NO WAY! READY FOR THIS ONE?

Published August 17, 2016 by Nan Mykel

According to Wikipedia, cats are the most popular pet in the United States, second only to one (by count). Who’s first? FISH! No wonder cats love fish food! According to a survey of American pet owners, more households have a Fido than any other furry (or not so furry) friend. By sheer numbers of each actual pet though, there are more Nemos swimming in American fish tanks (as people generally keep more than one fish) and more cats than dogs (as there are more multi-cat homes than multi-dog homes).

The 2007 National Pet Owners Survey, conducted by the American Pet Products Manufacturer’s Association, broke down the pet preferences of Americans. In the United States, people own:

In the United States, people own:

142 million freshwater fish.
88.3 million cats.
74.8 million dogs.
16 million birds.
24.3 million small animals.
13.8 million horses.
13.4 million reptiles.
9.6 million saltwater fish.
One study found that cat ownership is associated with a reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes at the 95% confidence interval.^[41]

MIDNIGHT COWGIRL

Published August 17, 2016 by Nan Mykel

I had to laugh at myself this morning. We know that images that appear as we go to sleep are hypnogogic and those upon wakening are hypnopompic; that dreams/images can be over-determined, and that they often reflect events or thoughts of the day before (day residues), and moreover that the Dream Maker is a great punster. Well, as you may know I wrote my “cow pee” post entitled I’M STILL ALIVE (FOR NOW), BUT… last night, so when I woke up early this morning and “saw” a tall cowgirl complete with straw hat, jodphurs and boots standing in the doorway, it took me just a moment to remember the post about cows last night, and that I currently had to pee!

image pinterest

ISOLATION AND LONELINESS: Moustakas

Published August 17, 2016 by Nan Mykel

Clark Moustakas in Loneliness and Love: “Increasingly, I have become painfully aware of the terribleness of most communication: of people talking but not saying what they mean; of the contradiction between the outward words and expressions and the inner meanings and messages; of people looking as if thy were listening without any images connection or contact with one another. When I am with such persons I experience deep feelings of loneliness, and I want to break through the empty words and come into touch with the feelings; I want to go beyond the icebergs on top, and into what is actually happening deep down. I have become keenly aware that individuals rarely express what really matters: the tender, shy, reluctant feelings, the sensitive, fragile, intense feelings. Too often we receive the words but not the concrete, actual messages and meanings. What has happened to us as human beings that we can be so near and yet so far, that we can be so distant from each other and not even know? Where are we anyway in those hours when the human spirit cries out in despair, when the hunger for sharing and for loving comes through in disguised and devious forms? What has happened when we have become so radically cut off from our own humanity that we kill the human need for compassion and understanding, when the longing for response is not even recognized or noticed?

“Somehow I wish that in first meetings people would communicate only in gestures and in other nonverbal ways. If we would just stop in the midst of our verbal exchanges; if by some force we were required to remain silent, then perhaps we would find our way back to real persons, to actual, concrete experiences, to direct communication, to the deep regions of the self. To know the potential of human compassion and love and to see the fragmentary communications between man and man–that for me is utterly lonely. If we could all just stop and really listen to one another, really hear–not what’s on the surface but in the depth of being.”

I’M STILL ALIVE (FOR NOW) AT 80, WITHOUT….

Published August 16, 2016 by Nan Mykel

drinking cow pee for various maladies, available in India for the same price as milk, The Week of July 29, p. 12, reports. The most difficult part of the production is to know when the cow’s about “to do it.” We all have our challenges. In case you missed it, let me refer you to my July 25, 2016 post, MY FACE LOOKS 10 YEARS OLDER, BUT…

Late Night Thoughts

Published August 11, 2016 by Nan Mykel

child red hair pix It just occurred to me how vulnerable humans are–physically, but even moreso emotionally. Maybe emotionally is not the right word–I mean sensitive to slights, to being discounted (a word I learned in psychology), ignored, being made fun of, mimicked, belittled. Perhaps all these terms refer to the same thing: vulnerable to being hurt. Is anyone impervious to being emotionally hurt? Some have a stoic front, counter-aggressive, hardened defenses. The image that comes to me is of one with a shield which “slings and arrows” bounce off of. I’ll have to think some more on this. (Photo Pixabay)

Talking Back to Your Voices-excerpt from American Scholar 2016

Published August 9, 2016 by Nan Mykel

head free digital

…Then Hans joined a group of people like him who met once a week. They talked about their voices, and they were encouraged to talk back to them. They were even encouraged to negotiate with their voices. One of Hans’s voices thought he would be better off if he devoted his life to Buddhist prayer. Hans is not a Buddhist—like many Dutch, he grew up as a secular Protestant—and he did not want to follow the voice’s command. The group persuaded him to cut a deal with his voices. He told his voices that he would read a book on Buddhism every day for one hour—but no more. He would say one Buddhist prayer every day—but no more. And if he did this, he told them, they had to leave him alone.

They did, more or less. He began to feel better. His psychiatrists began to lower his Clozaril from its high of 500 mg per day down eventually to a dose of 50 mg. He lost weight. He became more alert. He moved out of the hospital. The voices didn’t disappear immediately, but they got nicer. When he was moving into an apartment by himself—and petrified by the prospect—he heard a voice say, “Buck up, we know you can do it.” By the time I met him in 2009, he hadn’t heard a voice in more than a year.

Words

Published August 9, 2016 by Nan Mykel

The world of disability advocacy boasts its own language, for better or worse. In some instances for the better, hurtful labels to describe a type of disability have been replaced by words that do not yet have a pejorative connotation. In other cases, however, terms of common usage, such as “choice,” “inclusion,” “integration” and “community,” have been incorrectly redefined to mean only certain choices or certain places according to the user’s ideology. In these instances, some individuals with disabilities have suffered due to a lack of individualized care in favor of ideology.

“We feel strongly that people with autism and/or developmental disabilities have the right to choose where they receive services, with the help of their family members and legal guardians as appropriate,” says Huso. “Unfortunately, prevailing public policy has taken the ‘person’ out of person-centered planning favoring instead an approach that attempts to push everyone into small residences without any regard to individual need or choice.”

VOR believes by serving people according to individual needs and choices it is more assured that they enjoy greater happiness and a higher quality life experience – whether in a family home, small home or specialized facility setting. The needs are diverse – one size does not fit all.

“‘Inclusion’ has become more about pushing people with profound needs out of specialized care or denying access (deinstitutionalization), rather than focusing on meeting unmet human needs,” said Huso. “As a result, vulnerable people are truly suffering and are far more isolated in unprepared settings.” http://www.vor.net/about-vor