Sunday, November 22, 2015
The id Post: Our Faux Christian Nation
The id Post: Our Faux Christian Nation: by Irene Daniel Koch and ALEC policies, rife with exploitation, devoid of social justice in our faux Christian nation. Millions give...
Thursday, November 19, 2015
The id Post: What If?
The id Post: What If?: by Irene Daniel What if we chose differently? Curiosity over suspicion? Wonder over warring? Listening over shouting? Benevolenc...
What If?
by Irene Daniel
What if we chose differently?
Curiosity over suspicion?
Wonder over warring?
Listening over shouting?
Benevolence over ambition?
Communication over outrage?
Connectedness over separation?
Understanding over discord?
Love over hatred?
What if?
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
What if we chose differently?
Curiosity over suspicion?
Wonder over warring?
Listening over shouting?
Benevolence over ambition?
Communication over outrage?
Connectedness over separation?
Understanding over discord?
Love over hatred?
What if?
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
Monday, November 16, 2015
The id Post: Paris -- From Light to Darkness
The id Post: Paris -- From Light to Darkness: by Irene Daniel Pretty much like the rest of the sane world, I am just shaken and heartbroken by the images coming out of Paris, the City ...
Paris -- From Light to Darkness
by Irene Daniel
Pretty much like the rest of the sane world, I am just shaken and heartbroken by the images coming out of Paris, the City of Lights. Nearly 130 people dead; over 500 injured, 99 of them critically so; 6 separate attacks; and the entire city in chaos. This great city of the western world has not seen this kind of violence since WWII, over 70 years.
I thought about my Uncle John and my Aunt Bertha. Uncle John was a soldier in WWII, fighting in some of the heaviest battles in the European theatre; including D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and the Remaugen Bridge. He was wounded many times, but always hurried to get back to his unit to fight again. A photo of him and Aunt Bertha greets me every morning with their beautiful smiles. My aunt is so lovely and gracious, and my uncle is dressed in full Captain's dress, with a chest full of medals, including 7 Purple Hearts and 3 Bronze Stars.
I thought of them yesterday because one of my favorite stories that my Aunt Bertha and I speak of often is how those two poor Mexican kids from Ajo, Arizona, once dined at the restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower. Uncle John was stationed in Germany in the 1960s as a commissioned officer, and when he had time off, they traveled all over Europe -- post-war, rebuilt, fabulous Europe, where the American dollar was very strong.
My Tia loves Paris. Since my uncle's death 3 years ago, those memories of Paris, as well as many others, bring her much comfort and peace. I've not yet been to Paris, and I still want to go there and experience this city of rich history, the city of my dreams. But I know that I will never know the Paris that my Aunt Bertha experienced.
As France retaliates and tensions mount, I wonder if I am watching the birth of the next major global conflict right from my living room on my TV. It seems almost inevitable. I hope not, but only time will tell.
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, All rights reserved.
Pretty much like the rest of the sane world, I am just shaken and heartbroken by the images coming out of Paris, the City of Lights. Nearly 130 people dead; over 500 injured, 99 of them critically so; 6 separate attacks; and the entire city in chaos. This great city of the western world has not seen this kind of violence since WWII, over 70 years.
I thought about my Uncle John and my Aunt Bertha. Uncle John was a soldier in WWII, fighting in some of the heaviest battles in the European theatre; including D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and the Remaugen Bridge. He was wounded many times, but always hurried to get back to his unit to fight again. A photo of him and Aunt Bertha greets me every morning with their beautiful smiles. My aunt is so lovely and gracious, and my uncle is dressed in full Captain's dress, with a chest full of medals, including 7 Purple Hearts and 3 Bronze Stars.
I thought of them yesterday because one of my favorite stories that my Aunt Bertha and I speak of often is how those two poor Mexican kids from Ajo, Arizona, once dined at the restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower. Uncle John was stationed in Germany in the 1960s as a commissioned officer, and when he had time off, they traveled all over Europe -- post-war, rebuilt, fabulous Europe, where the American dollar was very strong.
My Tia loves Paris. Since my uncle's death 3 years ago, those memories of Paris, as well as many others, bring her much comfort and peace. I've not yet been to Paris, and I still want to go there and experience this city of rich history, the city of my dreams. But I know that I will never know the Paris that my Aunt Bertha experienced.
As France retaliates and tensions mount, I wonder if I am watching the birth of the next major global conflict right from my living room on my TV. It seems almost inevitable. I hope not, but only time will tell.
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, All rights reserved.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
The id Post: We Have Stopped Listening to Each Other
The id Post: We Have Stopped Listening to Each Other: by Irene Daniel On Monday morning, Tim Wolf, the President of the University of Missouri, resigned in response to student protests and the...
We Have Stopped Listening to Each Other
by Irene Daniel
On Monday morning, Tim Wolf, the President of the University of Missouri, resigned in response to student protests and the announcement by Black football players that they would refuse to take the field unless Wolf resigned. I have no particular comment on this latest evidence of the seemingly daily mounting racial divisions in our nation. There will be plenty of those; and most, I'm afraid, will be vicious and venomous, no matter whose side you're on; or from what vantage point the issue is perceived.
I applaud the man, however, for the gracious manner in which he delivered such a difficult message; proclaiming it as an act of love and encouraging all involved to engage in a more meaningful and productive dialogue. He said, "We've stopped listening to each other."
We all have a voice. We all have a point of view. And we all have grievances. And yet, like the story of the Six Blind Men and the Elephant, we all have our own blind-spots. My experience has been that the only way I become aware of my blind-spots is when they are pointed out to me by somebody else. Sometimes that somebody is a friend, and often that somebody is a foe. However the message gets communicated to me, I cannot receive it without actually listening to that somebody.
White privilege that stems from centuries of legalized white supremacy is a real problem in our nation today. It is not spin. It is not distortion. And we are all affected by a subliminally accepted form of discrimination that had been the prevailing attitude for most of our 240 years as a nation, and for generations prior to the Revolutionary War.
Acknowledging white privilege does not mean that ALL white people are racist, or even that most of them are. Most people I know, of any stripe, perceive themselves as fair-minded and unbiased. It does not mean that white people are inherently bad or inherently good. It just means that our society long ago adopted social mores that were unjust and unenlightened; and the long-lasting ripple effects of previous choices are still with us today.
Unless and until we can learn to examine our problems honestly and justly, those problems will remain unresolved. And we cannot engage in the self-examination and reflection necessary to resolve these issues if we cannot listen to one another with some sense of compassion, and an honest desire to create understanding among the many glorious tribes of our humanity.
How to create that effective dialogue for the 21st century?
Watch this space.
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
On Monday morning, Tim Wolf, the President of the University of Missouri, resigned in response to student protests and the announcement by Black football players that they would refuse to take the field unless Wolf resigned. I have no particular comment on this latest evidence of the seemingly daily mounting racial divisions in our nation. There will be plenty of those; and most, I'm afraid, will be vicious and venomous, no matter whose side you're on; or from what vantage point the issue is perceived.
I applaud the man, however, for the gracious manner in which he delivered such a difficult message; proclaiming it as an act of love and encouraging all involved to engage in a more meaningful and productive dialogue. He said, "We've stopped listening to each other."
We all have a voice. We all have a point of view. And we all have grievances. And yet, like the story of the Six Blind Men and the Elephant, we all have our own blind-spots. My experience has been that the only way I become aware of my blind-spots is when they are pointed out to me by somebody else. Sometimes that somebody is a friend, and often that somebody is a foe. However the message gets communicated to me, I cannot receive it without actually listening to that somebody.
White privilege that stems from centuries of legalized white supremacy is a real problem in our nation today. It is not spin. It is not distortion. And we are all affected by a subliminally accepted form of discrimination that had been the prevailing attitude for most of our 240 years as a nation, and for generations prior to the Revolutionary War.
Acknowledging white privilege does not mean that ALL white people are racist, or even that most of them are. Most people I know, of any stripe, perceive themselves as fair-minded and unbiased. It does not mean that white people are inherently bad or inherently good. It just means that our society long ago adopted social mores that were unjust and unenlightened; and the long-lasting ripple effects of previous choices are still with us today.
Unless and until we can learn to examine our problems honestly and justly, those problems will remain unresolved. And we cannot engage in the self-examination and reflection necessary to resolve these issues if we cannot listen to one another with some sense of compassion, and an honest desire to create understanding among the many glorious tribes of our humanity.
How to create that effective dialogue for the 21st century?
Watch this space.
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
The id Post: Farewell Frank Lautenberg: Farewell To Our America...
The id Post: Farewell Frank Lautenberg: Farewell To Our America...: Senator Frank Lautenberg was the last surviving veteran of WWII to serve in our United States Congress. I mention this not only to honor him...
Thursday, November 5, 2015
The id Post: Why Do We Need to Escape?
The id Post: Why Do We Need to Escape?: by Irene Daniel I recently viewed a 60 Minutes episode, Heartbreak in the Heartland , regarding the epidemic of heroin addiction in the B...
Why Do We Need to Escape?
by Irene Daniel
I recently viewed a 60 Minutes episode, Heartbreak in the Heartland, regarding the epidemic of heroin addiction in the Buckeye State of Ohio. I was reminded of a Lisa Ling piece, Inside Utah's Struggle with Drug Addiction, aired last October on CNN, which told a similar story in conservative Mormon, middle-class households in Utah.
What should be clear to everyone by now, is that no one is immune from addiction. Every day in the United States of America, 44 people die of a drug overdose. Every single day.
The good news is that issues of mental illness and addiction are finally being discussed without labeling every addict as a low-life, evoking compassion even from conservative Republicans like Chris Christie. I applaud Governor Christie for sharing a very personal and relevant story about losing a beloved friend to addiction, and expressing a commitment to helping addicts rather than stigmatizing and jailing them. Bravo Governor!
While all mentally ill people are not addicts and all addicts are not mentally ill, both maladies originate in our brains and how our brain chemistry affects our perspectives of life. We are beginning to understand that a defect in brain chemistry is not the same thing as a defect in character. And while our brain activity affects our choices, and those choices may reflect upon our character, the fact remains that the origin of those bad choices is a defective brain chemistry.
Having lived with the effects of both mental illness and addiction in my family, I come away with an appreciation of how these afflictions can intersect and collide with one another; creating nothing but chaos. And the underlying foundation for all addictions is the need to escape. I know this was true for me. I have spent most of my life running away from myself and my past, and am happy to no longer have the need to escape life in my own skin and in my own head. It took awhile.
And so, the question: Why do we need to escape? From what great horror must we distance ourselves? What monsters and demons chase us to a place where we do damage to ourselves in our escape hatches constructed from our own silent desperation?
I know what I was escaping. And I know now that what was scaring me wasn't actually real. I self-medicated for years in an attempt to tame the demons of depression, until I crashed and burned. It was only in the void of the aftermath that I could find my own truth; the void of broken dreams and empty promises. And it was in the capacity to replace that void with better choices and sober company that I have been enabled to surrender my need to escape from the pain of life.
And that's where our American addiction epidemic starts -- with the need to escape pain; physical pain with prescription drugs. Prescription pain killers seem to be the Alpha and Omega in many an addict's story. It might commence with taking Vicadin or Oxy for post-surgical pain. And it too often ends with an overdose of either prescription meds or heroin, or both; and often includes alcohol.
So, back to the initial question. Why do we need to escape? What is so monstrously overwhelming about life that so many of us just can't handle it without a little help from our local apothecary of either legal or street drugs?
Medicating appropriately for pain is different than self-medicating to escape, and it is necessary to draw this distinction. Many of us need medication to live, and should take appropriate pain meds and/or psychotropic drugs under the proper supervision. Emotional balance can lead to emotional enlightenment, and help us to see our own light and stay focused upon our own tasks and and our own path.
Self-medicating to escape, however, can only lead to darkness and death; whether instantly or by a thousand cuts.
And so, I can only wonder -- what is making my fellow Americans so unhappy that the need to escape into very dangerous drugs has become so prevalent?
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
I recently viewed a 60 Minutes episode, Heartbreak in the Heartland, regarding the epidemic of heroin addiction in the Buckeye State of Ohio. I was reminded of a Lisa Ling piece, Inside Utah's Struggle with Drug Addiction, aired last October on CNN, which told a similar story in conservative Mormon, middle-class households in Utah.
What should be clear to everyone by now, is that no one is immune from addiction. Every day in the United States of America, 44 people die of a drug overdose. Every single day.
The good news is that issues of mental illness and addiction are finally being discussed without labeling every addict as a low-life, evoking compassion even from conservative Republicans like Chris Christie. I applaud Governor Christie for sharing a very personal and relevant story about losing a beloved friend to addiction, and expressing a commitment to helping addicts rather than stigmatizing and jailing them. Bravo Governor!
While all mentally ill people are not addicts and all addicts are not mentally ill, both maladies originate in our brains and how our brain chemistry affects our perspectives of life. We are beginning to understand that a defect in brain chemistry is not the same thing as a defect in character. And while our brain activity affects our choices, and those choices may reflect upon our character, the fact remains that the origin of those bad choices is a defective brain chemistry.
Having lived with the effects of both mental illness and addiction in my family, I come away with an appreciation of how these afflictions can intersect and collide with one another; creating nothing but chaos. And the underlying foundation for all addictions is the need to escape. I know this was true for me. I have spent most of my life running away from myself and my past, and am happy to no longer have the need to escape life in my own skin and in my own head. It took awhile.
And so, the question: Why do we need to escape? From what great horror must we distance ourselves? What monsters and demons chase us to a place where we do damage to ourselves in our escape hatches constructed from our own silent desperation?
I know what I was escaping. And I know now that what was scaring me wasn't actually real. I self-medicated for years in an attempt to tame the demons of depression, until I crashed and burned. It was only in the void of the aftermath that I could find my own truth; the void of broken dreams and empty promises. And it was in the capacity to replace that void with better choices and sober company that I have been enabled to surrender my need to escape from the pain of life.
And that's where our American addiction epidemic starts -- with the need to escape pain; physical pain with prescription drugs. Prescription pain killers seem to be the Alpha and Omega in many an addict's story. It might commence with taking Vicadin or Oxy for post-surgical pain. And it too often ends with an overdose of either prescription meds or heroin, or both; and often includes alcohol.
So, back to the initial question. Why do we need to escape? What is so monstrously overwhelming about life that so many of us just can't handle it without a little help from our local apothecary of either legal or street drugs?
Medicating appropriately for pain is different than self-medicating to escape, and it is necessary to draw this distinction. Many of us need medication to live, and should take appropriate pain meds and/or psychotropic drugs under the proper supervision. Emotional balance can lead to emotional enlightenment, and help us to see our own light and stay focused upon our own tasks and and our own path.
Self-medicating to escape, however, can only lead to darkness and death; whether instantly or by a thousand cuts.
And so, I can only wonder -- what is making my fellow Americans so unhappy that the need to escape into very dangerous drugs has become so prevalent?
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
The id Post: Desert Rain
The id Post: Desert Rain: by Irene Daniel Standing on my beloved desert floor Clouds of gray and white intermingle with blue sky beyond Blue and pur...
Desert Rain
by Irene Daniel
Standing on my beloved
desert floor
Clouds of gray and white
intermingle with blue sky beyond
Blue and purple mountains
holding centuries of secrets
The Superstitions
Apache Leap
They have stories to tell
I can hear them
if I listen carefully
intensely and truly
A gentle rain begins
Drop by luscious drop
I am still
I smell the earth
I hear the wind
that gently graces
chimes nearby
And I hear each raindrop
fall upon my beloved
desert floor
Deafeningly sweet sound
Unspeakable beauty
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
Standing on my beloved
desert floor
Clouds of gray and white
intermingle with blue sky beyond
Blue and purple mountains
holding centuries of secrets
The Superstitions
Apache Leap
They have stories to tell
I can hear them
if I listen carefully
intensely and truly
A gentle rain begins
Drop by luscious drop
I am still
I smell the earth
I hear the wind
that gently graces
chimes nearby
And I hear each raindrop
fall upon my beloved
desert floor
Deafeningly sweet sound
Unspeakable beauty
Copyright 2015, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
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