Author Archive

> Suzanne Lafrankie is a talk-radio host on “The Big Talker” 1210AM out of Philadelphia. In full disclosure, I need to say right up front that I wanted her job. Actually, I contacted the producer of the show before 1210 had a woman on the air and suggested the line-up (Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity, etc) could use one. The producer, a woman herself, was dismissive and condescending, telling me I needed more experience and besides, they didn’t need a woman host. Shortly thereafter, Lafrankie was hired.
    I’ve listened to her on a few occasions but, honestly, our view of the world is so different that it’s of little benefit for me to do so regularly. This morning, while listening to another talk-radio program, Lafrankie had a one-minute promo for her show that spoke to the celebration of Thanksgiving.
    I can’t let this one go unnoticed.
    Ms. Lafrankie’s point was that we don’t “owe” the Native Americans any thanks for the holiday, we owe thanks to God. She was explicit in making the point that she did not care that she was being “politically incorrect” by either dismissing the Native Americans or overtly mentioning gratitude to God.
    It’s not the God part that I find misguided…its her dismissal of Native Americans and all they tried to gift us.
    I understand that it was the colonist governor William Bradford who said we should give thanks to God for our bounty and George Washington who made it a national holiday. But to focus on the legalities while ignoring the intent is to miss the point altogether.
    Before we, the descendants of Anglo-Saxon Europeans, arrived in the New World and for some time thereafter, Native Americans were planting and harvesting crops with consciousness while educated European adventurers were sailing the globe…pillaging and destroying the cultures and lands they “discovered.” Each of the Native American tribes had a cultural understanding of and profound respect for all of Nature and Her creatures. It was with gratitude that they planted, with gratitude that they reaped, with gratitude that they hunted, and with gratitude that they consumed. They had an inherent knowing about the connectedness of all things…as well as an appreciation for the part each plays in the overall balance and harmony of our world.
    Beginning with those first explorers and settlers, right through to today’s advanced technological society, we have failed to accept the gift Native Americans tried to pass on and, instead, banished them to a footnote in our minds as well as in our history books.
    Life is a continuum on the way to eternity and, sooner or later, all things come ’round again. So here we are.
    Having raped the land, squandered natural resources, devalued animal life and desecrated the environment all in the name of progress, enlightenment and a more civilized culture, we none-the-less continue to question how this imbalance came to be.
    If I had gotten the job I suggested, instead of Suzanne Lafrankie, the promo for my show this morning would have conveyed a different message, for sure.
    I would have said that Thanksgiving is one day, of a possible 365 days, when we can literally stop the “needing” and the “getting” to express our sincere gratitude for all of the wisdom gifts we have been blessed with and to reflect upon all of the ones we ignored in the name of progress.
    My hope for a Thanksgiving message is that we learn to recognize what matters in the moment, rather than in hindsight. However, because it really is “better late than never”…my heartfelt gratitude to the Native Americans who endured great hardship for shining a light upon the path we were too blind to follow.  
    History cannot be re-written but the Now is full of possibility.

> Last night I watched the Democrat Presidential debate from Las Vegas and listened to CNN’s media commentary immediately following. This morning I am reading media accounts of it and, all told, am convinced that there are at any one time alternate realities operating.
    The choice is ours as to which one we want to participate in.
    CNN’s coverage following the debate included Andersen Cooper, David Gergen and J.C. Watts.  Their astute observations and conclusions can be wrapped up in one sentence: Hilary regained her ground, Obama and Edwards missed an opportunity to stay on the attack, and the first 10 minutes of the debate that were frought with petty infighting were the best.
    This morning, other media analysis follows suit, with the Republicans choosing to stay on the attack of Clinton’s “inconsistent” statements on various issues as they continue to think she is the horse to beat in this race.
    I, on the other hand (or should I say in the other reality) watched a remarkably uplifting and encouraging debate among several intelligent and informed individuals who, after a few minutes of going after one another, gave it up in order to passionately address in as much specificity as time allowed the issues that matter to us…the American people.
    What a change!
    Change is good.
    What the candidates did, led I might say by Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd, was to cut through so much of the “political speak” and parsing of words to talk straight from the heart and shoot straight from the hip, showing us they finally hear that we don’t trust them anymore.
    This is a very good sign.
    Some even threw caution completely to the wind…and it may cost them. Bill Richardson said “Human Rights are more important than national security” which will hurt him and give the Conservative Right Wing glee and fodder for their canons. I suspect that Richardson was trying to say the two were inextricably bound and that without demanding and enforcing human rights at home and abroad we negatively impact our credibility and security. In fact, the other candidates who had time to reflect on the question tried to say something along those lines. But look at Richardson’s courage in bringing human rights to the forefront and giving it the status it deserves. Bravo!
    This was not your usual meaningless, controlled, cautious political debate scripted for mass appeal.
    This was the Democrat Party coming alive again, the party I grew up with and remember. This was the passion and speaking truth to power I want to see in leaders of the 21st century.
    Yes, they’re still not perfect and there’s still a lot of gamesmanship and manipulating of the facts going on. But be assured. Last night the pendulum swung back toward the truth and the momentum shifted.     That momentum is fueled by We The People, and now having moved in a new direction, will not cease it’s path. We The People have demanded quietly, and now more vociferously, that business as usual must go and be replaced with a system and a paradigm that support growth, integrity and human dignity.
    That’s the reality I’m living in and hope you join me here. The media and the Republicans may choose to put a more controlled spin on what occurred last night but I’d advise them to beware.
    We The People are speaking…and they better be listening… because the Democrats are.
    

         >In Bangladesh, 1100 people have died from a cyclone with 600,000 people fleeing from their homes with the possibility of more flooding on the way. Last week extreme weather off the coast of Russia was the cause of 10 ships being sunk, one an oil tanker that spilled 1.5 million gallons of oil. The Southeast United States is in the middle of an historic drought with no end in sight.
    Do we really think that the greatest threat to our continued existence is Al Qaeda or the Taliban?
    While there is no doubt that radical militant groups pose a threat to world peace, there is a less obvious but more important issue that we need to address. It’s the imbalance within Nature and its effect upon the planet.
    I am not saying that humankind’s behavior and seemingly endless appetite for and consumption of natural resources are the direct causes of this imbalance, although a pretty good argument can likely be made for the case that they are. Personally, I think that what we are witnessing is more the natural environment’s reflection of where we’ve allowed ourselves to drift.By drift, I mean the way in which we so willingly abdicated responsibility for our thoughts, words and actions for the past several thousand years. You simply cannot act with disregard for your own integrity while living in denial regarding the connection between that kind of behavior and outcomes.
    Just as I believe we get the leaders we deserve, so too do I believe we get the reality we deserve, or perhaps, the reality we support.
    Among spiritualists, and mystics of all religions, meditation is the practice of going inside yourself to focus upon breath or God or Oneness to reach a higher or broader view. But what happens when the meditation that is practiced daily is constantly putting thoughts upon achieving more…acquiring more…winning at at all cost…having the newest car or the biggest house? This too is practicing a form of meditation. If where you put your thoughts and words and actions for most of your waking hours is upon such things, then this is your meditation and the reality you’re supporting.
    So much of our time and energies in both the West and the East are devoted to acquisition and consumption, or control and conquest, that we have created a “view”…a reality…that is out of balance. Where are the thoughts, words and deeds that bring us together, foster peace, create harmony and teach respect for all forms of life? Where is the balance?
    We are the determining factor in the world in which we live for we have been gifted both the ability to reason as well as free will. When we use these gifts unwisely and create a reality that is out of balance, that mis-creation can be seen in reflection by peering into the natural world.
    Earth is also a living thing and it too requires harmony and balance. Lacking both, it responds by upheaval and with extreme acts such as cyclones, drought and wildly brewing seas.
    Can we learn, now and finally, that we and Nature are partners, arm in arm? That while we may subdue Nature, we may not destroy it…for in the face of its own destruction, it will gather its own forces and by so doing, make Al Qaeda and the Taliban look like child’s play.

>     Most of us were not raised with all of the information that is readily available today. By that I mean the “consciousness” available. Most of us were raised during a time when, for the most part, humankind was in a kind of sleep state from which it is now collectively awakening. In that sleep state, we were not only self-centered and lacking personal responsibility, but also tended to use one of two types of mechanisms to get what we wanted from others…either manipulation or seduction. Neither technique was confined by gender, although seduction will most easily come to mind as used by women to get what they wanted from men. But that’s a cheap and easy out, since advertisers and media have long used the art of seduction (via sexually contrived advertising) to manipulate us into buying what it they’re selling. Manipulation and seduction have been the bedrocks of a materialistically based society and have been the “tools of the trade” of humankind for these millennia.
    The casualties of using manipulation and seduction are truth and intimacy. Rather large prices to pay for short-term satisfaction, wouldn’t you agree? Whether in personal or global relationships, when one feels manipulated or seduced into less than desirable behavior there is a residual feeling that the “other” cannot be trusted. Without trust, intimacy is impossible. And again, intimacy is so much more than sexual intimacy. Intimacy is defined as “a close association with or detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a place, subject, period of history, etc.” Without intimacy it’s impossible to transcend the apparent
differences between individuals and nations in order to reach the higher levels of trust-based exchange and relationship that are needed to create peace. Lack of trust and intimacy breeds fear and sustains separation. the hallmarks of the sleep state in which we have been living.
    The really good news is that we are awakening to a new realization and commitment to a more productive and life affirming way of getting what it is we want. Rather than through manipulation and seduction we are choosing to turn inward and attempt to perfect out own thoughts, words, actions and, ultimately, behavior, to create the world we desire rather than trying to bring it forth through deception.
    The odds are with us now as more and more of us awaken. A structure built on a weak foundation, which is what deception is, must inevitably crumble. However, one built upon an enduring and secure foundation will likely stand the test of Time.
    In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a world of Time and so it would be best to remain conscious and build that which we create in light of it’s, and our, need to endure.

>     During the period between 2002-2004, two Chinese pro-democracy dissidents named Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao used Yahoo’s message boards to post information about China’s persecution of pro-democracy activists. The Chinese government asked Yahoo to provide the IP addresses and e-mail accounts on the postings and Yahoo complied. The two dissidents were arrested and Shi is now spending 10 years in a Chinese dungeon for his views and actions in creating the postings. Yahoo, when asked by Congressional investigators why they provided the information stated that 1) they had to comply with local law and 2) at the time Yahoo turned over the information they did not know the nature of the investigation. It turns out that a later published version of the Chinese government’s request indicated that the basis for the request and the focus of the investigation was clear at the time Yahoo complied.
    Yahoo representatives, it seems, lied to Congress.
    Now there’s a shock. 
    Congressional hearings commenced yesterday on Yahoo’s behavior. Twelve lawyers representing Yahoo prepared one lawyer, Michael Callahan (Yahoo’s Executive V.P. and General Counsel), to testify  before Congress regarding the incident. Mr. Callahan called Yahoo’s failure to honestly admit to what it had known a “misunderstanding” and said it “did not occur” to Yahoo to bring the “new information” to Congress.
    
As a former practicing attorney, I am often proud of the determination
and creativity I periodically see in the practice of law by fellow
lawyers. I am equally perplexed and ashamed by the dishonesty and
stupidity I periodically see as well.
    Let’s take it one Yahoo excuse at a time.
    First, Yahoo said it did not know the nature of the investigation when it turned over the requested information. Since a later disclosure and translation of the request document itself by the human rights group Dui Hua clearly showed this to be untrue, we are faced with the willful and knowing intention by Yahoo executives to lie.
    For profit. Surely that is what this is all about. Yahoo wanted and still wants to be in on the booming Chinese internet market and weighed it’s integrity against it’s bottom line and integrity came up light. Surely there’s enough profit in Yahoo that it did not need to proceed in this way at this time. Or maybe not. Maybe what my dear friend Ruth used to say about human frailty is true: “More is never enough.” If that’s the case, and it’s also the sole motivator for Yahoo’s corporate mission (regardless of what they say the mission is) then we cannot rely on their corporate integrity.
    Secondly, as to Yahoo’s having to “comply with local law”…well, this is where I’d have preferred those thirteen lawyers to have risen to the occasion rather than acquiesced to it. Surely thirteen U.S. educated, bright, legal minds could have used the energy they used to deceive Congress to instead come up with a rationale for the Chinese government as to why they could not have turned over the requested information.
    I think the lesson in all of this is that when we are motivated solely by our wallets without the benefit of guidance from our conscience we find it easy, and justifiable, to stray further and further from what is the highest good for all concerned.
    I used to be in business with a woman whose specialty is in the field of data mining. When this original story broke, she said “Yahoo probably complied with the Chinese government’s request because they wanted to continue to do business in China in the hopes of bringing Western ideas and democracy in through the internet. Shi was a small sacrifice for the higher good.”
    Nice spin…but I don’t think it works that way.   
    I think compromising your integrity on core principles and values is a very slippery slope.  When you justify decisions that make those compromises you just grease the slide.
    Perhaps Yahoo can take a lesson from my personal approach.
    Ever since I married 16 years ago, my husband always tries to suggest a vacation in Jamaica when we’re looking for a place to go. It’s sort of become a little family joke, but it’s none-the-less true. Whenever he mentions Jamaica and how lovely it is and how there’s a beautiful Sandals Resort there…I always respond with “I don’t vacation in a country that  doesn’t have a human rights policy.”
    Now I realize that limits where I will vacation and what I might see in this lifetime. But I like to vote with my wallet.
    Yahoo, are you listening?
    

>    The cholla cactus, indigenous to Southern Arizona, has a bud that when ingested slows the absorption rate of glucose into the bloodstream. One
tablespoon of buds from the cholla cactus has as much calcium as eight ounces of
milk. The buds are rich in soluble fiber that help regulate blood sugar. >The Native American Pima and
Tohono O’odham tribes, also indigenous to the region, suffer from disproportionately high rates of obesity and diabetes due to externally imposed lifestyle changes that occurred around 1940. Now, members of the two tribes are returning to their roots, so to speak, and beginning to use the cactus, Mother Earth’s gift, to treat their health challenges.
    The Native tribes of Southern Arizona are not alone, although they may be an extreme example of what we do to our bodies and our health when we stray too far from Nature. Obesity, for example, is not confined to the Native tribes of Southern Arizona. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has found that between 16-33% of adolescents are obese and, all told, there are an estimated 40 million obese Americans.
    The causes of diabetes and obesity in the general population are not much different than those experienced by the Pima and O’odham. A diet of rich, refined foods high in fat and low in fiber plus a sedentary lifestyle brought on by technological advances are, literally, a deadly combination. To date, our response to this has been to medicate the symptoms with even sometimes deadlier prescription drugs rather than address the “root causes.”
    One could hypothesize, with a little humor, that the best treatment for root causes is roots! That is, after all, the wisdom that the Native Americans of Southern Arizona are about to access. It’s a wise approach that should be acknowledged worldwide.
    Nature, in the form of Earth and all Her bounty, likely provides us gratuitously with cures for what ails us. The only condition seems to be that we live in harmony with Earth…recognizing our interdependence with all things Natural. Given our abysmal record in this regard, it’s no wonder we have strayed so far, become so stressed, and, oh yes, gotten obese, diabetic and cancer riddled along the way.
    The Earth’s rain forest, with only 250,000 of it’s plant life cataloged and an estimated 1,000,000 yet to be completed, has provided us with 1 in 4 of the medicines used worldwide. Tropical forest regions alone have provided over 2000 plants with anti-cancer properties.
    What I find so amazing, and compassionate, is that Earth continues to hold and relinquish to us the cure for what ails us, despite the fact that we have created the dis-eases…and continue, daily, to heap pollutants upon Her surface and contaminate Her air and water with abandon.
    The Native Americans of Southern Arizona are now embarking upon remembering what was once common knowledge and common practice to their culture. Earth is our ally and benefactor. If we treat her with the respect She deserves, She will in turn sustain us in a healthy and life-supporting manner.
    I’d say a good step in that direction might be to forgo the Big Mac and episode of “24” and instead…fry up a little cholla, olive oil and garlic then go outside for a walk…and if you see someone desecrating the Earth, offer to share your cholla.

      >  Today’s the day we move our clocks back one hour for the change from Daylight Savings Time to Eastern Standard Time. Well, this year it’s the day. In previous years, it was traditionally the last weekend of October. However, in an effort to conserve energy, the federal government made the decision a year or two ago to move the setback to the first weekend in November.
    Which makes me ask two questions: “What is time” and “How important is it anyway?”
    Time and I have always had a somewhat different relationship. Because my intuitive sense was highly developed as early as childhood, I often “knew” or dreamed events “before” they seemingly happened. When asked how I was able to do that, my intuitive answer was “I get the information from a place in which there is no Time.” I don’t know where or how I came up with that response, but it seemed logical enough to me. If I had prior knowledge of an event that had not yet occurred, that information must exist somewhere outside of Time as we understand it.
    We all have a tendency to live either in our memories or in our projections for the future. Few of us master the art of living in the Present…the Now. The beauty of the Now is that when you are in it, there is no Time. Actually, it’s more accurate to say there is no need for Time in the Now. Living in the Now requires only that you be fully engaged in the moment. When that moment is complete, you simply move on to being fully engaged in the next moment, which then becomes the Now…and so on.
    It is interesting that we use the phrase “spend time” as if it were currency possessing an inherent value. What we are really saying is that we comprehend the preciousness of the time we spend in our bodies here on Earth. Yet, tacitly acknowledging that preciousness, we pretty much devalue or ignore the greatest power that we have, which is how we choose to be and what we choose to do in the Present.
    Last night, as I was spending the extra hour of the clock setback to watch a DVD of the former “Friends” sitcom, I noticed a photo of our daughter next to the TV. Today she is 14, but in that photo she was 4 years old. When I got into bed I remarked to my husband that I could hardly believe the tiny little toddler was now this blossoming young woman. His reply was “Yes, it really does go by in the blink of an eye.”
    Well, it does. So knowing that, it makes infinitely more sense to spend it wisely than squander it recklessly.
    I watch virtually no television and I’m on the computer almost exclusively for business. But when I think about the value of living in the Now, I wonder how many of us would take the opportunity, if offered, on the last day of our lives to exchange all the Time we spent watching TV or at the computer for the chance to live that much more time in our bodies? To have all those “Nows” back to spend more wisely.
    In Judaism, the observance of the Sabbath is a key component to spiritual life. If you’ve ever done it, it’s rather remarkable. The premise is that the Sabbath is a piece of Eternity…a stepping out of Time, and therefore a removal of oneself, away from all things material. To gloriously dwell for “24 hours” in the Now. It’s an indescribable feeling. Colors are brighter, sound is clearer, everything is more alive. Rather than the deadening of our senses that we experience when interacting with technology, to the contrary, our senses are heightened…as is an appreciation for what is inherently priceless in the moment of Now.
    Today, Daylight Savings Time begins. Perhaps it’s wise to think not about saving Time but instead investing it more wisely by releasing both past and future, and fully engaging the power of Now.

>    Writing to my blog 5 days a week, I like to publish each day’s entry between 6-7 A.M. It’s 10 A.M. and I’m just beginning to write this so it has me thinking about the concept of time; how we perceive it and how we respond to it.
    Recently I read that the human brain can process 24 “flickers” a minute. A “flicker” is the rate at which independent images or occurrences are registered by the brain. Once you get beyond 24 flickers per second…well, that’s how movies are made. Today, by way of electronics and quantum physics, we have reached a point where computer chips pass on information at a rate of 100 GHz per second! A “hertz” is a unit of measurement, a frequency, at which energy is transmitted. One MHz is 10 to the 6th power. 2 MHz would be 100 million pieces of data per second. One GHz is 10 to the 9th power. It’s quite literally mind-boggling…incomprehensible to the human brain.
    How does all this speed impact our everyday lives? It’s the source of most of the stress and illness we experience. The stress comes from our efforts to keep pace with the technology. The illness comes from that plus, our almost complete removal from Nature…from all things “natural.” If you have any doubt about it, just head outside and take a walk in a park or wooded area the next time you’re about to scream at work. The calming effect of removing yourself from the rate of speed, the frequency, of the technological pace of things is immediate and undeniable.                    
    But I digress. Let’s get back to this blog entry and the pressure I was feeling for “running late.”
    Actually, I’ve been running late most of my life. I went to college at age 24 and graduated at 27. I went to law school at 33 and graduated at 37. I married at 41 and we adopted a child when I was 45. At age 54 I stopped practicing law and went in search of a new career. Still searching, although the search created the room for me to realize that I’m a writer and so…here we are…in the Now…right on time.
    Each of us has our own timetable for living our lives. While I know there are people who actually sit down and make “5 and 10 year plans” for their future…as the saying goes, “we plan and God laughs.”  Life has a way of delivering opportunities and challenges that open doors and create obstacles unimagined by those who plan. So, from my experience, it’s best to live life fully in the Now, which more times than not means adjusting to what’s presented…which is more often than not…the unintended. It’s really how we get to live our creativity through adaptability.
    Besides, Einstein taught us that time is relative. So, relatively speaking, this blog is right on time and so is the rest of life.
    The next time you’re feeling stressed, take a walk outside, come back in, re-read this blog, then attend to whatever is in front of you at the moment. Let go of the rest of it. Assuming you’d want to…you couldn’t wrap your brain around it anyway.
    I can assue you, your life will turn out just fine and, oh yes, on time.