I often observe — mostly with wonder and astonishment — that the US must be the most religious country in the world.  Religion is not as strictly enforced as in, say, the Islamic countries.  But it has permeated so many facets of our life, and so many people (according to actual polls)  believe in God or a deity, the afterlife or heaven, punishment or hell and such parallel beliefs as angels among us, that we are constantly bombarded by religion or a reaction against religion as we go about our daily business. Speaking of which — while travelling recently, I read the USA Today which I found either at the hotel front desk or on some communal table in front of the breakfast bar.

That is where I found an editorial about religion, purporting to explain why religion was necessary. I mean, the author — Oliver Thomas – thinks religion is as essential to life as oxygen and water. I was raised in the Jewish religion and spent a lot of time in temple, as my father was organist and choir director all of his adult life.  The only socializing my family did was at the temple, with breakfasts and holy day observances and things like that. I have always believed in a deity myself, not specifically in the way that the organized religions present it (as if to three-year-olds) and still have my own private rituals of prayer and meditation. That being said, this editorial disturbed me. Instead of ripping up the paper or making any attempt to answer it, I put it somewhere on the floor of the car hoping it would go away, but knowing that I would eventually have to deal with it in some manner. A lot of people seem to think that everything is in the world to support what they already believe.  Thomas, the author, is way far out — past the people who, for example, read Ford advertisements after they buy a Ford to prove to themselves that they have made the right decision. Thomas, a member of the USA Today board of contributors (I guess you have to be able to write enough to fill their quota of space) and author of a book titled “10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can’t Because He Needs the Job)” writes an editorial that asks an intriguing question, but does not answer that question or prove what he contends. Read the rest of this entry »

My husband and I went to the movies yesterday.  We are not excited by hype or first run or being the first on our block to see or do anything. So we went to a second-run movie and saw the third in the “Shrek” series.  Now the story was fine and the animation was impeccable.  But me, being me, I always look for the “meta-message” in movies.  What “message,” what lesson are the children (and adults) who sit through this movie getting pumped into their subconscious mind? I am assuming we are talking about the subconscious mind, since I have never heard other people talk very much spontaneously about this issue, which to me is a very fascinating one. First, a little about Shrek III for those adults and children who may have missed it.

Shrek is bored with the non-ogre like life as a father of a family with Fiona, his own true love.  So much so that he signs a pact with Rumpelstiltskin – who seems to have purchased the embodiment of evil franchise from Satan.  This launches him into a plot that is essentially the same as Jimmy Stewart in “It’s A Wonderful Life” (and if you’ve never seen that movie, just wait until Christmas season and it will be on every TV channel night and day for a month). Read the rest of this entry »

Tinkerbell has come a long way from the light reflected with a mirror in the original J.M. Barrie play of Peter Pan, back in 1904 — l argely through being part of the Disney stable of ideals for young girls. I remember, even though I have always been a lover of personal expression through the visual arts, being asked, as early as the second or third grade, to draw a princess. 

Huh?  Read the rest of this entry »

Of all the trials and tribulations we can suffer in life, none is so devastating as the loss of a loved one.

Unfortunately, we will all eventually suffer such a great loss and the grief that it brings.

Believe it or not, a properly trained professional can help minimize the grief and help those sufferers to cope. Much of this horrible experience can be truncated, if not removed, by people who know what they are doing.

But it seems that most people don’t believe this, and some people will never learn. Read the rest of this entry »

“Innovative Health Care Programs?”

This seems to be the era of backwards-definitions.  “No Child Left Behind” means a diminished budget and fewer programs for child education. “Compassionate Conservatism” means cutting programs for the unemployed, the medical indigent and the hungry. “Strategic Defense” means a full-speed-ahead attack.

The “Innovative Programs” article talks about are mostly supplied by The Greenfield group, where improved medical care is provided if people  fork in some cash to get it.  Also “Harvard Vanguard,” who loves to be the first to do things.

Since there is nothing but Harvard hospitals on the reality TV show  Boston Med, I wonder if the Harvard Public relations people have descended to some all-invasive biological state, to infiltrate all media, and to try to get us to believe that they do things medically and surgically that are more advanced than other providers.  Read the rest of this entry »

I guess the death of Anna Nicole Smith has become old news.  All I found in the daily newspaper was a short item saying that the trial was going on in Los Angeles.

After more than one internet search, the only mention I found of what is going on online is this one, in what seems to be a Seattle tabloid.

I strongly suspect that this is a road that has been travelled more than I know.  After all, I am not exactly a celebrity watcher. Nevertheless, from what we already know about folks like Michael Jackson, and from what Dr. Nathalie Maullin seems to have said under oath, I think we have a pretty good idea of what it is like to be a drug-seeking celebrity.

First, I think it worth noting that Dr. Maullin was on staff at Cedars-Sinai at the time. Now putting aside the PR of the latter (it is allegedly the best in L.A.; they have ads and some top notch publicity firm–) Cedars Sinai is a hospital.  I can testify that to be on staff at any clinic or hospital, they do a background check. Read the rest of this entry »

I — and everybody — seems to enjoy it when neurochemical research links the seemingly distant mysteries of the brain to real everyday behavior, to feel-good acts, and such.

I am not sure that it is the stuff people should spend their whole careers on.  But a single association  between neurochemistry and holding hands has been enough for a previous posting.

Now the association between feelings of gratitude and lowered cortisol has delighted me so there is a smile on my face. I guess this is because it validates some of the pure observation from life kind of anecdotal advice that my grandmother of blessed memory would come up with.  Things like “Roughage is good for you,” which later became “eat
fiber.”

The idea that gratitude is good for brain chemistry is so delightful and potentially validating for otherwise not too tough to validate behavior, that it has been joyously co-opted by coaches.  They are an entrepreneurial lot who never bother with footnotes, not any more than they do with credentials.  I mean, there is no regulation known to me about using the nomenclature “coach.”  But on the other hand, they build careers and get paid with the results of their ministrations, a situation which I believe would send a fair amount of physicians to the poorhouse. Read the rest of this entry »