This is the 10th essay in the #26essays2017 challenge that I’ve set for myself this year. I’m doing this because I’m the first to admit I’ve become a lazy writer: allowing guest posts and series and cross-posting to make up the bulk of content on The Diane Lee Project across 2016. The brave, fearless writing that readers admired and respected me for has all but disappeared. This year—2017—will be different. I’m reclaiming my voice—my write like a motherfucker voice! By Western standards, I am not a beauty. My face does not have those fine features nor the synchronicity that is apparently pleasing to the eye.
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Late to the party, I have become a huge fan of House of Cards. Just like Game of Thrones (of which I’m also a huge fan) HoC deals with the theme of power, and is an expose of what one couple would do to: a) gain (arguably) the most powerful political position in the world and b) retain this power. Murder, manipulation, corruption, lies, cover-ups, abuse of power: these actions are all in a day’s work for Francis and Claire Underwood. From where I sit—intrigued, I might add—they are clearly psychopaths. They are arrogant, callous people who are defined by their lack
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Christmas is upon us once again. I know it’s a cliché, but I cannot believe how quickly this year has flown past. It seems like only yesterday that I was having one of the worst Christmases ever; one that almost broke my heart. I have recovered, but only just. This year, I declared that I wasn’t going anywhere: I was going to do what I always do. Go for a run (weather permitting), have breakfast with my daughter and her boyfriend, usher them out the door around 11am, pour myself a Pimm’s and lemonade, switch on the TV and proceed to binge
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Waaaaaaay back in the 1960s and 1970s, before university ethics committees stamped out these sorts of experiments, two researchers wanted to know more about how human beings reacted to authority, and how positional power impacted relationships. Stanley Milgram, a researcher at Yale, was interested in how Nazi Germany came to be, particularly the horrific and tragic treatment of Jews during this time. He wanted to understand how normal, decent people could be involved with or tolerate or turn a blind eye to state sanctioned cruelty (even psychopathy) of an appalling scale. He was interested in what part authority and obedience to authority,
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My sister shared some sad news with me a couple of weeks ago. Her ex-partner and also the father of her daughter—my niece—has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It’s spread and he’s been told has six months to live. She is deeply saddened by this news, and I felt for her, not least because I admire my sister and her relationship with her ex. Despite splitting more than 15 years ago in less than ideal circumstances, she has fought to maintain the connection with him because of her daughter. They live in different parts of Australia: he’s in far
Continue reading...Steven Covey wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and we all know he is the pin-up boy for effectiveness. Colleagues, managers and peers love to quote frequently from his book. I’ve read it and it makes a lot of sense. But what I’ve found is that in workplaces in particular (the ones I’ve worked in anyway), Highly Effective People are often the exception rather than the rule. What is a more common occurrence is having to deal with Highly Useless People or HUPs. You know the ones I mean, and they come with a number of frustrations, particularly
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Monica Lewinsky is someone I didn’t think I’d be writing about on this blog. She of the intern shenanigans and the infamous blue dress and the subsequent less-than-presidential denial from President Clinton. Of course, we all sniggered at the footage of her greeting the President when he was campaigning, and chortled with glee at his “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” claim because clearly, he had. It was obvious. So blatant. And when Hillary Clinton’s first autobiography was a book club book, most of us immediately jumped to the Monica chapter, hoping for an exposé of all
Continue reading...I was sitting in a writer’s seminar on the weekend, bored out of my brain, wishing the presenter would up the pace and that my fellow participants* would just shut the fuck up. I had paid $60 for the privilege and I expected a lot more for my money than what was dished up. Actually, I wasted $120, because I attended another seminar on the same day (they were run as a tandem) which was only marginally better. I vowed never ever to attend seminars offered by this particular group ever again. Ever. I was over wasting my time and money**.
Continue reading...This post was first published on 10 May 2012. I’m not an active user of Twitter these days. Not like I was a couple of years ago. I just pop in to see what’s going on, then pop out. The other day, someone I knew said I wasn’t important. He didn’t say it to me directly. He said it to the Twitterverse, but I knew he was talking about me. It saddened me greatly, because this was a person I counted as a friend. He had helped me, and I had helped him. We laughed about life and discussed love,
Continue reading...This post was first published on 20 June, 2012. It might come as somewhat of a shock to you, dear readers, but I have quite the outgoing, chatty personality. I am loud and gregarious, and generally enjoy the company others. And based on a one-dimensional appraisal of the dominant side of my personality, people are quick to attach the “party girl” tag to me. And while this tag is accurate to an extent, my true nature is that of a homebody, particularly as I get older, and especially as we head into winter. I like my own company and nothing
Continue reading...Way back in 2011, I wrote a post entitled Three Words To Live By about Maria Shriver and how gracious she was. It was at the time when her marriage was going pear-shaped and her life became fodder for tabloid magazines. I thought she displayed immense courage under fire, and that post was written in response to her ability to “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs“. Since then I have noticed how our values – or lack thereof – can either help or hinder us in times of crisis or where moral choices need to be
Continue reading...Last week I wrote about the sort of blogger I am and that got me thinking about the sort of blog reader I am. Bloggers are never just writers and content creators, we are also readers and consumers of content. We don’t – or shouldn’t – operate in a vacuum. Ideas about what to write take form from other sources. At least, they do for me. I subscribe to a lot of blogs and manage them all via Google Reader, categorized according to what they are about. I find it easier to catch up on my reading this way than
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