Veronika Wild

  - Image created by Microsoft Bing AI  Hot on the heels of St. Valentine’s Day, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns us that we are in the midst of a Loneliness Epidemic. Loneliness can be defined in various ways, but for now let’s just say it is the negative feeling we get when we have too little connection to other people or not the kind of relationship we would like. According to WHO's global data, loneliness is most prevalent in young people aged 18 -24 (59%)  and second highest (54%) among those between 25 -34. Beyond those years, feelings of loneliness gradually decline with age, with around 22% of people aged 65 and over reporting being lonely. However, there is considerable variation between and within countries, between age groups and even between males and females. A systematic review and analysis of surveys conducted in 133 countries, found that that loneliness was highest (14.4%) among adolescents in Eastern Mediterranean regions and lowest (9.2%) in South East

  -Image by Microsoft Bing AI  It doesn't matter whom or what you love, so long as you love To misquote Martin Luther King, " Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that." ---------------------------------------------------  I didn't know that St.Valentine was also the patron saint of beekeepers. Living in the third century AD he secretly married couples against the orders of the Roman Emperor who preferred his soldiers to remain single. He was subsequently executed for this on the day that bears his name. Read More his life here. As to the association of honey with love , it was thought to be an aphrodisiac and fed to newly married couples to enhance their fertility - hence the first month of marriage was called the honeymoon. See more about this and other customs related love, bees and St. Valentine here.

  -Big thanks to Gerd Altmann and Pixabay for this image “All the Light We Cannot See” (2023) Netflix This is a poignant story set in the French seaside town of St. Malo shortly before the end of World War II.  Marie, a blind girl, continues to broadcast over the radio despite the fact that listening to anything other than the official German broadcasts is punishable by death, let alone broadcasting. Initially she does it to reach out to her missing father and to inspire hope in others, just as a wonderful professor had inspired her when she was a child. There are several subplots which include both good Germans and bad, but most telling and timely of all, it shows that despite the harsh reality of war, small islands of sanity, humanity and courage prevail.  5 Stars. "Painkiller" (2023) Netflix This movie takes on the Pharmaceutical Industry, particularly its role in the Opioid Epidemic which took hold in the USA over the last two decades largely due to the aggressi