Reflections

Jump to:

#1: The Ocean Within

#2: The Sound of Silence

#3: Are We Cultivating?

#4: The Straight Pyramid!

#5: Safe?

#6: Devil in the Details!

#1: The Ocean Within

The ocean is vast.

Who lives in the ocean?

Most of us would say: fish.

But which fish? 

Many of us, like my daughter, would immediately say, “Sharks!”

But what about the bristlemouth?

Scientists estimate there may be around a quadrillion bristlemouths in our oceans¹.

A tiny bristlemouth that most of us have never heard of may be among the most abundant vertebrates on Earth—yet a few large sharks engulf our attention!².

And how about our thoughts? Perhaps our thoughts have their own oceans. 

And what is really defining them?

Are we seeing sharks or bristlemouths?

  • 1. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution — Creature Feature: Bristlemouth

  • 2. Marine Policy — Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks

#2: The Sound of Silence

“Our times were the best!”

“No AI. No computers. No iPhones. People were people—not zombies staring at screens.”

Umm…

Simon & Garfunkel wrote The Sound of Silence in the 1960s—long before computers, AI, or smartphones became part of everyday life.¹

Uh-oh!

And yet… these are excellent tools to connect.

But we can still be lonely in crowds.²

I wonder…

Are we hearing or listening?

  • 1. Library of Congress — Sounds of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel

  • 2. PubMed — Alone in a Crowd: Is Social Contact Associated with Less Psychological Pain of Loneliness in Everyday Life? (2023)

#3: Are We Cultivating?

The smell was amazing. 

It was a beautiful French restaurant.

I’m so excited to meet the chef and learn about landscaping and how to grow plants. 

“Wake up! We are here to relish Coq au Vin with some French wine,” my friend reminded.

Well, how about this?

A 2026 review of 25 studies found that health experts were only slightly more persuasive than nonexperts on social media.¹

A 2024 U.S. study analyzed more than 500 million vaccine-related tweets and found a significant association between vaccine-related activity on Twitter and COVID-19 vaccination uptake.²

We probably wouldn’t ask a chef how to grow our garden.

Yet when it comes to our health, what happens?

Are we cultivating ourselves?

  • 1. Simmonds BP, Ransom KJ, Mullins E, Stephens RG. The effect of source expertise on the persuasiveness and sharing of health information on social media: A systematic review. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 2026;33:175. doi:10.3758/s13423-026-02943-2.

  • 2. Nelson V, Bashyal B, Tan PN, Argyris YA. Vaccine rhetoric on social media and COVID-19 vaccine uptake rates: A triangulation using self-reported vaccine acceptance. Social Science & Medicine. 2024;348:116775. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116775.

#4: The Straight Pyramid!

“I’m dropping college. It’s useless! How many CEOs are college dropouts—don’t you see!”

“Hmm. Do you have a passion you want to take to those heights?”

“I’ll find one!”

Well! Gandhi wore a loincloth later in life, but dressed quite differently when younger. Would wearing a loincloth turn me into Gandhi?¹ 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, a psychological theory, conceptualizes human needs into five levels: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. It suggests that lower-level needs usually precede higher-level needs.²

A straight pyramid signifies evolution. Perhaps what looks unnecessary from the top was part of the climb from below.

Would it help to know my position on the pyramid?

 

  • The Gandhi Heritage Portal documents Gandhi’s adoption of the loincloth in Madurai in 1921 as a deliberate decision connected to poverty, khadi, and his evolving public philosophy—not simply a style of dress.

    Read the source →

  • Maslow proposed that human needs tend to form a hierarchy of relative priority, with higher needs becoming more prominent as more basic needs are sufficiently satisfied—while emphasizing that the hierarchy is not rigid.

    Read the source →

#5: Safe?

The clinic waiting room was overflowing.

Mr. X was not happy. The itraconazole he got for his fungal infection gave him a rash, for which he had to go to the ER.

I apologized.

“You must have walked to the clinic,” I then asked.

“Well! I live 40 miles away, and just like anyone else, I drove.”

“But driving is not that harmless, I think.”

In 2023, 23,959 passenger-vehicle occupants died in traffic crashes in the U.S., and an estimated 1.9 million were injured.¹

And yet, we get into our cars every day.

Medications have risks too. More than 1.5 million emergency-department visits each year are attributed to adverse drug events, with almost 500,000 requiring hospitalization.²

Separately, U.S. death certificates recorded 555 deaths in 2020 specifically from adverse effects of drugs used therapeutically.³

I wonder…

Are we seeing sharks or bristlemouths?

(Please refer to Reflection #1: The Ocean Within.)

  • 1. NHTSA — Passenger Vehicles: 2023 Data

  • 2. CDC — Medication Safety Data

  • 3. Guo & Dong — Drug-Related Adverse Reaction Mortality in the United States, 1999–2020

#6: Devil in the Details!

It was a gorgeous, crisp morning.

An eight-mile hike, reaching nearly 9,000 feet above sea level.

We were starting the short Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!

All acclimatized, mesmerized and ready to go!

I was engulfed in the dewy scent of the mountain air.

“Listen guys!

Be careful, don’t get lost, there are bears and poisonous snakes!”

Thank you for the awakening!

But isn’t that a little out of proportion?

Well, how risky is hiking, really?

(No reliable published figures specific to the Inca Trail were found.)

A study of 1,201 participants on Rocky Mountain backpacking courses found that 2.2% sustained reportable musculoskeletal or soft-tissue injuries.¹

Another U.S. study covering 441,855 participant-days of wilderness expeditions reported no fatalities.²

Are we letting the fear of danger overshadow the joy of living?

Are we seeing sharks or bristlemouths?

(Please refer to Reflection #1: The Ocean Within.)