Five life-affirming words we should bring back into use.

YMOR

Lexicographer and TV personality Susie Dent recently embarked on a curious, self-appointed mission. She is determined to bring the word ‘respair’, last used around 1525, back into common usage.

Given the uncertainty and stresses Covid-19 continues to inflict, we might take Dent’s lead and seek out further words to bring back in order to lift people’s spirits. Here are five terms recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary which are connected, in different ways, with theimportance of appreciating and loving oneself, one another and life in general.

Adamate: to love very much.

Autometry: self-measurement, self-estimation.

Biophilia: love of life.

Collachrymate: to weep together.

Mesology: the science of achieving happiness.

https://www.positive.news/perspective/five-life-affirming-words-we-should-bring-back-into-use/

Bones and teeth help reveal whether teenagers have always been a source of worry for their parents.

They were promiscuous, rarely home and thought they knew everything. They were teenagers from centuries ago, and by studying their bones and teeth, bioarcheologists can confirm that teens have always been a source of worry for their parents.

Today, adolescence is a tumultuous period of change and distress, with clinical research suggesting it is a key phase of development, responsible for long-term mental and physical well being.

Yet even as we worry about teenagers’ well-being, the question remains: What does “normal” adolescence look like? Or what makes a “good” adolescence?

https://theconversation.com/bones-and-teeth-help-reveal-whether-teenagers-have-always been-a-source-of-worry-for-their-parents-174376

People should be allowed to visit, say goodbye to those who are dying during COVID-19

As hospitalizations increase with another surge in COVID-19 cases, Canadians need evidence based recommendations to prevent people from dying alone, without friends or family by their side.

It is important to learn from the last two years to improve and influence health-care visitation policies.

The pandemic has changed how people were able to support loved ones who were dying due to visitation restrictions and COVID-19 safety protocols.

https://theconversation.com/people should-be-allowed-to-visit-say-goodbye-to-those-who-are-dying-during-covid-19-174955

Why Cats Love to Sit in Boxes – Even Fake Ones, According to Science

Most millennial cat owners will be familiar with the phrase “If I fits, I sits,” used so often to caption delightful online images of cats attempting to squeeze into a box, drawer, bag, bowl, or other container.

But if no such object were there, would cats still try to inhabit, say, inside a picture of a box drawn onto the floor?

Well, a researcher has found that, in their unquenchable desire to sit in boxes, cats are susceptible to being fooled by optical illusions.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/if-i-fits-i-sits-cat-study-finds-cats-can-see-illusionary