Qualia Reed

Helping is a beautiful thing, but when it becomes a person’s identity, it can bring with it a lot of pain as well. I always wanted to help others. After years as a paramedic with the ambulance service, I decided to explore what I then considered a more sustainable career path and went to university to become a registered nurse. It seemed a great option; I could gain knowledge, help more, earn a more livable wage, and be safer while doing it. A nursing instructor and mentor once told me that...

I use a lot of storytelling and metaphors in my work. This is part of who I am, and is partly because it comes natural to me. It’s why I write novels for fun in my spare time. There’s always something powerful for me, the way humans interact with stories and storytelling. It’s one of, if not our oldest art forms. It’s also more than that. Storytelling is a way of communicating ideas to each other when the plain facts themselves may not speak loudly enough. It’s why science needs art. So many...

Laughter is the best medicine I always try and bring humour to therapy when appropriate, and bringing laughs to my friends and family is one of my joys in life. Reflecting on that this week has sent me on a bit of a deep dive on the history of humans and humour. It wasn't a big shock that I soon saw that humour has always been a part of the human experience. One of the most interesting things I learned in this deep dive was that the world’s oldest known joke is from ancient Sumer, dating back...