May 2007 Archives

Well, the 10-year-old Chattering gets braces put on his teeth today.

What's interesting is that there's no stigma to having metal in your mouth these days because so many kids have braces, and in our case, they all go to the same orthodontist, which creates a very cozy community. The children support each other through the process: "Oh, you're getting yours today? Wow!" The kids also seem thrilled that they get to choose the colors of their rubber bands, etc. I'd say the field of orthodontic care has made great psychological advancements.

This morning I phoned our osteopath/homeopath to discover which homeopathic remedies are best for managing whatever temporary discomfort my son might experience. Something called Cal-fluor is supposed to be the best for "aching, gnawing discomfort stemming from tension in teeth and jaw from the tightening of the [braces,]" according to Colin Griffith's "The Companion to Homeopathy: The Practitioner's Guide."

Here's a website that outlines which remedies are best for other dental issues.

Planning a more spiritual summer than last year's? Here's how to go about it.

For 16 years, journalist and Washington Monthly president Markos Kounalakis has been wanting to bring Mark Twain's bitterly anti-war prose piece "The War Prayer" more fully into the public square. Kounalakis read and connected to the famous short story just as he himself was preparing to enter Afghanistan to cover the war there. This week, as the American public seems more receptive to discovering why we ever entered into a warring mindset, Kounalakis is releasing "The War Prayer" as a short animated film that he produced, narrated by Peter Coyote. Have a look. It runs about 14 minutes. I think you'll be very moved.

Twain wrote "The War Prayer" when he was angry about the Philippine-American War, Wikipedia says, and submitted it to Harper's Bazaar for publication, but on March 22, 1905, the magazine rejected the story as "not quite suited to a woman's magazine." It remained unpublished until 1923.

Here's an excerpt from Twain's story "The War Prayer." It is the text of a dark, sardonic prayer uttered in church by a stranger who reveals to a gung-ho, pro-war community what real war often is.

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

"Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

Get ready, parents. School art work is about to come home--heaps of tissue paper collages, posterboard paintings, and charcoal drawings. You'll want to frame some, hang some, and then store everything you don't pitch or recycle.

In a feng shui workshop I once took with Nancy Santo Pietro, I learned that you can be a good parent and not keep everything. "Look at what you're teaching your children," Nancy said to one participant who was fretting over where to stash every single bit. "You're teaching them that it all matters and that they must hold on to it." That's not healthy, she said.

Sit down with your children and admire it all. Try to avoid the hard edges of labels like "your best," or even "good," "great," or "less successful." Just say, "Oh my, I see how hard you worked on all this!" You want to admire the process, right? Then weed the stack down with your child beside you, noticing what they like and want to keep, and store what remains in a nice portfolio. Hack at it again on your own time later. Sometimes, I wait a year before I do the most serious pitching.

Remember, it's nice to send some pieces to relatives who've got more space to display these things, and more money to frame them! Then you and your children can see the work on visits to grandma's or Aunt Ida's! "Cool," your kid can say, "I did that when I was little, and I've come a long way since then!"

Here's a web page on how to make your own artwork storage portfolio. Tell us your tricks in the meantime.

Bravo, Salon.com for running this symposium on what's causing the seeming demise of the honey bee. The good news is that cell phone usage probably isn't responsible. Bees may well be adapting to climate change and pesticide use. Says Wayne...

It's funny how online friendships work: you meet, you connect, you chatter on with the assumption that your cyber pals will be there forever. But then sometimes they vanish.So perhaps I'm not alone in my glee as I notice that...

Whether they loved her or loathed her, folks listened to anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, the mother of US Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old Humvee mechanic who was killed in 2004 after being based in Iraq for five days. On...

This morning, the radio news program Democracy Now was discussing a new documentary that sounds therapeutic and incredibly interesting since it analyzes how our leaders "spin" us into thinking that war is necessary. The spin has been perpetuated over the...

It's over, it was wonderful, it was one of the sweetest days of my life. I wish you could have been there because I know you would have enjoyed it tremendously.I am humbled, but also on top of the world....

Our caterer turned us on to an organic vineyard in Redwood Valley, CA, that uses ladybugs to keep pests away, producing a lovely LadyBug Red table wine that many of our evening party guests enjoyed. Our Kosher red for the...

Those are the words Keith Olbermann uses for every single guest on his MSNBC show, "Countdown." I offer them now to you. Great thanks to Amy Cunningham and mazel tov in advance for her son’s bar mitzvah, great thanks to...

by Dr. Susan CorsoFor almost 20 years, I have manifested Type II Diabetes. The medical pundits say that, these days, it’s become a veritable epidemic, especially in our young people. What’s going on?Oh yeah, I know. Computers, less-than-healthy eating habits,...

by Dr. Susan CorsoCosmic Bridge People are born to build a bridge from an old consciousness to a new one. Bridge People come in all sizes, shapes, formats, genders, and ages. The insightful and talented Anna Quindlen wrote about a...

by Dr. Susan CorsoI can’t wait till I reach 150. It won’t be long. I’m already up to 148. Someone just has to write them. I’m talking about books about Mary Magdalene. Some of us have been onto her for...

by Dr. Susan CorsoWhen I moved to Boston, a friend in California told me there was someone here I must meet. Let’s call her Ms. Boston. He gave me her numbers and every time I went to call her, I...

by Dr. Susan CorsoI don’t really wish to go back to the days of writing “real” letters which arrive in the post box—I like the immediacy of email way too much—but I love reading old letters. They take me back...

by Dr. Susan CorsoAll right, I’ll admit it. I had a reputation in seminary. They called me The Promiscuous Pray-er, which meant... she’ll pray with anyone anywhere any time about anything. It was true then, and it’s true now.How I...

by Dr. Susan CorsoCould it be that he was a plantation owner and she an abused slave in the antebellum south? Or maybe she was a pasha and he a neglected harem dancer in long ago Arabia? Or perhaps they...

by Dr. Susan CorsoHe is known mostly by his first name alone—Neville. I only came upon his full name by chance, if you believe in that sort of thing: Neville Lancelot Goddard. (Isn't that yummy?) He was a teacher of...

by Dr. Susan CorsoYears ago, I knew a woman who, whenever she was confronted with any distasteful aspect of the human condition, would say, “Doncha just hate that?” It always made us laugh at the time.It reminds me of something...

by Dr. Susan CorsoSo many of us on the spiritual path are seekers, and seeking—especially if we have any intent toward finding—means... books. What I read these days is very different from what I read when I started out. Now,...

by Dr. Susan CorsoI know Amy wrote about this gorgeous video last month (Thursday, April 19, 2007), but someone who loves me sent it to me today and I had to add my nickel.Thousand-Hand Guan Yin is the name of...

by Dr. Susan CorsoI love Ken Wilber’s mind. He’s a genius, a deep thinker, and a wonderful synthesist. Sometimes when I read his writing, I feel like he’s done my homework for me. Join his mind online and be...

by Dr. Susan Corso, seedsforsanctuary.com Oh, just everything. The name of something is its nature. Think of nearly every fairy tale ever written. Being a namer of anything gives one power.The first time I saw the title of the book...

by Dr. Susan Corso, seedsforsanctuary.comAlthough I’m a New Yorker, I am living in the oh-so-civilized city of Boston for the moment. Which means--a car. This was not the weekend for a car in Boston. For every Massachusetts license plate I...

Many thanks to Valerie Reiss and Amy Cunningham for their invitation to be a Guest Blogger for Chattering Mind this week.by Dr. Susan Corso, seedsforsanctuary.com I was doing my cursory flip through Newsweek when the headline in an ad caught...

Do you believe that anyone can learn to be an author, that every life is worth the telling, and that the process of writing is a valuable, life-long spiritual activity? Those are the stated beliefs of the International Women's Writing...

Well, at least the New York Times didn't run this story about Wiccans on Halloween, which is what mainstream newspapers most often do. And some helpful information here is dispensed: the Times states that Wiccans aren't devil worshipers, and that...

Oh, are you in luck! Next week, while I'm managing the festivities that will surround my 13-year-old son's bar mitzvah, Susan Corso will be blogging in this space. Corso is the author of "God's Dictionary: Divine Definitions for Everyday Enlightenment,"...

Well, it is that time of year again when you go to a wedding and come home chattering over how painful some of the wedding toasts were. The warm, loving wedding toast seems to have fallen by the wayside in...

Here's a Native American blessing, good for reading and adapting for any sacred occasion. It's not a bad prayer to actually whisper to yourself before you start writing or presenting your wedding toast!O Great Spirit, whose breath gives life to...

May the road rise to meet you,May the wind be always at your back.May the sun shine warm upon your face,The rains fall soft upon your fields.And until we meet again,May God hold you in the palm of his hand....

Lord, behold our family here assembled.We thank you for this place in which we dwell,for the love that unites us,for the peace accorded us this day,for the hope with which we expect the morrow,for the health, the work, the food,and...

Thursday marks the Feast of the Ascension, the fortieth day after Easter, said to be the day the deceased Jesus stopped kicking the tires here on earth, and ascended straight up into heaven to sit at the right hand of...

Click here to read the inspiring tale of an average American couple adopting a baby from China. Within the first few hours, they notice a scar on the child's body that points to a surgical procedure that wasn't disclosed. Soon...

Hot off the presses: Graham M. Schweig's reader-friendly, annotated translation of Bhagavad Gita which alongside the Holy Bible and the Qur'an, stands among the world's most important holy scriptures. If you've tried to read "The Beloved Lord's Secret Love Song"...

Click here to hear Dr. Larry Brilliant speak at Cambridge University about why he believes we can, with great effort, turn back global warming. Physician, writer, philanthropist, and former Silicon Valley entrepeneur, Brilliant was a student of Ram Dass's guru...

I hurt my lower back lifting a wet twenty-pound-bag of fertilizer on Satuday. I knew I'd hurt myself when I felt the snapping "ping" of an internal cello string, but the injury took five minutes to blossom. Then, aaaarugh, I...

"Let unconquerable gladness dwell."--from the 1941 Anglican "Prayer Book for Soldiers and Sailors."...

The world may be going to hell in a handbasket, but today I'm shopping for "pot feet," those lifts, or little stands, you place in sets of three under terra cotta pots. An elevated pot, you see, drains better. Plus,...

If you can't go out on a real spiritual retreat this spring and summer, fear not: You can still benefit from the wisdom of some of the world's best teachers. Online, no less. Right here at your computer. The husband/wife...

Footwear designers are working overtime to develop shoes that meet women's demands for stylish comfort.(Stylish seems like an outmoded word these days, doesn't it, since we're veering into a time where everyone is true to their own essence, and no...

Aren't you guys the best for energetically helping me select what to serve to our bar mitzvah guests? The pro-Coke and pro-Diet Coke people seem to have a slight edge. Or more accurately, the folks in favor of beverage "choice"...

Here's an album I wish I told you about earlier: "Mama's Hand: Bluegrass and Mountain Songs About Mother." It's old, but timely since Mother's Day is Sunday. Go to this Amazon.com link and click on the words "Play All" if...

"All true trophies of the agesAre from mother-love impearled;For the hand that rocks the cradleIs the hand that rules the world." --William Ross Wallace"An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest." --old Spanish proverb"A mother is a mother...

Be sure to watch this video sponsored by No More Victims. In it, actors and activists read Julia Ward Howe's original "Mother's Day Proclamation" from 1870 which called women of the world to unite for peace. Contributions to the group...

May the blessing of the DivineBe an especially bright benedictionUpon mothers everywhereOn your blessed day -On Mother's Day! --by Susan Kramer. You'll find more prayers here....

It's not a time for perfume and bath powder.This Mother's Day calls for less frou-frou and more action, says astrologer Shelley Ackerman. Mars squares Pluto on May 13. "This war-like aspect is more descriptive of a military strike or a...

"So when did the surgeon general come out against gluten?" Mr. Chattering once asked snidely when he noticed that I was feeding our children waffles that were gluten-free. Gluten is a protein that comes from wheat, barley, or rye, and...

Oh, this is great fun. Read Laura Sheahen's interview with writer/atheist/furious former Trotskyist Christopher Hitchens, author of the new book "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."Here he is, in all his charming contrariness. An excerpt:How do you think...

Thanks to Barb and others for the wonderful posts on faith and cigarettes. Fredrick recommends the book "The EasyWay to Stop Smoking," by Allen Carr, and says it has an amazing success rate. Elmo (hi!) says the "patch," and the...

Followers of Beliefnet.com's Chronic Pain Support Group have scheduled a group healing session to focus thoughts on healing for five minutes, this Thursday, May 10th, ten p.m. Eastern Standard Time. If you're in chronic pain, or you know someone in...

Tree house/play house designer Barbara Butler has such a lovely website, I thought you'd enjoy exploring it--like your own online jungle gym. Butler designs elaborate playground environments for public use, as well as tree houses and play houses for the...

Boy, planning a party for about 125 people to celebrate my eldest son's bar mitzvah is a delight, but also somewhat stressful. As host, I want to inspire generous fun but I also want to stay reasonably green, a steward...

Our 10-year-old son was making a card for his aunt on Sunday, and he didn't know exactly what to say. So we Googled "Poems for aunt" and found this lovely website called FamilyFriendsPoems.com, a treasure trove of homespun verse to...

Thanks to astrologer Shelley Ackerman for alerting me to this article about Buddhist cave paintings from the 12th century, recently discovered by a shepherd seeking shelter from the rain 60 miles northwest of Katmandu, Nepal. Consisting of 55 depictions of...

While shopping for ways to decorate the space we've rented for our son's bar mitzvah celebration, I found these hanging lights and these beaded curtains. Aren't they beautiful? If beaded curtains aren't your thing, look at these hanging wall panels!...

"Facing Inward" blogger Julie wrote this regarding my recent post on Ricki Lake's documentary "The Business of Birthing." "I don't think the natural childbirth movement is "over"--but it is so hard. Yes, women have choices, but the choices are so...

Lately, I've been totally turned off by the cruise industry: tales of people drinking to excess and falling overboard, problems with viruses and bad food. Who would want to be stuck on an overloaded pleasure boat with pool water sloshing...

As our thoughts turn to next week's Mother's Day, moms might like to study the very useful website of The Motherhood Project, a group that's advancing things close to every mother's heart: connectedness, stewardship, non-commercialism, and workplace flexibility. The group's...

"The dandelion is the strength and cunning and power of the lion whose name it carries, a brilliant flash of yellow in a solid sea of green, and the lightness of a wish on the wind...a gossamer moon waiting for...

My 45-year-old brother can't seem to stop smoking, even though he's been diagnosed with the earliest stages of emphysema, a truly dreadful ailment that will eventually leave him constantly breathless if he doesn't quit lighting up. I'd hate to see...

If you haven't tried the terrific exercise method known as Pilates, click here to find centers all over the country celebrating National Pilates Day this May 5th. Many classes are free. Click here to learn more about the yoga-tinged technique...

The Omega Institute and Shambhala Sun magazine have organized an exciting two day workshop on "Fear and Fearlessness" from a Buddhist perspective, June 22-24, 2007, in Rhinebeck, New York. "We explore how fear can be a source of growth rather...

New York Times writer Ethan Todras-Whitehill didn't hesitate to make fun of his subjects in this article about guides who lead spiritual tours of the world's most sacred sites. But at the end of the piece (click here to find...

There are moments in marriage you remember, images in a mental frame. Last night, I got to see my tuxedoed husband Mr. Chattering (Steven Waldman) charge up to a podium at Lincoln Center to receive from the American Society of...

Ricki Lake, the amiable former talk show host, has produced a new documentary about the child birth business that covers both natural and medical child birth methods. The film premieres this week at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York....