I was buying new jeans the other day, because I had realized that I only had one pair of trousers. Thus I would have nothing to wear, when I washed the sole pair of jeans I own. The lady at the shop was very nice, but guess what – I only could fit into one type of jeans. All other types had no slightly-overweight-people-numbers available. Oh, yeah, there was this pair of jeans, but I would have to pull my belly in. The lady was surprised: »But are you sure you cannot fit into these?« To her cute appall, I answered: »I could, if I held my belly in. But I won’t do that, because it...

Hereby, I am proud to announce the second anniversary of the publishing date of Balancing the Beast, my humble contribution to the well-being of the planet! Happy 4th of July to my American readers! Take care, Helena Smole

A friend told me the other day that his kid had her eardrum removed. Until the girl gets an artificial one implanted, the parents have to give her ear plugs, every time they go swimming. The artificial eardrum is going to make their life easier, but the kid will never be able to dive. I commented, with as much compassion as I could bring together, a sentence that eventually led me to write this blog: »We all have our limitations.« Thinking about our limitations I came to an interesting conclusion: Different limitations eventually lead to more social cohesion. Take the four basic temperaments for...

I do not normally review movies, but Matt Damon’s Promised Land really left me so touched that I find it absolutely impossible to keep quiet. The movie had an open ending, which is usually not too popular with the audience, but in my opinion it does not really matter, what happens with the leases signed with the objective to sell farm land to the gas company. Steve is the main character, so beautifully portrayed by Matt Damon, who comes to a village of farmers in order to get them to sign the leases. During the happenings in the village he transforms from a »normal« gas company negotiator to a...

Every day I watch waitresses, bus-drivers, librarians and all sorts of clerks getting verbally attacked by their clients. And it really hurts to see this, because they are victims of the horrible chaos we live in. What exactly do I mean by that? I have the luxury of being my own boss, but most people do not have that luxury. And the boss or a superior at work is the one you are not supposed to call names. Thus you suppress the anger. Suppressed anger is going to break free in a library later and the librarian shall be the innocent victim. He/she will suppress the anger at the violent client and the...