This 375-page indexed guide by Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr is tremendously helpful--in fact, indispensable--to conscientious parents who struggle with when to let their youngsters watch what. Plus, underlying the book's helpfulness is a perception of the parent's role--as truth-teller, guru, interpreter--that I know will grab you as a ChatteringMind reader!
New movies today "arrive in theaters sold out, prepackaged, and co-opted," Burr writes. They've become opportunities for product endorsements. Their characters are scrutinized for how "toyetic" they'll be the following Christmas. Classic films like "The African Queen," "The Thin Man," or "North by Northwest" have a different morality; they introduce kids to film stars and directors whose messages weren't selling product or dumbed down.
Burr watched the bulk of the old films he mentions with his two daughters, ages nine and eleven, and he splices their fabulous reactions into his write-ups. He also groups his endorsements by films appropriate for kids three to six, tweeners, and teens. In wonderful style, he explains why "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn, and "Bringing Up Baby" with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant are good for your "starter kit." He moves on to inform parents of tweens what's significant about the UFO we-are-not-alone message of "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and why the crossdressing in "Some Like It Hot" still works. He even helps you discern when's the best time to introduce your teen to "Psycho" and "Rebel Without a Cause."
Additional passages listing significant film directors and movie stars explain why Humphrey Bogart is someone you want your kids to "get" (he does not back down); why Shirley Temple withstands the tests of time (she's as "steady and natural as a healthy pulse"), and how Marilyn Monroe's vitality can be conveyed to children as a positive thing (instead of allowing them to dwell upon what they know of her death).
Some old films don't add up to modern-day family enjoyment, and Burr writes with great wit about them too. "Gone With the Wind" is on his list of films that didn't translate as well as he thought they would. "Why is she so silly?" asked daughter Natalie while watching slave girl Butterfly McQueen meander about without aim. Burr writes: "I could have said, well, because that's how 1930s Hollywood portrayed black people with cutesy, derisive condescension..."
Every parent should keep Burr's guide by the television, and every video store should plant one in house. We're talking about hours of pleasurable movie viewing, and many, many significant full-family conversations afterwards. You're going to thank me for this, I think.
Here's a blog post I wrote about Charles's merit when he visited the U.S. sixteen months ago. He reads Rudolf Steiner, started an organic farm, and is interested in world religious unity.
Sure wish he'd post on my blog every now and then.
Thanks for your warm response to the cancer healing prayers I posted. I've been looking for more without much luck. Want to write some together? I'll post the prayers you send in. My friends who've had cancer say it's so hard to stay positive about chemo's healing powers when friends and family--often trying to comfort--let it be known that they see chemo drugs as "poison," or dwell on the side effects.
Here are some posts from readers who see chemo drugs as elixirs of tremendous healing power:
"My husband is an interfaith minister and Reiki Master and he has a lot of experience working with cancer patients. He has special blessings for the chemo bag and for the all aspects of cancer recovery," writes Laurie Sue Brockway.
Reader Jacqueline Robinson writes: "The word of God says 'I am He that healeth thee,' and as you are infused with chemo your whole mind has to be absorbed with the hope of glory, believing that you are [being] healed as your whole body is being infused with the medicine. I envisioned the Holy Spirit flowing through my body and held on to Him knowing that He was there with me."
Reader Laura writes: "I had breast and thyroid cancer and went thru chemo for four months. It was no fun, but between the drugs, my Faith and my God, I am healed in Jesus' name. I am going to make a ton of copies of these prayers and take them to my oncology doctor's office so that everyone there still taking chemo can be uplifted and healed by powerful words!"
Writes a reader named Marsha, currently receiving chemo every week: "It is nice to see prayers for women who have cancer. I have colon, liver and lung cancer and have been fighting it since August 19, 2006. Every week I go for my chemo and some days are good, and some bad. The prayers really help you make it through it. [I am] still fighting and will be a survivor."
"As we enter the twenty-first century, we are experiencing a moment of grace. Such moments are privileged moments. The great transformations of the universe occur at such times...What can be said is that the foundations of a new historical period, the Ecozoic Era, have been established in every realm of human affairs. The mythic vision has been set into place. The distorted dream of an industrial technological paradise is being replaced by the more viable dream of a mutually enhancing human presence within an ever-renewing organic-based Earth community. The dream drives the action. In the larger cultural context the dream becomes the myth that both guides and drives the action."
What's particularly fascinating about this statement is that it was published in 1999. Pre-9/11. Pre-widespread acknowledgement of global warming.
Thomas Berry is 93-years-old today and considered the greatest eco-theologian of our time. He served as adviser to the Clinton White House on environmental issues, and has been the inspiring force behind many leading environmental thinkers, both religious and secular. His writings follow in the tradition of philosopher-paleontolist-priest Teilhard de Chardin.
Berry has been calling for a new cosmology for years, a new way of viewing our commitments to God, to our human family, and to the earth. If you haven't previously read his books, you might find that his work has the power to set your own life and work in a new context.
Here's an excerpt from a famous paper on EcoEthics Berry delivered to the Harvard Seminar on Environmental Values in 1996.
"...our western civilization has never taken [the] unity of the universe seriously because of our anthropocentrism both in our biblical religious and our Greek humanist traditions. We see the human as a princely resident on a planet that is completely lacking in any inherent rights that must be respected by humans...
"The ecological community is not subordinate to the human community. Nor is the ecological imperative derivative from human ethics. Rather our human ethics is derivative from the ecological imperative...The Earth is not part of the Human Story, the human story is part of the Earth Story."
I know that's quite a mouthful. But I hope this moves you to read more. Apparently, Berry came to the conclusion that "commercial values threatened our planet" rather early--in 1922, when he was only eight years old!
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:53 AM | Permalink |
Deepest-Breath-at-the-Oscars Award goes to Best Actor Forest Whitaker, who couldn't utter his thank you speech until he'd inhaled the moment and collected himself. At the end of his speech, he made reference to "this life and the next."
Google research reveals that Whitaker's be-here-now countenance would come as no surprise to those who know him well: he has a 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He's also a vegetarian who with his daughter True, recorded this public service announcement promoting meat-free living for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Oh boy, this Trappist monastery down in South Carolina (where my parents once went on a spiritual retreat) has been busted big time for alleged cruelty to the chickens that produce the eggs the abbey sells to support itself.
Birds are crowded, starved to stimulate egg production, and left to flap around and slowly die once injured. All this despite the monks' claim that they have a sacred mission to husband animals and care for the earth. Have a look at the PETA undercover investigation here. And here's the New York Times story.
This week's New York magazine has an amazing article that describes what two models, a creative director, and a magazine accessories editor eat during the frenzy of "fashion week," when runway shows, and meetings with designers become all-important, stress-filled activities for these people.
Each food journal is fascinating in its own way. The 21-year-old female model drinks a ton of coffee, craves sweets, and eats no more than a bite of pepperoni stromboli. The 25-year-old Latvian male model is the picture of health and loves Wasa crackers with smoked-fish spread (he also has a wife who cooks grilled branzino with wilted kale and fava beans). But the real show-stopper is the daily breakfast consumed by Anne Sowey, fashion news director and Elle accessories editor! Here it is:
Two 1,000-mg. Emergen-C with seven mineral ascorbates and 32 mineral complexes, one ounce of Super KMH, Mona Vie (berry extract), aloe juice, chlorophyll, two Nature's Way Fenu-Thyme, one advance natural FloroMax, three Wellness Formula tablets, twenty drops Super Lysine Plus, two Theraveda Usha daytime stress formula tablets.
All this at 7:30 a.m. with nothing else to eat until 10:30 a.m., when she downs some Milanese eggs and enjoys an iced skim latte. Phew. My own stomach was waiting for something more substantial!
When I'm under stress, I generally start with a generous bowl of oatmeal (or some other serving of whole grains), or maybe a banana with peanut butter, or some rice and black beans, or an egg with a little nitrate-free ham. I need protein in the morning. And a few deep breaths.
What do you eat upon rising?
posted by Chattering Mind @ 10:00 PM | Permalink |
The Sam Harris/Andrew Sullivan blogalogue on faith has covered exceedingly complex material. Could you describe your beliefs as articulately? I could not. Here's the conclusion of Harris's latest letter, in which he seems to deliver body blows to Sullivan's defense of faith (scroll down). And yet, I am strangely not persuaded. The person arguing against God's existence always seems to have an edge. Faith is beyond reason. And Harris refuses to get stuck in the tar baby better than anybody. He's really good. He writes:
Imagine a discourse about ethics and mystical experience that is as contingency-free as the discourse of science already is. Science really does transcend the vagaries of culture: there is no such thing as "Japanese" as opposed to "French" science; we don't speak of "Hindu biology" and "Jewish chemistry." Imagine a world that has transcended its tribalism-racism and nationalism, yes, but religious tribalism especially-in which we could have a truly open-ended conversation about our place in the universe and about the possibilities of deepening our experience of love and compassion for one another. Ethics and spirituality do not require faith. One can even achieve utter mystical absorption in the primordial mystery of the present moment without believing anything on insufficient evidence.
You might want to say that every religion offers a guide to doing this. Yes, but they are provisional guides at best. Rather than pick over the carcass of Christianity (or any other traditional faith) looking for a few, uncontaminated morsels of wisdom, why not take a proper seat at the banquet of human understanding in the present? There are already many very refined courses on offer. For those interested in the origins of the universe, there is the real science of cosmology. For those who want to know about the evolution of life on this planet, biology, chemistry and their subspecialties offer real nourishment. (Knowledge in most scientific domains is now doubling about every five years. How fast is it growing in religion?) And if ethics and spirituality are what concern you, there are now scientists making serious efforts to understand these features of our experience-both by studying the brain function of advanced contemplatives and by practicing meditation and other (non-faith-based) spiritual disciplines themselves. Even when it comes to compassion and self-transcendence, there is new wine (slowly) being poured. Why not catch it with a clean glass?
An anonymous reader (whose home I suspect has pretty good Feng Shui) writes: "I don't understand Feng Shui. I can't grab the concept of placing items in a certain order or arrangement to bring one peace of mind... I'm not into sparseness. I like things to be neat and in their place but I have things I enjoy seeing, and want them out and about..."
Another reader commiserates: "Like Anon, I don't get the entire Feng Shui thing either. I am (too much so--ask my friends) organized, and I like my stuff where I put it and can get to it."
Yep, both these guys are on track already. They don't need to "know from" Baguan! Hey guys, count yourselves blessed! Someone who needs Feng Shui-ing is more likely to write: "I am despairing with the chaotic state of my basement..." Or "My bedroom is not a peaceful place to sleep in. I've got papers stacked high that I can't file."
Those who need Feng Shui, are generally among those drawn to it. They know that their mess can influence their mindset.
There are theories of the Feng Shui universe that I basically disagree with, as a writer who loves books and lives with many open shelves of book cases. Yes, they lend a chaotic countenance to my living space. But they represent the thoughts of people I admire and want close to me. Forgive me for accepting myself as a chattering mind in the company of many news sources and opinions.
Feng Shui practicioners recommend placing curtains over all standing book cases. I know a friend who had eggshell-colored canvas covers made for her eight-foot-high bookcases, and when the bookcase drapes are down, the room does seem calmer. But I like my books to shout "Hey, look at me." So I bow to Feng Shui's aspirations to greater simplicity, but I go my own way.
Britney, get into a rehabilitation program you can stick with! Read the "promises" of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous (from pages 83-84 of The Big Book). They supplement the famous Twelve Steps.
If anyone out there has "worked the program," chime in and tell us if AA's promises came true for you. Here they are in all their glory:
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
"Are these extravagant promises? We think not," the Big Book claims. "They will always materialize if we work for them."
While most of us are receptive to "elder wisdom," there's never been a grand design for harvesting it. Unless you have a grand- or great-grandparent still living that you visit, there's not often much access to the thoughts of our wisest, most elderly citizens.
But now, there's ElderWisdomCircle.org! Last Sunday's Washington Post ran an article about it. Hundreds of seniors respond to the questions of troubled people online. Questions like: "Should I tell my new wife about old flings?" get "elder responses" like this:
I never have understood why some people want to get into 'true confessions'. Everyone has 'baggage' and the smart ones learn to deal with that baggage and 'store it away' in the proper compartment in their mind. Of course there are some who like to brag, others that listen to Dr. Phil too much, and others that just aren't too bright and can't keep their mouths shut...There is no need to bring in more complications.
The Spring 2007 issue of Buddhadharma magazine tells me something I'd completely missed: that last November's midterm election not only brought the nation's first Muslim to Congress, but also ushered in two Buddhists (both Democrats): Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Hank Johnson of Georgia.
Also in this month's "Ask the Teachers" column, Zenkei Blanche Hartman is asked by a reader if "a person can practice Buddhist ways and still maintain a job in the military."
Bach Flower Remedies are such subtle and nontoxic healing potions, you can experiment with them on your own and find the best mixture by taking this online questionnaire.
The 38 essences are said to work on an energetic and emotional level, helping to do things like calm fear, ease grief, and eliminate lethargy. None of this is approved by the FDA, of course, but I've found the essences to be extremely helpful in times of need. And this quickie questionnaire is a cool way to evaluate what may help give you that subtle shift that can get everything rolling in the right direction again.
If the questionnaire doesn't feel complete enough to you, visit this site to find a practitioner near you.
Blessed are You, Compassionate One, For giving me these droplets of _____ (name of chemotherapy drug), Like refreshing dew and healing rain, may they save my life.
I don't know, maybe that sounds like something someone who has never had cancer might write. But prayers like these are templates helpful in getting the mind to formulate its own prayers for healing. You can shape your own renditions. So pass this along to someone you feel it might help.
Here's a prayer Neu recommends for the beginning and ending of each day of cancer treatment. It's quite similar to Buddhist mindfulness prayers and would be helpful to anyone at any time. Just repeat these words morning and evening:
May all be loved. May all be healed. May all be sheltered. May all be free from fear.
My I be loved. May I be healed. May I be sheltered. May I be free from fear.
When I'm not writing or cooking, doing yoga or driving the kids around, I am in bed with George Washington, wondering just how religious he is, or was. It's been fun.
In fact, I've become intimately acquainted with all our founding fathers' religious beliefs. How? Well, Mr. Chattering's full library of books on Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison looms all around our marital bed and has sometimes seemed a tad oppressive as husband Mr. C. (Steve Waldman) completes revisions of his book about America's religious freedoms and each founders' role in preserving them.
Here's a nice passage from a Waldman article on our first president in honor of Presidents' Day earlier in the week. Apparently, while outwardly a faithful Christian, Washington did not care to partake in communion. Waldman writes:
In fact, he would generally leave services before his wife Martha, who often did take the sacrament. Dr. James Abercrombie, assistant rector of Christ Church acknowledged that Washington was "a professing Christian" who attended regularly but added, "I cannot consider any man as a real Christian who uniformly disregards an ordinance so solemnly enjoined by the divine Author of our holy religion, and considered as a channel of divine grace." So disappointed was Abercrombie that he made a not-so-veiled reference to Washington's behavior in a sermon.
When Washington learned of the sermon he dug in his heels. He explained that if he were to suddenly switch to taking communion, after years of not doing so, it would be viewed as "an ostentatious display of religious zeal." Significantly, Washington's solution, then, was not to start taking communion-–but rather to avoid church on the Sundays when communion was being offered.
Waldman continues: "By the definition of Christianity offered by modern-day liberal Christians, Washington would pass muster. He believed in God, attended church, endorsed the golden rule, and valued the behavioral benefits of religion. But for those who define being a Christian as requiring the acceptance of Christ as personal savior and the Bible as God's revelation, Washington, based on what we know, probably was not 'Christian.'"
Novelist Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) is the talented author of "A Series of Unfortunate Events," a tale of rollicking disaster that's hugely popular with the eight to 11-year-old set.
In an interview with editor Nadine Epstein in this month's Moment: Jewish Politics, Culture, Religion magazine, Handler confesses to being raised in a Jewish household where "all major holidays and rituals were kept up but we occasionally lapsed on Sukkot and could never remember what Sh'imini Atzeret was for."
Here's more good humor from the interview itself:
How did being brought up Jewish affect you as a writer?
...certainly it would have been really surprising if I grew up to be a cardinal, with my Jewish upbringing. But I think there's a certain sensibility that that kind of Jewish household can exhibit and that probably shows in my writing. There's a great deal of guilt and wringing of hands in A Series of Unfortunate Events. That's very Jewish.
Was there a lot of guilt and wringing of hands when you were growing up?
There weren't any major catastrophes in my family while I was a child, but there was the usual Jewish angst that pervades even the heathiest households.
Is the world in "A Series of Unfortunate Events" a world without God?
God is not a character in A Series of Unfortunate Events. The narrator mentions at one point that the characters often felt as if there was something powerful over them which made no move to help them and was perhaps even laughing at their misfortune. But whether that person was God or the author is up for grabs.
There's a smell. You know that smell? It's the fake pine smell of the commercial cleaning products that many schools and restaurants use.
When I'm stuck somewhere and I smell that smell I feel like climbing the walls. I used to sit it out. Now I leave, or move, and pray that soon, everyone will make the switch to more natural cleansers that won't trigger reactions or allergies. Here's a good take on the surge in all-natural cleaner sales.
We have a splendid opportunity, for the first time ever on earth, to truly get to the root of things and to transform human society. It’s entirely possible, and it’s really up to us. And since I believe that, I don’t worry about it because I know that we will either do it or we won’t. If we do it, "Hallelujah." The world will just be so wonderful and joyful. If we don’t, we will lose such a beautiful gift.
And I will have to say that while I was here, I did my very best and loved it as much as it loved me—the cosmos, the earth. I personally feel like I’ll be fairly content. You can only do what you can do. It’s just a fact that worrying is unhelpful, whereas trying to bring peace to your own spirit is work you can do, and it’s work that will actually bring many benefits to everybody that you ever encounter and to the whole world.
Chinese New Year begins with the new moon this February 18th and lasts until the full moon two weeks from now.
In China, this period of feasts with prayers for prosperity is seen as the actual beginning of spring.
Since I'm a Christian with Jewish children who naturally gravitates toward Eastern art and philosophy, I essentially celebrate three new year periods: Rosh Hashanah in September; the Roman calendar's December 31st; and the Chinese festivities in February. Each "new year" period consolidates the freshness and forgiveness of the last. If I didn't get it right the last time, I can always try again.
"Be careful in your actions. Be selective with what you eat. Greet people who will bring you joy," says this Chinese family culture web page. "Enhance and stimulate positive energy flow at home, at your business, and at work."
To get your new year mojo going, you can:
* Clean the entire home to get rid of objects affiliated with the past.
* Pay your bills, resolve your debts.
* Make real peace with family members, friends, neighbors and business associates.
This coming Saturday night, invite your most loving friends over for Chinese food. Easier still, you can all go out (though then you'll encounter crowds of other celebrants). Additionally, try to spend a quiet moment this weekend paying tribute to your "ancestors and household gods," people who've supported and sustained you up to this point. At midnight, you can open all your doors and windows to gratefully let go of all your grudges, and all the negativity that's is no longer serving you.
Here and here are web pages with good Chinese New Year's recipes. This book for young children is a guide to holiday folktales, customs, and Chinese banquet food.
Remember when Bill Moyers showed brain surgery being performed in the early 1990s with acupuncture as the sole form of anesthesia on his PBS series "Healing and the Mind?" American acupuncturists point to that televised moment as the beginning of America's receptivity to this centuries-old Chinese healing method.
How surprising, given the sophisticated healing circles Oprah hangs in, that she's never been "needled"! But yesterday, the big O reclined in a cushy dentist's chair and submitted to her first mini-treatment, allowing an acupuncturist to insert into her hand and leg fine filaments (they're so delicate it's too bad people call them "needles" at all). Oprah flinched a bit (for comedic effect) but experienced no pain. Then a studio audience member in steady shoulder discomfort went backstage for a full session, emerging pain-free at the program's end. (A licensed acupuncturist ordinarily takes a full health history before any work begins. Don't go to anyone who doesn't!)
Oprah's session was overseen by adorable celebrity cardiologist Mehmet Oz, M.D. Toward the end of the powerfully informative program, Oz turned to Oprah, leaned forward, and said: "But let's broaden the discussion, because it's not just about acupuncture. The reason I'm so excited and passionate about alternative medicine is [because it is] the globalization of medicine... We're beginning now to understand things that we know in our hearts are true but we could never measure. As we get better at understanding how little we know about the body, we begin to realize that the next big frontier... in medicine is energy medicine. It's not the mechanistic part of the joints moving. It's not the chemistry of our body. It's understanding for the first time how energy influences how we feel."
I'm guessing that the thousands of people devoting their lives to energetic healing modalities like homeopathy, Reiki, osteopathy, and more, would have applauded the moment if they'd been watching, maybe even cried over it. The general public is clearly receptive, though more research is needed. And the practitioners involved with root-cause healing and preventative medicine are more vocal and visible than ever.
National treasure/quirky odd duck Camille Paglia's back writing for Salon.com after a six-year absence. Here's a snippet of her first column (you may have to get a trial subscription to read the whole thing).
I am a pro-choice libertarian Democrat whose platform remains the same, above all regarding educational reform. I denounce the outrageous expense, ideological indoctrination and spiritual hollowness of American higher education, with its crazed admissions rat race and juvenile brand-name snobbery. And I call for a valorization of the trades and for national investment in vocational schools to help salvage the disaster zone of urban public education.
Though I am a professed atheist, I have been arguing for 20 years that the study of world religions should be basic to the university core curriculum. I addressed this matter last week in "Religion and the Arts in America," the 2007 Cornerstone Arts Lecture at Colorado College (it was filmed by C-SPAN). I approached the subject from a different angle in "Cults and Cosmic Consciousness: Religious Vision in the American 1960s" (Arion, winter 2003).
Though she is no great fan of "New Age" thinking (which I think she finds intellectually lazy), I love what she says about the importance of school kids studying the world's greatest religious texts. I plan to read her columns closely. She always wakes me up.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:48 AM | Permalink |
Here's a good article about how children who are praised too much sometimes grow up to be risk adverse.
Remember to say, "Oh, I see you worked so hard on that! Tell me about it." instead of "Cool! You're sooo smart!" when your children show you their artwork.
Hard to do this sometimes, I know.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:00 AM | Permalink |
The latest Body + Soul magazine features an eye-catching ad that targets yoga moms and promotes the fibrous Wasa rye crisp (which is low in fat and calories).
Here's Wasa's approximation of a Hindu goddess or "divine mother" as seen on Wasa's website. And check out the Wasa's new weekly blog, written by a woman named Ellen who eats healthy, makes homemade hummus, and wants the best for her young son.
I love getting to know my readers, and seem to have acquired a small following of thoughtful people in the last year. I've come to know them by the remarks they attach to my blog items: there's Pacific231, Kathryn, Eevie Keys, Stacey-Robin, Daijinryuu, KWiz, elmo, Brian, Chanteuse and numerous others, and then there is Daria who up until recently posted heavily almost every day.
But Daria hasn't posted in three weeks and I find myself wondering where she's been, if she made a conscious decision to put her energies elsewhere, or if she's at a retreat center meditating. I'm left with guesses and projections. It's funny, these virtual relationships, eh? Paging Daria. What's up, friend?
Check out this band of cute contortionists. I like how they relax into position. How hard do you think they've worked on these postures in their brief lifetimes? Hard to say. I don't know.
Just last Sunday, in yoga class, our teacher advised us not to "push" our bodies too much. It is winter, cold here in New York. "Just be at peace with where your body is right now. Accept it as it is," she said. I felt thick, dull, and sleepy at first, but then I warmed up and breathed in fresh awareness.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:45 AM | Permalink |
Want a little inspiration to fuel your Valentine's Day ardor? Check out this website of historic love letters by famous composers, politicians, writers, poets, and others. Some samples:
From Abigail Adams to John Adams, December, 1782:
I look back to the early days of our acquaintance and friendship as to the days of love and innocence, and, with an indescribable pleasure, I have seen near a score of years roll over our heads with an affection heightened and improved by time, nor have the dreary years of absence in the smallest degree effaced from my mind the image of the dear untitled man to whom I gave my heart.
From Henry von Kleist, a German dramatist, to Adolfine Henriette Vogel (who was suffering from an incurable disease), 1810:
My golden child, my pearl, my precious stone, my crown, my queen and empress. You dear darling of my heart, my highest and most precious, my all and everything, my wife, the baptism of my children, my tragic play, my posthumous reputation. Ach! You are my second better self, my virtues, my merits, my hope, the forgiveness of my sins, my future sanctity, O little daughter of heaven, my child of God, my intercessor, my guardian angel, my cherubim and seraph, how I love you!
From Welsh poet Dylan Thomas to his wife Caitlin while he was on a reading tour of the U.S., March, 1950.
Cat: my cat: If only you would write to me: My love, oh Cat.
This is not, as it seems from the address above, a dive, a joint, saloon, etc. but the honourable & dignified headquarters of the dons of the University of Chicago.
I love you. That is all I know. But all I know, too, is that I am writing into space: the kind of dreadful, unknown space I am just going to enter. I am going to Iowa, Illinois, Idaho, Indindiana, but these, though mis-spelt, *are* on the map. You are not.
Have you forgotten me? I am the man you used to say you loved. I used to sleep in your arms - do you remember? But you never write. You are perhaps mindless of me. I am not of you. I love you.
There isn't a moment of any hideous day when I do not say to myself. 'It will be alright. I shall go home. Caitlin loves me. I love Caitlin.' But perhaps you have forgotten. If you have forgotten, or lost your affection for me, please, my Cat, let me know. I Love You.
As you spoon that precious dab of honey into your tea today, consider this sad news: bee keepers are reporting a dramatic decrease in their bee populations, which will not only influence future honey production but also the crops and trees needing bees to pollinate them.
Anyone interested in the mainstreaming of Eastern philosophy will find this New York Times Sports section article by Lee Jenkins fascinating. It's about the yoga and meditation work some pro-ball pitchers are incorporating into their training.
“If you can calm yourself down in the middle of those poses, you can do it in the middle of the game,” said Errol Simonitsch, a pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. “That’s why, before every pitch, you’ll see me take a deep breath.”
By thinking about his breaths, Simonitsch is limiting how much he thinks about his pitches, and he has a better chance of blocking out distractions. He simply rocks and fires. By the time he reflects on the pitch, it is already released.
This technique was popularized by [the Giant's Barry] Zito, who takes so many deep breaths on the mound that it can look as if he is hyperventilating. When [the Tiger's Joel] Zumaya made his major league debut last season in Kansas City, he ran down the tunnel for a moment to do his breathing exercises.
No one laughed at him, at least not after he touched 103 miles an hour on the radar gun. And no one laughed at Zito, not when he signed a contract in December for $126 million.
“I thought it was a little kooky at first,” said Jason Hirsh, a pitcher for the Colorado Rockies. “No one does mental training. Everyone just tells you to get big and strong. But I always thought, If it works for those other guys, why can’t it work for me?”
Wow, what passionate sentiments were stirred by my blog post about which goddess stories of ancient mythology had parallels to the life story of late celebrity oddball Anna Nicole Smith!
Let me make some quick clarifications, as perhaps the headline treatments of the item, or my own presentation of the ideas were confusing to some.
Both Laurie Sue Brockway and I are in agreement that Anna Nicole is not our idea of a true goddess, or anyone to emulate. That almost went without saying.
I just found it remarkable that Brockway was able to connect Smith's life story (and untimely demise) to the tales of feminine deities from cultures long past. The parallels with Babylonian goddess Innana I found especially moving. Here's what Brockway said:
* In the end, [Anna Nicole Smith] was Innana of ancient Babylon, the goddess of sexuality. Once the Queen of Heaven, and the goddess of Love and War, when her sacred lover/son Tamuz was killed she had to travel seven layers down to the underworld to save him, stripping her earthly possessions, clothes, jewels and egos as she traveled through each level. There she met her dark twin and had to face her before she could rise again and save her love. Just as Innana could not bear the pain of losing Tamuz, I believe Anna Nicole could not bear losing her son Daniel. Perhaps she sacrificed herself to be with him again."
It's amazing when ancient myths we've never heard of seem to shed light on contemporary events.
In the best-selling book "Women Who Run With the Wolves," Jungian analyst Clarissa Pinkola Estes similarly uses old fables and myths (not all of them uplifting) to help contemporary women see themselves, and find meaning in their own life's narrative. I don't see this as a liberal feminist practice necessarily, but I guess it springs out of disenchantment with our pre-1950 cultural focus on patriarchial war stories, or male-dominated tall tales like Hercules, King Arthur, or Paul Bunyan (to name the first that come to mind).
Anna Nicole Smith's sad story has poetic, metaphoric themes in it we can delve into as we would when seeking to understand a character in a novel (that's why we read literature, right?). But she was a real person, a pretty girl who apparently felt she couldn't nurture any child to autonomy or health, the ultimate happy outcome all moms long for most. She may have been a gold digger, or an overblown, cartoonish parody of a woman with real goddess power. But let's not discount or discard the dear lady in the wake of her death. Let's not let the culture's cynicism lull us into thinking that her story isn't mythic. I was surprised that a few of my readers derided Smith as a "drunk" instead of calling her an addict like so many Hollywood types before her whose life got distorted by the Fun House mirror.
This culture has come to know 'goddess' as the title bestowed on models, movie stars, and women who embody an astounding physical beauty that most of us could never emulate. I can see how people may call Anna Nicole a Goddess, yet in some ways she seemed a caricature of that.
I see a modern-day goddess as someone who is spiritual and soulful, with an evolving consciousness. Anna Nicole did not strike me as being in touch with her true inner goddess. But she definitely worked the goddess "thing," and in her public person evoked a sex goddess vibe.
Interestingly, from the perspective of goddess mythology, she lived out several archetypes.
* She was the sex goddess aspect of Venus, who loved to be admired and seen. Venus carried a mirror and loved to look at herself. As much as Anna Nicole was hounded and seemed trapped by her fame in her last months, she used TV as her high tech mirror, able to see herself and reflect her image to the masses.
* She also evoked Uzume, the shaman goddess of Japan, known for being somewhat of a clown and flashing her privates to stir controversy and get a laugh from the other gods and goddesses. Anna Nicole flashed her life--and body parts--for all to see. She didn't seem to care what people thought of her.
* She showed aspects of Durga, the Hindu Warrior goddess with eight arms who rides a tiger. For better or for worse, Anna Nicole was a tenacious fighter and although in the end we saw the depth of her vulnerability, she survived plenty of slings, arrows and loss and always seemed to at least be able to pretend to walk proudly.
* In the end, she was Innana of ancient Babylon, the goddess of sexuality. Once the Queen of Heaven, and the goddess of Love and War, when her sacred lover/son Tamuz was killed she had to travel seven layers down to the underworld to save him, stripping her earthly possessions, clothes, jewels and egos as she traveled through each level. There she met her dark twin and had to face her before she could rise again and save her love. Just as Innana could not bear the pain of losing Tamuz, I believe Anna Nicole could not bear losing her son Daniel. Perhaps she sacrificed herself to be with him again.
Anna Nicole Smith represented archetypes people seemed to relate to. Now she, and her son, are part of celebrity mythology, leaving one child to carry on.
Well, you don't get that kind of analysis and commentary everywhere. Eat your heart out, Larry King! For more about Laurie Sue Brockway's goddess work and online courses (that can help any woman getting connected to her "goddesses within"), look here and here.
I swiped a book off Mr. Chattering's bedside table, not expecting it to be one of the best books I've ever read. I just wanted a good post for Abe Lincoln's birthday this Monday. "Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness" by Joshua Wolf Shenk has received all kinds of prizes, even earned its own TV special. But if you haven't actually read the whole volume, please dash out and locate a copy--especially if you're wanting to "change the world," or if "consciousness" and staying present to whatever life slings you is an ambition of yours.
As you probably know, Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression, and experienced two major depressive episodes as a younger man. “No element of Mr. Lincoln’s character,” wrote his colleague Henry Whitney, “was so marked, obvious and ingrained as his mysterious and profound melancholy.” Said Lincoln's law partner William Herndon: “His melancholy dripped from him as he walked.”
But what Shenk does so brilliantly is show how Lincoln's depressive personality endowed him with the depth (born out of torment) to rise up and be great. Shenk writes:
...the depths of emotion that he explored as a result of his depression contributed to a deep creative capacity — as a writer and thinker. In his first inaugural address, he urged that the country would be well again when touched by “the better angels of our nature.” He didn’t say that that the worse angels would be killed or that they would go away. To the contrary, the image suggests that selves, and nations, are multi-faceted, capable of better and prone to worse, and locked in a struggle. It’s justifiably a famous phrase, and it reaches deep into the psyche because it reflects an experience that every human being knows intuitively, one of division and conflict, broken-ness and harmony, suffering and reward. These were ideas that Lincoln lived and struggled with much of his life.
It is wonderful to contemplate how a man charged with holding our whole nation together learned from his own struggle with a split within himself. Another thing I gathered from Shenk is that Lincoln, who was never a consistent church-goer, was a most gifted religious thinker on the subject of suffering. Shenk discusses this point here in an excellent article he wrote for Beliefnet: "...unlike some fatalists, who renounced any claim to a moral order, Lincoln saw how man’s reason could discern purpose even in the movement of a vast machine that grinds and cuts and mashes all who interfere with it. Just as a child learns to pull his hand from a fire when it is hot, people can learn when they are doing something that is not in accord with the wider, unseen order. To Lincoln, Herndon explained, 'suffering was medicinal & educational.' In other words, it could be an agent of growth."
Since we are currently a nation at war, I think you'll find Shenk's book and article quite timely and perhaps helpful in a personal way. We are not the first generation of Americans to ponder our meaning, our worth, our contributions in trying times. What a luminous soul. What an inspiring man. Did you know that on the morning of his assassination, he told his associates that he'd had a dream that he was traveling to a distant place? Shenk's writings will bring Lincoln back to you so alive, you'll feel as though he's sitting beside you.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 12:33 PM | Permalink |
Whatever happened to those "hard bod" exercise teachers who advised us to "go for the burn" in those 1980s aerobic classes?
They're hobbling around with all kinds of injuries, says this article in today's New York Times.
Some former aerobics enthusiasts are almost wistful. “We had a great time,” said Frederick Schjang, 48, who taught the classes for more than a decade. “And we got our hearts in shape.” He admitted, however, that he has paid a price. “The persistent stress on the joints finally got to us,” he said. He blames aerobics for a torn meniscus, which required surgery, and for the osteoarthritis he has in both knees. “I gave my knees to the aerobics movement,” he said.
As a result, Mr. Schjang, still teaches 15 group classes a week, but mostly Pilates and Feldenkrais Method...
If they hadn't hurt themselves, they wouldn't be turning us all toward the healing modalities available in most health clubs today.
Let's thank them profusely for their sacrifice and the wisdom that has come from it!
The light bulb guys stopped by my house, and replaced 32 incandescent bulbs with energy-conserving fluorescents. They seemed to be feeling pretty good about themselves. And now, my house is aglow with a fluorescent haze that works better in some rooms than in others.
As you may recall, New York City's utility company, fearing another electrical outage like the one endured by hundreds of households in Queens last summer, is paying conservation companies to help ordinary people like me make the energy-smart conversion to fluorescent household lighting.
"So what am I saving in the end?" I asked them.
"Well, do the math. For every incandescent bulb of yours we switch to fluorescent, you go from 60 watts to 14."
My best guess is that I've cut my electrical expenditure down by one third, since electrical bulbs are not my only drain on current. That's really impressive.
So I was deliriously happy until the sun set and the fluorescent bulbs in the bedrooms assumed an eerie blue glow I'm not sure I can read by...or stand for long. Somehow, the piercing intensity of fluorescent light works best in kitchens, hallways, foyers and bathrooms. But in the overhead ceiling fan fixtures of all of our bedrooms, I fear I'm going to have to take the fluorescents out and go back to less energy-saavy full-spectrum incandescents. I haven't changed anything back yet; I'm just thinking about it as I also contemplate other ways to make this 100-year-old house more green. (Check out the "This Old House" website for information about their green remodeling TV show out of Austin, Texas.)
My hip and friendly bulb technicians made the mistake of telling me that their boss--the successful entrepreneur behind their company--once waited until his wife was out-of-town to switch their New Jersey home completely over to fluorescent lighting. When she returned, she started screaming and swearing "No way! No way! I know what you're #%&! up to!" before insisting he put all their incandescents back.
We're all in for a ride, I guess, and a debate over how far to inconvenience ourselves to keep the planet clean and safe.
Send in your own religious family history and I'll try to post it. Here are a few of the family religious histories I've received so far.
Says reader 360: "Well, my 'rents were non-practicing Catholics...Even now I dislike Christianity and find Buddhism more relevant and refreshingly non-divisive. So I guess I am planting a new "religious tree" for myself. I would like to hear from people who are who they are IN SPITE OF the religion they were born into."
Writes Barb: "I'm a practicing Catholic and as far as I know Catholicism is solid in my family background...it is my solid foundation. I consider myself more spiritual as opposed to religious. I'm open to all faiths and their beliefs..."
Thanks to Interfaith for this: "My parents are both Jewish and their ancestors are Jewish as far back as we know. The interesting thing is that they seem to alternate, generationally, between secular and religious. My grandparents rebelled against the superstitiousness of the 'old country' and were quite secular. My parents mostly followed that, with a few steps toward the religious, and my generation is becoming ever more religious."
Writes Anonymous Also: "I was raised by non-observant Evangelical parents. I went to Sunday school as a child, (Evangelical Baptist), and can remember many a Sunday hiding behind a building hoping the teachers wouldn't find me in time for class. (Sometimes they didn't.) Today, I follow a Humanist/New Age path, and am perfectly content."
Says Joey: "Four of my great-aunts were nuns. Actually at least two left the nunhood, though...my maternal grandmother (despite four nun sisters) is now Pentecostal. My older brother is now, as I call him, "the Pat Robinson of Atheism" (apparently the Christian school my parents sent him too wasn't that effective), and I'm...something. My parents raised me and my six siblings non-denominational Christian."
Writes CM reader Bird: "My father was a non-observant Jew, the grandson of Russian immigrants. Both of mother's parents were Jews who were born here, but her mother converted to Christian Science. My mother raised me as a Christian Scientist. My father was very tolerant of the religion, but he did insist I get medical care as a child. He never went to either synagogue or church. I became a devout Christian Scientist and even had 'class instruction,' the advanced level of teaching, until I saw it was not helping and in fact was harming my mother. She had cancer and felt horribly guilty turning to doctors--so guilty that it created a mental illness. At that point I left the church and went for years missing that 'something' in my life. My husband (originally Jewish) and I now go to Unitarian Church, and that's how we raised our kids. It's not terribly spiritual, but does give us a sense of community and a humanist faith. Strangely, most of my immediate family converted from Judaism to something else--mostly Quaker."
Reader Bob Campbell finds his story "boring," but I disagree: "My mother was raised as an Episcopalian in East Providence by parents who came from casual (or lapsed) Catholic backgrounds. My father was raise Methodist in Memphis by faithful Methodist parents. His brother became Episcopalian, but his sister remained Methodist. The uncle's children are Episcopalian...I found a month ago that my mother did not get confirmed as an Episcopalian until after I did when I was 12, (she waited until 41). My wife is Episcopalian, brought up by Episcopalians, no children. My mother and stepfather and two sisters are very casual Episcopalians, returning to the observance of our maternal grandfather and his sister, who were non-observant."
Each tale is its own snowflake!
Says Julie: "My Mother converted from Catholic to Lutheran when she married my Dad. Her mothe
r didn't speak to her for three months and some relatives didn't speak to her for years. This was a really big deal in the early 1950's. She felt guilt for many years and is now a Congregationalist and happy. I tried almost all mainstream Christian churches at one time or another. Raised my kids in a non-denominational church. Now I don't attend church. I read a lot of spiritual books and web sites...My oldest thinks he might be an atheist but hasn't really decided. Of course I try to discourage that."
A good book to break open for Valentine's Day is David Deida's "Finding God Through Sex," with a forward by Ken Wilber. Here's a minute sampling: "Sex can offer an openness that washes your heart wide to God, and yet sex is also where your tightest fears can hold you back."
Ain't it the truth? This book is all about fullness, fearlessness, love, and divinity. Like all of Deida's dynamic works, it will raise a curtain you've unwittingly been keeping over your eyes. In fact, that's been a part of the process for me. I read his stuff, and the curtain rises. I live my life. Then when I pick the book up again, even if it's only one day later, I realize that--whoops--that black curtain has dropped down again for the hundredth time. But then up the curtain rises as I read, and I see new ways to welcome in God's light through intimacy. In short, it's so much easier to be sullen, lonely, and disgrunted. Loving life and your partner with every iota of your being is challenging sometimes, but has rewards beyond rewards.
Deida links spiritual development with sexuality in a way virtually no one else has. He is a founding associate of Integral Institute and has taught and conducted research at the University of California Medical School in San Diego; University of California, Santa Cruz; San Jose State University; Lexington Institute, Boston; and Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. Here's an "Enlightened Sex" CD/cassette course you can get through Sounds True that I know must be fascinating.
In the meantime, here's a morning prayer she recommends that will help you know her work if you haven't studied it:
I am committed to feeling a bond with each person I meet, to respecting my own integrity and honor, to living within the energy of love and compassion and returning to that energy when I don't feel it, to making wise and blessed choices with my will, to maintaining perceptions of wisdom and non-judgment, to release the need to know why things happen as they do, and not to project expectations over how I want this day to be and how I want others to be. And finally, my last prayer, is 'to trust the Divine'. And with that, I bless my day with gratitude and love!
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:52 AM | Permalink |
New to Newsweek's website is an article about Hillary Clinton's religious roots and her lifelong relationship with Rev. Don Jones, a Methodist minister.
Jones describes Hillary's beliefs as falling, like her politics, somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Unlike the extreme left, she understands the limitations of human beings, he says. And unlike the extreme right, he argues, she believes in humanity's potential. She does take seriously the doctrine of original sin. And after a lifetime in politics, she's seen plenty of it.
I'm eating up Dr. Joseph Mercola's emailed healthy living video newsletters. He is certainly a man on a mission. Last week he reported from the beaches of Maui on fish oils and vitamin D. This week, he's standing in a grocery store, revealing just how much corn syrup is in most commercial juice products. Here's a blog post in which he congratulates the lawmakers confronting the claims made by Coca-Cola's new "worthless" green tea drink (it doesn't help you lose weight).
Mercola's passion for whole food, good health, and truth-in-advertising is infectious. Check him out. The criticisms of his work detailed here don't shake my devotion to him.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:34 AM | Permalink |
Hey, this would make a sexy Valentine's Day gift: two two-ounce "Eros" bars of organic, dairy-free Dagoba Chocolate alongside something I've never heard of: a two-ounce "cacao elixir" (flavored with botanical infusions) that dispenses drops of cacao on your tongue to awaken "your passion" (whatever that is). It's all included in the Eros gift bag.
Dagoba, a company I really like for its fair trade philosophy is calling this bundle a "gift of vitality and joy for your loved one!"
You may know that your Grandpa Frank hailed from Missouri, or that your Great Aunt Angie cooked Italian, but do you know your religious genealogy? Have you researched the religious beliefs and development of your forebears?
I'd love to get a good conversation going on this. It is great fun to interview relatives to get the low-down on who was who religiously in your family tree, especially if you yourself have been searching, have converted from one thing to another, or have a partner whose spiritual backdrop differs from yours.
Both my paternal great-grandmothers were Episcopalians in the late 1800s when they married outside their faith. One married a Roman Catholic despite the fact she forever seemed biased against Catholics (typical of a certain elitest segment in America at that time). The other great-grandma married a Presbyterian named after a minister in Scotland. This grandfather went along for the ride, and "yielded to my grandmother on the Episcopalian stuff," says my 92-year-old dad, who has been a great source of family information generally.
In the early 1920s, my paternal grandfather, a journalist, (son of the Episcopalian and the Presbyterian) came down with fullblown tuberculosis, a disease that had no cure at that time. He and my grandmother became Christian Scientists since prayer seemed to offer better hope for his recovery than mainstream medicine. They had five kids. They went on to found a Christian Science elementary school on Macomb Street in Washington D.C. But by 1926, my twelve-year-old father was being taught how to work the household furnace since his father was inevitably going to die. And when he did pass on, my dad's Episcopal grandma, who had money, did little to help support her widowed daughter-in-law, Dad, and his siblings due to the resentment caused by the religious schism, Dad thinks.
He loved his Episcopal grandma and even today doesn't want to speak ill of her. Chances are great she thought Christian Science was hooey. Dad's mother never wavered in her devotion, and later became went on to be a lay healer in Boston, where she moved to be close to the mother church. My father's sister Jane, who never married, edited the Christian Science Monitor's religious testimonials for many years.
When my father (Christian Scientist) met my mother (Southern Baptist), they were united by their disenchantment with the faiths of their past. Once married in the late 1940s, they briefly attended a Dutch Reform church in Greenwich Village where they heard positive thinker Norman Vincent Peale preach five or six times.
My parents eventually found happiness in a suburban Chicago "Union" church, which was mostly comprised of liberal Presbyterians. I sang in the choir there. Then I married someone who was Jewish.
I hope I haven't tired you with my story. Now tell me yours! Even if every relative adhered to the same faith label, chances are great there were wrinkles and variations in how that faith was interpreted. So what's your religious genealogy? Does it makes you YOU?
A contractor for ConEd, the utility company here, called last Friday offering to come to my home and replace all my light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs to assist New York City in its efforts to conserve energy.
"Every bulb in the house?" I asked incredulously.
"Yes, every bulb in the house. And these fluorescent bulbs should last you several years."
"I already use compact fluorescents at the front door, and in our hallways, but I have full spectrum bulbs in all of our lamps."
"Well, we can replace those with compact fluorescent bulbs."
"Fluorescent bulbs aren't good to read by. Studies show that they're bad in schools, bad for your eyes. I'm a believer in full-spectrum light for reading."
"Ma'm. We're doing this to lower the city's chances for brown outs and black outs! This is an energy saving measure that will lower your utility bill. And it's all for free."
"I understand that, and greatly appreciate it. I want to stop global warming. But I'm not sure I want fluorescent light all over my house."
"Well, if you don't like them, you can take them out while we're over there. We're going to be on your block Tuesday. I can fax you the literature."
February 8th is "Nirvana Day," a Mahayana Buddhist festival day in commemoration of the death of the Buddha. Gautama is said to have spoken these last words to his students before expiring at age eighty: “Now, monks, I declare to you, all conditioned things are of a nature to decay. Strive on untiringly!”
The Paranibbana Sutta, which describes the Buddha's last days is often read on Nirvana (or Parinirvana) Day. Says Beliefnet's multifaith religious calendar: "It is a good day to reflect upon one's own future death, and on friends or relations who have recently passed away."
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:09 AM | Permalink |
This article is a must-read. It's about yesterday's report by noted scientists regarding the human role in climate change. Global warming is real.
“It is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent,” said the summary.
Generally, the scientists said, more precipitation will fall at higher latitudes, which are likely also to see lengthened growing seasons, while semi-arid, subtropical regions already chronically beset by drought could see a further 20 percent drop in rainfall under the midrange scenario for increases in the greenhouse gases.
The summary added a new chemical consequence of the buildup of carbon dioxide to the list of mainly climatic and biological impacts foreseen in its previous reports: a drop in the pH of seawater as oceans absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide, which forms carbonic acid when partly dissolved. Marine biologists have said that could imperil some kinds of corals and plankton.
The story she told that most bears repeating is about her old pal John Henry Faulk, who, as a boy of six, went with his seven-year-old friend, Boots Cooper, to "rid the family henhouse of a harmless chicken snake." From its high perch on the wooden shelf, the snake frightened the two kids, who scrambled and clawed each other in their haste to escape. When Falk’s mother later reminded the boys that chicken snakes don't hurt people, Boots Cooper responded, 'Yes, ma’am, but some things will scare you so bad, you’ll hurt yourself.'
What a parable. “Don’t you know, that’s what we do again and again in this country," Ivins loved to say. She felt that Americans too frequently surrender their civil liberties to allay their fears of such menaces as communism, crime, drugs, illegal aliens, and terrorists. "We think we can make ourselves safer by making ourselves less free," Molly said. "I’ll tell you something: When you make yourselves less free, all that happens afterwards is that you’re less free. You are not safer.”
You can quibble with the point she makes politically, but the truth revealed about fear is great. What are you scared of, and is your fear hurting you more than whatever scares you?
posted by Chattering Mind @ 10:07 AM | Permalink |
"...we Americans lack a day that corresponds to the Pagan rites that followed six or so weeks after solstice, halfway to the Spring equinox. Groundhog Day, when Punxsutawney Phil bobs out of his hole to presage the end of winter, has been the closest "tradition we have. As our culture gets farther away from its former familiarity with the groundhog's seasonal habits, the less we truly rely on Phil as a focus of our midwinter hopes and fears.
"The Pagans, of course, have an answer. On Feb. 2, while the rest of us go through the motions of watching Phil, many Pagans celebrate the feast of Imbolc. (Some Wiccan sects celebrate it as early as Jan. 29, while others wait till Feb. 3.) Imbolc is the ancient holiday wherein one forgot winter's doldrums and looked forward to spring and renewal. Irish druids considered Imbolc the "festival of lactating sheep," because this was the time of year when the local livestock had just given birth and were producing the milk of life.
"The Super Bowl is perfectly suited to be our national Imbolc, a midwinter hurrah looking forward to Spring. It has this same tendency to turn toward the sun--the game is always played in destinations we visit on winter vacations--and anticipates the transition of the seasons--the end of the NFL's winter run, with baseball's pitchers and catchers due at spring training a spare few weeks later."
I'm actually adapting my children's upcoming summer camp schedule to account for our reading of Harry Potter. I probably won't be at my desk July 22, 2007, either, the day after the thrilling release of the seventh and last installment.
It was my understanding that Zoloft and Prozac were "smart" antidepressants, drugs that could lift the depressed out of the darkness and in some cases, jumpstart the brain into recognizing happiness. Tall order, I know.
It was also my initial understanding that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were designed for short-term interventions of a few months or few years. But no, now with many Americans on SSRIs for 10, 12, 15 years, people may indeed be realizing that they have been guinea pigs for the pharmaceutical industry. Maybe you can't stay on these meds for your whole lifetime. The latest news:
Daily use of the antidepressant medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) by adults 50 years and older is associated with a doubled risk of some fractures, according to a report in the January 22, 2007 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives.
While this study was done with folks over 50, I think people nearing mid-life who've been on an SSRI for 10 years or more might ask their doctor if they're a candidate for a bone density baseline, and if they should increase their intake of Vitamin D and calcium.
Parabola has always been the most sovereign of the religious/spiritual periodicals. Its distinguished authors and epic themes make it "The New Yorker" of its league. It's always gorgeous.
But its fate sometimes becomes that of the other distinguished mags: It sits around and accumulates dust. In fact, since Parabola has always been as good in two years as it is now, why read it all at once? Why not respectfully place it on the bookshelf (as you would beautiful poetry) and wait until your kids are in high school, you twist your ankle, or you get strep throat? I'm revealing a lot about myself here, I know.
No longer. The editors seem to be trying to more quickly connect to a broader audience. Parabola has recently seemed timely, clever, even fun--without compromising its mandate to cover "tradition, myth, and the search for meaning."
The Winter 2006 issue (still on newsstands but also available at your local library) boasts a photo essay of the homes of great spiritual leaders. See the stone house in Ephesus, Turkey, where the Virgin Mary is said to have been taken by St. John after Jesus's death! See the Ukrainian home of the Baal Shem Tov! See Thomas Merton's bedroom, and the cave dwelling of Hindu mystic Ramana Maharshi and more!
I think you'll find all this delightful, and meaningful too, since each dwelling has a quiet simplicity that will touch your heart.
I don't know about this. It says exposure to tea-tree and lavender oils can change the estrogen levels of young boys, and in rare cases, make their breasts enlarge. My sons have used tea-tree oil shampoos off and on for years--with no adverse effects as far as I can tell. This is enough to keep me from buying more though.
If any more experienced herbalists are reading out there, please post what you know.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 12:09 PM | Permalink |
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