Category: family

12/17/06 09:12 - ID#30513

graduation

i went to my cousin lisa's graduation dinner last night. we ate at the royal on sheridan and military because that's where my grandma liked to go every week during the last years of her life. my grandma's 90th birthday would have been yesterday, and lisa went to visit her grave, which was really sweet.

lisa was proud to make the announcement about getting a job that she really likes. and i'm happy that she's doing so well.

i just had to pause though afterwards and wonder why people all rush in to the job and whole being busy thing. while i am comforted by the thought that we are all one, i know there's another way and we have such freedom of choices.

people sometimes think i am not serious when i say that my job is spreading peace. but it is important. there have been major studies done on large scale meditation groups. it had reduced violence and war when only 1% of the population meditates.

i am going to start school in just over a week. i am a bit saddened to leave being my immediate peace-keeping work to be busy with books and learning new material all the time.

libertad writes at 11:59:01 12/17/06 - Comment #13760: I agree with brit here that it is too difficult to prove scientifically that meditation causes peace. There are just too many factors. On the other hand I do believe, believe being the key word, in the power of thought, prayer, meditation, chanting, whatever you want to call it. How could these things possibly not have an effect somewhere in our environment? I pray for peace everyday, and although we live in a violent world, I still have faith that my prayers do have an effect. I also believe that if there are many in body and one in mind that the effect will be greater.

brit writes at 07:30:44 12/17/06 - Comment #13747: No doubt this is interesting but it isn't scientific, the conterfatuals are not explored and the 'control' variables that they account for in their statistical regression are entirely arbitrary. To control for weather conditons affecting levels of violence you would have to prove at first that it did then build a level of significance into the model that you were working with.

Could it be that the violence did not continue in these particular places owing to other factors? We don't know because they can't explain why it happens. You cannot simply say that something happens but you have no idea why, the methodology is backward and the results have no explanatory power.

If you are interested in Peace, then you should read the journal of conflict resolution or the Peace Science Society journal which might give you a better idea of the steps to war and the paths to peace. Meditation may result in a willingness to lay down arms which may result in a reduction in fighting however there is a clear reson why that chain would hold, saying it is a mystical forcefield which cannot be explained is a cop out

libertad writes at 01:48:31 12/17/06 - Comment #13742: Don't worry Oda you don't have to abandon your peace efforts just because you are in school or working. Your mission towards peace will be with you no matter where you go.

jenks writes at 11:32:15 12/17/06 - Comment #13740: Spreading peace is wonderful and noble and we need more of it- but I don't think it pays very well. Not that money is the only goal of life, but you need at least some to survive.
I would have loved to not have had to rush into working 80/wk just a couple weeks after graduating, but my debt ain't going away on it's own.

brit writes at 10:10:51 12/17/06 - Comment #13737: whilst I agree that spreading peace is important, regarding studies of the population where war allegedly decreased when only one per cent of the population meditates sounds like a spurious correlation to me. You could say that incidences of drowning are correlated to higher ice cream sales and indeed higher ice cream sales may occur alongside higher incidents of drowning but it doesn't mean that they are causally realated. The actual cause would be that more people bathe in the summer AND buy ice cream. Conflict resolution depends on researchers and diplomats being able to establish patterns of behavior which are more liable to increase conflict and take steps to avoid the path dependent behaviors which lead these states to war over and over.
You should always question the theory, methodology and bias with which studies are undertaken before you decided that they are sound.

Permalink: graduation.html
Words: 202

Category: family

10/21/06 06:10 - ID#30488

evil stepmother

earlier today, when i first saw my stepmother, ellen, i realized that if i were going to stay in a good headspace, i needed to put up a force field to protect myself. i have rarely seen anyone so irritable.

after a few hours, things were better, and i let my shield down a little.

but i should have known how bad dinner was going to be when ellen said something about the liberal media. i said i didn't want to talk about politics, but wanted to know if she really believed that the media was liberal. she explained that the wilmington newspaper was owned by the new york times, and that yes, she considered it liberal. when i asked if she thought that most media was liberal, she said a big fat YES. my jaw literally dropped, and i said i had never met anyone who thought that way. she said i must lead a really sheltered life. (yes, in fact, i DO, if you consider that i choose to surround myself with like-minded people.)

so, then, later at dinner, things got much worse. i happened to mention that i was having a hard time with the university of north carolina application (for nursing school) because it was made for people who live in the box.

ellen got really angry and decided to explain to me that nursing is a career that is in the box. she made it sound like you are just an unthinking slave to whatever the doctors say. i tried to talk a little, explaining that my cousin, who is a nurse, had told me that i would be allowed to discuss nutrition and exercise with patients, justs that i wouldn't be allowed to recommend any herbs or advise anyone to get off the medications they are currently taking. ellen, who has been a jaded nurse for a great number of years, expalined that nurses really are not allowed to do anything. i gave up trying to talk, as i was on the verge of tears and i didn't want to say anything. i just got super quiet and was unable to try to defend myself at all for the rest of the meal. ellen continued on her diatribe and tried as hard as she could to tell me all the negatives associated with being a nurse.

i am really sorry for ellen that she chose to manifest such a horrible reality for herself. i have chosen a different reality for myself, one filled with joy and love. and i don't doubt that i will find even more joy and love as a nurse.

i think sometimes people just can't stand seeing others happy. i really have a hard time dealing with those people who try to bring others down. i feel so shitty right now, and i am upset with myself for letting her her bring me down so much.

jason writes at 08:28:11 10/24/06 - Comment #12341: You know what, I have to leave another comment. I can't believe the way Ellen spoke to you! This is inspiring me to invent portable Larson Brother dolls, so next time you will have an ace in the pocket to tell her what's for.

jason writes at 08:22:56 10/24/06 - Comment #12339: Is the "media" liberal?!? Shit, is the sky blue? Do fish have gills? Do hippies like patchouli?

I think it depends on the media sector you are talking about. If it is talk radio, it is overwhelmingly right-wing. The rest ranges somewhere from sideline Democrat cheerleader (News Networks) to out and out leftist (NYT,Alternatives). It's not as if I really have so much a problem with that, except they feign objectivity and they make the news rather than reporting it.

As far as the nursing stuff goes, I think it's sad that your stepmother isn't being supportive of your decisions. UNC is an awesome school! Nursing is an excellent career choice! I think you should stick to your guns and go for what you really want (which is, of course, a Republican man, but that's the subject of another comment).

carolinian writes at 08:24:48 10/21/06 - Comment #12286: First off, you are in NC, and I'm terribly jealous of you. I really want to be back there, because that's where most of my friends are.

Second: If you are big into the hippie scene, check out carrboro, pittsboro, chapel hill, and Durham's 9th street (though the last two have become increasingly yuppy). Weaver Street Market :::link::: on thursdays is something that you might be interested in. Given what I perceive your interests to be, you might want to consider moving to the Chapel Hill/Orange County area, going to school for at UNC-Chapel HIll for nursing, but take a year off first to live there for a year, so you'll get in-state residency and UNC-CH will be *far* cheaper. While their spawn-of-satan basketball team isn't half as cool as Duke's, they're a fairly good school.

Third: I'm the son of a nurse. Being a nurse is a very, very trying profession. There can be long hours at weird times of the day, you can be yanked back into service for emergencies even if it's your day off, you'll have to deal with greedy and obstinant insurance companies who will make paperwork a nightmare, and you'll have to sometimes deal with crazy people on alls sorts of substances who may want to hurt you/insult you and will not be grateful for your attempts to help them. That's not to say it can't be rewarding, but you want to understand what you're getting yourself into.

While I wouldn't listen to someone who rants about the liberal media ad nauseum, you probably can learn a few important things from a jaded nurse.