Sarah Wilson, Author at Sarah Wilson

have you read this? The end of men?

October 29, 2018July 5, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

What do you think of this month’s Atlantic magazine cover story: The End of Men?

The factoids to be drawn from it if you hate clicking open long features:

There’s a “mancession” going on: three-quarters of the 8 million jobs lost in the GFC were lost by men. The worst-hit industries were overwhelmingly male and deeply identified with macho: construction, manufacturing, high finance….
Earlier this year, for the first time in American history, the balance of the workforce tipped toward women, who now hold a majority of the nation’s jobs.
Women dominate today’s colleges and professional schools—for every two men who will receive a B.A. this year, three women will do the same. Of the 15 job categories projected to grow the most in the next decade in the U.S., all but two are occupied primarily by women.
And while female CEOs may be rare in America’s largest companies, they are highly prized: last year, female CEOs outearned their male counterparts by 43 percent, on average, and received bigger raises.

Another US study has found the pay gap between women and men will disappear (poof!) in 14 years.

Big, big, news.

BUT HERE IN AUSTRALIA, while our PM is a chick (have you noticed?), news today is that Gen X women are dropping out of the workforce at a rapid rate because they’re….weary.

Sunday life: a chat with Oprah’s life coach Martha Beck

October 29, 2018July 4, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

So, this week I get “wordless” with Martha Beck

You know that conversation starter where someone asks, “So who would you most like to sit next to on a plane”? For some deeply intuitive and not wholly understood reason my hypothetical answer (because, in fact, no one has ever actually launched a conversation with me in this way) is Martha Beck. Martha is one of Oprah’s advisers and cited as “the best-known life coach in America”. The only magazine I’ve ever subscribed to is Oprah’s O Magazine, and mostly for Martha’s tack-sharp, “and-now-sweetheart-it’s-time-to-get-over-yourself” advice column. Let’s just say, she speaks to me.

So in New York , while I didn’t sit next to Martha on a plane, I do share a green tea with her at the swish Hudson Hotel…and watch on as she defiles the restaurant’s cutlery.

i am bewildered, and I am mad

October 29, 2018July 2, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

A reader (and I’m sorry, I can’t recall exactly who) pointed me to this Rumi quote on bewilderment….

There are many guises for intelligence.
One part of you is gliding in a high windstream,
while your more ordinary notions
take little steps and peck at the ground….

…We must become ignorant of what we have been taught
and be instead bewildered.

stuff I’m not paid to endorse: beautiful oils

October 29, 2018July 1, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

Every Thursday I post a list of things I like. I’m not paid to say these things. I just think you might find them useful. Today, it’s all about oils, ain’t it!

*This post has been updated

There is a lot of misinformation about oil, as something to ingest, but also as a beauty product. Know this: oils don’t make you oily. Quite the opposite, in fact. Soaps, for instance, are made of oil. Oils nourish. Oils carry toxins from your cells. Oils clean.

I follow Ayurvedic thinking when it comes to oils. This style of healing uses oils to heal a number of ailments, particularly those that stem from a Vatta disposition. Vatta is a personality tendency characterised by flightiness, agitation, an inability to focus, excitement, sleep problems, digestion issues. I’m VERY vata. But even those of us who aren’t Vata-dominant experience the craziness of out of control vata because our culture if very Vata. Fast food, fast traffic, fast timetables, chaotic schedules…it’s knocking our vata about. And one some of the best ways to calm Vatta involve oils. Oils are heavy and grounding. They coax Vatta back down to earth, like Miss Jane pulling Mr Squiggle back down to the ground.

1. If you’re interested in learning more about the Ayurvedic take on oils and Vatta behaviour, Deepak Chopra’s Perfect Health (you can buy direct on the right there) is a good start.

is this why you blog + tweet? actually, why do you blog + tweet?

October 29, 2018June 30, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

This popped up on TED.com this morning – a rant by Clay Shirky an expert in “technology as a force for good” (who I’ve interviewed previously and just loved his energy) . Here he rants about how our excess brain energy – we have a trillion spare brain hours up for grabs, apparently – can be used for good online. Do watch it.

His basic premise is that we have a lot of spare brain power and that we’re putting it to use in generous ways online. Wikipedia is an example. No one gets paid for the input. But it’s emerged as a resource that’s all about sharing excess information. Ditto LOLcats and ask.com, etc Ditto all the advice we all share online with each other on blogs like this one you’re reading right now.

I like his slant and it impacts on why I blog…cos sometimes I wonder why the hell I do.

check these out: 4 local businesses doing good things for humanity

June 29, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

These are just four things I’ve come across that I think might help your life right now, it being such cold and fluey times. (Here in Sydney it was the coldest June morning since 1983!).

1. Too-cosy jumpers. My mate B has this label Banjo & Matilda…pretty cashmere jumpers galore.

2.. A Doona Suit!! Says it all really. Stay toasty at night in this pooffy zip-up hooded goodness by Australian company Lazypatch, “an evolution in couchwear”.

Dear Men…a letter from Christina Hendricks

October 29, 2018June 28, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

I read this on Gala Darling today, an open letter to men by Christina Hendricks from Mad Men. I hope Gala doesn’t mind my replicating it here. I found it such a compassionate bunch of intimate insights that I really do think men would enjoy hearing. We should share these things. I’ve added my comments in pink!

Dear Men,

We love your body. If we’re in love with you, we love your body. Your potbelly, everything. Even if you’re insecure about something, we love your body. You feel like you’re not this or that? We love your body. We embrace everything. Because it’s you.

Speaking of your body, you don’t understand the power of your own smell. Any woman who is currently with a man is with him partly because she loves the way he smells. And if we haven’t smelled you for a day or two and then we suddenly are within inches of you, we swoon. We get light-headed. It’s intoxicating. It’s heady.

Ohhhh, yes. I can’t really love a man until his smell has totally washed over me. Until I know it. That bit on the inside of a men’s neck, and either side of the nose is the best place for accessing that light-headed, pheremonal rhapsody. I find.

sunday life: are you a better Godparent than me?

October 29, 2018June 27, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

This week I get godmotherly.

Hands up if you’re a godparent. Leave your hand up if you’re a good (as in, functioning) godparent. You know, you impart upon your respective godchildren sage spiritual wisdoms from time to time, send a card on their birthday…heck, you even know their birthday!

Hmmm, thought so.

I’m godmother to Jamie. Jamie is a great kid. Actually he’s a fully-fledged adult now. I know what he’s up to because he friended me on Facebook and I read his updates. This is mostly how I know he’s an adult now. In one of his wall photos he’s drinking beer. And has a moustache. I’d feel worse about my godmotherly failings except James’ dad is my godfather. And let’s just say, well, we know each other is still alive.

julia: a few talking points for the weekend.

October 29, 2018June 25, 2010 by Sarah Wilson

Yesterday was surreal. I was caught between two worlds. And, in fact, yesterday was a classic example of the professional balancing act I walk most days. On the one hand I was absorbed by what was going down. I was totally stunned by the fact WE HAVE A NEW PM! And listened to commentary all day on radio (my favourite medium).

enough with the red hair/Strine accent/dress sense/hairdresser boyfriend references already? (Today’s cover of the Illawarra Mercury)

I was doing this while getting ready for the ASTRA awards, held last night. I presented one of the awards (alongside Selling Houses’ Andrew Winter who cleaned up the awards last night) and had to slide into my other “role”, the one that involves getting dressed up and donning a certain public persona. Not that this persona is false, it’s just that it contrasts so starkly with the everyday me. So much so, most of the world doesn’t recognise me from one role to the other. Which I rather like.

Anyway, as I was getting my hair and makeup done yesterday, I listened to ABC radio and was online, checking out commentary. So, a few thoughts and links I came upon that you might want to bone up on for some engaged discussion over the weekend.

* How can a “spill” like this happen? Julia Cowdroy wrote a helpful rundown on the anatomy of a “spill” on Mia Freedman’s blog yesterday.

* Do you know if you’re properly enrolled to vote? Do it now in, like, 2 minutes here. DO IT NOW BECAUSE YOU ONLY HAVE A FEW DAYS TO DO IT ONCE THE ELECTION IS CALLED. This is an election we must all have a say in!!!