World War I erupted 100 years ago on July 28, 1914. War still begets poetry.

Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae penned this poem—perhaps the most memorable words of the Great War—after burying a friend who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. Flanders Field Poppies courtesy of Tijl Vercaemer.

Flanders Fields

By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1915)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep…

If we wish to

think outside the box –

first, we need to

recognise the box

What do you reckon?

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Grief Helps

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Summer always grows on me—sometimes in the weirdest ways.

It is your body but motherhood is a joint decision. Don’t shock him with the news of your pregnancy, but present it as your (his and yours) long cherished dream come true.

You are pregnant – not sick. Take it up with hospitals and doctors who label you as a ‘patient’ instead of a ‘mother-to-be’ or ‘mother’.

Don’t bemoan the fact that you can’t wait to squeeze back into your tight jeans or whatever. Pregnancy is not a burden; it’s a gift. Other than some sports and certain physical positions, life can and should continue as normal. Loving is great too – but you already know that (wink).

It’s okay to expect special treatment but don’t demand it – the baby is in you, it’s not you.

If you do lose your cool, forgive yourself – don’t beat and wreck yourself with guilt or anxiety. Your body is going through…

In August of last year, I gave a paper to the University of Melbourne’s Office of Research Ethics and Integrity research seminars, Tuesdays with OREI, on ‘Hyper-Anxiety about Research Integrity among library staff and RHD students’ that ended up doing two different things. These final two posts will address ways of promoting ‘research integrity’ among cohorts who are not already fully signed up to the values of research integrity and academic honesty, because, according to the research, they are also badly served by a focus on plagiarism and punishment.

You can read the whole series by clicking on the category ‘Hyper-Anxiety & Academic Honesty’.

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The first three posts talked about where most graduate researchers and support staff are: they support academic honesty and research integrity, but they often feel unnecessarily and unhelpfully anxious about the consequences of getting it wrong.

In this post, I talk about what we’re doing…