Depression

Depression is undervalued and over-diagnosed.  Humans are capable of a wide range of emotions, and each one is intended to provide a benefit, whether it be reinforcing habits, ore shocking them out of bad situations.

In modern society there seems to be a troubling tendency to believe that sadness is something best avoided altogether. Clinical depression, is now something diagnosed in people of all ages, startlingly often.

There are no studies suggesting that depression is any more common now than ever before, but depression diagnoses have been on a sharp rise. Along with the recent boom in attention deficit disorder and seasonal affective disorder diagnoses, depression is having a spotlight turned on it as a new enemy of mankind. The treatments can be worse than the problem, and usually more long-term.

Recession

A recession is not about gas prices or the cost of corn. Recessions do not pop up overnight, and their greatest effect is not a dip in the gross national product or the per capita income.

Consumer spending droops, causing corporate spending to drop as the think tanks go into survival mode. Governments cut interest rates to encourage spending but ultimately this puts more money into circulation and causes inflation, simultaneously devaluing the currency and slowing the rate at which savings accrue interest. Days get shorter, working parents get more tired, and politicians lose approval ratings.

HIV

HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is possibly the most politically charged microscopic object known to man.

Political camouflage, denial, lust, religious conflict, economic hardship, and even a few things that have to do with biology, make up HIV’s formidable bag of tricks. It joins the ranks of the rare few diseases, such as leprosy, that are capable of making their hosts not only ill, but socially outcast as well.

Unlike leprosy, this social quarantine does nothing to contain the spread of HIV, because HIV has few outward symptoms, and no symptoms that would tip off the uninformed observer. These peculiarities have allowed HIV to spread to the pandemic problem that it is now. Its unique biology will keep it going strong in the face of open war by the international community.

Cooking

Cooking is not reading directions on boxes and preparing the contents. Recipes are not cooking in the same sense that sheet music is not actually music. The art of cooking does not involve secret recipes or grandma’s wisdom (although grandma probably has a lot to teach you). The difference between food you enjoy and food you survive on is the difference between cooking and simple preparation.

By no means can the complicated art of cooking be explain in short terms, but there are a few basic principles that will help every one enjoy more fulfilling food, even the kind that comes out of a box.

Karma

Karma is a very misunderstood concept in Buddhism. The common conception is that Karma represents some invisible law that punishes the wicked and rewards the good. The ultimate “what goes around comes around” is a pretty flawed way of looking at it. Since this is such a deeply held misconception, let’s have a few examples.

Wrong: Stanley walks into a bar, bumping into Xavier on his way out. He sneers and yells “Watch where you’re going” and slides up to the bar. Soon after his advances are rejected by an exceedingly beautiful woman, Maribel. Charles, who witnessed the whole scene, sneers back at him and says “that’s karma for you.”