the rise of Nazism are blatant. Yet perhaps now, at a time when so many of us feel and are isolated against our will, Hesse's words inSiddharthahave a ring of truth. The idea that one should seek meaning in life through self-discovery, distilling wisdom from experience, is a wise suggestion for the solitary weeks ahead.

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding, and during this unprecedented global crisis, we have a tough few weeks and months ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content for the time being.

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as 1, to help with our running cost at least until we hopefully return to print on 2nd October 2020.

Many thanks, all of us here at Varsity would like to wish you, your friends, families and all of your loved ones a safe and healthy few months ahead.

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Siddhartha: Hesse's guide to a meaningful self-isolation - Varsity Online

Not only does the forest operate on the principle of abundance for all and communal resource sharing to maintain health and vitality; the forest has also evolved since Devonian days to optimize for the production and exchange of these resources. There lives a lot of wisdom in the forest. Depending on the age of the tree and their position/role in the canopy communitythe production, use, and exchange of resources has ecologically evolved (via natural selection) to optimize energy and access to resources. So, this part of the trees story seems best told in a life linear wayfrom the time the tree was just a seed until it grew to be quite old and gray.

The Seedling

Beginning with the beginning of life, the seed- whether literally blasting forth from a heated (serotinous) cone or traveling in the gut of a bird or a squirrel who calls the tree home; or following the wind currents of a maple wing on the winds of a prayer, the self-sustaining seed will finally find ground to settle somewhere. Quite a miracle indeed, the seed contains all the energy and nutrient resources, to sprout life below ground that it would need. And imagine this, many trees will mass coordinate their seeding and fruiting activity as a forestall for one and one for all all at the right spring time (or if the species only fruits every few years, all in the same year to preserve precious resources in harsh or limited environmental conditions), when the light and seasonal conditions are prime. Why? Again, the trees know that we be forest. We are family and when we all thrive, the forest stays alive.

That said, competition among individuals is healthy and clear; especially for a tree in its younger year. Thus, the sapling generation is naturally driven to the light and races to the top of the canopy to compete for that spotlight. But along the way as they grow, they benefit the forest, greatly you know, because they photosynthesize and breathe back, feeding the forest at this age the most and strengthening the tree tribe from an infection or bark beetle attack. Then, reaching the age of maturity, the adult trees become increasingly more careful in balancing their photosynthetic flush and belly-bole (tree trunk) outgrowth in order to optimize the ratio between offensive nutrition intake and forest green out-take with wind resistant stems. There is a reason that philosopher kings from Plato to Buddha to Jesus to Mohammed taught under the tree and found enlightenment there. Trees exude wisdom. They intuitively know that to live long and leave a legacy they need a robust, insect resilient, fire retardant, bark protected tree stem and a sufficient canopy of green biomass to feed the whole tree ecosystem of roots or shoots or mycelia connected living plants and critters or reproductive cones and flowers that the tree gifts food, water, oxygen, and shelter against snow showers.

Somehow coded in the DNA and genes of that small forest seed, the mature tree intuitively knows that natural disturbances are part of the forest life game, so ensures it has just enough resource to thwart an infection or infestation or storm or forest fire, aflame. Thus, as the tree gets older and becomes an elder, she will now grow very slow (if at all), knowing that not every vital phloem cell will flow with that essential sap to repair any branch gap due to a thunderous lightning clap. The good news is that with this accumulated age and experience all lived in one place comes the accumulated history and wisdom that no younger tree or forest visitor can replace. Knowledge over time from navigating a natural disturbance sheltering in placea fire, a flood, or a storm, gives the tree (and all who listen to thee) a distinct advantage to keep protected and more resilient against any future threat the tree or forest of family might face.

Then my favorite tree efficiency story lies within its core. Eager to hear more? Well, as most trees mature and have reached quite a nice height to establish a healthy green canopy and absorb sufficient sunlight; they slow their growth upward and begin to spin, within. Essentially, mature treesthe enlightened ones, build resilience with reduced cells and resources by a twist of the stems wristand in that way, they avoid the chronic old age stems hunched over forward list. But, they dont just randomly twist. In order to semi-retire in their elder years and still resist the wind; there is a specific pattern and precise motion to optimize the trees altered mature state and magic tensile strength potion. Many subalpine trees as from my ecology studies I recall, twist each outer plant cell wall, 23.50. I also believe this degree for the tree may even be aligned with Fibonaccis natural law, but you should check me and see. Anyway, astute urban architects, planners, and developers (e.g. Vanke, the largest real estate developer in China) who have studied the forest have succeeded brilliantly in constructing sky scrapers copied from lifes play book on optimizing tensile strength to resist earthquakes and wind storms in cities like; Dubai, London, San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai from tree to tree and sea to sea, incidentally making billions of dollars off natures intelligence for free. Then further imagine, what if we built the buildings of our future cities as functioning forests, entirely? Dickson Depommier (senior counsel to Aerofarms and educator at Columbia University) has already mapped out New York with his graduate students from Columbia University and developed a new 100-year forest development plan for the entire city. As now many companies and banks realize during COVID-19 that they can work virtually, world centers of commerce might also aim to reset cities that optimize also a carbon neutrality and greater energy efficiency gain. If we drawdown over 30% of global atmospheric carbon by protecting standing tree forests (896.2 GT of CO2), then how much more carbon could we save if we cut the construction sectors carbon budget (23% of the total GHG) in half by literally building a forest of urban tree buildings? Isnt that another COVID-19 recovery and future-proofing point for team Tree? And finally (for now), what if we could make these new wood buildings singno kidding, but actually YES produce food, on every commercial building floor in a separate wing? This is Aerofarms vision, which is already a lucrative business, present reality, and huge win for team agriculture, looking to reduce their carbon emissions and feed the world, too.

Dedication to the 1 Trillion Trees Project

There are a little over 3 trillion trees on the planet. Thats about 400/person; but as I said earlier, its 50% less than we had before cities. How can we biodivert cities and return nature to the heart of our human civilization? What can we do to bring nature back to you? And, the first super-simple, super-easy, super-techno thing you can do is to shift your search engine from Google to Ecosia. Ecosia converts your clicks into virtual coin that they invest in forest restoration and tree planting. Check it out. They just launched and are on their way to planting now 90 million trees. (seems 1/second) Visit One Trillion Trees project

Dedication to the guardians of the forest, Nia Tero

We are all native to planet earth; and yet Indigenous Peoples are the guardians of our vital ecosystems. They embody natures wisdom in their rich cultures, intergenerational communities, and earth connections. They can show us how to recover our Human+Nature health and how to well celebrate our sustainable home. Visit Nia Tero

Dedication to the Mycelia, Fungi Perfecti

Mycelia are the naturally intelligent networks of our planet. As virtual shopping and online purchasing now explodes and spreads virallyalmost as fervently as the corona virus itself; the environmental footprint of packaging likely also sky rockets. The good news is that the problem of unsustainable packaging must be addressed in the new circular economy-driven world we want to emerge into at the other end of CV19. I love all the online shopping one can do for mushroom health and soil composting and citizen science engagement to help re-vitalize bee populations on Fungi Perfecti; but where did the Life Box go???? I can only now find a site for Live Box sports and entertainment streaming.

Dr. Catherine Cunningham, PhD, Natural Intelligence Media is committed to awakening Natural Intelligence in the World. She produces multimedia content books, films, and podcasts with her creative companions that aim to inspire everyone, everywhere to live a happy, healthy, naturally intelligent life.

Visit our Natural Intelligence Website HERE.

Participate in our Combatting COVID-19 with Compassion Heart Campaign HERE

Listen to my Naturally Intelligent by Design Podcast, featuring strategies from animals in our world to adapt to disruptive environmental change. HERE

Listen to our Natural Intelligence Worldwide Podcast HERE.

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The Tree's Truth: Conserve Resources - Thrive Global

What is a secure attachment style? Why is it important for caregivers to establish secure attachment bonds with children? How does secure attachment impact childrens psycho-emotional development? What are some signs of attachment security in a partner? Insights on how we can develop it, and how we can teach it to our children?

What is the most simple definition of a healthy or secure attachment style?

Attachment security is a set of deeply held expectations that the world is a mostly safe place to explore, and when its not safe, people can be counted on for support and help to cope.

Why is it so important for caregivers to establish secure attachment with their children?

The longer we feel safe when were young, the more time we have to develop. As human beings, our greatest strength and our greatest vulnerability is our extraordinarily powerful brains. Our brains are so big and powerful that we need years, if not decades, after being born to fully develop our minds. While there are some caveats and exceptions, it is generally true that with more time, freedom, and safety allotted to us, we are more likely to develop more flexible, resourceful, and lovable versions of ourselves.

How does secure attachment impact childrens psycho-emotional development?

Attachment security at the age of one year, has been associated with so many positive outcomes later in life that it would be impossible to summarize them in a brief answer. But there is a fascinating aspect of socio-emotional development that Id like to emphasize here.

Our brains are amazingly adaptive, and this presents some confusion when thinking about attachment security. The earlier a vulnerable child is exposed to real danger, the quicker that child will develop extraordinary adaptations to survive typically a hypervigilant, self-reliant relationship to the environment.

Some of the toughest and most rugged achievers in life come from early experiences of hardship. The problem is that early disruptions come at the cost of flexibility. Early disruptions, especially abuse and neglect, tend to result in adaptations that are more fixed and more desperately held on to.

Environments where emotion-regulation in parents creates a tense, intrusive, or less responsive environment, early adaptations are similarly rigid, but more focused on adapting to the parent than to the external environment. This type of adaptation typically leads to unhealthy codependency later in life.

Secure attachment allows for a more flexible shift between figuring out the parent, figuring out the environment, and the amazing benefits of completely self-absorbed play and exploration.

What are the most common signs that caregivers are securely attached with their children?

The most reliable marker of a secure attachment between parent and child is the overall ease and flow in the way the parent and child relate to each other. Does the child explore freely? Does the parent tense up, or watch vigilantly when the child explores? Does the parent trust the child? Does the child appear to trust the parent? Is the parent negligent, then punitive when the child finds trouble? If the parent is either anxious or overwhelmed, the relationship is less likely secure. If there is mutual trust, with the parent offering just the support the child needs no more, no less then the relationship is more likely to be secure.

Can you briefly contrast secure attachment with avoidant, anxious, and disorganized attachment styles?

The hallmark of attachment is flexibility in attention. Its natural for kids to get upset and cry when they get hurt, disappointed, or feel alone. A securely-attached child shows the full range of emotions fear, anger, sadness, joy, etc. but returns to a baseline emotional state once the child gets comfort from a parent.

The avoidant attachment pattern can be confusing because the child can seem well-adjusted and stoic, seemingly unaffected by a harsh environment. Internal physiology tells a different story namely that the child is under tremendous stress. The defining characteristics of avoidance in children is a detached, impassive response to environmental stress along with no attempt to seek comfort from a caregiver. In adulthood, this correlates with a dismissive attitude, a devaluation of relationships, and an attitude of not needing to rely on others.

An anxious-resistant, or anxious-preoccupied attachment pattern, is one in which the child is hyper-emotional under stress, seeks proximity to the caregiver, yet is neither soothed by the parents efforts to comfort the child, nor welcoming of the parents attempts to reassure the child. In adults this attachment pattern maps onto pathological dependency, where the person cant get over an angry preoccupation with the parent, or remains in a defiantly passive state.

Disorganized behavior is harder to describe, because its defined by the lack of a clear strategy of regulating attachment-related distress. Insecure-avoidant and insecure ambivalent-patterns may not be optimal, but they are still coherent patterns. Disorganization can take many forms, like an uncoordinated crashing into a parent, or falling into a dissociated, sleep-like trance. Theoretically, the disorganized attachment pattern, identified and described by Mary Main, as being an individualized response to fright without a solution. That is, the caregiver is the cause of the distress and thus inaccessible as a source of comfort.

What are some of the main consequences for children who are not securely attached with their caregivers?

I often think of development being like research its exploratory, built upon curiosity, and requiring tightly controlled conditions. Attachment insecurity is like trying to do this research in highly inhospitable conditions, like reading a textbook in a nightclub, or trying to conduct a rigorous chemical experiment in the back of a moving garbage truck. Can it be done well? Sureespecially with abundant innate intelligence. Is it likely to turn out well? Probably not.

The negative consequences of distracted development could be just about anything throughout the lifespan, including addiction, cancer, broken bones, depression, chronic mental illness, anxiety, diabetes, attention-deficit disorder, and any other physical or psychosocial impairment. Of course, I am speaking in terms of probability. A child who is insecurely attached could have many or none of these issues.

What are some signs that an adult partner has a secure attachment style in a relationship?

The way attachment patterns are assessed, whether by the Strange Situation Paradigm in childhood, or by the Adult Attachment Interview in adulthood, is by stressing the attachment system. So in relationships, signs of security and insecurity are most apparent in times of conflict. One sign of insecurity is extreme anxiety and rage thats not easily soothed, particularly around abandonment fears. On the other side of the spectrum, insecurity can take the form of a cold, detached, distance that is likely to evoke uncharacteristically strong abandonment fears in you, the partner.

Security can be thought of as the Goldilocks zone in between these extremes. A secure individual has moments of intense emotions and/or emotional remoteness. However, security is marked by an ability to move out of these states without too much time and destructiveness when attempts are made to repair a rupture in the relationship. Most of the time, the secure individual is better able to modulate emotions, meaning the hot emotionality is not scalding hot, and the cool withdrawals are not sub-zero chills.

The most common among dysfunctional dynamics are when an individual pursues redemption from childhood emotional damage by trying to thaw an icy, dismissive partner, or when one member of a couple attempts to heal early wounds by trying to cool down a partner who frequently boils over.

Extremely hot-tempered (usually, borderline personality organization) and the reciprocal cold-blooded personality types (often narcissistic) love to find each other for precisely these reasons.

What is the best way to develop secure attachment if you didnt receive it as a child?

Finding the right therapist is the best way I know. The therapeutic alliance is one of the most robust predictors of change in psychotherapy research. While its probably reductionistic to consider a therapist simply a more reliable attachment figure, forming an open, trusting, and meaningful relationship with a benevolent expert certainly can help promote a secure internal working model.

However, finding healthier relationships than the ones that are familiar, can help move a person in the direction of security. One key marker of resilience is the capacity to find mentors, friends, teachers, clergy members, etc. who can help a person have corrective emotional experiences. Anyone, whether classified as secure or insecure, can become more secure with relationships that provide support while increasing/maintaining feelings of autonomy and self-reliance, can help increase our feelings of wellbeing, reduce anxiety, and promote personal growth in a multiplicity of domains of life.

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What is secure attachment? - Thrive Global

He watched, supported, and cheered as Tagovailoa set the college football world on fire in 2018. Hurts never pouted, and his patience paid off when he rallied the Tide to a win over Georgia in the SEC title game after Tagovailoa was injured.

Hurts left Tuscaloosa after that season and landed in Norman, Okla., as a graduate transfer, hoping to lead Lincoln Rileys high-flying Sooner offense. He had big shoes to fill as the previous two Oklahoma starting QBs, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, had been drafted No. 1 overall.

Hurts was impressive from the moment he stepped on campus, powering the Sooners to the BCS playoffs his fourth straight trip and finishing second in the Heisman race to LSUs Joe Burrow.

I think being able to adjust, continuing to adjust, and adjust to the differences where Coach Riley presents himself and how he teaches his stuff, said Hurts, who was quickly named one of the teams four captains. It was very different from what I was used to, so the biggest deal for me, I didnt know Coach Riley, but I was there for 11 months. So, trusting him, trusting his system, watching film of those past two guys, and just trying to put myself in the best situation to educate. I think we made a lot of explosive plays on offense, presented the defenses with different fits with the ability to run the ball from the quarterback position. I know it was very lethal.

Through the ups and downs of the last four years, Hurtss confidence never wavered. Instead, he channeled the adversity into strength.

All of it made me better. All of it has made me stronger, a better man, a wiser man. A better leader, said Hurts. Again, in two programs, its tough. To having to adjust to different players and just being respected to where every team Ive been on has followed me regardless of the position of where I came from I dont go into any place trying to be something Im not, force it, say, Hey, yall got to follow me It doesnt work like that. Especially in this business Im about to get into. Im a grown man. I can just be the best version of myself, working hard, being who I am. I think real recognizes real. Ive got that effect sometimes, and they follow me.

Hurtss attitude, leadership, and mental toughness are reasons the Patriots could be tempted to take a chance on him to compete for their quarterback vacancy.

In addition, he has excellent physical skills.

Hurtss production during college read like video game numbers, including 9,477 passing yards and 80 touchdowns to go along with 3,274 rushing yards and 43 TDs.

While some had suggested the 6-foot-1-inch, 222-pounder might be better suited to play running back or receiver in the NFL, Hurts showed during the combine that his future is at quarterback.

Watching Hurts throw during the drills in Indianapolis, he looked confident with his footwork and threw the ball with decent accuracy and impressive distance. He clearly favored throwing to his right, but with some coaching and work, that will improve.

Comparisons to New Orleanss jack-of-all-trades QB Taysom Hill are logical because both players have special skill sets that allow them to be productive from a variety of spots.

Having Hurts in Foxborough could be a win-win, as he would not only push Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer for the starters job, he could also boost the offense by appearing in specialty packages designed by Josh McDaniels.

Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globejimmcbride.

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NFL Draft: Why Oklahomas Jalen Hurts is an intriguing quarterback option for the Patriots - The Boston Globe

It took the coordinated effort of multiple embassies, two plane rides and a 16-hour layover in Helsinki for Thomas Dennerby to get home.

The repatriation flight on March 31 needed the involvement of the embassies of Sweden, Finland and other Baltic states, according to Dennerby, the coach of the India under-17 womens football team that was supposed to debut in the age-specific World Cup at home in November. The meet stands postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic and Fifa has not yet announced the new dates.

During these times everyones families need them as much as they need their families. It is important to be home. The current crisis allows everyone to see life from a larger perspective, said the Swede in an interview over e-mail. From Goa, Dennerby, 60, said he flew to Helsinki and then to Stockholm after a long stopover. The flying time from Goa to Helsinki is 16 hours. The arrangements were fine and we flew safe, he said.

The break is nothing to be worried about. Under the current situation, human lives are priority and it was natural that all footballing activities would be postponed, said Dennerby, who was appointed in November, 2019 after a stint with Nigeria whom he took to the 2019 Womens World Cup and made them African champions in 2018.

The 32 players in the preparatory camp were on a break since March 13 and were scheduled to resume training on April 1. Had plans not been mothballed they would have been in Europe this month. Most likely we would have been playing a tournament in Slovenia (in April) and maybe also in Italy (in May), Dennerby, a former midfielder with Stockholms Hammarby IF, said.

We have been working hard in camps (in Goa) but the real test is when you get to play quality opponents.

On return from Europe, the squad would have trained in Goa with specific focus on tactics. The camps in Goa were to be tough and they were to be backed by matches against tougher international opponents. This is the World Cup and we need to be merciless.

Dennerby said the players improved rapidly at first but the pace slowed as they got better. When you get better again its tougher to take the next few steps. We would have been ready in November anyway (but) the extra time (due to the deferment) could be an advantage.

Especially since mental strength is a work in progress for the team, said Dennerby.

Our search is on for mentally tough characters who can be super confident in front of so many spectators. You cannot develop than in an instant. Rather, we have been propagating it through our training regimes and off the field. The girls are getting to that level, they are getting closer, he said.

Coaches and athletes across disciplines have spoken of the forced break leading to a dip in fitness levels but Dennerby isnt throwing his weight behind that lot. I am not worried at all. The girls have been given individual programmes. Their attitude has been fantastic. I get their numbers (data) on my laptop and mobile phone. They are doing really good. Fitness-wise there wont be any dip at all, he said.

Asking India to be safe, practice hygiene and social distancing, Dennerby said it is important to stay positive now.

Sweden has taken a different approach. You can go to the bars or restaurants but you need to maintain social distancing, he said. He is doing that in a country that is not shut down.

A BBC report said Stockholm night clubs were open and people allowed leave homes after a long winter. However, many are remote working and that there has been a 50% drop in passengers in public transport.

Even though it was Easter, we did not go to visit relatives and friends. We just went to the supermarket to get what we needed. Everyone is waiting for normal life to restart, said Dennerby, who coached Sweden to a third-place finish in the 2011 Womens World Cup. We cannot see anyone around. Its a bit boring but its more important to be safe and help others not to get infected. I look forward to come back to India and kick-off training once again, said Dennerby, who is currently with his wife in the municipality of Tyreso, some 25km from Stockholm.

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Break good to up the mental game, says India U-17 World Cup coach - Hindustan Times