Learning and understanding

It’s time for the semi-annual fashion update, Canadian summer edition. It’s warm, it’s sunny, we can finally go outside without the heavy down parkas and other winter wear.  It’s picnic weather and time to be in the park with the dog.  So why am I buzz-killing about fashion? Well, unless you’ve managed a job where you aren’t in an office from April to November, and are instead lounging somewhere near water for 6 months, you still have to be appropriately and professionally dressed.  So here goes: We’ve already established the warm weather means no heavy winter clothes.  Please don’t go to the other extreme and wear your beach clothes to the office!  This is for both men and women (and all variations thereof.) Ladies: No part of your torso below your collarbones should be on display in the office. What that means is: No deep cleavage. No midriff-baring tops. No strapless tops. No spaghetti straps. Your skirt should be no shorter than the tips of your fingers when you stand st

The national motto of Trinidad and Tobago is “Together we aspire, together we achieve.”  (And in my primary school days, we would finish with a chant of “that’s why God made bread and cheese!” just to prove that we knew how to rhyme!)    Disclosure :  I’ve been trying to write this for about a month, now, but each time it emerged from me in a way that did not make me happy, so it sat.  I hope that this version says what is needed. I’m reminded of this because of a slew of really hateful messages that have been filling my email and social media feeds lately.  I’m not going to replicate any of them; I think that oblivion is what they deserve.  But it did make me wonder – why have we become so hate-filled and hateful?  What is the source of all the fear and rage? I was at a session recently where we discussed diversity, and someone said something that made lights go on and bells ring (not the alarm system!)  What she said was: “The diversity people aren’t included.”  In that one sentenc