Thriving too

Mindapples Big Treat

My favourite photo from the Mindapples Big Treat event - Sophie Howarth (founder of School of Life) with her son Zac at the Hugging Wall.  

More great photos of the event on flickr here.

 

Coney Island of the Mind

 
 

I like so many things about this book cover:

- The title of the book (first published in 1955): It is taken from Henry Miller's 'Into the Night'.  Lawrence Ferlinghetti writes "it is used out of context but expresses the way I felt about these poems when I wrote them - as if they were, taken together, a kind of Coney Island of the mind, a kind of circus of the soul."

- The typography and design of the cover is beautiful: Credits to Ben Wiseman for lettering, Text design by Griselda Ohannessian and Typography by Fred Brownne.

- It connects conceptually (and delightfully) with the Mindapples project which I am also working on with lots of amazing people, which asks 'What is your 5-a-day for your mind?"

Nurturing Relationships

 There is a very insightful article in the Guardian about how important Christmas is for nurturing our relationships with friends and family. Using some data from the new report by the Young Foundation Sinking and swimming: understanding Britain's unmet needs, the article points to the increase in anxiety and depression and how important a renewed sense of connection is at Christmas "Between 1991 and 2007 prescriptions for antidepressants more than trebled. Anxiety and depression are set to double in a generation."

"Both Labour and the Conservatives have already begun to position themselves as the party of the family, but the debate so far has been dominated by ugly jousting over the importance of marriage. This is a dangerous impoverishment of a crucial debate. Contrary to the politicians' rhetoric, the structure of the family is far less important than the quality of its relationships, as a recent Gingerbread report demonstrates. We also need to affirm the importance of all relationships, not just marriage. As society ages, the relationships between young and old will become all the more important. And the importance of relationships goes beyond the intimacies of home, into the public realm."

[Pic: Thank you ribbon from palomasnest]

Mindapples Gets Interviewed

Andy Gibson (Head Gardener) was interviewed by Craig for Tim O'Reilly of GMT's blog about our beloved mindapples!

Andy Gibson - Mind Apples from oreillygmt on Vimeo.