My spouse and I are going scuba diving in Indonesia for a couple of weeks. While we're gone, you might want to poke around in my archives. I've focused on enduring issues and tried to provide enduring ways of handling yourself in verbal tussles when those issues are being discussed.
Scuba diving helps with all this, BTW. Divers who panic tend to die, but on the other hand if you don't die you'll get lots of practice in overcoming panic (for some reason there's always a little part of your brain screaming "I can't breathe water! Get out of here!" every second you're diving), so it helps one's mental discipline as long as you remember that it's not a safe thing to do and use a certain amount of caution.
But neither does it have to be wildly dangerous. It's like skiing--you can stick to the marine equivalent of bunny slopes and be pretty darn safe.
And our hobby has taken us to many exotic (for us) destinations, where, as divers, we interact with the locals to a depth (so to speak) not known by the folks under the beach umbrellas at the resorts.
This helps give me perspective when dealing with domestic political issues.
Scuba diving helps with all this, BTW. Divers who panic tend to die, but on the other hand if you don't die you'll get lots of practice in overcoming panic (for some reason there's always a little part of your brain screaming "I can't breathe water! Get out of here!" every second you're diving), so it helps one's mental discipline as long as you remember that it's not a safe thing to do and use a certain amount of caution.
But neither does it have to be wildly dangerous. It's like skiing--you can stick to the marine equivalent of bunny slopes and be pretty darn safe.
And our hobby has taken us to many exotic (for us) destinations, where, as divers, we interact with the locals to a depth (so to speak) not known by the folks under the beach umbrellas at the resorts.
This helps give me perspective when dealing with domestic political issues.
