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Gossamer Wings

June 9, 2012 by mountainmornings

Have you ever tried to lose weight? And when you did, have you slowly watched the pounds pile back on? Yesterday, my recumbent bike reading at the gym included the latest installment of The Atlantic. It’s the June issue with a big ice cream cone on the cover that is crossed out by a black mark and titled, “The End of Temptation.” I thought it would be all about how Bloomberg is trying to demonize giant-sized Slurpees or something similar. Instead it was simple – it was about B F Skinner, behavior modification, and weight loss.

Did I mention I was a Psych major back in the day? I absolutely loved behavior modification, but unfortunately during the Cold War Skinner’s ideas came under attack for being too Fascist. It was perfectly OK to reward rats for a certain behavior, but manipulating people with psychological strategies was thought to be a no no. Study after study showed that his techniques worked well on annoying habits like nail biting. Then Skinner’s theory made headlines in the treatment of autism. Now in light of our current obesity epidemic, a leading researcher in weight loss, Jean Harvey-Berino, said it best in the Atlantic article; http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/06/the-perfected-self/8970/ by David Freedman, “The Perfected Self.”

“Willpower doesn’t work…What works heavily relies on Skinner – shaping behavior over time by giving feedback, and setting up environments where people aren’t stimulated to eat the wrong foods.”

Oy there it is again, “Wrong Foods.” So there’s right and wrong foods. I overheard a woman next to me at the gym on the same day say to her friend, “The kids love going to Denise’s house, she doesn’t lock her pantry.” Her little group laughed and I silently cried for her children with a locked pantry. They were a modern day Hansel and Gretel. Should we all turn Vegan and eat only raw food? Is it time for parents to become the food police? How do you think of food? If food = love, which is kinda how I think of it, then withholding certain foods would not be a good thing. I chose never to have candy in the house when the kids were growing up, so going out to the candy store became an event….and seeing Grandma Ada who always had a little candy tucked away somewhere was equally thrilling. Making candy forbidden may have caused problems, but it wasn’t absolutely forbidden.

Getting back to willpower and weight loss, Freedman writes poetically about the current apps and programs that actually work. He talks about scales that are wired to our computers, the “Lose It!” app, and the one affordable program that seems to work, Weight Watchers. He says it is very Skinnerian only with gossamer walls. Skinner’s subjects were kept in a glass cage, where everything they did was monitored, every behavior they wanted to reinforce was rewarded. Who would want to live in a glass cage? Well it seems we do, remotely at least! More and more people are using these computer programs to lose weight. Take a look at Shape Up RI http://www.shapeupri.org/ started by some Brown medical students. And even good ole Weight Watchers has joined the fold and has added a bar scanning app to their online program. Thank you Jennifer Hudson. Yes sir, we can “share” every pound lost, and every exercise point gained with everyone!

I say if it works, Bravo! Go ahead and manipulate your environment and your smart phone to lose weight. But I am reminded of that little girl, the Bride’s friend who didn’t see the need for going on a walk to nowhere. Remember her? Well, her mom (my friend) was a lifer at Weight Watchers, and she told me once that her problem eating started in college. It seems her mom doled out only 2 Oreos at a time; so, when she was on her own in college, she ate the whole bag! This made me happy I didn’t dole out candy from a locked pantry!

Our Bride loves yoga, and our Rocker loves the holy guitar. Unfortunately I love to cook and I hate tracking everything I put in my mouth…maybe I’ll just walk more to start! And put on my gossamer wings and dance, dance, dance!

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Too Elitist?

June 7, 2012 by mountainmornings

Nesting season is in full swing. The Newlyweds just moved to a bigger house with more than one bathroom. She is preparing the nursery – notice the fancy modern crib they found at a yard sale
– and reveling in their new master bathroom with two sinks. It took me nearly 30 years to get a bathroom with two sinks! But like our current President when he and Michelle were first married, our young couple is busy paying off student loans and so for now, they are renting…and saving for a downpayment on a home some day. Note: yes, we payed for college but she insisted on paying her way through medical school.

Now what about Mitt’s nesting habits? Today’s NYTime’s “Home” section is all about his plans to expand the Romney’s 12 million dollar homestead in La Jolla, California http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/garden/mitt-romney-the-candidate-next-door.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all And it is only one of six homes in his real estate portfolio – this one near San Diego, two in the Boston area, a ski lodge in Utah and two lakeside residences in New Hampshire. Why did the Times do a back page feature on the Romney’s current building plans? Some of his Modern Family-like neighbors are annoyed with the influx of driveway-blocking trucks and secret service; there are “…six gay households within a three-block radius of his house.” And none of them would sign anything Mitt’s architect wanted them to sign about the plans to build another level thereby blocking their view of the ocean! No? And some neighbors are complaining that Mitt doesn’t like people smoking pot (or weed or whatever marijuana is called today) on the beach! Imagine? http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/06/neighbors-report-romney-is-a-total-narc.html

So what if he needs a car elevator? Doesn’t everybody want a car elevator in their dream home, isn’t that the first thing on your list? An elevator, at first blush, seemed like a great idea to us. We actually hired an architect after finding our mountain view. We thought he could help us plan our “not so big” house, and it turns out that when you hire an architect, you start building at a certain level. He was encouraging us to include at least the footprint and structure for an elevator shaft in our house, since we may one day be unable to walk up a flight of stairs. Well, that’s true. This is called an “aging-in-place” design. And the more you talk with an architect, the more everything seems quite reasonable, even elevators. But in the end, it turns out that if what you really want is to downsize, to take Sarah Susanka’s ideas and apply them http://www.notsobighouse.com/ to build as our builder said “A Chevy, not a Cadillac,” then you probably should not hire an architect. Sadly, we had to fire him and I found our home’s design online.

In March, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly asked Mitt what he thinks about how the Dems are trying to spin his rich guy image. His reply, “Guess what? I made a lot of money.” Well guess what Mitt? We all know you made a killing in the unregulated, financially wild western Gordon Gekko high times of private equity. We know you were never considered for McCain’s ticket in 2008 cause you owned 14 homes; look how you’ve pared down! Americans don’t begrudge you your hard-earned wealth, your business acumen. Or your private prep schools and Harvard Law degree, the privileged upbringing, your Daddy’s leadership of American Motors Corp; your Dad who was a three-time governor of Michigan and himself a presidential candidate in the 1960s. But don’t visit West Philly and pretend you care about public schools. Don’t send out pictures of yourself doing laundry like the rest of us. Don’t tell us you are a self-made man. And please, don’t piss off your neighbors by building ocean-view blocking car elevators…don’t throw it in our collective face.

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“The Sea Is So Wide…

June 5, 2012 by mountainmornings

One of the very first internships the Bride had in college was working for the Children’s Defense Fund, http://www.childrensdefense.org/ Marion Wright Edelman’s bipartisan DC watchdog advocacy group. This was a coup, landing a summer job in our nation’s Capital with such a stellar company. Well, it’s graduation time again and I’m thinking of my BFF’s daughter, Natalie, a Georgetown grad who just received her MBA from the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. An ex-Peace Corps worker in Mali, she was studying at the Johnson’s Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise and we’re expecting great things from her! Major congrats to Natalie on winning this fellowship and mazels to her parents, Lee and Al Bear: http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/About/News-Publications/Article-Detail/ArticleId/2671/Natalie-Grillon-Samuel-Curtis-Johnson-Graduate-School-of-Management-MBA-2012-Named-Acumen-Global-Fel.aspx

Here is one of her recent tweets (from Facebook, I’m not on Twitter, yet) – “not too late for tribal ties to detach MNLA separatists and Ansar Dine Tuaregs from Islamists for negotiations?” I could barely follow this, since like most Americans I am too provincial and not thinking globally enough. But her tweet came on the heels of watching this TED lecture my business psychologist brother, Dr Jim, sent me about Tribal Leadership: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/david_logan_on_tribal_leadership.html

If you’ve ever wondered how we could actually change the world, this is the video to watch. “Three doctors walk into a bar,” sounds like a joke but more importantly it is a meeting of a Stage 3 Tribe. How do we go from a Stage 2 “Life Sucks” world view to Stage 5, with a “Life is Great” world view? David Logan talks about doing world polls, he argues that leaders must be fluent in all five Tribal stages, to build world-changing tribes as Desmond Tutu has done in South Africa. The true leaders in every country must be able to network and connect people from different tribes.

Now let’s zoom in like a Google map on the US of A. It looks to me like our political leaders are still in Stage 3, boasting about who has done a better job, what failed policies the others have initiated. Nobody is getting 60 votes to pass any kind of meaningful legislation, like say equal pay for equal work…it is the most rigid, intransigent group of leaders legislators I’ve ever witnessed. And then this morning I heard that President Clinton gently tried to persuade the DNC to stop attacking Mitt on his ‘stellar’ business record, and instead follow through with the GOP’s likely outcome should their guy get elected: “The alternative would be, in my opinion, calamitous for our country and the world.” Do you see what he did, he zoomed out! Yes, he was saying that not tackling some hard issues like education, entitlements and yes, taxes, will lead our great country down the rabbit hole that Europe seems to be in. And Clinton is someone who knows about economics, his presidency reigned over one of the most prosperous economic times in our country’s recent history. And let’s not forget, he was the last president to balance the federal budget.

We are sitting on a precipice. 2001 Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz just published a book titled The Price of Inequality. I feel as if he is like a prophet, warning us about the plagues to come should we continue wearing blinders.”There are good reasons why plutocrats should care about inequality anyway—even if they’re thinking only about themselves. The rich do not exist in a vacuum. They need a functioning society around them to sustain their position. Widely unequal societies do not function efficiently and their economies are neither stable nor sustainable. The evidence from history and from around the modern world is unequivocal: there comes a point when inequality spirals into economic dysfunction for the whole society, and when it does, even the rich pay a steep price.” http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/05/joseph-stiglitz-the-price-on-inequality

…and My Boat Is So Small.” The 99% are beginning to realize that while CEOs prosper, their shareholders do not. Income levels are at an all-time low and the recent jobs statistics look grim. “…while the rich have been growing richer, most Americans (and not just those at the bottom) have been unable to maintain their standard of living, let alone to keep pace. A typical full-time male worker receives the same income today he did a third of a century ago.” Ha, I wonder what the female worker is receiving?

Congrats to all the graduates out there, and good luck on your job search. And Major kudos to the Dr Bride who just found out that she passed her oral boards! Yippee!! She is now a full-fledged, board certified ABEM member and fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). We are so very proud. Here are my two fellows at my niece’s wedding a few years ago!

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Success

June 2, 2012 by mountainmornings

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Sir Winston Churchill

Just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. I’m not much of a non-fiction type, but this book was required Ivy Farm Book Club reading and I’m glad I tackled it. Book Club will be at my house next week and I can’t wait to dish! Published a few years ago, by the same author of Blink and Tipping Point, I remember Bob reading it on vacation. And I vaguely remember bits and pieces of a conversation he had with the Rocker about the Beatles. Gladwell was asking the question, ‘what makes someone a success’ in their chosen field – and it turns out he wasn’t looking at the individual tall oaks – the Bill Gates of the world – but rather the forest in which we find them. Trying not to give too much away, the argument he makes for the meteoric rise of the boys from Liverpool is that they went to Hamburg, Germany and played very, very long sets.

Naturally the book got me thinking. What is it that makes one guy plug away at a prehistoric version of a PC, and then later drop out of Harvard to start up his own company? Gates happened to be born at just the right time, to have parents and teachers who nurtured his early interest in programming, and to become a young adult in 1975, right before the birth of the personal computer. IBM released their first PC in 1981 with an open architecture for a a mere $1,568. My first published piece ran in the Berkshire Eagle about the same time. It was titled “Guns in the Woods,” and it came about because I was struck by the paradox of our simple new life as parents, on a mountain, heating by wood stove, and Bob carting the components of a PC upstairs. It was pre-IBM, very “open architecture,” purchased piecemeal at Radio Shack! Back to nature and back to the future all at once. Gates was born October 28, 1955. If only Bob, a very early computer geek, had been born just a bit later…

Last night we drove by a magnificent double rainbow in a storm shattered sky. It was unusual in that you could see the whole thing, from one end to the other. We were after some frozen yogurt and had to stop to take pictures. And then, Bob went into lecture mode about the Transit of Venus, coming up in just a few days and we’ll need #14 welding glasses to see it, and Venus won’t do this again for 150 years so everyone on earth right now will never see it again…http://www.transitofvenus.org/

Our wedding anniversary is tomorrow. And I thought to myself that yes, I will still need this outlier husband of mine when he’s 64. What makes for a successful marriage?He says it’s because he gets me. I say it’s because I love him despite getting him. He keeps me on my toes and looking up!

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Corgilicious

May 31, 2012 by mountainmornings


While doing a little research on the Queen’s Jubilee this week, I’ve stumbled upon article after article about her favorite breed of dog – the refined, somewhat height-challenged Welsh Corgi. Over the years, our family has been privileged to share our territory with many breeds (and mutts of mixed breeds too), but the one that stole my heart, the one that was part of the Rocker and Bride’s childhood, the one that would run into the ocean and be swept away if we weren’t careful, was the magnificent and hilarious Corgi.

“Corgi sales are soaring, spurred on by the Jubilee. Liz Hoggard explains how the royal pet has become the subject of artworks, topiary and blogs.” http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/dog-save-the-queen-corgis-surge-in-popularity-7799955.html Yes, I even found a place to buy Corgi shaped cookie cutters!

For us, it all began with a visit to a Corgi breeder in NJ after we’d moved back among family. Was it my way of coping with the guilt of moving my 7 year old daughter away from her sweet, nursery and elementary school friends? Probably. I was expecting to pick out a cute little teddy bear puppy, golden colored without so much as a hint of a tail. But the Bride was very “hands on hips” in those days, and declared that a dog “must” have a tail. So Tootsie Roll came home with us; a Cardigan Welsh Corgi (the kind with tails, not the Queen’s choice) who was a tri-color and looked just like her name, black and white with red on her ends. My sister Kay immortalized her in a needlepoint pillow. Her moniker was, “Lightening Legs” since she coaxed everyone into ball games with a tactic I call the “Corgi Dance.”

Later, Her Hinnyness Toots had puppies, and then it was the Rocker’s turn to pick one to keep. Tootsie had been bred to a champion (well, aren’t they all) who was a most beautiful Sable color.
All the puppies looked like daddy, and my son chose the alpha male in the group; the biggest, first born with the most beautiful shock of white on his forehead, Blaze (see pup at right in above picture with daughter). This mama/son team would sprint out of the house in formation like the Blue Angels, zig zagging their way around the yard, chasing squirrels and herons and sniffing out rabbit holes in the swamp tributary behind us. Depending on the tide, many a day their little legs were covered up to the belly with organic/smelling/black, swamp mud. My vet was the one who told me to look into getting a Corgi. We had an older German Shepherd at home, and he said it would be like going from the “…sublime to the ridiculous.” He smiled as he said that, we had become friends and his daughter was our pet sitter. I knew he loved Corgis, and he knew I would too!

Ms Bean is here because I thought I saw a Corgi on a local news show about a bunch of rescued puppies from a puppy mill. When I got to the vet in another county to take this poor creature home, it turned out it was a Papillon (easily mistaken with those big, foxy ears) and someone else had gotten there first. On my way home, I stopped at the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA and came home with Beaner, my heart just had to be filled.

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Triple Dare You

May 29, 2012 by mountainmornings

What does the city of Charlottesville, VA and Sir John Montagu, First Lord of the Admiralty, Great Britain have in common? They are both celebrating a momentous anniversary, 250 years! http://celebrate250.com/Would it help if I gave you a hint? The Earl is from the town of Kent in Sandwich…and he was a bit of louche, playing cards until all hours of the night. Legend has it that just when the Brit’s table manners were becoming more refined, The Earl asked to be served a piece of meat between two slices of bread. According to food critic Sam Bompus, “What you have with the sandwich is the shock of informality. He was a daring man to eat in such a way coming from his social background.” Little did he know that in his haste, he was ushering in our fast food generation.

Cut to today, and of course the blow out Diamond Jubilee celebrations for HRH Queen Elizabeth II, I had to ask myself, what is her favorite sandwich? An ex-Royal Chef enlightened me this morning on BBC. It seems Her Majesty was ahead of her time, only requesting local foods that were in season; in fact, Chef McGrady said that if he were to serve strawberries in January she’d probably have his head! Well I’m not sure I could belly up to one of these, but here is the Celebration Sandwich – venison, pate of guinea fowl with sour cream and flora (lettuce?), Stilton cheese, gin and Dubonnet (Her Majesty’s favorite cocktail, not quite sure how it is incorporated into the sandwich – http://cocktails.about.com/od/atozcocktailrecipes/r/dbunt_cktl.htm), beet root and apple juice from Sandringham. YUM! God save our Cupcake Queen.

From a daring Earl, to a beloved Queen, and back to our little Dominion; I was catching up on my beach reading the other day, sans beach, and imagine my surprise. There in the midst of May’s O magazine, in an article titled “How to Change Your Life at Any Age,” was my new friend’s daughter-in-law’s name, Kath Younger. I’d mentioned Kath Eats Real Food (KERF) before as a favorite local blogger,http://www.katheats.com/ but little did I know how truly famous she is! The feature was about two young girls, teens from Oregon, who ran out of peanut butter one day and decided to make their own, thereby launching Wild Squirrel Nut Butter. Jiffy this is not, it comes in tantalizing flavors like curious cocoa-nut and pretzel pizazz. Well, they credit sending a sample to Kath for sparking their business breakthrough. Her review – “SO blew my socks off!” And this is how business models and marketing are changing.

I’d call it daring to think you can improve on a lunchtime sandwich staple. I’d call it even more daring to believe you could make a living blogging about food. And I’d call an 18 year old future Queen of England, who insisted on becoming a truck driver and auto mechanic during World War II in part because she feared “…carrying about an inferiority complex for life,” very daring indeed! Happy Diamond Jubilee Your Majesty!

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Remembering

May 26, 2012 by mountainmornings

On this Memorial Day weekend, we are going to the beach, firing up our grills, or strolling through the mall to check out the sales. So many forget what the holiday really stands for. A quick Google check finds that it was formally proclaimed a national holiday by General John Logan, “…the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.” So it started up in this country a few years after the Civil War, honoring the war dead, trying to reconcile the horror, the madness of war with reconciliation; and now it’s all about parades and sales and the start of the summer. I remember being handed small red flower pins on the street with my Dad, by old men in beards who honestly scared me a little.

On this Memorial Day weekend, I’d like to bring to your attention a small protest at the NATO Summit; one that got little if any media coverage. Last Sunday a peace march was held in Chicago and a group called the “Iraq Veterans Against the War” held a ceremony where nearly 50 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan “…discarded their war medals by hurling them down the street in the direction of the NATO summit.” If you watch the video you will hear them talk about their brothers and sisters with head trauma, and PTSD, the 18 suicides a day of returning soldiers, the orphaned children of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lies that were bought and sold in the run-up to war. If you watch the video, you will be moved. “No NATO, No War!”
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/21/no_nato_no_war_us_veterans

On this Memorial Day weekend, I think about my 2 brothers, both Vietnam vets, And I think about my other 2 brothers, one from the Korean theatre and one who served in Germany. I think about my Father-in-Law, the Officiant at our daughter’s wedding, who served in the Pacific during WWII. One brother, the psychologist, is actually working with his state’s National Guard to help those returning soldiers facing multiple deployments. Families suffer in silence; the military culture is not one to seek help. Not only are our current vets suffering from major physical trauma like lost limbs, they are suffering from mental health issues like combat stress, substance abuse, broken marriages and more. If we say that we value their service, if we stand when they board planes before us and clap, if we march with our children in a parade, do we really understand what these wounded warriors have to face when they are returned to us?

On this Memorial Day, instead of visiting a grave with a wreath, or throwing a hamburger on the grill, let’s all decide to make our veteran’s lives just a little bit better – I think of my new Son-in-Law. He is about to end his year as the Chief Resident at Vanderbilt’s Veteran’s Administration Hospital, and become a Fellow in Pulmonology. He is an incredible physician, an outstanding human and healer, with a way of making my daughter smile. I think of Bob, who will always hire a vet, believing their experience in combat makes them particularly able to handle a busy Emergency Department. And of course my own brother, working with the National Guard. I will continue to work for peace.

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Small Times

May 24, 2012 by mountainmornings

This week has been proclaimed National Small Business Week and DC is alive with everything little http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com/ And I was involved in a group message about baby carriers with my sister-in-law and the Bride’s Amazon baby registry. I totally understand wanting to support our local businesses, the problem comes when a party is in one state, the parents-to-be live in another state, and the party-goers are mostly from an entirely different part of the world (like Hawaii, or say upstate NY). The nice thing about the Goliath Amazon is that they link to many smaller stores, and they also have a check box next to the “add to cart” link that says – “buying this gift elsewhere?” or, “Yes I am purchasing this item at a store of my choosing!”

I must admit that I’ve been feeling only slightly out of my element since the baby registry talks began. My parental style has again been challenged by this watershed event. “Mommy did you use scissors to cut my nails?” “No, sweetheart, I think I just bit them.” “Did you bathe me in the sink, or did you have a baby bathtub?” “No darling, I used to take you in the bath with me and bathe you on my lap.” I was beginning to sound like some Neanderthal cave mom! Looking back, maybe I was. Living on a mountain, check! Heating with wood, check! Hanging cloth diapers outside on the line since I didn’t have a dryer, check check! Well, that is until the Flapper came to visit and went right down to the local hardware store and ordered an electric clothes dryer and charged it to Bob. Check…

And this is how becoming a grandparent is similar to becoming a mother-of-the bride. You are treading on an emotional land mine; how to balance your ideas for a best practice, with your daughter’s and her husband’s ideas. Yes, nowadays the dad is stepping up to the challenge of parenting thanks to all those rights we women fought for and are still having to defend. Thank you to the Groom’s Mom for raising an enlightened man, one who is not afraid of being surrounded by pink! But I have to say that the one thing planning a wedding has taught me was to listen, and follow their lead. It was their wedding, and this is their baby. I won’t have to buy them a dryer, and I don’t smoke so I won’t be confined to the porch (sorry Gi). I usually try to NEVER give advice unless someone asks me for it. Plus, I am lucky to have a great relationship with my daughter, and maybe key, I have a wonderful MIL. She is a licensed marriage counselor who reminds me daily about boundaries.

Beyond babies and back to business, our soon-to-be Senator Tim Kaine asked on his Facebook page, “What are your favorite small businesses across Virginia?” My favorite VA businesses are: 1) a chic shoe store named Scarpa http://www.thinkscarpa.com/ 2) a delicious Chardonnay from White Hall Winery http://www.whitehallvineyards.com/ 3) my friend Wendi’s high end consignment traveling business http://www.leftoverluxuries.com/ and 4) the only place to go for jewelry and unique gifts http://www.lynnegoldmanstudio.com/ Oops I almost forgot, 5) if you love freshly baked rolls for your next barbecue try Great Harvest, next to Cville Coffee http://greatharvestcville.com/ A very “great” family owned business! And please, if you care about small businesses, read this article and contact your legislators:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fred-r-becker-jr/national-small-business-week_b_1533807.html because, “…a vote for S.2331/H.R. 1418 is a vote in favor of Main Street small businesses and the average American taxpayer. It’s a vote for the American way of life.” Amen.

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Message in a Quilt

May 22, 2012 by mountainmornings

I’m starting to collect a children’s book library for the grandbaby girl’s arrival. Reading to your child is a sacred duty, akin to nursing in my world, you can both relax in each other’s arms. I had already purchased “Me . . . Jane,” by Patrick McDonnell about Jane Goodall at the Parnassus Bookstore. It’s a gorgeously illustrated, dream-like story of a little girl’s love of animals, especially her stuffed toy chimp Jubilee. “A moving photograph shows the adult Goodall reaching out to a baby chimpanzee, which is reaching back to her. The book closes with a page about the naturalist’s life…” It’s very tear-worthy. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/books/review/childrens-books-about-jane-goodall.html

And next I’m planning to find “Martha Ann’s Quilt for Queen Victoria” by Kyra Hicks; a 19th Century story about a little girl from east TN who’s family purchases their freedom and moves to Liberia. She watches the British Navy patrol the coast in order to intercept slave traders intent on capturing her family and friends, returning them to a life of slavery. Should I tell you that this true story ends after many years of sewing and saving to fulfill her dream, to deliver her gift to the Queen herself? http://kidslitinformation.blogspot.com/2007/04/review-martha-annes-quilt-for-queen.html

Two brave, strong women. One white, one black, each with a dream fulfilled. And now to tackle another dream, and another quilt. I just read an interview with Ina May Gaskin on Democracy Now’s website, she is the guru of natural childbirth and creator of The Farm, in TN. Gaskin “… describes the women who died of pregnancy-related causes and are commemorated in squares of the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project; (she) argues midwifery is about helping the woman and her child, but is also key to shaping how society as a whole views the birthing process.” In the article, http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/3/19/ina_may_gaskin_and_the_safe_motherhood_quilt_project_focus_on_high_us_maternal_mortality_rates she appears to be quite radical. tracing the history of birth from a more primitive society to its current hospital-based, C-section loving institution. She believes the slight statistical upswing of maternal deaths in our country is directly correlated to the increased rate of C-sections.

Quite naturally, the medical professionals in the family had a bit to say about that. The Bride mentioned the older ages of first-time moms. Then she followed that up with the kicker – that Gaskin doesn’t take into account the increase in obesity and its twin cousins diabetes and heart disease. We all heard the alarming figures this week of nearly half the population becoming overweight by 2030. This is how the CDC breaks it down: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html And here’s the quote that says it all, “Higher income women are less likely to be obese than low-income women.”

Which is Bob’s point, what we have here is a selection bias. Anyone who’s ever taken a Stats 101 course knows what this means. Midwives are seeing relatively healthy women, more middle and upper class women, whereas the high risk pregnancies and poor women are (wait for it) going to be delivered in a hospital. If you want to deliver your baby on all fours, in a kiddie pool, an hour away from the nearest hospital, that’s your choice. But I believe you can control the birth experience while still being in a safe environment for the mother and the baby. Fair warning, do not read this birth story if you are pregnant. http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/04/claras-birth-story/

The socioeconomics of birth was not my first choice for this post, nor was promoting fear and loathing of hospitals or midwives. It was supposed to be about children’s books. But in my mind, when they told me that the Bride was breech, and that there was an increased risk of brain damage with a natural delivery, my answer was simple. Make the cut.

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It’s a Beautiful Day

May 19, 2012 by mountainmornings


…to be Outside! Britain’s National Trust has come up with a bucket list for kids, 50 things to do before your child turns 12! It’s a pretty extraordinary list and is meant to get everyone moving and exploring nature, outside. I have to admit I did most of them, though I’m not sure what playing “conkers” is? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9201607/National-Trust-50-things-to-do-before-you-are-12.html Here are the top 5:

1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone

I remember the Bride’s first little friend after we moved back to the burbs of NJ. They were in 2nd or 3rd grade and had a mini-science project to do, so I suggested they gather up some sand from our sand box to start. The little girl was terrified of putting her hands in the sand box. It was the first time I thought to myself, “What have I done?” I loved living in the mountains of MA, cross country skiing, taking my children on hikes and swimming in our pond, but I longed to be closer to our family. Well to be honest, there was a young friend in MA who once asked me very straight-faced why I wanted to take them for a walk. She just did not see the need for walking without a purpose, and she was only 5 years old!

Today is the third annual, “Take Our Children to the Park…And Leave Them There Day!” Yes indeed, that Free Range mom is at it again, proposing to parents a little break in their day to teach their children some much needed social skills and a little independence http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/third-annual-take-our-children-to-the-park-and-leave-them-there-day-coming-up-sat-may-19/ It’s really not a radical idea, in fact it’s empowering. Of course, I would add this depends on where you live and the age of the child, but raising a bubble-wrapped kid is definitely bad for their mental and physical health, in my opinion.

So tie up your sneakers, fire up your grill, climb a tree! Go out into the great outdoors. I’ve just about finished planting my kitchen herbs in pots by the door. Or hey, maybe the Rocker could set up his band on a runway? “What you don’t have you don’t need it now…it’s a beautiful day!

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