My rector was a military man for over 30 years. He’s told us many times that two principles for effective leadership were drilled into him above all others:

1. Lead from the front; &
2. Give a damn.

The second principle is the hardest because it requires prioritization. 1/

One can’t care about everything equally. There’s simply not enough mental and moral energy to go around. And one shouldn’t care about all things equally.

Part of the reason that so many are on a diet of Rolaids and Pepcid is because they care too much about the wrong things. 2/
This is one reason I stopped watching the news well over a year ago. Most of what made the veins on my forehead beat like a kettle drum consisted of things I couldn’t change and shouldn’t even be worrying over. 3/
Instead, I decided to focus on my interior life and my church and family. I think all three are better for it.

St. Paul tells us to concern ourselves with cultivating personal virtue as an antidote to anxiety (Phil. 4:6-8). 4/
To think on such things is hard work. It requires guarding ourselves against the transitory and ephemeral distractions that do nothing but distract us and destroy our peace. Ultimately, to care rightly, we can’t care about most things. 5/
This seems counterintuitive but I suggest that it is an act of faith. It is an admission of our finitude (we really can’t pull the world up by its bootstraps if we worry enough), and a confession that God is God and we are not. So we pray and leave Him to do the heavy lifting. 6/
For our part, we study to be quiet and to do our own business and to work with our own hands in our own back yards.

In this way we are able to care about those things that need the greatest care, and will be able to “lead from the front” and truly “give a damn.” Fin/

More from All

1. Mini Thread on Conflicts of Interest involving the authors of the Nature Toilet Paper:
https://t.co/VUYbsKGncx
Kristian G. Andersen
Andrew Rambaut
Ian Lipkin
Edward C. Holmes
Robert F. Garry

2. Thanks to @newboxer007 for forwarding the link to the research by an Australian in Taiwan (not on

3. K.Andersen didn't mention "competing interests"
Only Garry listed Zalgen Labs, which we will look at later.
In acknowledgements, Michael Farzan, Wellcome Trust, NIH, ERC & ARC are mentioned.
Author affiliations listed as usual.
Note the 328 Citations!
https://t.co/nmOeohM89Q


4. Kristian Andersen (1)
Andersen worked with USAMRIID & Fort Detrick scientists on research, with Robert Garry, Jens Kuhn & Sina Bavari among


5. Kristian Andersen (2)
Works at Scripps Research Institute, which WAS in serious financial trouble, haemorrhaging 20 million $ a year.
But just when the first virus cases were emerging, they received great news.
They issued a press release dated November 27, 2019:

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