Katherine Phelps

A friend made a comment this morning that resonated with me. “How is it that people’s minds are so fragile right now?” How is it that people we have known to be friendly and kind have slipped into hatred? How is it that people who were once willing to reach out a hand to those […]

Stand up to those who are behaving in harmful manners. Refrain from hating them…stay focused on the behaviour. Support and applaud those doing life-affirming actions. Do what you can to amplify the example of life-affirming action, so that it is seen more as the norm and thereby becomes more of the norm. Don’t worry so […]

I object to “nanny state” on the same grounds as I object to “throws like a girl” or “screams like a girl”. The formula is: “this is bad, therefore it is like a female because females are laughably low status.” However, as a metaphor “nanny state” is revealing. Traditionally, nannies have been servants in wealthy […]

So many of us were raised by people who were damaged and who controlled, judged, and manipulated us through physical and/or emotional violence. So many of us are damaged and relate to the world through that damage. To survive others of our kind we resort to the strategies used to protect ourselves from predators: fight, […]

We need to think about many things for when our pandemic quarantine is over. Here are two I would like to mention. Many small businesses have or will go under, leaving us more fully in the hands of the mega-businesses who are non-democratic and tend to be answerable to no one. We have been granting […]

Get up and go to bed at regular hoursThese don’t have to be the same hours as previously, just regular. Clean yourself and get out of your pajamas. You don’t have to dress up formally, just wear day clothes. Give yourself a schedule. For example: wash clothes on Saturday, play an online game on Sunday, […]

I’ve just come back from running a few errands. I had to deposit a cheque at the bank, and since I’m a combine errands kind of person, I thought I would pick up a few things. I had already seen the empty toilet paper aisles over a week ago, when people panicked over the potential […]

If we had a Universal Basic Income: It would now be supporting all those families who lost their homes and their jobs to the fires. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-02/government-concedes-bushfire-grants-taking-too-long/12018560 People could afford to stay home if they have caught the coronavirus. If we are hit by a recession, people will have a safety net with which to pay […]

Part of maturing as an artist is finding better dreams. Youth: I want to be famous! Adulthood: I want to create something significant! Maturity: I just want to leave the world a better place, however small or large that contribution is. So many great artists did not achieve greatness until after their deaths. Artists themselves […]

From the US we hear a lot about the “centrist” vote. This vote is even lauded for being moderate and level-headed. In Australia we hear about the “swing” vote. These are voters who are not actively aligned to any party and may vote as the wind blows. These are in fact the same sorts of […]