There was only one patient in the waiting room. “Shalom, Dr. Goldstein,” was what I heard. I answered in the only possible way. “Shalom.” It means “peace” in Hebrew, and is a traditional greeting.
She was excited to have a doctor with a name like “Goldstein” who might actually be Jewish. She was a Jew from the east coast who had landed in the semi-rural place where I found myself; no synagogue, no Jewish community, “only a couple of Messianics.” These are Jews who consider themselves “completed” having “added” Christ on to their belief system. I am not, and won’t be, one of them. This woman wanted a “Jewish word” so badly that she took my hand. She also wanted at least three prescriptions, one of which would be for Xanax (alprazolam), the most addictive of the benzodiazepines. She had run out several weeks ago. No wonder she looked so nervous. I told her I used to be a cantorial soloist — someone filling the role of a cantor (which is a formal title of the temple choir leader, the singer of liturgical solos and who also leads the congregation in prayer). So, yeah, I really was Jewish. Read more on Shalom In The Waiting Room…
Filed under Religion by on Sep 27th, 2010. Comment. 
I actually worked in Palmdale, California, once upon a time. I remember my final day on the job, my husband took a photo of me leaving the front door of the county mental health clinic, looking thoroughly jubilant.
Why is this woman smiling? Let’s just say, “Relief.” In all of Los Angeles County it is the place where one can live cheapest. It is the farthest settlement from the metropolis. In fact it’s actually closer to Bakersfield, which is in the next county. Not quite rural, but one of the several patients who had left the congestion of downtown Los Angeles for Palmdale told me that at least you could breathe the air in Palmdale. It was also a place where exchanging sexual favors for rent in a trailer park was not uncommon. It was also a place where local TV pickings were slim enough that I was actually on television. Not as a physician, mind you, but singing the songs of Edith Piaf. In those days before “American Idol” they broadcast from the local karaoke bar on a weekly basis. The night I was there, the special guest star was the fellow who played harmonica on the hit record “Moon River” forty years earlier and had been a bit-part actor in movies such as “The Wild One” with Marlon Brando. He had fallen on hard times – he dressed like a homeless person and used a length of rope as a belt for his pants.
That’s my impression of Palmdale. Read more on Cults Are Still Around, So Watch Out…
Filed under End Of Life, News, Religion by on Sep 22nd, 2010. Comment.
September 11, 2010 has come and gone and – surprisingly — no new war started nor has the planet been annihilated. It really looked touch-and-go there for the previous week.
We have probably already forgotten about the events of this day, nine years after the most cataclysmic terrorist attack in US history. We are mainly thankful that nothing like it has happened since.
By now, I suppose those of us who still believe in print media are using the September 11th, 2010 edition of our favorite newspaper to line the bottoms of bird cages or litter boxes or whatever. It seemed that this year, we were very, very close to something very, very bad happening. We were literally on the brink of internecine warfare that could easily have destroyed the earth. Read more on Surviving 9-11 — Again!…
Filed under News, Religion by on Sep 20th, 2010. Comment.
I won’t even begin to start a list of the towns and cities, as it would take me too long to just remember them — much less write them down.
And with each place I’ve lived, I eventually start thinking that it is the most corrupt place I’ve ever seen — until I move to the next place.
It’s not news any more, really. From the White House through the Legislature and the state governors down to the mayors and city council and even the dog catchers (do places really have elections for dog catchers?) power corrupts and money flows to the corrupt politician. Read more on Political Ugliness and More About That Mosque…
Filed under politics, Religion by on Sep 6th, 2010. Comment.
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 more on America: The Most Religious Country In The World…
Filed under Religion by on Sep 1st, 2010. Comment.
There seems to be a massive controversy about building a mosque near the site of the destroyed World Trade Center in New York City. This is bothering people so much that somebody has asked the president to say something.
Well of course the man said something. And of course his words were “measured.” People seem to have forgotten that the country was founded on religious freedom. This bit about the Founding Fathers (and mothers — yes they did as much as they could) intending the USA being only for Christians is pretty much rubbish.
Was George Washington a Christian? Thomas Jefferson wrote in his private journal, Feb. 1800 — “Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself.” Read more on Politics, Religion and Sports: Forbidden Topics…
Filed under politics, Religion by on Aug 23rd, 2010. Comment.
I heaved a sigh, realizing I was going to relive a scenario I had lived too many times. I would take too much time, I would be behind my schedule, but I was going to do this thing. I was going to figure out why he had gone off his medication. Frankly, I did not think anyone else could or would take the time, so I would do it.
He was a schizophrenic who had been without medication, maybe a month or so. He had come in wanting some because his misery was indescribable. He could barely speak and he had a downcast gaze, fixed at his toes and the floor. He sat stiffly in a chair. I slithered down on the floor, on my back, and tried to insinuate my eyes into his line of gaze. He screamed. “You are too strong. You are going to annihilate me.” I could only answer “sorry” and get back to my seat. He started saying a lot of things about the importance of being Christian and following Christianity. It did not matter what I knew or thought I knew about Christianity. It only mattered that I could fit into whatever he thought Christianity was, right or wrong. I could make little sense of his thoughts. I have a standard way of dealing with this.
“Look,” I said, “I am not Christian and I am not going to pretend to be Christian.” I am a Jewish lady psychiatrist, I am fully qualified and licensed in the state of California. I am also a full blooded descendant of the House of David. If you think that the God you believe in is able to work through me, then I am going to help you the best I can. If you do not believe that God can work through me, and you want a Christian doctor or some other doctor, we will try to figure out what you need and get you to the right person.”
Read more on Neglect Based On Religious Belief…
Filed under Religion by on Jun 1st, 2010. Comment.
I have sat silent for a long time, waiting for the news to come in from Fort Hood, waiting for people to understand and explain. Now, I have read and seen enough that I think I understand.
As always, my own life and experiences have been so rich and so diverse that I have an overwhelming memory or vision.
It was a California state prison; I have worked in a few. Religion was always especially popular within the prisons where I worked. I assumed, as did the mental health personnel in general, that it was because inmates felt so dehumanized and downtrodden that they could be expected to grasp onto anything that made them feel good. We knew and understood this.
I certainly maintained friendly associations with all chaplains. I considered them a bit idealistic, a bit naive, but I also considered myself that way. And in that feeling, that belief, that “give them the extra mile” feeling, I got some peace.
Still, I remember the day I was scared. I rarely ventured into the areas of religious worship, but once, just once, I happened to be out crossing the yard during one of the five daily times of Muslim prayer. I could not count the number of inmates, as they covered the yard.
Filed under Religion by on Nov 30th, 2009. 2 Comments.