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Hello Sunshine
A Father's Day Special from Georgia Jones

When my mom's parents, my grandparents, couldn't afford to feed their third child, the youngest, a girl, and not much help when they needed money, they sent her to stay on the farm with her Aunt Ester. There was always plenty to eat on the farm and Mom came to think of Great Aunt Ester as almost a mother. The year my father was "away," Mom took us to stay with Great Aunt Ester. Neither my sister Dinni, short for Denice, nor I wanted to go to a farm for any reason, but Dinni was too little to know anything except to follow along. All I wanted was for our dad to come home.
Great Aunt Ester met us at the train station. She was old, wrinkled old and brown, limped and smelled of something sharp and musky, something we would become familiar with that winter, wood smoke. Why was my mom so happy and hugging her like that? I hadn't even seen the farm yet and I wanted to be back home.
We piled into the big noisy truck that served as farm vehicle and transportation and jolted down the road; Mom, Great Aunt Ester, my sister, and me shoved hip to elbow against each other. The country we passed through was planted monotonously with lush green plants nearly as tall as our mom or Great Aunt Ester herself, though she was a lot taller than our mom and solid in spite of the limp, like the trunks of the trees we passed sometimes. How far was it to this farm? Great Aunt Ester drove on, chatting quietly with our mom while Dinni and I squirmed and poked, fighting for territory on the skimpy seat.
Suddenly, the truck swerved left onto a bumpy road that shook us like beans in a jar. I pushed Dinni off the top of me and peered out the window. The lush plants were gone and so were the trees. The fields on either side of the truck were covered in wild growth, the kind I was used to seeing when we went for drives in the "country." Was this the farm? It didn't look anything like my mom's description.
We lurched to a stop in front of a farmhouse. It was big and needed paint. There were more plants here, neat plants along the edge of a well-behaved picket fence and riding a path of concrete up to the front steps of the house. There was grass, a bit brown in spots but mostly like the grass we were used to. Behind the house I could see trees. Was that the farm, back there?
"Last one in is a rotten egg!" Great Aunt Ester called as she opened her door. Mom slid out right behind her, leaving me to fiddle with the door handle while Dinni ducked under the steering wheel and followed them. "Come on, slow poke," our mom called as I slid down the side of the high truck and onto the gravel below. "Coming," I answered without enthusiasm. I didn't care if I was the "rotten egg." I looked at the broken rock at my feet. Was this the farm?
The next morning, while she cooked scrambled eggs and my mom made toast in the wood stove in the kitchen, Great Aunt Ester announced, "We go into the garden today, everyone! It's almost time for the peaches to drop and we've got to get them before the dirt does."
"The garden?" I asked.
"Great Aunt Ester doesn't work the whole farm anymore, just a small plot at the back of the house." My mom answered cheerfully.
I went to the back door and looked out. It was there, all of the plants I expected to see on a farm, twisting vines with some kind of big vegetable on them, some were pumpkin, tall stalks of corn, some feathery plants with tomatoes hanging heavy, climbing vines going up sticks stuck into the ground, and, behind it all, the trees, the peach orchard. It was well-tended and neat, just like the plants in front. Did Great Aunt Ester expect us to work? I wouldn't do it!
After breakfast Mom and Dinni almost skipped out the door behind Great Aunt Ester. They stopped at several rows of plants and Great Aunt Ester pulled off some stringer beans and handed them out to each of us. They didn't taste bad, but I preferred licorice. Mom and Dinni acted like it was the best treat they ever had.
Then we went into the orchard. The trees were short. I could almost touch the bottom branches and, if I stood on tiptoe, I could pull the peaches that hung the lowest. Dinni begged to be lifted up. Mom lifted her high into the trees and she came down with a peach in each hand. They all laughed. I didn't see anything funny about picking peaches. Great Aunt Ester said, "Look deep into those peaches, child, they are containers of sunshine to take us through the winter." She seemed very pleased about that. I didn't care about sunshine, peaches, or the winter. I wanted my dad to come back and take us home.
Once the fruit and vegetables were well on their way to being picked, Great Aunt Ester took out a huge pot. She chose me to help her clean and ready our harvest for something she called "canning." I didn't know what canning was, but I wasn't about to show her there was anything I didn't know or wanted to know about her garden. "I am going to teach you the gift of sunshine," she said, smiling conspiratorially. I just did as I was told.
It was hot work over the wood stove even though it was getting cold outside by that time of year. There were big pots and bottles to be sterilized and left to drain. There wasn't much I could do, but that was fine with me. Mom and Dinni worked at getting the last of the fruit and vegetables from the garden. Their plan was to leave a few so there would be some fresh for as long as possible.
When we were finished we had jar after jar of fruits and vegetables and the garden looked desolate. The rickety wooden shelves lining one side of the cellar walls were filled, top to bottom, with jars of preserved fruit. Almost every night before dinner, it was my job to fetch a jar, sometimes two. Sometimes, Great Aunt Ester would hold the peach jars up to the light and say under her breath, "Hello sunshine." Then she'd smile at me and hold the jar in front of my face for me to appreciate. I didn't. Everything that came out of that cellar tasted musty to me.
It was Late November when we heard that our father was coming home. He had something called "leave", which meant he could leave the war for a while to come see us. I didn't understand why he couldn't just leave. If they could do without him for a while, why not all the time? None of it made any kind of sense, but he did come—not home, but to Great Aunt Ester's. I wanted him to take us home, but he didn't. He had to go back. "Why," I asked, but he only said the same things my mom said, things about obligation and responsibility. I didn't care about those things. I wanted to go home. He and Mom and Dinni spent a lot of time laughing and snuggling, just like things were normal. I wasn't going to pretend.
That evening, when Great Aunt Ester sent me down to the cellar to get the canned peaches for dessert, Dad asked if he could come along. "Yes," I answered grudgingly. What did he care about being with me anyway? He followed me down the narrow stairs and reached over my head to pull the light cord I always struggled to reach. I pointed to the shelves of peaches. "She said two jars." I said, my anger at him barely concealed now that we were alone.
"How lucky you are to get to come into the sunshine!" He exclaimed. I looked at the rows of jars, really seeing them for the first time. I looked at my dad's face. He was looking down at me. The yellow glow of the peaches seemed to surround us.
That year our lives changed completely. My dad didn't come home from the war. Great Aunt Ester was there for my mom, and for me and Dinni too. She was there, making sunshine from her garden and teaching us to smile again. That moment in the cellar was my last alone with my dad. What made me think of it now was a letter from a cousin reminiscing about Great Aunt Ester. "Her garden was apparently left untended for some period of time," she wrote. I can't imagine it that way. It will always be filled with sunshine in my memory.

Read this feature from past issues.

Building a Better World Peace by Peace
with Peace X Peace
from Mary Liston Liepold, Ph.D.

You turn on the news, you see women and children suffering around the world, and your heart goes out. You can write a check, but how do you know it really makes a difference? When you were younger you may have dreamed about being a missionary or an aid worker. Now you’ve got a family to care for. The kids are in school, or too young for school, you’re in school, or you’re no longer young, and it would cost way too much even to visit those places so different from your own. But sometimes, don’t you wish you could do something real and positive and personal about the wars and disasters you see in the news—without leaving home?

You can! It’s free, and it only takes a few minutes. Women in Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan and Latin America are waiting to connect with you. And they don’t want handouts; they want to be your friends. They are as curious about your life as you are about theirs. And though your circumstances may be different, the concerns that fill their days are generally the same ones that fill yours: balancing work and family, staying healthy, caring for aging or ailing family members, making sure the kids stay safe and get the education they need to succeed, and yes, having a little fun now and again.

Go to www.peacexpeace.org, join, fill out a simple profile, and connect to a world of women through the Peace X Peace Global Network. You’ll find women who share your professional interests: teachers, nurses, businesswomen, artists, activists and community organizers. You’ll find women who share your passions: justice, equal rights, healing the environment, protecting women and children and minorities from violence, and bringing an end to war. You can connect as an individual or gather a small Circle of women to share the adventure. And if your first Circle connection isn’t just right you can start others, and join as many Circles as you want. Though women in many parts of the world speak and write English, messages can be automatically translated into Arabic, English, French or Spanish.

At Peace X Peace (pronounced “peace by peace”) we believe that the sorry state of things is no surprise—since has a lot to do with the fact that 50% of the population has been left out of the decisions that shape our world fate. We believe we women can claim our power together, strengthening each other, bridging all the divides, and tipping the balance toward peace and justice for all. It starts with just reaching out to one woman or a small Circle that is reaching out to you.

Where it goes from there is up to you and your sisters. So far, through the Peace X Peace Global Network:

In the United States, members invested with members of their Circle in Kenya to open andrun a hostel for people visiting the Kenyan village.

In Pakistan, members coordinated with a local organization to open a center where women can use computers and the internet.

In Uganda, members exported handmade jewelry to members of their US Circle, who sell it through their local networks and return the profits to be reinvested in the Ugandan micro-enterprise.

In Canada, Iraq, and the US, members ignited a movement that became the Women Stand with Iraq Coalition, offering concrete actions to take in solidarity with the people of Iraq.

In Egypt, members initiated educational exchanges about women’s health and hygiene in their Global Network Circle, gaining information they had been denied in their home culture.

In Israel and Palestine, members co-hosted events that brought women from their communities together for fellowship, education, and cultural exchange.

Members in 118 countries (and growing) organize peace festivals, marches, activism days, and vigils to raise awareness in their local communities every year.

US Members meet an extraordinary woman who is working to end violence against women and HIV-AIDS every Tuesday evening in the Peace X Peace/UNIFEM-sponsored Women’s Global Roundtable. Guests so far this season have called in from Kazakhstan, Malawi, the Peruvian Amazon, and Kathmandu in Nepal.

Violence begins when communication ends. And peace begins when communication opens and flows. Go with the flow! The world is waiting for you, at www.peacexpeace.org.

Read more about the Women's Global Roundtable at Peace X Peace.

Mary Liston Liepold learned to read at the age of four, and set her hair on fire reading under the covers with a filched cigarette lighter before she was five. She first discovered the beauty and infinite diversity of the women of the world inside the covers of books. In the later half of her life, thanks to Peace X Peace, she is meeting them in person and hearing their stories firsthand.
When she isn't reading or working for peace, Mary spends time in the Washington, DC, area and on the Big Island of Hawaii with her handsome husband of 42 years, her four fine children, and her four phenomenal grandchildren.

Read this feature from past issues.

We were sorry to hear that Tina's mother has died, but it was interesting to hear about her life. We have added a page to our artists pages to honor Jill Adams. You will find samples of her art on t-shirts, cards and other products available there. The proceeds from these sales will not only help with her last expenses but will aid in one of her favorite causes, animal rescue. Our thoughts are with Tina and we hope she will be back in her usual place soon.

Lose Weight With Smart Thinking, part 2
Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E.

Lose weight...control eating habits. Portioning your food is just one of many techniques to eliminate the eating habit. Obesity along with all the associated health and self image issues is the cost of lack of food control.
In fact if all overeating were because of habit, it would be easy to lose all the weight one wanted to and keep it off. The problem is that for many decades, the over eating problem has been treated mainly as a habit. The most effective techinques for changing eating habit is awareness.
If you think about it, most techniques and programs such as Weight Watchers is about the overweight person becoming more aware. They use one or a combination of the following:
Diets which makes one very aware of the specific foods allowed on the diet and quantities. Behavioral modification such as putting the fork down between bites, eating slowly...
Calorie counting
Food Equivalents
Weighing Food
Stop thinking techniques

True, these techniques do work for a period of time. However, over the long haul, there is a break down to the change. Eating habit returns to causing one to gain the weight back and then some.
Let's define eating out of habit. The easiest way to understand it is to relate with the person who stops at Dunkin Doughnuts every morning on his/her way to work. It's a habit. Or the person who comes home in the afternoon, walks through the living room into the kitchen, and opens the refrigerator door. It's a habit.
Break the habit and break the behavior. Take a different route to work. Find another activity in the afternoon to replace coming home. Or, if you do come home, cllimb in the back window instead of walking through the front door.
Any of these techniques are effective in breaking the eating habit. Weight comes off until... The "until" is an emotional stress at which point all the effort "goes out the door."
There are two factors that end the diet or whatever awareness technique that were being used:
1. To self berrate: The individual gets very upset with oneself and begins to wonder if they have a "mental problem." They call themselves stupid, dumb, asinine... They believe that this one incursion has completely ruined all their past successes and may even gorge themselves to get even with themselves. In other words, they have become their own worst enemy through their own thinking mechanisms.
2. They are totally ill equipped to handle the stressful emotion. The disappointment or success that led to the emotion yields a stressful situation in handling the emotion. This is because most of us have been trained to avoid emotions, control them, or pretend they don't exist. Even success leads to emotion? Yes, the emotion is happiness, yet it's amazing how many of us don't allow ourselves to feel happy. "Don't be too happy, you'll set yourself up for the big let down," is just one of several beliefs we've acquired towards happiness.

We could write a book about all the other emotions such as upset, boredom, confusion, anger, frustration, depression...
All the good work achieved to control eating habit.
Portion control and everything else is for naught. When we learn to treat ourselves lovingly instead of self put-downs and embrace emotion instead of denying them, changing eating habit is a natural process.
A progressive approach to losing weight involves asking important questions "What is missing here? Why are you not getting the results you've been promised?" It is clearly insane to keep dieting and using techniques to deal with change eating habit when the results are so poor. It's more important to gain a grasp on how to stop emotional eating--eating emotional stress than it is to read the scale. Besides focusing on the scale doesn't empower you to be a better more enlightened person, whereas learning how to overcome emotional eating empowers you in all aspects of your life. If you're a sales person, you'll be a better sales person. If you're an assembly line worker, you'll be a better assembly line worker; a mother, a better mother... Overall, you'll build self worth and find that what you really want to eat is far more nutritious and less in quantity than you ever before imagined possible.

Change eating habit and change your life.
Food has become a habit for millions of Americans. The latest obesity statistics are:

58 Million Overweight; 40 Million Obese; 3 Million morbidly Obese
Eight out of 10 over 25's Overweight
78% of American's not meeting basic activity level recommendations
25% completely Sedentary
76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990

No wonder obesity has become a top seller. Many of the 58 million are desperately trying to lose weight. The most logical approach is to change eating habit. Obesity should disappear. Right?
You would think so, but the main reason why this hasn't been working this way is that changing eating habit doesn't address how to handle emotions that are involved in the eating problem.
The truth is that those suffereing from obesity (aside from those with a throid problem) don't have an eating problem or a weight problem. They have an eating symptom or a weight symptom. Just like a sneeze is a symptom, the eating behavior or extra weigth is a symptom. Actually the problem they have is with emotions. From childhood they've associated food with pleasurable and unpleasurable emotions. Little wonder then when they feel happy they eat. Or when they feel upset or frustrated the eat. Eating is a conditioned behavior to many emotions. Trying to control food as a habit is like putting a square peg into a round hole--just impractable.
It's important to learn to manage emotions. Now here is an important distinction for one might say, "It's important to control emotions." The word "control" gives the sentence a whole different meaning. Managing is flowing with emotions, whereas when you attempt to control emotions it's actually giving power to them over oneself. That is to say, what you try to control actually controls you.
In the 1960's a lot of research was done with electroenclaphric biofeedback to see if by controlling certain brain waves, emotions could be controlled. The science never went beyond observing the brain waves associated with various emotions. It was ironic that some people while they were angry experienced the same brain waves as someone else who was happy. Ultimately, it was learned that it's impractical to control emotions by changing brain waves—something the sufi's of the East have known for centuries.
From a more Eastern Zen approach it's more appropriate to embrace emotions rather than control them. Learn to acknowledge them. There's a challenge in itself as most of us from childhood have been taught to ignore them or pretend that they don't affect us in an attempt to reduce their affect.
By embracing emotions and experiencing them, they no longer dictate eating behavior.
A progressive approach to losing weight involves asking important questions "What is missing here? Why are you not getting the results you've been promised?" It is clearly insane to keep attempting to change eating habit when the results are so poor. It's more important to gain a grasp on conquering emotional eating than it is to read the scale. Besides focusing on the scale doesn't empower you to be a better more enlightened person, whereas learning about how to handle emotional eating empowers you in all aspects of your life. If you're a sales person, you'll be a better sales person. If you're an assembly line worker, you'll be a better assembly line worker. Overall, you'll build self worth and find that what you really want to eat is far more nutritious and less in quantity than you ever before imagined possible.

Eliminate detrimental eating habit by being aware.
That's right, the most effective means of changing eating habit is to be aware. Typical awareness techniques are:
1. Counting calories.
2. Using food equivalents.
3. Behavioral modification techniques such as:
a. using a smaller plate.
b. putting the fork down between bites.
c. eating very slowly.
4. Daily weigh in.
5. Stop thinking (cognitions).
6. Diets.

And these techniques do work for those who eat out of habit. Let's define "eating out of habit". "Eating out of habit" is stopping by Dunkin Doughnuts every morning on the way to work, or coming home in the afternoon, walking through the living room, into the kitchen and raiding the refrigerator. It's basically the habit of being at a certain place and time where there is food.
And yes, if all eating were from habit, then a lot more people would be successful with any of awareness techniques mentioned above.
Even though habitual eating may be a large part of the problem, it is not the entire problem. There are other issues:
1. Eating Emotional Stress
2. Poor self image.
And when we look at eating emotional stress, there are actually two types of emotional stress.
1. Emotional eating associated with basic emotions such as frustration, boredom, happiness, excitement, depression...
2. Emotional eating out of fear of being successful--fear of being thin because of all the additional expectations placed upon the individual by others and self--mostly self.

At any given time the overeater may be 50% of the time eating habit. Weight from overeating then could be 50% from eating emotional stress.
Another day, the percentages could change—20% habit, 50% basic emotion, 20% fear. A week later, the percentages could change again to 25% habit, 25% emotional, 50% fear.
Attempting to use only awareness techniques (which are successful with the habit aspect of overeating) is overall like trying to put a round peg in a square hole.
The overweight person gets on the diet or into the program and is avidly counting calories, involved with exchange equivalents, or whatever and with the initial burst of excitement, begins losing weight.
Later when the burst of excitement has quieted and there's an emotional stress, the program is momentarily abandoned, there's quick self incrimination (calling oneself stupid and so on), doubts of ever being able to succeed, and the program is lost, weight gained back, and gluttony wins.
In the above model, the emotions which started the downfall are never dealt with. To conquer emotional eating, totally different techniques are required. They are:
1. To acknowledge the emotional feelings. This in itself is often a challenge because most of our training from child hood has been to ignore emotions or pretend we're not feeling them.
2. Embrace the emotion. By embracing the emotion the need to dilute it with food is diminished.
3. Profit from the emotion. This is the challenge of managing stressful emotions vs. having the emotions manage us. Specific preference statements make it possible for the brain to move beyond the emotion and discover a creative outlet or experience of the emotion.

Remember, not all eating is from eating habit. Weight gain is a combination of habitual and emotional eating. Using habitual eating techniques will not eliminate all detrimental eating. Eliminate habit is only one part of the equation. To lose weight effectively it's important to learn to conquer emotional eating by acknowledging and handling the emotions effectively.
A progressive approach to eliminate detrimental eating habit involves asking important questions "What is missing here? Why are you not getting the results you've been promised?" It is clearly insane to keep dieting and using techniques to deal with change eating habit when the results are so poor. It's more important to gain a grasp on how to stop emotional eating--eating emotional stress than it is to read the scale. Besides focusing on the scale doesn't empower you to be a better more enlightened person, whereas learning how to overcome emotional eating empowers you in all aspects of your life. If you're a sales person, you'll be a better sales person. If you're an assembly line worker, you'll be a better assembly line worker; a mother, a better mother... Overall, you'll build self worth and find that what you really want to eat is far more nutritious and less in quantity than you ever before imagined possible.
The final installement in this series is "Overcoming Emotional Eating". If Tina has returned by next month, please look for part 3 in the Special Features column.

Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E. NGH Certified is one of the few engineers who has traversed the physical to the mental universe. He operated the Biofeedback Center of NJ and Hypnosis Consultants for nearly twenty years during which time he conducted stress management programs for corporations such as AT&T and IFF. He appeared on various radio and TV shows such as the Arlene Francis WOR radio show, Joe Franklin…
His website www.dstressdoc.com has programs using stress management and hypnotic techniques for self improvement. His other site (www.PanicBusters.com) is focused for the professional wanting to dramatically improve success in the treatment of panic/anxiety and agoraphobia.

Visit MyHealthNavigator.com

Listen to Tina on "BLue Lips" at LadybugLive and...
Read this feature from past issues.

One, Two, Many

The Pirahã, an indigenous people living along the Amazon, have numbers only "one" and "two". Larger numbers are labled "many". This simplicity about counting can be very appearling when we are trying to understand, say, billions of dollars.
It is difficult to interpret large numbers … I cannot visualize a million of anything, much less a billion or trillion. And yet such numbers compose an important part of our life these days. Here are a few resources that may help give meaning to some of them.
I fly maybe 3 times a year. Some people fly more, many less. What does this wonderful mobility add up to? To get an idea of what the traffic over the US look like in a single day, NASA has a movie illustrating the flight paths over the US on a single day: March 21, 2005, when at the peak over 19,000 airplanes were in the air.
Artist Chris Jordan works with large numbers. His picture "Jet Trails", a lacy image of white on blue, depicts 11,000 jet trails, the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours. As the viewer drills down into the detail of the image, the immensity of the number becomes more and more real. I was alsointrigued by "Plastic Cups 2008" from the same series, where one million plastic cups wind in a sinous pattern around the picture. That's the number used by airplane passengers in only six hours." Ben Franklin, 2007" depicts 125,000 one hundred dollar bills, what the government spends every hour on the war in Iraq. Ouch!
We read that there are great disparities in income in the US. We know this for a fact, but to make it unforgettably clear with an image, visit David Chandler's L-Curve website. Zoom in and zoom out to get the full picture.
Huge numbers play such an important role in our lives that we must find tools to make sense of them. The internet can help. Try a google search on your favorite giant number.

Read this feature from past issues.

The Potty and the Summer

I saw in a news article that a celebrity mom is going to blog about her adventures in potty training. Apparently, if a celebrity does it and gets paid, the topic is much more interesting. I think Emily will have to reach celebrity status and some money before she gets potty trained. I would have nothing interesting in my blog at all as a normal mom.
As soon as she expressed interest in the potty, I drug out the baby one. I helped her onto the big potty. She discovered the joys of flushing repeatedly and stuffing rolls of toilet paper into the bowl. I explained about hand washing. She developed a bit of OCD and washed her hands over and over again.
I bought Princess, Dora, Hello Kitty, and Little Pony underwear. She decided that Dora pull-ups were better. She also had odd conversations with the television during commercials for diapers for babies, not bricks. I heard her screaming at the tv that big girls wore diapers, not babies. She is bent on not being a baby but in the area of potty training has decided that big girls wear diapers and that mommies, daddies, and big boys are the odd ones out. She will announce with great fervor that "baby is not a baby". When I explain that babies wear diapers, she argues in the way only a two-year-old can.
She is dry at night. She can go hours without going in her diaper.
On the subject of other liquids, the pool is also a focus in our house. Joel is home for the summer. The pool is also open for the summer. It has been a long three months as he watched the rising temperatures as soon as the cold weather stopped. Every day became a chance to examine the temperature in my car. When he finally did get in the pool, the chill (that we had tried to explain) was a little too much for him. He no longer begs to go to the pool but is back to checking the temperature for magical warmth.
There is a notation at the pool that it will be closed for accidental fluids in the pool. Emily will probably be wearing a swim diaper under her bikini as a teenager at the rate we are going.
I know that eventually she will get the idea and just go with it. Joel went to kindergarten fully trained but they still required extra changes from the skin out. At least once a week, clothes came home in a plastic bag. Joel's magic moment came when I asked him why he went in his pants. His response was "you change me all day". I'm thinking of trying the naked method since it is warmer but am not sure I want Emily running au naturel in our yard and definitely not in the house. That would also preclude us from the pool.
I did never think I would discuss or think about bodily functions so much. I hope the celebrity blogger enjoys the journey. I hope her readers enjoy it as well and gain some insight. In the end, I have found out that you pretty much have to just go with it. They will get it one day and then it will become a distant memory. Sometimes, the days of diapers are actually a wee bit better than the joys of finding a potty at 65 miles an hour or during dinner or in the middle of downtown after 9:00 PM. There has been many a time where we had a pee emergency that required creative measures.
We will not be getting a dog anytime soon though as I don't want to go through the process one more time. Those doggie piddle pads might help make the naked process easier and less messy with a child too. That might be an entrepreneurial idea in the works. When Emily does get trained, we couldn't take a dog to the pool anyway.
Until the training is done, I am thankful for disposable diapers and the warming pool and that potty training is the least of my worries. In a few months, the last vestiges of "baby" will be fading away. In an odd way, the smell of Pampers and slightly padded rear-ends help me to hold onto those baby days a little longer. Another thing to be thankful for.

Read this feature from past issues.

My Husband the Engineer

I just did the math. I've been married to my husband now for 84 years. I know this doesn't sound right but I've never pretended to be very good at math . . . well, in all honesty, I have pretended; but it never did me any good.
Now where was I? Ah yes, my husband of 84 years. Actually, now that I recalculate I find that we have only been married 32 years. And in all those 32 years, I've never attempted to describe my husband (not counting that time to the police).
I suppose the most dominant trait about my husband is that he is an engineer. This means that if he is asked a simple question about, say, fractions, his eyes will light up like a super nova and he will begin to answer the question by going back to the days of Pythagoras, and working his way up the timeline of history's great moments in math one by one. He'll often get so involved in his explanation that he will fail to notice the person who posed the question (me) ducked out to go to the grocery store right after Sir Isaac Newton was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669 and popped back in just before Einstein figured out e=mc². The only way you can tell when he's done talking is when he says, "What was the question again?"
Engineers are trained to analyze the efficacy of systems as they pertain to the outcome desired. This means that they will give you a million reasons why something won't work and none why something will.
That's why, if I want something done around the house in this lifetime, I simply pretend that I am going to attempt the project on my own. Believe me, if you want to get the attention of an engineer quickly, simply put a big roll of duct tape under your arm and ask him if he's seen the tape measure. If that doesn't get him away from his spreadsheet nothing will.
Another thing about engineers is that they are definitely not clothes horses (or even clothes goats). That's why, if you were to peek inside an engineer's closet, it would not be unusual to see his 1967-issued, navy uniform (engineers never clean out their closets) right next to his work shirts—all four of them—two of which he considers brand new because he thinks he bought them four years ago when it was really seven.
And the only difference between his good pair of jeans and his bad pair of jeans is that the bad ones have holes that show and the good ones have holes that don't.
But I would have to admit that being married to my husband, the engineer, has had its advantages. First of all, if I need an accurate measurement, I know my husband will come through with flying colors.
Secondly, I've learned that pretty much everything that exists in the universe, real or imagined, has a scientific explanation. And, finally, and most importantly, not only can I count on my husband through thick and thin; but also, I can count on him to calculate just exactly how thick and just exactly how thin right down to the nearest millimeter.

Blog with Linda! ~ Read her thoughts on "My Empty Nest" at www.OverTheGardenFence.com
Linda has joined the lineup of ejoyable programming at LadybugLive.com. Listen to "Shut the Hell Up Girlfriend." And, did you know: Linda Vernona was a Grand Prize Winner of Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest.

Read this feature from past issues.

THIS MONTH:

Poetry Corner

Izzadora Is No More
She won't run the stairs At break neck speed Flopping her mischievous self Before our feet tripping I shall miss her green eyes Hypnotizing stare, meowing beware Alighting on our laps, Or meowing us to attention Whiskers twitching, trembling Black fuzzy face craved Petting before break fast Fondling before the days chores, Protocol of her choice There was no nook Cranny or corner, shelf of Ignore, that was not visited Inspected and tested She never tired of cleaning and licking Including her brood of humans 18 years we had the pleasant pleasure Treasures of her company Now I pass the staircase And no paw will playfully Cuff and scratch and sigh And snatch a moment of time out She seemed to know the myriad of moods Of a household when anger swirled Stepped lightly or when glee took over Would spring with grace from place to place Ah me Izzador is no more But I am wrong for she is forever more We will bury her under our Kikanyou tree Let God shed his grace on her
Shimon Weinroth
who pretends to ignore her

If you were engaged by Shimon's poem listen to his MooseMeals.com program The View From Anywhere. If you would like to chime in, go listen and send him your comments!

Read this feature from past issues.

Shimon Weinroth
One Man's Terrorism; Another Man's Patriotism
Terrorism pays



We are serializing Flying Lessons for Butterflies by Sheila Whitman. Sheila Whitman is a Professional Counselor and Life Coach, with a private practice in CT. She has done agency counseling with pregnant and postpartum women, and coordinated a residence for women and children in a domestic violence program. Sheila strives to nurture the potential of her clients, and understands that past or current abuse is incredibly detrimental to this goal of self-actualization. The lessons contained in this book invite the reader to challenge old beliefs, and make concrete changes in self-esteem and creative risk taking. Emphasis is on strategies for altering perceptions and behaviors that may have been distorted during childhood, and the development of a healthy integration of mind, body, and soul. The underlying message is that every individual has great value and can eventually soar to discover his or her best self. Sheila completed her B.S. at Temple University and M.S. at Southern CT State University. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Connecticut and a Registered Professional Counselor in California.
Information about Sheila Whitman's counseling and life coaching can be found on the web site http://www.counselorlifecoach.com/.



Flying Lessons For BUTTERFLIES
How to free yourself from the effects of abuse

Chapter 3
HEALING EMOTIONAL ABANDONMENT

Lesson 4 - Who are you and who can you become? Discover your creative, intellectual, social, and spiritual self.
We have covered the topic of disconnection from self at several points in this book. Now, the question is how can you go beyond that, to discover and define yourself as a complex, integrated, evolved person?
A first and essential element is peaceful introspection. This requires time, quiet, and freedom from interruption and censure. Many people find that this offers a gateway to deeper self-understanding, and their personal version of spiritual awareness. It is important to make your own well being a priority, and to carve out a process for doing this. Let's assume that you have decided on a setting that is accessible, but you still are uncertain about what to do next, in the effort to learn about yourself.
This lesson will give you a framework of questions, designed to help you consider possible routes to growth, and construct a picture of a balanced and satisfying life. The focus is on who you are, what you have wished and dreamed, and what you might do and become. Your insights can form the foundation for goals and actions that are truly yours, drawn from your own heart, soul, and mind. There is a natural creativity in you, and your journey is unique. This is the beginning point for the rest of your life, and you have the power to structure and change it.

Think about the following questions, with a relaxed, brainstorming attitude. Your responses will help in the definition of your core values, and in the last chapter, your answers will be used to envision a future that is in harmony with your true self.
Step 1 - Self-discovery:
1. What possibilities, however far out, have occurred to you when considering changes in your life? Do not place limits on your responses at this point.
2. What could these possibilities provide for you?
3. What would you like to stop doing?
4. What would you like to finish?
5. What do you want to learn?
6. If you could do anything, what would it be?
7. What is standing in your way of doing these things?

Step 2 - What you remember in working on this step is a clue to who you really are. This exercise asks that you look at your lifeline, from early childhood to today.
Make a chronological list of peak experiences and major disappointments; these can come from any aspect of your life. After you complete this list, think about what made each event memorable. What do they say about your self-image and what you value?

Step 3 - Envision your future. Imagine meeting yourself five years from now. What might you be like? You can write this or draw it, if that is more natural for you. What advice might that somewhat older You give the present You?

Step 4 - Charting your course based on values and dreams. Write your thoughts on each of these questions or statements about your core values and dreams.
1. What do you miss not doing so far?
2. How are you spending time that could be used to follow your dreams?
3. Who do you have to become in order to honor your values and life wishes?
4. What would you be willing to do to achieve this?

Next month: CHAPTER 4-TAKE OFF INTO LIFE

To order Flying Lessons for Butterflies: How to free yourself from the effects of abuse:
Contact the author at 860-945-1111 or WhitmanLPC@aol.com

OR

Get information on Domestic violence and violence against women at LadybugBooks.com
We invite any of you to contribute on this subject. We feel it is important to continue the discussion of domestic violence.
Read this feature from past issues.

We are looking for your stories remembering women's history.
Find out more, send in your story and we will publish it this Fall.

Exceptional Women are Our History and Our Future:

We Would like to Hear What it was Really Like, from YOU!
comments from Georgia Jones

My new book, Isabelle's Appetite recently got a review that set my teeth on edge, as they say. It read:
Everyone has those days—where life spirals downwards and all in all just seems to have it out for you. Sometimes you need some indulgence to keep yourself sane. "Isabella's Appetite" follows one woman's dive into a particularly horrible day where the only hand hold she can find to avoid plummeting into the abyss is food. Memories call themselves up, about her husband, her children, mother, sister, and many others—and food to keep her stable as she sorts her mind through all this chaos. Deftly written with a greatly realistic character, "Isabella's Appetite" is highly recommended for community library fiction collections with a focus on chick lit. [The italics are mine.]

True enough, it is a book about women, but chick lit? Someone said I should be thrilled since chick lit is really hot at the moment... That might be because the primary buyers of books are women and we will buy them even if they are advertised under disparaging terms. When I see a war movie now (and, truthfully, I avoid it to the point where Dave feels his rights are being impinged)—when I see a war movie or a buddy movie, or any number of other genré where there is only one woman in the cast and she is there as either a token tough-girl or the sex interest I am inclined to call it a dick flick. I don't read dick lit, but this stuff has to have come from somewhere and it was usually a printed page first.
Having our interests and ourselves diminished by the use of demeaning terms—"Just a minute, Sweetie." should not be standard address for a female reporter any more than "Hold on there, Boy." or "Just a sec, Sonny." is appropriate for a man. Yet we are accepting this treatment every day and laughing at anyone who objects...
Wait a minute! My deja vu meter is kicking into the danger range. Yes, for all of the misunderstandings about the 1960s and 1970s, the ones about "Women's Liberation" are the most damaging to us and to all of society. So, if you were there, we want to hear what you remember about women of the time. It doesn't have to be a lengthy account of a first-hand experience. We want those, of course, but we are also interested in the I was drying dishes and looked up to see Billie Jean King hit that final point... Those are your stories and those are a big part of the history. Shall we write some history here?
Please send your thoughts to Georgia@ladybugbooks.com

Read this feature from past issues.

A little bit in writing about what's happening at
LadybugLive.com, MooseMeals.com, and TeenTalkNetwork.com

Serious and Entertaining
We have it all
This Month:
Sometimes there are audio efforts elsewhere worth telling you about...

Women's Global Roundtable at Peace X Peace
Bring your Ears of Curiosity to the Women's Global Roundtable. We host a live phone interview with a different woman from a different culture every Tuesday evening (US time). Listen, explore, and end the evening as a slightly transformed woman.
Offer your Ears of Experience! If you are in a Circle and want to hear from others about their Circle experience or share your own, join our weekly Live Support Calls with Kay. Every Wednesday evening, women like you are learning as they go and growing as they learn.

Read more about Peace X Peace in this month's Feature Article

A Conversation with Ending a Relationship



This Series on Relationships from Dene Ballantine is worth hearing in its entirety!

Reminders from LadybugPress and NewVoices.com

Take a look at the

If you are a writer and would like to become a NewVoices author or artist, contact:
Georgia@ladybugbooks.com
Please use the subject title: NewVoices Information

     It's Not Your Same Old Radio!

"There are people who have something to say and those who have something to sell. We are interested in the ones with something special to teach the world."

For LadybugLive, TeenTalkNetwork, and MooseMeals to continue growing, we need correspondents and readers. The process is quite simple: submissions are by email. If accepted, a reader calls, either our local or our toll free number as directed in the acceptance email, to record. What will you be recording?
We are looking for: readings of original creative work, comment and commentary, and ideas for regularly appearing programming that can be done within this format. We are not able, as yet, to do direct call in shows, but shows that require listener (delayed) response are OK. All of this, of course, within the same guidelines as everything we do: Of interest to women (no particular restrictions). This format might also be ideal for some of those traditional topics, such as clothing and makeup, with a fresh "twist."

Send ideas and proposals to Georgia@ladybugbooks.com
We strive to bring you the best in women's writing.
And...
Keep up to date on what is happening at NewVoices and LadybugFlights by signing up for our monthly newsletter:

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We also offer our audio programs in downloadable MP3 format for offline listening, and at the same modest subscription price — With no unwanted advertising! We know online radio is new to many of you but we also know how rewarding it can be. So, if you need help to get started, don't hesitate to contact Georgia for help... And, hey! Our hosts love hearing from you!
Our teen site, TeenTalkNetwork.com programming is safe — no porn or other unwanted promotions are attached to our files.

The Internet promised and we are delivering.

New programming is always available at:
TeenTalkNetwork.com
MooseMeals.com
LadybugLive

Read this feature from past issues.

Are Investors Causing the Oil Crisis?

Maybe not!

First, a little history

2005

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated fourth quarter demand at 87.2 million barrels a day, up 500,000 barrels a day from the June Short-Term Energy Outlook. Total world petroleum demand for 2005 was revised up by about 300,000 barrels a day to 85 million barrels a day. The adjustment was due primarily to stronger petroleum consumption by developing Asian countries. "

Most historians now believe that the rise of China will prove to be the most significant political challenge in the first half of the 21st century. China is pursuing a multi-phase plan that if successful would leave China as the undisputed master of Asia and ultimately the world. In the initial phase. China is seeking to use normalized relations with the United States to the gain economic and technological resources it needs to emerge as a modern industrial and military power.

India must fight off China and should aggressively step up its hunt for foreign petroleum assets and plan a bigger strategic reserve of crude oil to increase its energy security.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in 2005 that oil markets might stay turbulent "for some time to come," but he predicted that, "high prices will spur the use of cheaper alternatives well before the world's oil reserves are depleted". "Projections in 'Oil and Gas 2006' show that gas will be this key alternative fuel, but not without the transport industry revolutionizing itself. Increasing investment in public electrified systems and reduction in aircraft and automobiles is inevitable, as is global competition and painful conservation."

Until 2010 oil supplies will struggle to keep up with demand causing intermittent upward pressure on prices as the supply/demand ratio swings in and out of balance. After 2010 upward pressure will be permanent.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said "The world is about to face an energy crisis because the demand for oil keeps growing even though production is already at its maximum. Chavez, whose country is the world's fifth largest crude oil exporter, said that all OPEC members were "producing at full steam." "There's a worldwide energy crisis around the corner," Chavez told reporters at the end of the first Summit of South American-Arab Countries in Brazil." “We are producing at maximum capacity,” he said, adding that non-OPEC members such as Russia and the US were doing the same.

Although the price of oil has been close to record levels lately in nominal-dollar terms, it looks quite different after adjusting for inflation. Today's $33 oil is less than half the peak 1981 price in 2005 dollars. From here, the oil price is likely to fluctuate in a wide band, but future peaks could easily reach the $40-to-$45 range.

Looking back 2005 was the global peak oil producing year.

2006 Some folks are worried

What all of this means, in short, is that the aftermath of Peak Oil will extend far beyond how much you will pay for gas. To illustrate: in a July 2006 special report published by the Chicago Tribune, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Paul Salopek described the consequences of Peak Oil as follows: the consequences would be unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose their jobs as industry implodes. Farm tractors would be idled for lack of fuel, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare. And careless suburbanites would trudge to their nearest big box stores, not to buy Chinese made clothing transported cheaply across the globe, but to scavenge glass and copper wire from abandoned buildings.

Journalist Jonathan Gatehouse summarized the conclusions of Oxford trained geologist Jeremy Leggett, author of The Empty Tank: Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Financial Catastrophe, in a 2006 Macleans article as follows, emphasis added: when the truth can no longer be obscured, the price will spike, the economy nosedive, and the underpinnings of our civilization will start tumbling like dominos. "The price of houses will collapse. Stock markets will crash. Within a short period, human wealth -- little more than a pile of paper at the best of times, even with the confidence about the future high among traders -- will shrivel." There will be emergency summits, diplomatic initiatives, urgent exploration efforts, but the turmoil will not subside. Thousands of companies will go bankrupt, and millions will be unemployed

By 2010, predicts Leggett, democracy will be on the run . . economic hardship will bring out the worst in people. Fascists will rise, feeding on the anger of the newly poor and whipping up support. These new rulers will find the tools of repression -- emergency laws, prison camps, a relaxed attitude toward torture.

Climate change will be making its presence felt "with a vengeance." On the heels of their rapid financial ruin, people "will now watch aghast as their food and water supplies dwindle in the face of a climate going awry." Prolonged droughts will spread, decimating harvests

When things get bad

2008

Ken Deffeyes - Princeton professor of geology recently published an analysis that gives us some type of rough idea. His conclusion appears to be that oil at $300 a barrel will produce, more or less, a total economic shutdown:

How big is the problem? Multiplying production (barrels per year) times the oil price (dollars per barrel) gives a total cost in dollars per year. It's an enormous number; tens of trillions of dollars per year. To put a scale on it, the three thin curves on the graph show the oil cost in contrast to the total world domestic product; the annual value the goods and services added up for all the world's countries. The three curves show the oil cost at one percent, two and a half percent, and five percent of the total world economic output. At $130 this morning, we are at six and a half percent.

Oil production obviously cannot consume 100 percent of the world's income. An, guess is that it cannot go above 15 percent. If we see oil at $300 per barrel, we will be looking out over the smoldering ruins of the world's economy.

So while it is still impossible to answer the question of "How much time is left", we might be able to use the price of oil and gas as some rough indicators of where we're at. We're hovering around $125/barrel and $4/gallon right now and already seeing significant slowdowns in the housing, banking, airline and automotive industries. Shutdowns likely begin around $200/barrel and $8/gallon. At $300/barrel and $12/gallon most everything simply stops.

If prices continue to rise at a pace even roughly resembling the trajectory of the past two years, this gives us 6-to-24 months before total shutdown.

Is the Bush administration on board with this?

Of course they are. In a speech he gave in 1999 while still CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney stated: there will be an average of two-percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead, along with, conservatively, a three-percent decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional 50 million barrels a day. Source. "So where is this oil going to come from?" Cheney asked His answer: the Middle East was "where the prize ultimately lies"

Not surprisingly, George W. Bush has echoed Dick Cheney’s sentiments. In May 2001, Bush stated, "What people need to hear loud and clear is that we’re running out of energy in America."

Conclusion

No, investors are not causing the problem. They are just taking advantage of the obvious. What we all need to do is become informed, vote effectively, and act like we have some control of our future. AND KEEP YOUR MONEY UNDER YOUR BED.

Field Trips

Natural Resource Scarcity and Technological Change (don't worry, be happy)

The Impending World Oil Shortage

Links to source information

Happy Trails,

B.S.

Read this feature from past issues.

Books, Cooks, Looks & Ms. Elani

Dear Friends and Readers,
...full of life and not afraid to take risks.
Song Yet Sung
by James McBride
ISBN 9781594489723

The Civil War and its aftermath totally changed the course of this country. The events leading up to the start are well known but some of the less known characters are lost, remembered only by footnotes in some book or in stories passed on by family members and ones involved in the story.
James McBride's recent book, Song Yet Sung, is a combination of fiction and facts. There was a little known slave holder named Patty Cannon. She worked in the swamps of Maryland's eastern shore, kidnapping slaves and keeping them in her attic, releasing them only when she needed something. Cannon was feared by slaves and freedmen throughout the surrounding area.
In McBride's book, the runaway Liz Spocott, a beautiful woman who dreams things that disturb those around her, is shot and captured by Cannon. Though she is able to escape, she is haunted by words she does not understand and a 'code' that was revealed to her when she was locked in the attic. Cannon is both threatened and in awe of the strange woman who was able to break away from her and is determined to recapture her. Cannon does not count on other slave catchers, especially one who comes out of retirement, to challenge her every move.
The many people who flit in and out of Spocott's wanderings are full of life and not afraid to take risks. Through Spocott's travels, always looking for a way to be free, a rich history of the Maryland area in the days before the Civil War is revealed. McBride also explores the interesting relationships between blacks and whites; at times enemies could be friends, depending upon what was needed at the time. Many of the characters will stay with the reader long after the last page is finished and the book closed.

Ms. Elani in the shape of Lane Willey is nearing completion of her third book. Since it compliments her review this month I thought a little teaser might be in order:
Lane's next book—a release date next Fall is expected—Whittled by Time is also an intriguing mix of history and fiction as she develops the story of a runaway slave and brackets each chapter with the historical context of that leg of his escape on the Underground Railway. Both parts of this story are well written and gripping, but, by combining them the way she has, she paints a vivid picture of the times and the difficulties encountered by runaway slaves.
Watch for it! ~Georgia

Read this feature from past issues.

YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE

From NARL:
George Bush's presidency will come to an end less than nine months from now. Unfortunately he still has the power to nominate federal judges who would serve lifetime appointments, carrying out his right-wing agenda far beyond the end of his term.
That's where the Senate Judiciary Committee comes in.
Judicial nominations are subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate -- so the Senate Judiciary Committee is our best chance to put an end to Bush's mission of stacking our courts with ultraconservative ideologues. At this point in Bush's term, we should simply say "no" to Bush's right-wing judicial nominees.
Urge Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy to stand strong against Bush's right-wing judicial nominees.
Many of Bush's nominees have been chosen not because of their excellent qualifications, but for blind allegiance to conservative ideology. Several of them have no prior judicial experience whatsoever, but are well-known Republican ideologues and fundraisers. One nominee currently pending in Tennessee even holds significant stock in a private prison corporation -- and therefore could benefit financially from the imprisonment of those brought before his bench.
For now, thanks to Chairman Leahy and others, the progressive community has succeeded in blocking some of the most extreme Bush nominees, such as fervently anti-choice Richard Honaker and Robert Conrad. But Bush's lesser-known judicial nominees are just as dangerous.

From the California Protective Parent's Association:
Date: May 17, 2008
Contact: Recall Committee
Phone: 916-802-5585
Ulf Carlsson has won his appeal against a shocking action by Sacramento Family Court Judge Peter McBrien for violation of fundamental fairness in a divorce trial. The Third Appellate District Court of Appeal justices unanimously agreed: "We shall conclude that the trial court's actions deprived the husband of his due process right to a fair hearing."
The three justices determined that the "…trial court essentially ran the trial on a stopwatch, curtailing the parties' right to present evidence on all material disputed issues. Using the constant threat of a mistrial, Judge McBrien pressured (Mr. Carlsson's) Attorney Huddle into rushing through her presentation and continuing without a break."
"After displaying impatience and reluctance in allowing the parties adequate time to complete their presentations, (Judge McBrien) ended the trial while an expert witness for the husband was on the witness stand and counsel was in the midst of asking him a question."
The Appellate Court likened the situation to having "a football team be declared the winner where the referee stopped the game in the fourth quarter, on the ground that the team had a sizeable lead and a comeback by the opponent was unlikely."
"By arbitrarily cutting off the presentation of evidence, Judge McBrien rendered the trial fundamentally unfair and violated Ulf's right to due process. (U.S. Const., 14th Amend., § 1; Cal. Const., art. I, § 24.)"
Judge McBrien already has a criminal record for ordering the destruction of public property. He received a public admonishment in 2002 for conduct that "evidenced disregard of the principles of personal and official conduct…and constituted conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute."
He continues to bring his office into disrepute in new and different ways. The appellate court found no other case like this one, in which a trial judge literally walked out of the courtroom in mid-trial.
Judge McBrien is currently the subject of a recall petition filed by outraged Sacramento citizens who are concerned about his reckless disregard for the physical and sexual safety of children in custody disputes, in addition to his ethical and due process violations.
In his response to the Notice of Intention to Circulate Recall Petition on February 15, 2008, Judge McBrien declared under penalty of perjury: "I deny disgracing the American Judiciary System. I deny giving children to sexually or physically abusive parents. I deny cutting down trees on public property. I deny abandoning a trial mid-session or altering any public record."
It is imperative that the Commission on Judicial Performance investigate Judge McBrien for perjury, at the very least.
Contact Brendon Ishikawa regarding the appeal at (530) 759-9865 or appellate@brendonishikawa.com.
For more information.

Read this feature from past issues.

From the EDITOR

Courage is not a Battle Cry

We feed our future conflicts on the past, reliving victories for their taste of glory or challenge.
We take our history and apply it to imagined present or future challenge, testing our metal, ourselves and our beliefs. Past defeats add the bitter flavor of revenge and give the sweetness of all that glory its edge. No less heady than the glory itself, defeat can be intoxicating even when we see, when we know that war is more than those illusions—and less.
At the same time, we look back at the hate and racism that is the very heart of what makes the waging of war possible with a kind of embarrassment. We cringe when we hear the words that shaped our parent's emotional context for those past wars, even as the new words are forming on our lips. They are essential to war, those words. War is not waged with weapons or metal alone. It is an emotional state, one we cannot, as normal humans, reach without distorting our emotions to suit the politics. Thus it is that politics, polemic, and propaganda meet in such endeavors and that they become mind altering, and for some addictive.
We find ourselves shocked and angered by the killing of non-combatants, by rape, genocide, massacre… And we think that these are not war but unfortunate mistakes that can happen in war. Yet, they are always there, in every war throughout history, too pervasive for anyone looking on to truly deny that they are a part, an integral part, of what war is.
And what of war?
We can ask ourselves what it is we would die for. Our society encourages such introspection. But who encourages us to examine for what we would do the more difficult service of life? Living well, living what we believe is harder, perhaps unbearably hard, and maybe it is our cowardice in the face of that real challenge that is the only justification for war.
Provocations for war are not those of a burning building. There is no life to be saved through the false heroics of surrender to possible death in battle. It is in the acceptance of uncertainty that lives are saved, through the slow process of every day making the world better. Instead of embracing the easy battle cry of change, the act of peace is simply the realization that if you don't keep going you won't get there… whatever your personal definition of there.
I remember an Ann Landers column from my childhood. She was asked why it was that every time the writer lost something it was always found in the last place she looked. Of course, that is a fact. Of course, it is frustrating, and looking can seem to take forever. But the answer was so simple and obvious that it has colored my own life ever since: When you find it, you stop looking.
In one sense, I do not believe that we are a species who is meant to stop looking. We will not find utopia, but I would like to think that we can find our way to begin looking for better solutions than war, which is no solution at all. Those who act peaceably for peace have all my admiration. It takes more courage to go on, to keep working for change than it does to throw lives, even your own, at a problem because you can't or won't see any other solution.
But passivism should never be confused with peacefulness. Acting for peace requires every bit as much resolve—and sometimes the same hard talk—as war. Whichever course you choose courage will be required of you, but only the course for peace will result in peace, or progress.
Solutions come when humans think and feel and act as their higher instincts guide them. Nothing good comes from the emotional overdose that war demands. Nothing is solved when blood and possibilities are lost instead of nurtured. War accomplishes only one objective: It cuts short the evolution of a solution. Courage is really only the determination to go on.

Georgia Jones, Editor

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At LadybugFlights we have always encouraged the participation of our readers. For that reason we have this space, a place where you can be heard. Nothing as formal as an article or a column... Just some venting, self-expression, or a chance to communicate what you are thinking on almost any topic. Send it to us and we will let you know if we can use it!

Food for thought. Thanks for including me on the reminder list for LadybugFlights. Otherwise I might miss some of the interesting articles and thought-provoking editorials. I especially enjoy "BabyBug", even though I don't have any little ones at home, the book reviews, and I wouldn't normally think to read a financial column but Beatrice is often right on the mark.
Sign me: Liz Chase, ardent fan

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©June 2008 LadybugBooks.com

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