How To ‘Love-Craft’ Your Relationships For Health And Happiness

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Guest Contribution

“How to ‘love-craft’ your relationships for health and happiness,” by Carrie Jenkins, University of British Columbia

You know how to find happiness: Just meet Prince Charming (or Cinderella), overcome all obstacles, and get married. The end.

Sure, we kind of know real life doesn’t work like that. And yet this “romantic” story remains right up there on its cultural pedestal. We measure ourselves against it when we “fail.”

I know how that feels. I’m polyamorous — in two simultaneous loving relationships — which is a “failure” condition because if you really love someone, you aren’t supposed to want anybody else.

But I’m also a philosophy professor, and I say this blinkered focus on a single story arc is making us miserable.

Can’t we dethrone the fairy tale, and celebrate a range of stories with real people in them? Wouldn’t it be more creative — not to mention more honest — to craft the role of love in our lives to fit who we truly are?

I’m not saying we’d all go around singing Happy Days Are Here Again if that happened, but I am saying love-crafting is conducive to living a meaningful life, which might just be the key to a deep kind of happiness.

The Freedom To Choose

As philosophers are wont to do, let’s start by distinguishing two concepts of “happiness.” One is about nice feelings: Hedonic happiness. The other is about broader well-being or flourishing — what Aristotle called eudaimonia. If you are eudaimonic, you might be deeply satisfied with your life, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you feel good all the time.

Philosophers love to pull apart concepts like this, but we also like to mash disparate concepts together and see what happens. My conceptual recipe for love-crafting has three main ingredients drawn from happiness research, the world of business and management and the philosophy of love. A strange brew, sure, but hear me out.happiness

Let’s start with happiness. It is quite well known that happiness is tied to agency — that is, making one’s own decisions. The link can be understood partly in biological terms. As neuroscientist Alex Korb explains, one study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity shows that:

“(a)ctively choosing caused changes in attention circuits and in how the participants felt about the action, and it increased rewarding dopamine activity.”

Dopamine feels good, but there’s more to it than just that. Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl’s work with suicidal prisoners in Nazi death camps led him to conclude that having a sense of meaning or purpose in life is ultimately what makes it worth living. He stresses agency in this connection, noting that:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms —to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Reshape The Raw Materials

OK, but what does this have to do with business and management? Here we toss job-crafting into the mix. This concept was introduced by researchers Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton in 2001 to “capture the actions employees take to shape, mould, and re-define their jobs.”

Although a job description determines the “raw materials” you have to work with, job-crafters creatively reshape their work for better alignment with their strengths and values.

Wrzesniewski describes one of the original inspirations for their theory: A hospital cleaner who switched around the pictures in the rooms of coma patients, in case something about the changing environment might encourage their healing. This wasn’t in her job description — she chose to make it part of her role.

This is huge because the connection with agency brings eudaimonia into view. As Annie Dillard powerfully reminds us in The Writing Life, “(h)ow we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

Now for the third ingredient: Intentional love. This has roots in the thoughts of social psychologist Eric Fromm, psychiatrist M. Scott Peck and feminist cultural critic bell hooks. In All About Love, hooks, for instance, says that: “(l)ove is an act of will, both an intention and an action,” and that “will also imply choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.”

Although we are taught to think of love as out of control, something we “fall” into, an “addiction,” and even a form of “madness,” that is not intentional love.

Break The Rules

Now combine the ingredients:

1) Exercising agency is tied to happiness — not just good feelings, but a deeper sense that one’s life has meaning.

2) Job-crafting is a powerful way to exercise agency, even when your role has been externally prescribed.

3) Love, like work, can be practised intentionally and thoughtfully.

Conclusion? Love-crafting has got to be worth a try.

Crafting relationships intentionally may give us a better shot at health and happiness.

So what would it look like? Better to ask what it looks like. Many love crafters “break the rules” (as do some of their job-crafting counterparts).

Some forge a network of loving friendships that (gasp!) doesn’t include a focal romantic relationship. Some craft non-monogamous marriages, non-sexual romances, queer loves and all kinds of things we don’t have labels for yet.

Others craft “normal” relationships. The difference between a monogamous, hetero (etc.) relationship that’s “fallen” into and one that’s chosen is all the difference in the world.

As Frankl says in Man’s Search for Meaning, “Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.” Philosophers have tried to tell us this for centuries, and now they have empirical evidence to back them up. Once the point sinks in, it’s obvious: Chasing a “happily-ever-after” that’s externally prescribed by a one-size romantic ideal is a great way to ruin our chances of being happy-ever-at-all.

Intentionally crafting love to make it meaningful to you? Now that might have a shot. This does not mean a life of wall-to-wall The Hills Are Alive happiness — hedonic feelings tend to come and go.

Rather, my money is on this hypothesis: like job-crafting, love-crafting tends towards eudaimonia — the deep happiness that makes everything else possible.The Conversation

Credits

Carrie Jenkins, Professor of Philosophy and Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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What You Do Every Day Matters: The Power Of Routines

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Guest Contribution

“What you do every day matters: The power of routines,” by Megan Edgelow, Queen’s University, Ontario

The word “routine” can bring to mind words like mundane or ordinary. During the pandemic’s disruptions to daily life, routines may have felt boring and restrictive. However, as an occupational therapist and researcher of the impact of activity and participation on mental health, I know that routines can be powerful tools. They can support cognitive function, boost health and provide meaningful activities and social opportunities.

Early in the pandemic, researchers pointed to the value of daily routines to cope with change. As the second anniversary of the pandemic coincides with the relaxation of public health measures across the country, reflecting on routines and their value is useful when moving toward a “new normal.”

Routines Support Cognitive Function

First, having a daily routine and regular habits supports cognitive function and may even free people up to be more creative. Research has found that having regular work processes allows workers to spend less cognitive energy on recurring tasks, which can support focus and creativity for more complex tasks.

Think of typical morning routines that existed before the pandemic: helping family members get on their way, taking a usual route to work, grabbing a warm beverage along the way, saying hello to coworkers, flipping on a computer or opening a calendar. Having habits like these can set the stage for a productive workday.

A review of the daily rituals of influential artists found that many artists have well-defined work routines which may support their creativity rather than constrain it. Memory research shows that regular routines and habits can support older adults to function better in their home environments.

If taking medications at the same time and putting the keys in their spot is part of a daily routine, less energy will be spent looking for lost objects and worrying about maintaining one’s health, freeing up time for other things people want to do in their day.

Routines Promote Health

Regular routines can also help people feel like they have control over their daily lives and that they can take positive steps in managing their health. For example, making time for exercise within routines can help meet recommended daily activity levels. This is especially relevant now since research shows that people who reduced their activity levels during the pandemic could experience enduring health effects.

As people increase activity outside their homes, they might consider taking transit to school and work, returning to organized fitness activities and the gym and opportunities to include movement throughout the day. Other ways that routines can support health include regular meal preparation and getting enough sleep, activities that seem simple but can pay dividends in healthy ageing over a lifetime.

Routines Provide Meaning

Regular routines can also go beyond the streamlining of daily tasks and add some spice to life. Evidence indicates that a health-promoting activity like walking can offer chances to enjoy nature, explore new places and socialize.

Research on the concept of flow, a state of full absorption in the present moment, shows that activities like sports, games, fine arts and music can be fulfilling and reinforcing. Regular participation in meaningful and engaging activities can also contribute positively to mental health.

routines

Small Steps To Build Routines

If you think your daily routines could use a tune-up, consider some small steps:

• Use a day-timer or smartphone app to organize your activities and put the things you want to do in your schedule.

• Choose a regular time to wake up and go to bed and try to stick to it most days of the week.

• Make physical activity manageable with neighbourhood walks or bike rides a few times a week.

• Start a new hobby or re-engage in a past one, like playing sports or games, making arts and crafts, playing an instrument or singing.

• Keep an eye out for meaningful activities that may be popping back up in your community, like a book club at the library or a social walking group.

Routines have the power to help us manage our health and our work, home and community lives. Two years after the pandemic changed everyone’s lives, people now have an opportunity to consider the routines they want to keep and the meaningful things they need in their daily lives to stay productive, happy and healthy.The Conversation

Credits

Megan Edgelow, Assistant Professor in Health Sciences, Queen’s University, Ontario

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Women Want To Climb The Corporate Ladder — But Not At Any Price

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Guest Contribution

“Women want to climb the corporate ladder — but not at any price,” by Louise Champoux-Paillé, Concordia University and Anne-Marie Croteau, Concordia University

The consulting firm Spencer Stuart recently published a study of top management at Fortune 500 companies, the 500 richest companies in the United States.

The analysis focused specifically on the gender of the people in these positions, their functions and the source of their appointments, whether they came from inside or outside the organization.

Studying the composition of top management, often referred to as the C-Suite, is particularly important since it allows us to see how many women make it to the position of CEO in an organization.

Respectively Dean of the John Molson School of Business, and an expert for several decades on the place of women in the upper echelons of the business world, we will discuss the main findings of the Spencer Stuart study.

Starting Points

Three conclusions in particular caught our attention:

  • Men represent 60 per cent of the select group that constitutes top management. Men principally occupy the positions that offer the greatest potential for appointment as CEO, according to the history of appointments to such positions. These include, for example, Chief Operating Officer, Head of Division and Chief Financial Officer;
  • Although women are increasingly present in top management positions (40 per cent), they are still found in the positions of Head of Human Resources, Head of Communications, Head of Diversity and Inclusion and Head of Sustainable Development. In other words, women are in so-called support functions that, while important for organizations, are unfortunately perceived as having little impact on shareholder equity and financial performance;
  • Appointments to top management positions that lead to the position of CEO come mainly from within the company. What does this mean? That intimate knowledge of the organization gained over a long period is valued and that there is generally a promotion process in place to feed the succession pool.

Global Overview Of The Situation

Our experience over the last few decades allows us to draw similar conclusions about Canada. So we wanted to check whether this situation was similar in other countries.

A report by the International Labour Organization called “The Business Case for Change” provides an overview of the position of women in the upper echelons of power in 13,000 companies operating on every continent.

As in the United States and Canada, the gender divide between positions that could be called support jobs, and those that contribute directly to an organization’s profitability, appears to be widespread. According to the authors of this study, it is also referred to as a “glass wall,” since it limits the pool of potential female candidates for the position of CEO.

But how can this phenomenon be explained?

Stereotypes, Biases And Prejudices

First of all, gender stereotypes and prejudices come into play from childhood.

They have an impact on the toys children play with, the subjects they study, their lives and their future careers.

Girls — generally speaking — aspire to become doctors, teachers, nurses, psychologists and veterinary surgeons. As for boys, they want to become engineers and work in IT and mechanical fields.

Corporate Organizational Culture

Secondly, organizational culture is a mirror of our society and its traditions.

It therefore conveys biases regarding the leadership potential of women compared to men.

According to the International Labour Organization survey cited above, 91 per cent of the women questioned agreed or strongly agreed that women lead as effectively as men. However, only 77 per cent of men agreed with this statement.

Arguably, this leadership bias has an impact on the recruitment, appointment, talent development and “stretch assignment” processes that pave the way for career progression.

There is also reason to believe that these biases are equally present on boards of directors, which are responsible for appointing CEOs and which are still predominantly composed of men.

Different Life Goals

Finally, women and men have different preferences and career goals.

According to a study by Harvard Business School professors Francesca Gino and Alison Wood Brooks entitled “Explaining the Gender Differences at the Top,” women are just as interested in opportunities for advancement as men are. However, they find them less attainable because of their busy schedules. As a result, women have to take into account the compromises and sacrifices they will have to make to occupy positions of high responsibility and power.

The authors are careful to point out that these results do not mean that women are less ambitious, but that career success means different things to different people. For some, it takes the form of power. For others, it can mean making colleagues happy and helping to make the world a better place in a collaborative and supportive environment.

This research is in line with that of Viviane de Beaufort, a professor at the École supérieure des sciences économiques et commerciales (ESSEC). In a survey of the career aspirations of 295 French women managers, she found that women do want to rise to the highest positions. But not at any price.

What Determines Career Paths?

This article therefore raises the following question:

Can we, as women, one day hope to be CEOs or fulfil our professional dreams despite the biases, prejudices, stereotypes and barriers we have to overcome?

Simone de Beauvoir wrote in 1949 in her essay “The Second Sex”:

Women determine and differentiate themselves in relation to men, not men in relation to women: they are inessential in relation to what is essential. He is the subject, he is the absolute, she is the other.

This excerpt reminds us that the skills and knowledge required to perform strategic functions have always been defined in terms of the male exercise of power in an environment where the organization’s performance is judged almost exclusively by financial success and growth of shareholder value.

It’s time to think about new career paths and skills that are not defined by gender, but rather, by an organization’s mission and objectives. These goals must take into account how they contribute to creating a better world, as much as ensuring the financial success of organizations.

Functional skills must be valued as much as softer skills such as emotional intelligence, empathy, a sense of community and boldness.

Breaking down glass walls also means that organizations and their boards have a responsibility to identify and encourage women to take up positions where they can gain experience and develop their leadership skills in front-line rather than support roles.

In such a context, women, as much as men, will have a better chance of reaching the highest positions in a company while remaining true to themselves — and doing so on equal terms.The Conversation

Credits

Louise Champoux-Paillé, Cadre en exercice, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University and Anne-Marie Croteau, Dean, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Where Our Thoughts Come From

Posted on March 11, 2024 by Guest Contribution

“Where our thoughts come from: How micro emotions affect spontaneous thought,” by Francois Richer, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

Our thoughts are like a private theatre, and as such they can fascinate us. They are sometimes unpredictable and sometimes on cue. They can surprise us, stimulate us, move us to action and sometimes to tears. As much as thoughts can trigger emotions, they can also be triggered by them: feelings influence what is shown in our mental theatre.

The fleeting images and phrases in our minds make up a good portion of our lives. By some estimates based on brain state transitions in neuroimaging data, we may have four to eight thoughts per minute. Even accounting for some periods of fatigue or apathy and many periods spent perceiving sensory input (such as reading or listening), that can add up to several thousand thoughts a day.

Several psychological disorders produce changes in the stream of thought. Manic states, that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety often increase thought rate, whereas depression and dementia often reduce it.

Spontaneous Thoughts

Many thoughts can be classified as spontaneous or involuntary. They spring to mind; they don’t feel deliberate. Some may be ideas or intuitions relevant to a current situation, intrusive thoughts linked to preoccupations, or “free associations” while the mind wanders. Some are recollections of autobiographical memories with some linking to recent experiences.

Where do spontaneous thoughts come from? An obvious source is environmental stimulation: the ideas evoked by what we see and hear. However, spontaneous thoughts often appear when the environment is relatively stable, like when walking a familiar path or sitting on a bus.

Illustration of a brain lit up with red and blue, against a black background.
Emotions play a key role in many types of spontaneous thoughts.

Spontaneous thoughts often emerge from long-term memory, unconscious pieces of phrases, images, actions and ideas that also give rise to dreams. These mental construction blocks are the collective activity of networks of neurons in the brain’s grey matter whose connections have been strengthened by numerous experiences.

These neural networks are ordinarily inactive, but when they are excited by other brain activity, such as a stimulus, a related thought or hunger, they compete for access to consciousness based on their strength. The competitive strength of networks is influenced by their relevance to our situation, but also to our goals, needs, interests or emotions. We think about food more easily when we are hungry but also when we have an important dinner to prepare.

Emotions

Emotions play a key role in many types of spontaneous thoughts. For example, intrusive thoughts are forced upon us by emotions so that we focus on high-priority information like threats, frustrations or opportunities. Anxiety often produces intrusive thoughts pointing to real or imagined threats. In post-traumatic stress, it can cause repetitive flashbacks and ruminations.

While negative emotions make us focus on high-priority content, positive emotions appear to facilitate more remote or unusual associations which increase memorization and creativity. During euphoria — intense happiness or pleasure that may be out of proportion to its causes — intrusive thoughts often include optimistic anticipations and imaginative ideas. Passion induces positive spontaneous thoughts.

Micro-emotions

Even during uneventful daily activities, weak emotions or micro-emotions such as worries, desires, irritation, stress, surprise or interest are involved in orienting many of our thoughts.

Micro-emotions are brief and often unconscious. They mainly trigger micromovements like muscle tension or facial microexpressions and they produce small physiological reactions including adrenaline secretion and cardiovascular responses.

A man in a thinking pose with a finger to his chin, with icons of different thoughts in gears behind him
Microemotions are themselves triggered by a perception or an idea, often an unconscious one, that is significant enough to subtly activate emotional systems.
(Pixabay)

Micro-fears often trigger what-if thoughts and worries that maintain anxiety through a positive feedback loop; this in turn can be a source of insomnia. Desires regularly activate thoughts like goals, wishes and conversation themes.

Micro-emotions of guilt or pride trigger moral intuitions of anticipated disapproval or approval of others, which are essential to developing pro-social behaviour such as cooperation, helpfulness and other types of behaviour that benefit others. Microemotions of boredom or craving for stimulation can trigger distraction or mind wandering and may underlie some symptoms of attention deficits.

Micro-emotions influence our thoughts in a variety of ways. They distract our attention from its present object, they sensitize perceptual systems to notice things related to their dominant theme and they facilitate the retrieval of memories relevant to that theme. Micro-emotions are themselves triggered by a perception or an idea, often an unconscious one, that is significant enough to subtly activate emotional systems.

The amygdala

thoughts

Amygdala of the brain

Emotions can activate spontaneous thoughts through several brain circuits centred on a hub called the amygdala. That hub has access to our urges and desires activated in the low parts of our frontal lobe. It can interpret the emotional significance of perceptions or retrieved memories, and it can also influence them.

The amygdala hub also activates the brain’s amplifiers in the brain stem that feed neuromodulators like adrenaline and serotonin to the grey matter. These systems juice up the level of neural activity and steer it toward a theme that is consistent with the emotion. When the evoked thought is itself emotion-provoking, a self-sustaining loop is created between thought and emotion that is stopped by either distraction or cognitive processes.

In essence, spontaneous thoughts are largely motivated thoughts: every minute, feelings nudge our attention, our inner voice and our mental theatre in a specific direction. Better control of stress levels, emotions and daily experiences may improve the quality of these spontaneous thoughts and the satisfaction derived from them.The Conversation

Credits

Francois Richer, Professor, neuropsychology, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Finland Is Successfully Fighting Homelessness – Despite New Political Developments

Posted on March 6, 2024 by Guest Contribution

No more homelessness – a goal that sounds like utopian fiction may become reality soon. The “Housing First” concept in Finland, supported by NGOs like the Y-Foundation, is aiming towards the end of homelessness in 2027. In a new interview, Juha Kahila, Head of International Affairs at the Y-Foundation, talks about the implementation of “Housing First”, new developments in politics and his hopes for the future.

The “Housing First” project in Finland is still successfully reducing homelessness. Those affected by homelessness receive an apartment and additional support without any preconditions. The result: The number of people without housing is decreasing steadily since the 80s. In 2022, there were 3,686 homeless people in Finland, which is 262 less than in 2021. The aim is to end homelessness in Finland by 2027. We’ve already reported on this in a previous article.

New Developments On “Housing First” In Finland

A key stakeholder in the Finnish fight against homelessness is the Y-Foundation. The NGO has been providing housing for the homeless since 1985. It is now one of the sponsors of the “Housing First” policy in the country. It organizes housing and is the fourth-largest landlord in Finland. Today, it manages 19,000 apartments throughout Finland. 7,000 of these apartments are specifically for homeless people or people who are about to become homeless.

In a recent interview, Juha Kahila who works as Coordinator and Lead Coordinator of the National Housing First Development Network at the Y-Foundation talked about the process of “Housing First”. He gives detailed information about the financial benefits of the housing project and explains the role of the Finnish government in the realization of this concept.

A new development is the election of a conservative government in 2023. Kahila believes that the success of “Housing First” depends on whether the new government is cutting certain social benefits. But he is still hopeful that the goal of ending homelessness can be achieved. Furthermore, he thinks that organizations and political decision-makers in other countries can be inspired by the project and that this will help the countries greatly in the long term.

Interview with Juha Kahila from the Y-Foundation about the implementation of “Housing First” in Finland

Juha Kahila (Photo: Juha Kahila:Twitter)

Kontrast.at spoke to Juha Kahila about the successful Finnish concept and the Y-Foundation. He has been involved in helping the homeless for over 10 years and worked at the Finnish Youth Housing Association Services (NALPA) before becoming its CEO. He later moved to the Y-Foundation, where he now works as Head of International Affairs. You can read the interview in German here.

Mr. Kahila, what does the process of the allocation of housing look like? How does a person approach you and how long does it take to get an apartment?

Juha Kahila: First of all, before a person becomes homeless, most people have already tried a lot to prevent this. If someone still loses their apartment, they can consider – together with one of our social workers – what the best housing solution and form of support is. In other words, whether it should be a single apartment with occasional support or a “Housing First” unit, i.e. an apartment in a “Housing First” complex where help is available around the clock.

At the moment, we can provide both housing and support very quickly. Only if someone wants to live in a specific “Housing First” unit they may have to wait longer for an apartment. But many people want to wait in temporary accommodation anyway and that is always possible.

Social benefits begin to flow immediately. Depending on the person’s situation, we also consider appropriate job opportunities. For example, the “Housing First” units offer low-threshold employment provisions themselves.

The Y-Foundation always works together with other agencies. We provide the housing. Support, advice, social services and other services are then provided by the welfare districts and other organizations.

Common rooms – and even a sauna: This is what the “Housing First” houses look like

What do these apartments or houses look like? Are they spread throughout the city?

Juha Kahila: The apartments are mainly quite ordinary. 80 per cent of the apartments are scattered around the city. The rest are in “Housing First” units, each with around 33 to 100 apartments in one building and support services on the ground floor. The apartments are equipped with a fridge, oven, etc. The residents furnish the rest themselves so that they feel at home. In the “Housing First” units, there are also communal areas where people can cook, watch TV together or just meet and chat.

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Housing First Unit Väinolä in Espoo, Finland. (Foto: Y-Foundation, zVg)

 

 

 

 

There are certainly people who say it is unfair that many people have to spend a large part of their income on housing, while others simply get it “for free”. What do you say to them?

Juha Kahila: The answer is that housing is a human right. If that’s not enough of an argument, we explain that it saves money to provide housing in this way – and to avoid people having to sleep in emergency accommodation or on the street. We explain that the city is also safer for everyone if we take care of everyone.

Besides, nothing is given away for free, people pay rent for their apartments. Of course, in the early stages, most of them pay their rent through various social benefits. But a permanent home gives them the chance to contribute more again.

You and the Y-Foundation say that it is cheaper for the state to provide housing for the homeless than to have them remain in their situation. What does this calculation look like?

Juha Kahila: Ending homelessness indeed saves money in the long run. The reason behind this is that people don’t have to use expensive emergency services. They spend fewer nights in prison, they less often need police or legal services and so on. In Finland, we have calculated that the savings are around 15,000 euros per person per year if they get housing instead of being left in shelters or on the streets.

Once people have a home and the help they need, the resources that are needed for the other shelters and services are freed up. In addition, homeless people become taxpayers again in the long run – but we haven’t even included that in our calculation.

Overall, the effects are multifaceted. We studied this in Finland and there are studies worldwide that show the same result: It is always cheaper to house people with support than to leave them in emergency shelters or on the streets.

The initiative for “Housing First” came from the Finnish government

In Finland, there is a lot of political support for the “Housing First” approach. How did this come about – who convinced whom?

Juha Kahila: The “Housing First” model was inherently a political decision in Finland. It worked differently here than in many other countries, where organizations and other stakeholders had to explain to politicians why it makes sense. In Finland, politicians had to convince the stakeholders! With carrots and sticks, so to speak.

The politicians said: We want to change the system. If you are on board, we will help you with the renovation of the apartments. If you’re not on board, we won’t buy the accomodation you provide. So, there has been a ‘gentle push’.

However, we currently have a government that wants to cut social benefits and build less affordable housing in the future. Of course, this presents us with challenges. But we are not despairing, we are working with the tools we have.

What about other countries: Do NGOs or political representatives come to you to learn from your experience with “Housing First”?

Juha Kahila: Yes, we get several hundred visitors every year and many of them are political decision-makers: Ministers, mayors and EU decision-makers. In addition, many groups come and get inspiration for their work.

Do you know of any comparable international projects?

Juha Kahila: There is currently great work on this in Denmark and Austria and I believe that this will benefit the countries greatly in the long term.

No one should be homeless by 2027 – Helsinki wants to achieve this goal by 2025

The Finnish government wants to eliminate homelessness by 2027. Will that work out?

Juha Kahila: That depends on the decisions of the current government. If not all the cuts are implemented, I firmly believe that it will be possible to end homelessness by the end of 2027.

Helsinki has an even more ambitious goal: the city wants to end homelessness by the end of 2025. They also have an excellent program, so this goal can also be achieved.

Are there also criticisms of “Housing First” and if so, from whom?

Juha Kahila: Sometimes, yes. Mostly from people who think that “Housing First” is only about housing and who don’t realize that other forms of support are an essential part of the model. Of course, we all need to do a better job in the future to reduce these prejudices.

What motivates you personally to work at the Y-Foundation?

Juha Kahila: The foundation wants to change the world and is taking concrete measures to do so. Reducing homelessness worldwide is a goal that I can easily and happily support. We want to do everything we can to ensure that one day everyone has a home.

Is there a story of a person that you particularly remember and would like to share?

Juha Kahila: I used to be a social worker and worked with a young man for several years. At some point, he no longer needed support and was ready to live independently. This fall, after several years, he suddenly called to let me know that he had become a father and that he really wanted to tell me about it. The thought of that always makes me smile.

Credits

This work is licensed under the Creative Common License.  Kontrast.at / Kathrin Glösel is the source/author of this article. The rights to the content remain with the original publisher.

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Antiquated Thinking About Old Age Hinders Canada

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Guest Contribution

“Antiquated thinking about old age hinders Canada’s economic and social development,” by Thomas Klassen, York University, Canada

Governments in Canada define working age as being between 15 and 65, but this misrepresents the lives of Canadians.

The 2016 census found that one in five Canadians aged 65 and older — nearly 1.1 million people — are still working and that one-third do so full-time.

Many in the private sector and those who are self-employed work well past age 65, which explains why the average retirement age in Canada is now 64.4, an increase of three years in two decades.

False assumptions about turning 65

Although mandatory retirement at age 65 was eliminated more than a decade ago, laws and public policy, including Statistics Canada definitions, continue to assume that everyone retires at 65.

In many provinces, workers’ compensation laws only pay injured workers for their loss of earnings until they turn 65, or for two years if they were older than 63 when injured at the workplace.

The obligations of employers to rehire workers following an injury only apply until someone turns 65.

Employers aren’t required to provide medical and dental benefits, or life and disability insurance, to workers 65 and over. There may be no difference whatsoever among the skills, abilities and job duties of an employee aged 64 and one aged 65, but one receives benefits while the other does not.

There is nothing magical about turning 65. A reformulation of both working age and retirement is sorely warranted to strengthen Canada’s economic and social development. Other countries have already done so.

Recent Development

Setting age 65 as the entry to old age is a relatively recent development.

Germany, the first nation to adopt an old-age social insurance program in 1889, set the eligibility age at 70. Newfoundland’s old age pension, established in 1911, set 75 as the minimum age to receive benefits. Canada’s Old Age Pension Act, which was in effect from 1927 to 1952, set the pensionable age at 70.

In the mid-1960s, when the Canada Pension Plan was introduced, 65 was established as the age to receive a full pension and to receive Old Age Security payments. Canadian workers’ 65th birthday became the universal marker of their exit from the labour market and official entry into old age.

Demographers and other experts say we should revisit the definition of “old age” and “retirement age,” because using 65 is increasingly inappropriate as people live longer and healthier lives than ever.

As well, compared to several decades ago, Canadians are spending more years in post-secondary education, resulting in a later start to full-time work.

Work itself has also changed, with fewer and fewer occupations requiring intense physical labour.

oldReconsidering What’s Meant By Old

There are ways to update the definition of old age that would have clear social and economic benefits.

One is to have several markers for “old,” such as “young old age” for those aged 65-74; “middle old age” for those 75-84 and “advanced old age” for those 85 and above.

This recognizes the diversity among people 65 and older, permitting politicians and other stakeholders to design more sensitive and age-appropriate policies for each of these three distinct demographic groups.

For instance, working past age 65 has been shown to have health benefits for some groups and therefore should not be discouraged for the “young old.”

A second option is to adjust the age that marks the official entry into old age — currently 65 — to account for increasing longevity. A century ago, Canadians reaching age 65 could expect to live for another 13 years. At present, men reaching 65 will live 18 more years, while women will live 22 more years.

With longer life expectancy, it only makes sense to have the age marker for old age set higher. This option has been proposed in the United Kingdom and is often accompanied by the proclamation: “70 is the new 65.”old age

Lastly, old age could be made more gender-sensitive. Women live longer on average than men, and so are classified as older for a longer period. The latest Canadian census finds there are more than 9,000 centenarians in Canada, mostly women, each of whom has been defined as old for nearly a third of their lives.

Geared Towards Men

Using the same definition of old for both women and men is a reflection that, historically, retirement and pension ages were set for men and not women because fewer women worked outside the home.

Because women live longer on average than men, they must work longer to have similar retirement savings, but that’s not possible if they retire at the same age as their male counterparts.

A revised conception of old age would significantly decrease the number of people classified as old and would more accurately reflect the total number of people in Canada’s working-age population. A modern definition would also mitigate stereotypes of older workers and ageism while prodding governments to reform outdated laws and provide a boost to an economy often facing worker shortages.

Increasing the age at which Canadians are considered old is surely a politically easy sell. After all, who could be opposed to being regarded as younger?The Conversation

Credits

Thomas Klassen, Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration, York University, Canada

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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About A Third Of Employees Have Faced Bullying At Work

Posted on February 28, 2024 by Guest Contribution

“About a third of employees have faced bullying at work – here’s how to recognize and deal with it,” by Jason Walker, Adler University and Deborah Circo, University of Nebraska Omaha

The phenomenon of bullying, harassment and sexual abuse in workplaces throughout North America is widespread and harmful to both individuals and organizations. Bullying at work affects up to 30% of workers over time.

As practitioners and researchers who study workplace violence, including bullying, harassment and sexual abuse, we define workplace bullying as harmful acts of mistreatment between people that go beyond incivility and cross the line to intentionally causing harm.

Bullying behaviours range from verbally insulting or socially excluding someone to sabotaging the victim’s work, inflicting psychological terror and engaging in sexual abuse or physical aggression. Manipulation and provocation also play a role in bullying dynamics, and cyberbullying has emerged as a new form of workplace harassment. Research suggests workplace bullying affects employee health and safety and the workplace overall.

In a grocery store line, if someone invades your space, shoves you aside or threatens physical harm, the police may intervene, potentially resulting in an arrest. However, in the workplace, incidents involving bullying, assault, sexual abuse or other forms of violence are typically addressed through internal investigations. Our research suggests that treating workplace bullying as a matter of public health rather than employment law is necessary to protect those being targeted.

workplace bullyingWorkplace Bullying Results In Real Harms

Targets of workplace bullying often experience serious repercussions, including stress and burnout, along with other diagnosed mental health issues and, in extreme cases, suicide.

Bullying can affect physical health, with symptoms including sleep disturbances, cardiovascular diseases, body aches and pain, loss of appetite and headaches. Targets often describe an inability to concentrate; since they’re spending time worrying about what is going to happen to them next, job performance suffers. The negative impacts can spill over to a target’s personal life and affect their relationships with family and friends.

It’s not unusual for targeted workers to feel uncomfortable coming forward and talking about their experiences. But suffering in silence can lead to an even more toxic climate at work that can undermine your victims’ sense of security, with long-term consequences for their well-being.

Personality Traits Of Bullies And Their Targets

Workplace bullies often target those who possess qualities highly valued by employers: self-sufficiency, cautiousness and innovativeness. Those targeted typically are motivated, have a kind perspective and prefer to avoid getting involved in office politics or engaging in competitive behaviour. They take charge of their work and responsibilities.

Bullying often involves an imbalance of power, where the perpetrator acts to obtain power and control over the target.

Researchers find that bullies tend to have low self-esteem, problems with anger management and even personality disorders. Bullies often target people based on their appearance, behaviour, race, religion, educational background, LGBTQ+ identity or because of perceived threats to their career.

There’s no hard-and-fast profile, but males tend to exhibit more of the traits associated with bullying. Those who possess tendencies toward what psychologists call dark triad traits – Machiavellianism, subclinical psychopathy and subclinical narcissism – often gravitate toward jobs that offer high levels of freedom and hierarchical structures.

bullyingAre You Being Bullied?

Have you noticed a decline in your emotional or physical health? Is your job performance being affected? Feeling constantly stressed, anxious or demoralized are signs that something isn’t right.

Think about whether you feel singled out. Do you sense that you’re being isolated because of how others treat you?

If you do conclude you’re being bullied, your priority is keeping yourself safe. Defending yourself against workplace bullying takes courage, but there are steps you can take to diffuse, distance and document what is happening to you.

At the moment when bullying is occurring, focus on trying to keep your emotions in check and avoid being reactive. For example, try to gain some psychological distance in an emotionally charged situation – politely walk away, don’t engage, and give yourself time to settle your emotions. Taking space by stepping away can disrupt the immediate intensity of the situation. It helps you stay in control rather than allowing a bully to force you to respond impulsively at the moment, which can lead you to say or do something you’ll regret.

Try your best to de-escalate the situation. Some tips for how to stop an interaction from spiralling include:

  • Use polite, firm language to ask the bully to stop the conversation.
  • Asking the bully to leave.
  • Removing yourself from the situation if the bully won’t go.
  • Informing your supervisor immediately.

If you feel threatened, calmly and politely stop the interaction by removing yourself in a nonthreatening way. As challenging as it can be, the key here is to stay composed and remain respectful.

How To Respond To An Ongoing Situation

It may be helpful to engage in some advanced planning with a friend or colleague. Rehearse a bullying situation and practice how you would respond to help you get comfortable using emotional distancing and de-escalation. Advanced practice can help you handle an emotionally charged encounter.

Seek the support and safety of your peers. They can talk things through with you and become your allies if asked to describe or even testify about a bullying incident they witnessed.

Strive for an attitude of strength and confidence in yourself. Workplace bullies often choose to attack people they peg as easy targets. Present a strong front, trust in yourself and have confidence in your work – these attributes may make you less likely to be targeted.

Document your experiences when you perceive there is a problem. Be objective: Note the time and date, what happened, who was present, what was said and how it made you feel. Keeping a record helps quantify what is happening. Your organization should have policies and procedures to support you if you believe you are being bullied at work.

A caveat, though: Keep in mind, that human resources departments are often ill-equipped to manage these issues, and complaints may be mishandled, improperly dismissed or simply ignored. Sometimes, if you’re able, it is better to look for a new job.

To effectively tackle the problem of workplace bullying and harassment, both employees and organizations need to acknowledge and actively address these concerns. By establishing policies against bullying and fostering open lines of communication, workplaces can create safer spaces that enhance the well-being and productivity of their employees.The Conversation

Credits

Jason Walker, Program Director & Associate Professor of Industrial-Organizational and Applied Psychology, Adler University and Deborah Circo, Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of Nebraska Omaha

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Alexei Navalny Had A Vision Of A Democratic Russia.

Posted on February 21, 2024 by Guest Contribution

“Alexei Navalny had a vision of a democratic Russia. That terrified Vladimir Putin to the core,” by Robert Horvath, La Trobe University

Alexei Navalny was a giant figure in Russian politics. No other individual rivalled the threat he posed to the Putin regime. His death in an Arctic labour camp is a blow to all those who dreamed he might emerge as the leader of a future democratic Russia.

What made Navalny so important was his decision to become an anti-corruption crusader in 2008. Using shareholder activism and his popular blog, he shone a spotlight on the corruption schemes that enabled officials to steal billions from state-run corporations.

His breakthrough came in 2011 when he proposed the strategy of voting for any party but President Vladimir Putin’s “party of crooks and thieves” in the Duma (parliament) elections. Faced with a collapse of support, the regime resorted to widespread election fraud. The result was months of pro-democracy protests.

Putin regained control through a mix of concessions and repression, but the crisis signalled Navalny’s emergence as the dominant figure in Russia’s democratic movement.

Despite being convicted on trumped-up embezzlement charges, he was allowed to run in Moscow’s mayoral elections in 2013. In an unfair contest, which included police harassment and hostile media coverage, he won 27% of the vote.

 

 

alexei navalny

 

Perseverance In The Face Of Worsening Attacks

The authorities learned from this mistake. Never again would Navalny be allowed to compete in elections. What the Kremlin failed to stop was his creation of a national movement around the Foundation for the Struggle Against Corruption (FBK), which he had founded in 2011 with a team of brilliant young activists.

During the ensuing decade, FBK transformed our understanding of the nature of Putin’s kleptocracy. Its open-source investigations shattered the reputations of numerous regime officials, security functionaries and regime propagandists.

One of the most important was a 2017 exposé of the network of charities that funded the palaces and yachts of then-premier Dmitry Medvedev. Viewed 46 million times on YouTube, it triggered protests across Russia.

Exposé accusing Dmitry Medvedev of corruption.

No less significant was Navalny’s contribution to the methods of pro-democracy activism. To exploit the regime’s dependence on heavily manipulated elections, he developed a strategy called “intelligent voting”. The basic idea was to encourage people to vote for the candidates who had the best chance of defeating Putin’s United Russia party. The result was a series of setbacks for United Russia in the 2019 regional elections.

One measure of Navalny’s impact was the intensifying repression directed against him. As prosecutors tried to paralyse him with a series of implausible criminal cases, they also pursued his family. His younger brother Oleg served three and a half years in a labour camp on bogus charges.

This judicial persecution was compounded by the violence of the regime’s proxies. Two months after exposing Medvedev’s corruption, Navalny was nearly blinded by a Kremlin-backed gang of vigilantes, who sprayed his face with a noxious blend of chemicals.

More serious was the deployment of a death squad from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which had kept Navalny under surveillance since 2017. The use of the nerve agent Novichok to poison Navalny during a trip to the Siberian city of Tomsk in August 2020 was intended to end his challenge to Putin’s rule.

Instead, it precipitated the “Navalny crisis”, a succession of events that shook the regime’s foundations. The story of Navalny’s survival – and confirmation that he had been poisoned with Novichok – focused international attention on the Putin regime’s criminality.

Any lingering doubts about state involvement in his poisoning were dispelled by Navalny’s collaboration with Bellingcat, an investigative journalism organisation, to identify the suspects and deceive one of them into revealing how they poisoned him.

The damage was magnified by Navalny’s decision to confront Putin’s corruption. In a powerful two-hour documentary film, A Palace for Putin, Navalny chronicled the obsessive greed that had transformed an obscure KGB officer into one of the world’s most notorious kleptocrats.

With over 129 million views on YouTube alone, the film shattered the dictator’s carefully constructed image as the incarnation of traditional virtues.

A Palace for Putin.

‘We Will Fill Up The Jails And Police Vans’

It is difficult to exaggerate the impact of the “Navalny crisis” on Putin, a dictator terrified of the prospect of popular revolution. No longer was he courted by Western leaders. US President Joe Biden began his term in office in 2021 by endorsing an interviewer’s description of Putin as a “killer”.

To contain the domestic fallout, Putin unleashed a crackdown that began with Navalny’s 2021 arrest on his return to Moscow from Germany, where had been recovering from the Novichok poisoning. On the international stage, Putin secured a summit with Biden by staging a massive deployment of military force on the Ukrainian border, a rehearsal for the following year’s invasion.

The Kremlin’s trolling factories also tried to destroy Navalny’s reputation with a smear campaign. Within weeks of Navalny’s imprisonment, Amnesty International rescinded his status as a “prisoner of conscience” based on allegations of hate speech. The evidence was some ugly statements made by Navalny as an inexperienced politician in the mid-2000s when he was trying to build an anti-Putin alliance of democrats and nationalists.

What his detractors ignored was Navalny’s evolution into a critic of ethnonationalist prejudices. In a speech at a nationalist rally in 2011, he challenged his listeners to empathise with people in the Muslim-majority republics of Russia’s northern Caucasus region.

This divergence from the nationalist mainstream was accentuated by Putin’s conflict with Ukraine. After the invasion of Crimea in March 2014, Navalny denounced the “imperialist annexation” as a cynical effort to distract the masses from corruption.

Eight years later, while languishing in prison, he condemned Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, exhorting his compatriots to take to the streets, saying:

If, to prevent war, we need to fill up the jails and police vans, we will fill up the jails and police vans.

Later that year, he argued a post-Putin Russia needed an end to the concentration of power in the Kremlin and the creation of a parliamentary republic as “the only way to stop the endless cycle of imperial authoritarianism”.

Navalny’s tragedy is that he never had a chance to convert the moral authority he amassed during his years as a dissident into political power. Like Charles de Gaulle in France and Nelson Mandela in South Africa, he might have become a redemptive leader, leading his people from war and tyranny to the promised land of a freer society.

Instead, he has left his compatriots the example of a brave, principled and thoughtful man, who sacrificed his life for the cause of democracy and peace. That is his enduring legacy. The Conversation

Credits

Robert Horvath, Senior Lecturer, La Trobe University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Family Day Imagery Neglects Family Caregivers’ Care Work

Posted on February 19, 2024 by Guest Contribution

Family Day imagery neglects family caregivers’ care work; it needs to be valued, by Janet Fast, University of Alberta and Jacquie Eales, University of Alberta

Family Day often evokes images of families enjoying the outdoors together, playing board games or sharing a meal. However, these images neglect the hidden care that nearly eight million caregivers across Canada provide.

One in four Canadians aged 15+ provides care to family, friends and neighbours with chronic health problems, physical or mental disabilities or functional limitations.

The ongoing nature of this care work comes with both rewards and penalties. Caring for family and friends helps people give back, feel close and can give people a sense of competence and purpose. At the same time, many caregivers have to deal with their own poor health, strained social connections and out-of-pocket expenses.

These negative outcomes threaten the sustainability of caregivers’ care work and affect their well-being. Family caregiving is often ignored because it is unpaid, undervalued, hidden in the privacy of homes and care facilities and done primarily by women.

As a family economist, and a family caregiving researcher, (and family caregivers ourselves) we know this work isn’t free. Whether it’s personal care, housekeeping, managing appointments and services, or even home-based kidney dialysis, there’s nothing “free” about a family caregiver’s care work. And the COVID-19 pandemic has made that even more obvious.

Outbreaks in long-term care, work-from-home mandates, job losses and shortages of formal home care services have complicated and intensified family caregivers’ responsibilities, isolation and stress.

The pandemic has also increased caregivers’ financial burden and reduced their ability to get much-needed outside support.

Despite this care crisis, family caregivers have carried on as best they can. Their collective efforts — 5.7 billion hours of family care work annually — help sustain the public continuing care systems that are increasingly dependent on them and reduce the burden on taxpayers.

$97.1 billion To replace Families’ Care Work

Using data from Statistics Canada’s most recent (2018) national survey on caregiving and care receiving, we found that families play a central role in meeting Canadians’ care needs.

Unpaid family caregivers in Canada spend an extraordinary 5.7 billion hours annually supporting others. It would take 2.8 million full-time paid care workers to do this work instead. Multiply that by the national median hourly wage of $17 for home support workers and you get a staggering $97.1 billion as the estimated cost to replace Canadian families’ care work.

To fully understand the magnitude of caregivers’ contributions to Canadian society, consider that $97.1 billion represents 32.2 per cent of national expenditures on formal health care, and more than three times the national expenditures on continuing care services like home, community and long-term care.

Without the ongoing commitment and labour of family caregivers, the Canadian continuing care sector would collapse.

This $97.1 billion value also represents 4.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). That’s double the contributions of industries such as agriculture, utilities and hospitality, and 67 per cent of the contribution of the healthcare and social services sectors combined.

Policymakers rely on GDP as a universal measure of a country’s social and economic performance and standard of living that guides their policy decisions. Yet, because GDP omits the value of unpaid care work, it is an incomplete measure leading to flawed public policy.

family dayThe Key Component Of The Care Economy

Many social injustices arise from the invisibility and devaluation of families’ care work. Caregivers who are women, have lower incomes and are in their peak earning years contribute more than their share.

Bringing family care into debates about the overall economy and accounting for caregivers’ contributions is sparking conversations about recognizing the care economy as a key component and growth engine for Canadian society. We define the care economy as paid and unpaid care work that supports people who are care-dependent because of their chronic health conditions or disabilities, or because of their young age.

Documenting the enormous volume and monetary value of family members’ care work establishes it as an indispensable social and economic activity. Yet it is often left out of the public policy agenda.

It’s time to complete the picture and recognize public expenditures on support for family caregivers as social investments in the well-being of individuals, families and communities. It’s time for a National Caregiver Strategy and a Canada that recognizes, respects and supports the integral role of family caregivers in society.

Credits

Our study on the value of unpaid family care work is a collaborative project of Janet Fast, Jacquie Eales, Norah Keating and Choong Kim from the University of Alberta and Karen Duncan from the University of Manitoba.The Conversation

Janet Fast, Professor and Co-Director, Research on Aging, Policies and Practice, University of Alberta and Jacquie Eales, Research Manager, Research on Aging Policies and Practice, University of Alberta

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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4 Things To Know About Ash Wednesday

Posted on February 14, 2024 by Guest Contribution

“4 things to know about Ash Wednesday,” by William Johnston, University of Dayton

For Christians, the death and resurrection of Jesus is a pivotal event commemorated each year during a season of preparation called Lent and a season of celebration called Easter.

The day that begins the Lenten season is called Ash Wednesday. Here are four things to know about it.

1. Origin of The Tradition Of Using Ashes

On Ash Wednesday, many Christians have ashes put on their forehead – a practice that has been going on for about a thousand years.

In the earliest Christian centuries – from A.D. 200 to 500 – those guilty of serious sins such as murder, adultery or apostasy, a public renunciation of one’s faith, were excluded for a time from the Eucharist, a sacred ceremony celebrating communion with Jesus and with one another.

During that time they did acts of penance, like extra praying and fasting, and lying “in sackcloth and ashes,” as an outward action expressing interior sorrow and repentance.

The customary time to welcome them back to the Eucharist was at the end of Lent, during Holy Week.

But Christians believe that all people are sinners, each in his or her own way. So as centuries went on, the church’s public prayer at the beginning of Lent added a phrase, “Let us change our garments to sackcloth and ashes,” as a way to call the whole community, not just the most serious sinners, to repentance.

Around the 10th century, the practice arose of acting out those words about ashes by actually marking the foreheads of those taking part in the ritual. The practice caught on and spread, and in 1091 Pope Urban II decreed that “on Ash Wednesday everyone, clergy and laity, men and women, will receive ashes.” It’s been going on ever since.

2. Words Used When Applying Ashes

A 12th-century missal, a ritual book with instructions on how to celebrate the Eucharist, indicates the words used when putting ashes on the forehead were: “Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The phrase echoes God’s words of reproach after Adam, according to the narrative in the Bible, disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.

This phrase was the only one used on Ash Wednesday until the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. At that time a second phrase came into use, also biblical but from the New Testament: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” These were Jesus’s words at the beginning of his public ministry, that is when he began teaching and healing among the people.

Each phrase in its own way serves the purpose of calling the faithful to live their Christian lives more deeply. The words from Genesis remind Christians that life is short and death imminent, urging focus on what is essential. The words of Jesus are a direct call to follow him by turning away from sin and doing what he says.

3. Two Traditions For The Day Before

Two quite different traditions developed for the day leading up to Ash Wednesday.

One might be called a tradition of indulgence. Christians would eat more than usual, either as a final binge before a season of fasting or to empty the house of foods typically given up during Lent. Those foods were chiefly meat, but depending on culture and custom, also milk and eggs and even sweets and other forms of dessert food. This tradition gave rise to the name “Mardi Gras,” or Fat Tuesday.

The other tradition was more sober: namely, the practice of confessing one’s sins to a priest and receiving a penance appropriate for those sins, a penance that would be carried out during Lent. This tradition gave rise to the name “Shrove Tuesday,” from the verb “to shrive,” meaning to hear a confession and impose a penance.

In either case, on the next day, Ash Wednesday, Christians dive right into Lenten practice by both eating less food overall and avoiding some foods altogether.

4. Ash Wednesday Has Inspired Poetry

In 1930s England, when Christianity was losing ground among the intelligentia, T.S. Eliot’s poem “Ash Wednesday” reaffirmed traditional Christian faith and worship. In one section of the poem, Eliot wrote about the enduring power of God’s “silent Word” in the world:

  If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
  If the unheard, unspoken
  Word is unspoken, unheard;
  Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
  The Word without a word, the Word within
  The world and for the world;
  And the light shone in darkness and
  Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
  About the centre of the silent Word.

Credits

Ellen Garmann, Associate Director of Campus Ministry for Liturgy at the University of Dayton, contributed to this piece.The Conversation

William Johnston, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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