My name is Gorky; Maxim Gorky

It's not just Australian psychiatrists that can dish out magic mantras to help international cricket teams. For the last couple of months, I coined one such catch-phrase myself, in hope of improving my mental strength. It says "Embrace Adversity".

I find myself put off by trifling annoyances a great deal and I'm experimenting with whether repeating such home-grown balms can help ease inner friction. I find that most intelligent people are able to figure out the basic things in life themselves, but recalling them and applying them at the appropriate time is what separates them. In short, the phenomenon of Karna's curse.

I'm not much of a self-help-book enthusiast, but I do like to learn from the actual experiences of others, which is why I have a keen interest in reading autobiographies. In turn, I also don't like to throw proverbs and adages around, but let me bend that principle this time to record three (Jewish) proverbs from Bob Woolmer's personal memoirs:

* If you are not for yourself, who will be for you?
* If you are only for yourself, what are you?
* If not now, when?