Category: Alan Bailey

That magnificent obsession: sport

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

In a world where empires collapse, earthquakes devastate, assassins slay and armies crush, no news is as important to many people as who won the last sporting world cup. Sport for many is a craze. At least, it could easily look that way to an outside observer.

Think of the hours of coverage on television or the procession of parents following their children to the local playing field each weekend. Witness the people who run, climb, bat, kick, throw, swing, dive, drive, pedal, dance, skate, ski, wrestle, box — and add what you want.

For some it’s an interest, a pastime. For others it’s an essential ingredient of life — life being rendered meaningless without it. For yet others it is a passion, a driving force, a religion calling for supreme dedication. Those who view sport but don’t play it, fall into exactly the same categories.

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What it takes to be a man

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

As I grew up I learned that to be a man meant to take all of life’s hard knocks without looking for sympathy and certainly to never cry.

Manhood seems to be associated with courage, strength and endurance, as womanhood is with things more tender and more sensitive. But what really is the main distinctive?

True manhood involves shouldering responsibility. Physical toughness is not the measure, nor whether he abstains from activities thought to be feminine. A man is truly a man when he squarely faces his responsibilities and makes a real effort to handle them.Continue reading

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Getting to the heart of the matter

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

When life seems a bit mundane, a bit ordinary, think about what is going on inside your body. One of the many things we take for granted is that wonderful pump, the heart. We don’t even feel its action most of the time but it is working away day and night keeping us alive.

It is amazingly efficient. Its job is to keep a river of life flowing through our blood vessels. There is no provision for a shut-down for repairs, or for a monthly service, it must just keep pumping, hour by hour, day by day and year by year. Muscles expand and contract, valves open and shut, all prompted by nerve impulses.

Sure, many folks have problems with diseases and disorders. This doesn’t reflect on the design and efficiency of the healthy organ. Very often it reflects on the way we treat our bodies and the things we ask them to do.

The other heart
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Looking through a window at the world

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

You can see a great deal from a window. At times, things you are not meant to see. It is a means of spying on others. But then, a better use of a window is to look at the natural world around you and appreciate it. A pleasant view is worth a lot.

From where I sit the view is pleasant indeed with brilliant flowers grow profusely. Wide variety and rich colour are on every hand. Masses of red Bougainvillea seem to set the place alight. Then swathes of green reach to folded hills that lead up to towering blue mountains. Above the mountains huge plumes of shining white cloud sit, reaching way up to the heavens. Yes, a very pleasant view.Continue reading

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Stay close to your friend

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

One of the greatest things in life is to relate to a special person who is very near and dear. For some, it will be just one friend or loved one, for others, several of that kind. Whatever it is for us, we treasure them as people and cherish their closeness.

But all too often we hear of breakdown. Husband leaves wife, or wife leaves husband. Sons, daughters fall out with parents or in-laws. Relationships have soured. Surely it must be one of the most common personal traumas faced by people today.

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We can’t live without it

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

Every day of our lives we use it. In fact, we are mostly made of it. I believe elephants consist of 70% of it. Yes, we are talking about water. Where it’s plentiful, we wash everything including ourselves in it, drink it, and grow our crops with it. And you can think of many other uses we make of water.

Where it is not plentiful, life is made harder. In fact, as we all know, without water we die. Earth has plenty, considering the size of the oceans. Other planets that we know of don’t seem to have any.

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Keeping your head above water

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

Having made several flights to overseas destinations over the past few weeks, I have been powerfully confronted with one of humanity’s basic instincts: survival. As soon as you board an aircraft the crew are letting you know how to survive if the plane comes to grief. They even tell you that you could find yourself up to your neck in sea water. Yes, you may be reduced from sitting comfortably in a multi-million dollar plane to bobbing about on the ocean waves. But you will have a whistle with you to attract attention! How comforting!Continue reading

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