Happy Soul Food Friday!
This week:
History Class Today:
My daughter came home from school and said,
“Mom, you’re not going to believe what happened in history class today.”
Her teacher told the class they were going to play a game.
He walked around the room and whispered to each kid whether they were a witch or just a regular person. Then he gave the instructions:
“Form the biggest group you can without a witch. If your group has even one, you all fail.”
She said the whole room instantly lit up with suspicion.
Everyone started interrogating each other. Are you a witch? How do we know you’re not lying?
Some kids clung to one big group, but most broke off into smaller, exclusive cliques. They turned away anyone who seemed uncertain, nervous, or gave off even the slightest hint of being guilty.
The energy shifted fast. Suddenly everyone was suspicious of everyone.
Whispers. Finger-pointing. Side-eyes. Trust dissolved in minutes.
Finally, when all the groups were formed, the teacher said,
“Alright, time to find out who fails. Witches, raise your hands.”
And not one hand went up.
The whole class exploded. “Wait! You messed up the game!”
And then the teacher dropped the bomb:
“Did I? Were there any actual witches in Salem, or did everyone just believe what they were told?”
My daughter said the room went dead silent.
That’s when it hit them. No witch was ever needed for the damage to happen. Fear had already done its work. Suspicion alone divided the entire class, turning community into chaos.
And isn’t that exactly what we’re seeing today?
Different words, same playbook.
Instead of “witch,” it’s liberal, conservative, vaxxed, unvaxxed, pro-this, anti-that.
The labels shift, but the tactic is the same.
Get people scared. Get them suspicious. Get them divided.
Then sit back while trust crumbles.
The danger was never the witch.
The danger is the rumor. The suspicion. The fear. The planted lies.
Refuse the whisper. Don’t play the game. Because the second we start hunting “witches,” we’ve already lost.
Science and Technology:
“We’ve arranged a society on science and technology in which
nobody understands anything about science and technology, and
this combustible mixture of ignorance and power sooner or later is
going to blow up in our faces. I mean, who is running the science and
technology in a democracy if the people don’t know anything about
it? Science is more than a body of knowledge; it’s a way of thinking. If
we are not able to ask skeptical questions to interrogate those who tell
us something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we’re
up for grabs for the next charlatan political or religious leader who
comes ambling along. It’s a thing that Jefferson lay great stress on.
It wasn’t enough, he said, to enshrine some rights in the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights, the people had to be educated and they have to
practice their skepticism and their education. Otherwise, we don’t run
the government, the government runs us.
—Carl Sagan”
I’ve spent my entire career studying stress—the No. 1 cure for it might ‘surprise’ you:
Stress expert Rebecca Heiss says that the advice we so often get about how to relieve stress is ‘completely wrong.’ If you want to feel better, rather than turning inward, think about how you can contribute to your community instead.
I’ve spent my entire career studying stress—the No. 1 cure for it might ‘surprise’ you
Ocean Photographer of the Year 2025 Finalists:
The finalist selections in this year’s Ocean Photographer of the Year competition were just revealed by contest organizers at Oceanographic Magazine, and feature some of the best coastal, drone, and underwater photographs chosen from thousands of submissions.
Ocean Photographer of the Year 2025 Finalists – The Atlantic
Please pay it forward!
Love,
Neville
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nevillebillimoria
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nbillimoria
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born
and the day you find out why.” —Mark Twain
Happy Soul Food Friday! 