This one is not about politics...well maybe indirectly. You decide.
There is a fascinating interview in the November issue of The Sun with child and adolescent psychologist and neuroscientist Bruce Perry. It's entitled, "The Long Shadow: Bruce Perry on the Lingering Effects of Childhood Trauma." I recommend it highly for its thoughtful insights into how childhood experiences of trauma affect our adult responses to stress.
The interview with Perry concludes this way:
"Perry: Fear is the most common reason our brain shuts down, but exhaustion, hunger, and thirst have a similar effect. If you're tired and poor, you're less able to think about the future of humankind. It's hard to be reflective if you don't know where your child's next meal is coming from. Your brain says, Get food first. If you can't find a safe place to raise your children, then reflection and learning probably seem like indulgences you can't afford. This isn't about biology or genetics. It's about the relative health and richness of our relationships and environment.
"Busyness can also shut down our higher reasoning–being overscheduled and living in an overstimulating environment, the TV always on, the phone buzzing, loud cars driving by.
"(Interviewer Jeanne) Supin: If Headline News is perpetually on, you may think it's making you smarter...
"Perry: But basically it's making you dumber. It's continually bombarding you and distracting you from thinking. You're unable to reflect on what you're hearing, and you end up believing anything you are told on TV. This is compounded when news stories are emotionally charged. Just hearing a story delivered in a more emotional tone of voice or with an intense image will hinder our ability to absorb and reflect on that information. It's the reflective part of the brain that helps us heal. It's the part that makes us most human."
I can think of many questions and issues in response to this exchange, some political, some not. What about you? How does it strike you?
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
What to do about news that doesn't fit
Why did President-elect Trump tweet petty and annoying comments about the New York Times a couple of days ago? Seems like a waste of his time. Doesn't Mr. Trump have more important things to do?
Well, maybe not. Perhaps he is about to go after the press with all the power he can amass to his new office. Now that he has chosen Breitbart guru Stephen Bannon, who captained his campaign to success, as his new “Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor,” his purpose in continuing to belittle the Times may be clear. That's sad. And dangerous.
Competent U.S. Presidents do their job to the best of their ability, and learn to live with the consequences of a free press. Anything less is petty and annoying. And dangerous. And sad.
Of course, there's also the possibility Mr. Trump chose Bannon because of Breitbart's views on race, nationalism, immigration, etc...because he, our President-elect, approves of those views and hopes to further them and make them mainstream. Now those busy in Trump Tower are scrambling to deny that possibility. The evidence is stacked against them.
Besides, the Klan is celebrating Stephen Bannon being seated at the right hand of Donald the President Almighty, just the way it celebrated Donald Trump's election. Hardly need to have any other reason that they are the wrong choices for America.
A.Word.A. Day’s word for Monday was kakistocracy: "Government by the least qualified or worst persons." Yep, it's one to learn.
Well, maybe not. Perhaps he is about to go after the press with all the power he can amass to his new office. Now that he has chosen Breitbart guru Stephen Bannon, who captained his campaign to success, as his new “Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor,” his purpose in continuing to belittle the Times may be clear. That's sad. And dangerous.
Competent U.S. Presidents do their job to the best of their ability, and learn to live with the consequences of a free press. Anything less is petty and annoying. And dangerous. And sad.
Of course, there's also the possibility Mr. Trump chose Bannon because of Breitbart's views on race, nationalism, immigration, etc...because he, our President-elect, approves of those views and hopes to further them and make them mainstream. Now those busy in Trump Tower are scrambling to deny that possibility. The evidence is stacked against them.
Besides, the Klan is celebrating Stephen Bannon being seated at the right hand of Donald the President Almighty, just the way it celebrated Donald Trump's election. Hardly need to have any other reason that they are the wrong choices for America.
A.Word.A. Day’s word for Monday was kakistocracy: "Government by the least qualified or worst persons." Yep, it's one to learn.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
My thoughts and hopes on this November Sunday
O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on Thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm they soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
Katherine Lee Bates, 1893
For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on Thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm they soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
Katherine Lee Bates, 1893
Saturday, November 12, 2016
The mainstream media is afraid to report THIS!!! (Which alone makes it TRUE!!!)
Where's the outrage?
I heard the President-elect is forming a transition team of political cronies and family members.
Where's the social media outrage?
These family members will be responsible for the new President's ongoing financial interests after January 20–conflicts of interest, here we come!
Why is there no outrage in the streets?
I see the President-elect is already modifying some of the campaign promises.
Where's the non-mainstream media's outrage?
And now the President-elect wants that legal action put off until after the inauguration...just too busy now. Yeh, right!
I am outraged!!! I knew she'd do all of that, and more!!!
(What? The President-elect isn't she?)
Where IS the outrage?
I heard the President-elect is forming a transition team of political cronies and family members.
Where's the social media outrage?
These family members will be responsible for the new President's ongoing financial interests after January 20–conflicts of interest, here we come!
Why is there no outrage in the streets?
I see the President-elect is already modifying some of the campaign promises.
Where's the non-mainstream media's outrage?
And now the President-elect wants that legal action put off until after the inauguration...just too busy now. Yeh, right!
I am outraged!!! I knew she'd do all of that, and more!!!
(What? The President-elect isn't she?)
Where IS the outrage?
Thursday, November 10, 2016
After the Dark
November's cold rain fell in northeast Ohio around 2:30 Wednesday morning when I checked my phone and confirmed what I'd feared when I'd gone to bed at 1:00: Donald Trump was our President-elect.
The cold rain continued into the dawn, which was lost in clouds. Apparently resisting President Obama's optimistic prediction, the sun did not seem to rise around here the morning after the election.
My family and most of my friends are devastated. Mr. Trump and his ilk stand against almost everything we believe and hold true, beginning with the most basic respect for women.
Maybe I didn't do enough to stop him and to assure Hillary Clinton's election. Maybe guilt is part of the reason I feel devastated. I expressed my opinions in this blog, and in numerous encounters via Facebook. I talked with friends when I was comfortable doing so, but confess I often avoided confrontations. I refused invitations to canvass door-to-door, in part because I harbored some misgivings about Mrs. Clinton and did not feel I could live up to the expectations of those who'd want me to defend her. But maybe I should have put myself outside my comfort zone for the sake of the greater good. Anyway, I probably shirked my responsibilities as a citizen, and now I regret it, even knowing that more activity on my part would not likely have changed the outcome.
Some Facebook friends whom I am quite sure voted for Mr. Trump are now advising those of us who are continuing to lament his election to accept the results and stop talking about it on Facebook (or anywhere else, I suppose). This, after they have been stuffing my feed with anti-Clinton and anti-Obama trash talk for months, much of which has attracted the most vile of responses from haters and racists.
Several years ago I served a church that was deeply divided. The people who held the power there kept asserting their right to that power and suggesting that the dissenters should accept the status quo and "be reconciled" to them. By which they meant, Get over it. See things our way.
The dissenters didn't do as they were told, and most of them finally ended up leaving that church.
I cannot and will not leave this country. My father's family came here in the middle of the 18th century, and my mother's immigrated in the early 20th. This is my homeland.
And Donald Trump will be my president. I am not a he's "not my president" guy. If he's "not my president" he doesn't have to pay attention to me. He will be my President, and our President, and we who cannot accept his vision of our nation need to keep his feet to our fire.
The sun is shining over Orange Village this Thursday morning. Darkness will not prevail. Let's make sure of that.
The cold rain continued into the dawn, which was lost in clouds. Apparently resisting President Obama's optimistic prediction, the sun did not seem to rise around here the morning after the election.
My family and most of my friends are devastated. Mr. Trump and his ilk stand against almost everything we believe and hold true, beginning with the most basic respect for women.
Maybe I didn't do enough to stop him and to assure Hillary Clinton's election. Maybe guilt is part of the reason I feel devastated. I expressed my opinions in this blog, and in numerous encounters via Facebook. I talked with friends when I was comfortable doing so, but confess I often avoided confrontations. I refused invitations to canvass door-to-door, in part because I harbored some misgivings about Mrs. Clinton and did not feel I could live up to the expectations of those who'd want me to defend her. But maybe I should have put myself outside my comfort zone for the sake of the greater good. Anyway, I probably shirked my responsibilities as a citizen, and now I regret it, even knowing that more activity on my part would not likely have changed the outcome.
Some Facebook friends whom I am quite sure voted for Mr. Trump are now advising those of us who are continuing to lament his election to accept the results and stop talking about it on Facebook (or anywhere else, I suppose). This, after they have been stuffing my feed with anti-Clinton and anti-Obama trash talk for months, much of which has attracted the most vile of responses from haters and racists.
Several years ago I served a church that was deeply divided. The people who held the power there kept asserting their right to that power and suggesting that the dissenters should accept the status quo and "be reconciled" to them. By which they meant, Get over it. See things our way.
The dissenters didn't do as they were told, and most of them finally ended up leaving that church.
I cannot and will not leave this country. My father's family came here in the middle of the 18th century, and my mother's immigrated in the early 20th. This is my homeland.
And Donald Trump will be my president. I am not a he's "not my president" guy. If he's "not my president" he doesn't have to pay attention to me. He will be my President, and our President, and we who cannot accept his vision of our nation need to keep his feet to our fire.
The sun is shining over Orange Village this Thursday morning. Darkness will not prevail. Let's make sure of that.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Final Election Recommendation
I have been thinking for the past few days about what to write that might, just might, convince someone to vote the way I think they should next Tuesday. This election is so important, I guess I think my preferences are important, too.
Then I wondered what new I have to add, and who I will convince anyway to change their mind. Probably no one, and don't we have enough partisan pushing and pulling around us as it is?
Tonight I attended (actually sang in the choir at) the Evensong service at Christ Episcopal Church in Shaker Heights. The service celebrated the "Feast of Richard Hooker," of whom I am ashamed to say I knew nothing. Turns out he was one of the seminal thinkers and theologians of the Anglican movement. According to Fr. Peter Faass, his great contribution was to describe a middle way by which the waring religious factions during the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth could work to resolve their differences. His ability to define that middle way and the willingness, even if reluctant, of competing powers to allow the middle way's process to guide their deliberations brought a new unity to England, and set the stage for England to become the greatest power in the world for the next several centuries. The homily made the obvious move to the current political situation in our country, and urged us all to seek a middle way of dealing with our differences.
In one of our prayers tonight we prayed, "Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of the truth." I am not sure how to understand that exactly. "Comprehension" could refer to being complete ("comprehensive") or to understanding ("comprehend"). But either way, it results in truth. In other words, we seek a middle way not for peace alone, but in order to be complete, and to completely understand. Partisanship dares neither see the whole picture nor to understand it.
People at odds with each other work together because something greater than their own convictions and commitments compels them to seek mutual understanding with their adversaries. They fight for what they believe, but they never close the door on their opponents or stop listening to them. Out of that mutual understanding there may, in time, arise a new truth neither side could see before they tried the middle way. And that new truth can be the basis for new kinds of greatness.
I won't tell you again who to vote for. Not now. It's time, I feel, to start looking forward to what we Americans can and will do together beginning, I trust, next Wednesday morning. Hope for it, work for it, if it be your way pray for it. It's the most promising way ahead for the homeland we share.
Then I wondered what new I have to add, and who I will convince anyway to change their mind. Probably no one, and don't we have enough partisan pushing and pulling around us as it is?
Tonight I attended (actually sang in the choir at) the Evensong service at Christ Episcopal Church in Shaker Heights. The service celebrated the "Feast of Richard Hooker," of whom I am ashamed to say I knew nothing. Turns out he was one of the seminal thinkers and theologians of the Anglican movement. According to Fr. Peter Faass, his great contribution was to describe a middle way by which the waring religious factions during the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth could work to resolve their differences. His ability to define that middle way and the willingness, even if reluctant, of competing powers to allow the middle way's process to guide their deliberations brought a new unity to England, and set the stage for England to become the greatest power in the world for the next several centuries. The homily made the obvious move to the current political situation in our country, and urged us all to seek a middle way of dealing with our differences.
In one of our prayers tonight we prayed, "Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of the truth." I am not sure how to understand that exactly. "Comprehension" could refer to being complete ("comprehensive") or to understanding ("comprehend"). But either way, it results in truth. In other words, we seek a middle way not for peace alone, but in order to be complete, and to completely understand. Partisanship dares neither see the whole picture nor to understand it.
People at odds with each other work together because something greater than their own convictions and commitments compels them to seek mutual understanding with their adversaries. They fight for what they believe, but they never close the door on their opponents or stop listening to them. Out of that mutual understanding there may, in time, arise a new truth neither side could see before they tried the middle way. And that new truth can be the basis for new kinds of greatness.
I won't tell you again who to vote for. Not now. It's time, I feel, to start looking forward to what we Americans can and will do together beginning, I trust, next Wednesday morning. Hope for it, work for it, if it be your way pray for it. It's the most promising way ahead for the homeland we share.
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