Depression

Ode argued compellingly that marking time with natural rhythms and seasons can grow compassion and commitment to all life.  The underlying wistfulness and enhanced "sensitivity to the passage of the seasons" is embodied in the likes of Monty Don, who combines a kanyini-like love for the soil and place, with a sense of gratitude that seems to come "from the other side of sorrow and despair".

Please see below selected recent generosity-related change.

See also: Halcyon Generosity Headlines

Pre 2018

• Feeling like the world is becoming less friendly? Social theorist Jonathan Zittrain begs to differ, seeing a web of random acts of kindness,
• Meanwhile, initiatives like Global Giving also tell a more positive story.

Of Mice and Men - redux?  Chastening and often stunning images of the impact that global recession can have in our day and age might suggest so, yet the blooming sunflower might suggest too that hope springs eternal or, as Roy Harper puts it so lyrically, "through all destruction flies new dawn".

Man such sunflowers constantly emerge, displaying a wide variety of proposed "antidotes to the pessimism of the post-crisis world". If you'd like to hear constructive suggestions for our way ahead economically, you could also listen to the following podcasts:

The ‘disease to please’ is apparently a dangerous condition that can lead to terrible suffering and even suicide, claimed a leading commentator.