Burger

https://www.foxvalleyfoodie.com/make-burger-patties-exceptionally-tender/

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

 ― George Orwell 

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ”
― George Orwell

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
― George Orwell 

 

“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
― George Orwell, 1984  

Secret Swim Spot

Today at noon we went east west on the shaded path to the culvert near the island. Romeo swam after the stick. It's a fabulous swim spot. Romeo seems to be much more buoyant!

We Can't Choose

"You can't choose your family," she said lifting the barbell while standing waist high in the turquoise water.

"I'm beginning to think you can't choose anyone," I said. "I had a good friend, she was funny and brilliant. I admired so much but as it turns out she was more interested in class and social status than all of the things I admired about her."

holding their breath underwater

“We stand there, quiet. My questions all seem wrong: How did you get so old? Was it all at once, in a day, or did you peter out bit by bit? When did you stop having parties? Did everyone else get old too, or was it just you? Are other people still here, hiding in the palm trees or holding their breath underwater? When did you last swim your laps? Do your bones hurt? Did you know this was coming and hide that you knew, or did it ambush you from behind?”
― Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Community

I need a community to help me understand what’s working and what isn’t, and I really encourage people to try to find that.

Jennifer Egan

The Positive Impact of Physical Fitness on Emotional Fitness

The Positive Impact of Physical Fitness on Emotional Fitness

By Dr. Brooke R. Envick and Rick Martinez

May 25, 2010

CrossFitters Dr. Brooke Envick and Rick Martinez create a study designed to test whether physical fitness can improve your emotional fitness.

Health-science experts claim that the combination of proper nutrition with physical exercise will improve your emotional well-being. In other words, improved physical fitness can lead to improved emotional fitness.

Emotional fitness is defined as the state wherein the mind is capable of staying away from negative thoughts and can focus on creative and constructive tasks. Being emotionally fit is the key to success in all aspects of life. Negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, sadness and distress can prevent success and drain the energy needed to be productive in your daily routine and activities.

It stands to reason that improving your physical fitness can make you a happier and more productive person, not only in the gym but also in everyday life. We decided to see for ourselves by conducting a study with our own members at Alamo CrossFit, owned and operated by Rick Martinez. As such, the subjects were CrossFitters with varying experience levels rather than average people who had never experienced the program, but we wanted to see the results of the study and decide what, if anything, we could conclude.

10 Foods that Boost Mental Health

 10 Foods that Boost Mental Health

By October Boyles, MSN, BSN, RN | April 4, 2018 | 1

When planning out a healthy diet, it’s common to focus on foods geared toward weight loss. While smart caloric intake is vital to overall health, it’s also important to understand how food choices affect your brain. By integrating many of the foods on this list into your diet, not only will you see positive results in your waistline, but you’ll also improve brain function — and potentially help fight cognitive diseases as well.

1. Salmon

While fish, in general, is a healthy choice, salmon is at the top of the list. It’s a “fatty” fish, containing high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked to a reduction in mental disorders such as depression. Omega-3s have been shown to boost learning and memory as well.

Salmon also has a naturally high-occurring amount of vitamin D, which is often added to foods and has been linked to lower rates of depression. Other types of fish with high Omega-3 counts include tuna, mackerel, and herring.

2. Chicken

Chicken, like turkey, is a delicious lean-protein choice containing the amino acid tryptophan. Though it’s often associated with post-Thanksgiving naps, this substance doesn’t actually knock you out as urban legends go, but it does help your body produce serotonin — which is vital in helping your brain manage your mood, fight depression and help maintain strong memory.

3. Whole Grains

Many types of food fall under this category, like beans, soy, oats and wild rice. While your body and brain utilize carbohydrates for energy, too often we consume simple carbs, which lead to blood sugar spikes. Foods classified as whole grains contain complex carbohydrates, which leads to glucose being produced more slowly, as a more even and consistent source of energy.

Also, whole grains help the brain absorb tryptophan, which means that when eaten in conjunction with foods like chicken and turkey, you can further reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety while boosting brain function.

4. Avocados

Avocados are full of vitamin K and folate, which help protect your brain against stroke. They also provide a boost to your memory and concentration.

Avocados serve up a high dose of lutein, too, which studies have linked to improved brain function.

5. Spinach

Spinach and other leafy greens provide your brain with solid amounts of folic acid, which has been shown to be a great deterrent to depression. It also helps fight off insomnia, which is heavily linked to mental impairments and can help reduce dementia in older adults.

6. Yogurt

Yogurt and other products containing active cultures are excellent sources of probiotics. Often associated with digestive health, probiotics have been shown to play a role in reducing stress and anxiety.

Yogurt can also provide you with potassium and magnesium, which helps oxygen reach the brain, further improving its ability to function.

7. Nuts

Like salmon, nuts are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, helping to fight depression. Cashews, for example, help provide oxygen to the brain with a dose of magnesium.

Almonds contain a compound called phenylalanine, which is shown to help the brain produce dopamine and other neurotransmitters that boost your mood. Phenylalanine has also been linked to a reduction in the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.

8. Olive Oil

Pure, extra virgin olive oil has been quite popular as of late as a part of healthy Mediterranean-style diets. This type of oil contains polyphenols, which help to remove the effects of proteins linked to Alzheimer’s Disease. It can also help improve learning and memory.

Be careful when shopping for olive oil, however. Many brands liberally cut their product with vegetable or seed oils, significantly reducing its brain health benefits. Research brands online to find brands tested to ensure they contain pure olive oil.

9. Tomatoes

The source of a tomato’s red hue, lycopene is classified as an all-around beneficial phytonutrient. One of the many health boosts it provides is in the fight against brain disease. It’s been shown to delay the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s Disease, fighting off cell damage.

In addition, lycopene has been shown to help with memory, attention, logic and concentration.

10. Dark Chocolate

Could this be the best news on the list? Dark chocolate is categorized as such due to its cocoa content, which you won’t find in milk chocolate. And the darker the better — 85% cocoa or more is the most beneficial.

Dark chocolate contains high levels of flavonoids, a type of antioxidant. It has been shown to boost attention and memory, enhance mood and help fight cognitive decline in older adults. Just remember, chocolate should still be consumed in moderation.

The next time you go shopping, consider adding one or more of these to your grocery list. In addition to providing general health benefits, you’ll be able to provide an outstanding source of nourishment to your brain as well.

Related Posts:

Strategies for Reducing Stress, Anxiety and Burnout in the Workplace

Ways Exercise Can Improve Mental Health

Most Common Industries Affected by Mental and Behavioral Health Issues

October Boyles, MSN, BSN, RN

Clinical Director October has been a Registered Nurse for over 15 years. She is board certified in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She also graduated with bachelor and master degrees in Nursing from Western Governors University.

declare a public health emergency

 

Opinion

Biden must declare a public health emergency for abortion — immediately

By Nancy Northup

June 30, 2022 at 11:14 a.m. EDT

Abortion rights advocates demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)

Nancy Northup is president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global legal organization that represented the last abortion clinic in Mississippi in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

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The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is not only the most damaging setback to the rights of women in our country’s history — it also creates a staggering public health emergency requiring swift and definitive action from all sectors, including the Biden administration.

Soon, abortion will be banned outright or severely limited in about half the states. Some lawmakers will seek to ban patient travel over state lines to receive abortion services, an astonishingly authoritarian and unconstitutional intrusion. In certain states, fear of civil and criminal liability might make hospitals and physicians wait until a miscarriage becomes septic before intervening, or might lead to dangerous delays in treatment for ectopic pregnancies. Across the country, people’s health and lives are at stake.

In his remarks following Friday’s ruling, President Biden said, “I will do all in my power to protect a woman’s right in states where they will face the consequences of today’s decision.”

It is in the Biden administration’s power to address this crisis immediately by declaring a public health emergency for abortion.

Such a declaration would give the Department of Health and Human Services power to help patients get vital abortion care wherever they live. Under the declaration, HHS can enable out-of-state prescribing and dispensing of medication abortion for those in states with abortion bans.

Abortion is now banned in these states. Others will follow.

Biden emphasized the importance of access to medications such as mifepristone, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for more than 20 years as a safe and effective way to end early stage pregnancies. The president also directed the secretary of health and human services, Xavier Becerra, to work to make mifepristone as widely accessible as possible.

Mifepristone is permitted for use for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, and most women having abortions choose it. The FDA has authorized its use via telemedicine. Currently, patients can receive the pills by mail in states where permitted by law and take them at home.

To ensure that medication abortion reaches even those in states that ban abortion outright, Becerra must declare a public health emergency under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act. The Prep Act empowers the HHS secretary to issue a declaration that would shield providers, pharmacists, patients and others from liability for their involvement in providing medication abortion in hostile states.

The declaration would be based on the well-documented adverse health consequences of restricted access to abortion care, which include complications and maternal death associated with pregnancy, childbirth and unsafe abortion methods.

To address these harms, the declaration would supersede state abortion bans as applied to medication abortion, because the Prep Act allows for overriding any state law that frustrates the administration of a drug that mitigates the declared public health emergency.

This partial solution to the public health crisis would not require any federal funding or congressional authorization. HHS has the regulatory authority and should exercise it immediately.

This move will be crucial to protecting all who are pregnant, but especially those who already face heavy burdens of health, racial and economic inequality. Black women are nearly three times more likely to die of pregnancy complications than White women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assesses that 2 out of 3 of these deaths are preventable. And the United States has a moral obligation to prevent them.

Reproductive health, rights and justice organizations are doing all we can to provide and support access to care in hostile and sanctuary states. Abortion funds are raising money and supporting pregnant people who must travel out of state. Companies are establishing policies to cover employees’ out-of-state travel for abortion care. States including New York, California, Oregon and Connecticut are strengthening their laws and policies to protect abortion providers and out-of-state patients coming for care. Lawyers throughout the country are lining up to represent those caught in the web of criminal abortion bans.

This will not be enough.

We need a national standard guaranteeing abortion access, which Biden rightly said Congress must legislate. But in the meantime, the administration must take the first step toward restoring national protections: Declare a public health emergency now and ensure that medication abortion is available across the nation.

Roe v. Wade and abortion access in America

Roe v. Wade overturned: The Supreme Court has struck down Roe v. Wade, which for nearly 50 years has protected the right to abortion. Read the full decision here.

What happens next?: The legality of abortion will be left to individual states. That likely will mean 52 percent of women of childbearing age would face new abortion limits. Thirteen states with “trigger bans” will ban abortion within 30 days. Several other states where recent antiabortion legislation has been blocked by the courts are expected to act next.

State legislation: As Republican-led states move to restrict abortion, The Post is tracking legislation across the country on 15-week bans, Texas-style bans, trigger laws and abortion pill bans, as well as Democratic-dominated states that are moving to protect abortion rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade.

How our readers feel: In the hours that followed the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Washington Post readers responded in droves to a callout asking how they felt — and why.

John Updike

Writers take words seriously—perhaps the last professional class that does—and they struggle to steer their own through the crosswinds of meddling editors and careless typesetters and obtuse and malevolent reviewers into the lap of the ideal reader.
John Updike

Gary Shteyngart

It’s a moment where we don’t have the political, social, societal will to avert catastrophe. How do you not write about that if you’re a writer?

Gary Shteyngart

the introvert hangover

Introversion is not a super power: How misanthropy masquerades as 'The Introvert Hangover'

David Berry: It is not that sometimes we all get tired of being around people; it is that I am a delicate soap bubble who may burst if someone’s gaze lingers on me too long

by

David Berry

Aug 31, 2016 

 I never really knew what a hangover was until I hit 30. Now, sure, I remember languishing while “soooooo hungovvveeerrrrrrr” as a younger man, grunting and whining my way through damn near most of a morning until the sacred elixir of greasy spoon eggs and corner store Gatorade returned me to the point where an early afternoon beer seemed like a capital idea. At a certain point, though, hangovers became apocalyptic, weekend-defining affairs, the sort of thing where freebasing Tylenol and 30 minutes on the floor of a hot shower were necessary just to have the strength to press “Resume Watching” on every third show of a Netflix binge.

But even a lazy, self-pitying wreck like me doesn’t know the destructive power of the true king of hangovers: the introvert hangover. According to writer and self-professed introvert Shawna Courter, of online site Introvert, Dear, it is a hellacious affair: “Your ears might ring, your eyes start to blur, and you feel like you’re going to hyperventilate … your mind feels like it kind of shuts down, building barriers around itself as if you had been driving on a wide open road, and now you’re suddenly driving in a narrow tunnel. All you want is to be at home, alone, where it’s quiet.” Presumably this is made even worse by the fact that calling to order a pizza would basically be like waterboarding yourself with human interaction.  in subsequent posts on the phenomenon, by one whole study that wasn’t actually at all related to this idea, but implied that people who identified as introverts tend to be more easily overstimulated than people who do not — is the latest manifestation of a certain subsection of society’s obsession with the fact they need alone time on occasion.

Introversion, such as it is a thing, has been with us since Carl Jung, which should be a flaming red flag for anyone who suspects you may need marginally more than all the feels to have a decent understanding of the world. It is, as any half-assed personality test – like for instance the “partner site” that is linked to in Courter’s post – will fuzzily explain, the opposite of extraversion. It essentially means that you derive your energy from solitude and inward reflection, as opposed to interacting with other people. Its primary use has been as a category in those same personality tests.

You know, the ones that psychologists are always telling us not to use for hiring because they are spotty and tend to measure momentary mood more than underlying attitudes, and because they are subject to manipulation by personal bias and the Barnum effect, that quirk of human understanding that lets us find deep personal meaning in hopelessly vague descriptions. You know, astrology for people who “love” “science.”

It has recently found more prominence thanks in large part to the 2012 book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain. In its simplest and most useful form, Quiet was a strong argument for not overlooking people or things just because they were not forcing themselves on you. We live in a society that prizes the ability to be gregarious, forceful, socially adept and brimming with the confidence to inspire others. At its worst, this kind of thing rewards those who know how to sell a personal brand, who have no inclination to introspection, who are simply able to perform on command. It was practically warning us that we were heading down the road to a Trump presidency three years before we thought it possible.

As a person who is reasonably reserved and remarkably covetous of long stretches of solitude, this was all well and good. It did not take terribly long, though, for a plea for understanding to morph into a smug movement that essentially sets up introverts as delicate geniuses beset on all sides by boorish, idiotic extroverts getting by on superficial charm. Cain herself kicked this off when she declared that introversion would be “the next great diversity issue of our time” at a Harvard keynote address, which sort of shows you some of the downside of drawing most of your strength from self-reflection.

If Cain was just trying to lend her hobby horse an air of unearned importance, though, most of the people who have followed have stuck simply to lending themselves an air of unearned importance. In the same way that horoscopes tend to emphasize that you are, say, “strong-willed” and not “a stubborn prick,” introverts have taken to considering their inherent traits as gifts that allow them to transcend the plane of mere mortals.

Take, for example, a post taken at random from Cain’s own website, which has developed into a clearinghouse for smug introvert satisfaction. “Six illustrations that show what it’s like in an introvert’s head” points out that “it’s more complicated for introverts to process interactions and events,” they are “content and energized when reading a book, thinking deeply or diving into their rich inner world of ideas” they “process EVERYTHING (their emphasis) in their surroundings” and “have an active dialogue with themselves … with many thoughts in their minds.”

Ignoring, for a moment, that one of the basic definitions of human consciousness is having an internal life — “I think, therefore (something something I forget)” — it has also created a definition of introversion that essentially boils down to “I am not only very sensitive to the world, I think about it a lot, unlike you, you outgoing, pea-brained, stimulus-response, drooling, ignorant troll.” This is not just turning vague realizations about the human condition into personality traits, it is elevating them to, in the immortal words of Rob Zombie, something more human than human. While the rest of you are rutting around in the mud trying to eat and screw, I will be over here, CONSIDERING POETRY. You heathens.

On top of that, we now have the hangover, which not only assumes this inherent advantage but goes so far as to suggest that even interacting in subsequent posts on the phenomenon, by one whole study that wasn’t actually at all related to this idea, but implied that people who identified as introverts tend to be more easily overstimulated than people who do not — is the latest manifestation of a certain subsection of society’s obsession with the fact they need alone time on occasion.

As someone who also prefers my own thoughts to most forms of social interaction – you know, a person – I can understand the sentiment. Still, for a group that is so intent on solitude, introverts sure are ones with a tremendous focus on just how different they are to others (to say nothing of enumerating those differences in the most condescending way possible). Perhaps if they spent a little more time on honest self-reflection, they might see this for what it really is: misanthropy.

Granted, that doesn’t give you any superpowers, but is at least an eminently defensible position in a world where every personality type is trying to get one over on every other.

https://nationalpost.com/life/introversion-is-not-a-super-power-how-misanthropy-masquerades-as-the-introvert-hangover

Teacher

Every writer  I admire is my teacher.
Sandra Cisneros

If you have a plan

If you have a plan—if you know the end when you start—it’s no fun to write that novel. You know, a painter may draw sketches before he starts painting, but I don’t. There is a white canvas, I have this paintbrush, and I just paint the picture. 

Haruki Murakami

This Weekend is our 27th Year Anniversary of Living in our House

Fudgicle!

 make your own

https://www.chocolatemoosey.com/homemade-fudgesicles/

https://www.thekitchn.com/fudge-pops-recipe-23058708

“We are after all observers of life. We are after all a conduit, a channeler of people. What you haven’t resolved in your life can absolutely become an obstacle in the work that you do.”

  Actress― Viola Davis, Finding Me

I could create my own family and I could create it intentionally with what I had learned.

 ― Viola Davis, Finding Me

that magical process

“First ingredient I needed to be an artist, the power to create. The power of alchemy, that magical process of transformation and creation to believe at any given time I could be the somebody I always wanted to be.”

― Viola Davis, Finding Me

“Remember the love. . . . Don’t play the pain and betrayal, play the woman fighting hard to restore the love.”
― Viola Davis, Finding Me

My biggest discovery was that you can literally re-create your life. You can redefine it. You don’t have to live in the past. I found that not only did I have fight in me, I had love.

 ― Viola Davis, Finding Me

Viola Davis

“Your only job as an artist is to put the truth out there into the world.”

― Viola Davis

“I don’t have any time to stay up all night worrying about what someone who doesn’t love me has to say about me.”
― Viola Davis

May you live long enough to know why you were born. —CHEROKEE BIRTH BLESSING

  ― Viola Davis, Finding Me

Understood

 

Suleika Jaouad

 Suleika Jaouad shares, “The whole time I was working on this book I had a post-it note above my desk with a quote that said: If you want to write a good book, write what you don’t want other people to know about you. If you want to write a great book, write what you don’t want to know about yourself. Those were my guiding words—I didn’t just want to write about this experience of illness and beginning again, I wanted to write toward the quieter moments and seek out the things that were lurking in the shadows, but to write with as much unvarnished honesty as I could.”

https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/announcements/why-suleika-jaouad-sought-out-the-things-lurking-in-the-shadows/

Bird's Nest

I found a beautiful in tact birds nest on the lawn of the WPD 

and a stack of abandoned orange cones near the old bus stop (which I might go get for the parking lot)

Bunnies and Frogs

Every night us city folk drive down the road across state lines to hear the bullfrogs playing bass on their lily pads and watch the cotton tails dance in the empty streets, the sunset lighting up their veiny ears.

With House and Senate OK, push is on to improve mental health of youngest children G. Wayne Miller The Providence Journal

RI Health Department recommends closing beaches in Warwick, Barrington, Kingston due to bacteria

 Jack Perry

The Providence Journal

The Rhode Island Department of Health on Tuesday recommended closing three Rhode Island beaches for swimming because of high bacteria levels.

They are Conimicut and Oakland beaches in Warwick and Barrington Town Beach.

Beach season:RI state beaches officially open — here's what to know

The recommendation came the day after the Providence area had 0.65 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Runoff from rainstorms typically raises bacteria levels in water bodies.

The beaches were recommended closed just days before the July 4 holiday weekend. The Weather Service says there's a chance of rain showers Friday night and showers are likely Saturday.

As of Tuesday, Rhode Island had lost 31 beach days this year due to recommended closings. Conimicut was also closed for swimming for four days earlier this month.

Shore access:Where is it legal to walk on RI beaches? You might need to tread water, scientists say

On Wednesday morning, the Health Department also recommended closing Larkin Pond Association Beach in Kingston for swimming because of high bacteria.

At the same time, it recommended reopening Ninigret Park Beach in Charlestown because bacteria counts have returned to safe levels. 

The Health Department says it will continue to monitor beach water quality throughout the summer. It says new data may become available and up-to-date information is available on the department's website and also via the department's beach telephone line (401-222-2751). 

jperry@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7614

On Twitter: @jgregoryperry

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Backyard Pool Year Round

 Sometimes I imagine something like this except I'd be too exposed. 

The whole point is privacy for introverts.

Let Go of Food Rules, Eat to Nourish

 https://www.nationalpeanutboard.org/wellness/let-go-food-rules-eat-to-nourish.htm

The Pool was once a Post Office!

 

God-Dog

The first thing I did after running away from home at age 17, was adopt a dog. I have not been able to live without a dog. Even as a 5 year old I knew my dog was a better mother than the one I came with.

Freedom

I'm enjoying my freedom to feel the morning air and walk my dog and write before having to deal with humans. It's 61 degrees. The best temperature of the day. By the time it climbs too high I will be underwater.

Romeo and I had a walk Downtown but he had a leg cramp so we stopped and turned around behind the Elks hall and then I ran into Sylvia.  She lives at the Saint Germain eldercare place. We sat outside on the wooden bench swing under the horse chestnut.  SYLVIA! She is 85 and has been my friend for 27 years. ROMEO has introduced me to the best humans.

Yesterday I walked with Nancy and Romeo. Nancy used her white cane with the rolling marshmallow at the end and we still had a few crashes. We just laughed. Her visor made a good curb feeler. I narrated the view of flowers and colors. I didn't realize how many signs are in the middle of the sidewalk. She is such a looker. I noticed all the men driving by were looking at her long neck long legged beauty.

I had to change veterinarians yesterday because they never mailed Heartworm Prevention Pills (but cashed the check) and I called 4x over the past MONTH and emailed and they kept promising and not doing it and now we're running out of time. The pill is once a month and I always prepare ahead. We need it by Saturday. We used to drive 50 minutes to this vet because my vet of 40 years had joined this practice but he retired 2 years ago. We kept going all the way to TIVERTON RI anyway.

 

So, they kept the money but did not mail the goods. I call that robbery. I am still angry. I contacted my retired vet for a recommendation. My husband says look ahead. It's harder for me.

 

We had a great rehearsal for the upcoming parade. Everyone was in a good mood. So far the forecast isn't too bad.

 

My Monday batch of kimchi (4th batch) came out so good. I'm finally getting the hang of it. We've eaten half a gallon of it already. I am now teaching people how to make it. It was good on the first day and it's so easy. Grated carrots, fresh garlic, onion, Napa cabbage, fresh ginger, special Korean red pepper powder and kosher salt. It's so good and refreshing for summer. I dump 2 cups of it on top of romaine lettuce or spinach and then add peanuts and sun-dried tomatoes and olive oil.

 

It feels like a Friday!

Fascinating

Article on Female Misogyny

Our Demons

People are products of our culture and our culture is a liar. I have known half a dozen people who have bought their dream house, castle in the wilderness only to discover a crippling depression larger than they'd ever experienced. They truly believed that if they stepped into this picture all of their troubles would vanish. The exact opposite occurred. All of their troubles were magnified in the belief that they had finally escaped them. Moving to a pastoral setting with a view of a waterfall and a private pond and the designer kitchen is not how one's demons vanish. 

Our demons vanish when we give them a seat at the table and take notes.

Maya Angelou

There is, I hope, a thesis in my work: we may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. That sounds goody-two-shoes, I know, but I believe that a diamond is the result of extreme pressure and time. Less time is crystal. Less than that is coal. Less than that is fossilized leaves. Less than that it’s just plain dirt. In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats—maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats—but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. 

MAYA ANGELOU

I learned from journalism. The key is to tell it straight.

I learned a lot from James Joyce and Erskine Caldwell and of course from Hemingway … [but the] tricks you need to transform something which appears fantastic, unbelievable, into something plausible, credible, those I learned from journalism. The key is to tell it straight. It is done by reporters and by country folk.

GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ

Name Your Monster

 Write it down.

Stories Teach

Stories teach. Stories inspire. Stories, as Marcus Aurelius wrote, "remind us of what can happen, and that it happens inevitably" and if something gives you pleasure on that stage, it shouldn't cause you anger on this one. They remind us that a life without tests and challenges is a life without growth and improvement. They remind us that the obstacle is the way, that adversity is an opportunity, that it if you respond well, not getting what you want can end up getting you something even more beautiful than what you wanted. Daily Stoic

Angry people want you to see how powerful they are. Loving people want you to see how powerful you are.

  Chief Red Eagle

Brave and Ruthless

Whether or not you write well, write bravely.
Bill Stout

You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or rather you can if you will be ruthless enough about it.
Ernest Hemingway

Romaine Lettuce with Kimchi

Tonight we ate my homemade kimchi on top of romaine lettuce with sun-dried tomatoes cut small and the olive oil packed with it. We added peanuts and leftover chicken. It was fantastic.

Have Dog Will Travel by Stephen Kuusisto

 Loved this book! And now I am signed up for his other books. He's an amazing poet.

In a lyrical love letter to guide dogs everywhere, a blind poet shares his delightful story of how a guide dog changed his life and helped him discover a newfound appreciation for travel and independence.
Stephen Kuusisto was born legally blind—but he was also raised in the 1950s and taught to deny his blindness in order to "pass" as sighted. Stephen attended public school, rode a bike, and read books pressed right up against his nose. As an adult, he coped with his limited vision by becoming a professor in a small college town, memorizing routes for all of the places he needed to be. Then, at the age of 38, he was laid off. With no other job opportunities in his vicinity, he would have to travel to find work.

This is how he found himself at Guiding Eyes paired with a Labrador named Corky. In this vivid and lyrical memoir, Stephen Kuusisto recounts how an incredible partnership with a guide dog changed his life and the heart-stopping, wondrous adventure that began for him in midlife. Profound and deeply moving, this is a spiritual journey, the story of discovering that life with a guide dog is both a method and a state of mind. 

Stephen Kuusisto

Connie Kuusisto

Stephen Kuusisto directs The Burton Blatt Institute’s interdisciplinary programs in disability at Syracuse University where he holds a University Professorship. He is the author of the memoirs Planet of the Blind (a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”) and Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening, and of the poetry collections Only Bread, Only Light, and Letters to Borges. His newest memoir, Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey was published by Simon & Schuster. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a Fulbright Scholar, he has taught at the University of Iowa, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and The Ohio State University. Kuusisto has served as an advisor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and to the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dateline, All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Talk of the Nation, and Animal Planet. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harper’s, and The Reader’s Digest. His his daily blog, Planet of the Blind, is read globally by people interested in disability and contemporary culture. He is a frequent speaker in the U.S. and abroad.

www.stephenkuusisto.com

Summer Issue Scapegoat Review

 http://www.scapegoatreview.org/summer-2022/emily-lisker

Shake off the Shackles

Even though doctors no longer thought menopausal women were murderous lizard people, cultural ideas about them did not improve.

While part of it is just the wisdom that comes with age, many women feel that once they are through the menopause transition, they don’t have to make themselves appealing to the world. As Dr. Hutner put it: “I feel liberated because I’m not trying to take care of everyone else or correspond to anyone’s societal view. I have been able to shake off the shackles.”

Category: 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva

 Read

It's between my ears.

I don't go on vacation, vacation comes to me. It's between my ears. 

I vacate my old vantage point for awhile. It just happens. Twice a year.

When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
― Marcus Aurelius , Meditations

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together,but do so with all your heart.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

  Marcus Aurelius

The Rain

"I love the rain," he said. "I was in Viet Nam in 1967 when I was 18+19 and everything stopped during Monsoon. No shooting. All was peaceful. And ever since then I have loved the rain."

Adopt an adorable boy!

 

a duck, a mermaid, and a water rat.

I just raked dead pine needles along with tiny candy wrappers and stray dog poop into the gully of fast moving rainwater. When it rains hard we always get two rivers running down our street. 

Inspired by how fun it was I started weeding all of the greenery between the sidewalks and curbstones and pavement. I recognized people driving by. Performance art, I thought. I'm wearing a long dark dress and loving getting soaked.

We are a few days away from the 27th year anniversary of owning our beloved house.  When locals and my parents balked at the neighborhood we told them we would work to make the things better. And we have. 

The Boys and Girls club is relocating to our street and I offered to teach cooking and baking. I hope the kids of the neighborhood will be granted permission by their parents to attend. Meanwhile our public library got a grant that allows me to teach baking and cooking there. It's a win-win and a dream come true.

My head and back got soaked in the rain but it felt great at 69 degrees. I was wearing my black sloggers rubber clogs and dark flowered house-dress that I cut the sleeves off of last summer. Why should I be bothered by rain? I swim all the time! I am a duck, a mermaid and a water rat but mostly I am a Labrador retriever mixed with dolphin. I prefer sonar.

The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads.

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.”
― William Styron, Conversations with William Styron

“We're all in this game together.”
― William Styron

“A phenomenon that a number of people have noted while in deep depression is the sense of being accompanied by a second self — a wraith-like observer who, not sharing the dementia of his double, is able to watch with dispassionate curiosity as his companion struggles against the oncoming disaster, or decides to embrace it. There is a theatrical quality about all this, and during the next several days, as I went about stolidly preparing for extinction, I couldn't shake off a sense of melodrama — a melodrama in which I, the victim-to-be of self-murder, was both the solitary actor and lone member of the audience.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“The pain of severe depression is quite unimaginable to those who have not suffered it, and it kills in many instances because its anguish can no longer be borne. The prevention of many suicides will continue to be hindered until there is a general awareness of the nature of this pain.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“Someday I will understand Auschwitz. This was a brave statement but innocently absurd. No one will ever understand Auschwitz. What I might have set down with more accuracy would have been: Someday I will write about Sophie's life and death, and thereby help demonstrate how absolute evil is never extinguished from the world. Auschwitz itself remains inexplicable. The most profound statement yet made about Auschwitz was not a statement at all, but a response.

The query: "At Auschwitz, tell me, where was God?"

And the answer: "Where was man?”
― William Styron, Sophie's Choice

“In depression this faith in deliverance, in ultimate restoration, is absent. The pain is unrelenting, and what makes the condition intolerable is the foreknowledge that no remedy will come- not in a day, an hour, a month, or a minute. If there is mild relief, one knows that it is only temporary; more pain will follow. It is hopelessness even more than pain that crushes the soul. So the decision-making of daily life involves not, as in normal affairs, shifting from one annoying situation to another less annoying- or from discomfort to relative comfort, or from boredom to activity- but moving from pain to pain. One does not abandon, even briefly, one’s bed of nails, but is attached to it wherever one goes. And this results in a striking experience- one which I have called, borrowing military terminology, the situation of the walking wounded. For in virtually any other serious sickness, a patient who felt similar devastation would by lying flat in bed, possibly sedated and hooked up to the tubes and wires of life-support systems, but at the very least in a posture of repose and in an isolated setting. His invalidism would be necessary, unquestioned and honorably attained. However, the sufferer from depression has no such option and therefore finds himself, like a walking casualty of war, thrust into the most intolerable social and family situations. There he must, despite the anguish devouring his brain, present a face approximating the one that is associated with ordinary events and companionship. He must try to utter small talk, and be responsive to questions, and knowingly nod and frown and, God help him, even smile. But it is a fierce trial attempting to speak a few simple words.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“Depression is a disorder of mood, so mysteriously painful and elusive in the way it becomes known to the self -- to the mediating intellect-- as to verge close to being beyond description. It thus remains nearly incomprehensible to those who have not experienced it in its extreme mode.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads.”
― William Styron

“The madness of depression is, generally speaking, the antithesis of violence. It is a storm indeed, but a storm of murk. Soon evident are the slowed-down responses, near paralysis, psychic energy throttled back close to zero. Ultimately, the body is affected and feels sapped, drained.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“It is hopelessness even more than pain that crushes the soul.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“my brain had begun to endure its familiar siege: panic and dislocation, and a sense that my thought processes were being engulfed by a toxic and unnameable tide that obliterated any enjoyable response to the living world.”
― William Styron , Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“When I was first aware that I had been laid low by the disease, I felt a need, among other things, to register a strong protest against the word "depression." Depression, most people know, used to be termed "melancholia," a word which appears in English as the year 1303 and crops up more than once in Chaucer, who in his usage seemed to be aware of its pathological nuances. "Melancholia" would still appear to be a far more apt and evocative word for the blacker forms of the disorder, but it was usurped by a noun with a blank tonality and lacking any magisterial presence, used indifferently to describe an economic decline or a rut in the ground, a true wimp of a word for such a major illness.

It may be that the scientist generally held responsible for its currency in modern times, a Johns Hopkins Medical School faculty member justly venerated -- the Swiss-born psychiatrist Adolf Meyer -- had a tin ear for the finer rhythms of English and therefore was unaware of the semantic damage he had inflicted for such a dreadful and raging disease. Nonetheless, for over seventy-five years the word has slithered innocuously through the language like a slug, leaving little trace of its intrinsic malevolence and preventing, by its insipidity, a general awareness of the horrible intensity of the disease when out of control.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“For those who have dwelt in depression's dark wood, and known its inexplicable agony, their return from the abyss is not unlike the ascent of the poet, trudging upward and upward out of hell's black depths and at last emerging into what he saw as "the shining world." There, whoever has been restored to health has almost always been restored to the capacity for serenity and joy, and this may be indemnity enough for having endured the despair beyond despair.

E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.
And so we came forth, and once again beheld the stars.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“The pain of severe depression is quite unimaginable to those who have not suffered it, and it kills in many instances because its anguish can no longer be borne.”
― William Styron

“We each devise our means of escape from the intolerable.”
― William Styron, A Tidewater Morning

“This was not judgment day - only morning. Morning: excellent and fair.”
― William Styron, Sophie's Choice

“What this country needs... what this great land of ours needs is something to happen to it. Something ferocious and tragic, like what happened to Jericho or the cities of the plain - something terrible I mean, son, so that when the people have been through hellfire and the crucible, and have suffered agony enough and grief, they’ll be people again, human beings, not a bunch of smug contented cows rooting at the trough.”
― William Styron, Set This House On Fire

“The pain is unrelenting, and what makes the condition intolerable is the foreknowledge that no remedy will come- not in a day, an hour, a month, or a minute. If there is mild relief, one knows that it is only temporary; more pain will follow. It is hopelessness even more than pain that crushes the soul. So the decision-making of daily life involves not, as in normal affairs, shifting from one annoying situation to another less annoying- or from discomfort to relative comfort, or from boredom to activity- but moving from pain to pain. One does not abandon, even briefly, one’s bed of nails, but is attached to it wherever one goes.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“Let's face it, writing is hell.”
― William Styron

“I thought there's something to be said for honor in this world where there doesn't seem to be any honor left. I thought that maybe happiness wasn't really anything more than the knowledge of a life well spent, in spite of whatever immediate discomfort you had to undergo, and that if a life well spent meant compromises and conciliation's and reconciliations, and suffering at the hands of the person you love, well then better that than live without honor.”
― William Styron, Lie Down in Darkness

“A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.”
― William Styron

“There he must, despite the anguish devouring his brain, present a face approximating the one that is associated with ordinary events and companionship. He must try to utter small talk, and be responsive to questions, and knowingly nod and frown and, God help him, even smile. But it is a fierce trial attempting to speak a few simple words.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“it has to be emphasized that if the pain were readily describable most of the countless sufferers from this ancient affliction would have been able to confidently depict for their friends and loved ones (even their physicians) some of the actual dimensions of their torment, and perhaps elicit a comprehension that has been generally lacking; such incomprehension has usually been due not to a failure of sympathy but to the basic inability of healthy people to imagine a form of torment so alien to everyday experience.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“There are friends one makes at a youthful age in whom one simply rejoices, for whom one possesses a love and loyalty mysteriously lacking in the friendships made in after-years, no matter how genuine.”
― William Styron, Sophie's Choice

“A disruption of the circadian cycle—the metabolic and glandular rhythms that are central to our workaday life—seems to be involved in many, if not most, cases of depression; this is why brutal insomnia so often occurs and is most likely why each day’s pattern of distress exhibits fairly predictable alternating periods of intensity and relief.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“[However], the sufferer from depression has no option, and therefore finds himself, like a walking casualty of war, thrust into the most intolerable social and family situations. There he must ... present a face approximating the one associated with ordinary events and companionship. He must try to utter small talk and be responsive to questions, and knowingly nod, and frown and, God help him, even smile.”
― William Styron

“What I had begun to discover is that, mysteriously and in ways that are totally remote from normal experience, the grey drizzle of horror induced by depression takes on the quality of physical pain. But it is not an immediately identifiable pain, like that of a broken limb. It may be more accurate to say that despair, owing to some evil trick played upon the sick brain by the inhabiting psyche, comes to resemble the diabolical discomfort of being imprisoned in a fiercely overheated room. And because no breeze stirs this cauldron, because there is no escape from the smothering confinement, it is natural that the victim begins to think ceaselessly of oblivion”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“At any rate, during the few hours when the depressive state itself eased off long enough to permit the luxury of concentration, I had recently filled this vacuum with fairly extensive reading and I had absorbed many fascinating and troubling facts”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“Depression is a disorder of mood, so mysteriously painful and elusive in the way it becomes known to the self--to the mediating intellect--as to verge close to being beyond description. It thus remains nearly incomprehensible to those who have not experienced it in its extreme mode, although the gloom, "the blues" which people go through occasionally and associate with the general hassle of everyday existence are of such prevalence that they do give many individuals a hint of the illness in its catastrophic form.”
― William Styron , Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness