When it comes to aging, we don't have to be cheerleaders all the time...

In response to "TroysMom" who sent the following entry to DrWeil.com and to date has received 192 "you go, girl" comments:
I am 51 and very health~oriented and healthy. My "problem" is that of accepting aging.....it's an actual hang~up I'm dealing with....I'd appreciate other people in my age group and their viewpoints that may help me through this phase. Perhaps it's part of entering Menopause?
Pastor Ellen's little words of wisdom:
Dear TroysMom and company,
You guys are remarkable...thinking positive, living in the zone, keeping the bar high...and I'm asking myself, "Am I in a bad episode of The Emporer's New Clothes?"
I mean, none of you came out and actually said it: "Menopause sucks!"
Bottom line, de facto, es verdad!
My clothes, mattress, and car upholstery are all salt-stained from the massive streams of sweat that have poured from my body since the hot flashes and night sweats kicked in.
My husband installed a remote control for the fan so he doesn't have to get up 30 times a day to turn it off and on depending on the hormonal whims of my endocrine system.
Estrogen, yes? Estrogen, no? Oh my gosh, if a man had to endure this, we'd have all the drugs the pharmaceutical industry could throw at us (albeit some really bad TV commercials to tout them)!
And what about that monthly visit from my grandmother? I endured that little inconvenience for 35 years along with all the other girls, believing that the best thing about it was that it got me out of P.E. class now and again.
But now that my little friend isn't visiting so often, I am curiously sad. Yes, she was a messy guest...just like my teenagers. But I missed them when they left, too!
Yeah, yeah, I know Dr. W says we'll feel much better about the whole thing if we exercise, eat well, get plenty of rest, and supplement with B12 & soy....but every now and again it's good therapy to just tell it like it is!
We have wrinkles and our breasts aren't perky. We look in the mirror and see not only our mothers, but our grandmothers! We value our bran and prunes on a roadtrip more than our bikinis and sunglasses.
Veritas (and metamucil) vos liberabit.
I think I've written my way to an epiphany.... that while this proces of aging is slightly disconcerting, it's mega-cool. We are still "becoming." In a universe where creation lasts more than 7 days, we are works in progress!
No longer "period pieces," we have become "classics."
And we get discounts on Wednesays at all the stores in the mall.
It doesn't get much better than that!
Okay, it does get better.
Peace, dear sisters.

WOW WOW WOW!!!!

SOCIETY IN DISARRAY
excerpt from: Metaxis and Recovery: Towards a New Vision of Health
by Jeremiah D. McAuliffe, Jr. MA and Jeffrey C. Wilson MD PM


"Underneath the guise of civic religion and American crypto-quasi ritual we still have a basic unrest, an essential longing. We need to be accepted for who we are, we have real feelings of having "missed the mark," we experience the need to be made whole. We have desires for a deep transformation of our selves and desires for vibrant social connection.

As a group of individuals, a society, we have lost our vision of authentic transcendent realities. Our spiritual energies have been shunted and mis-directed into a myriad of other activities. We pay homage to materialism, money, competition and social status rather than knowledge, growth, fellow-feeling and discovery of our uniqueness. We substitute patriotism or civic allegiances for communities based upon authentic spirituality and universal human attributes. We prefer secular ceremonies such as football games, bingo tournaments, the new year's eve party, or the fund-raising dinner rather than ceremonies by means of which we can share and be guided in our needs for transcendence. Our needs for transcendence are channeled into functional projects such as building efficient machines, bigger malls or more powerful computers rather than spiritual projects such as shared learning, artistic expression or growth in social understanding.

The proliferation of pseudo beliefs and crypto rituals from which we derive our communal and individual identity negatively effect not only ourselves, but the entire world. The fascination with what is visible, material, empirical and sensual is contagious. The human is offered the promise of temporary transformation through a wide assortment of banalized pseudo beliefs in the power of material accoutrements. The tendency is to sacralize our own way of national life. When this way of life is based upon the myth of wealth then the role of the businessman functions as the high priest in the massive civil religion of America. The quest for God becomes not a transcendent quest into awareness of the mystery, but a shopping trip to the local mall.

It is through the stories, images and symbols that comprise our national myth that we seek solutions to our human quest for fulfillment. Unfortunately, the symbolic environment in society has become one dimensional. Our culture's sense of reality is in many ways insane, self-destructive and empty. We are tempted by dreams of material prosperity to abandon the age old pursuits of folk traditions and common sense that bespeak of the transcendent yearning of the human and of the centrality of the mystery to that yearning. We are trained to be pragmatic. We worship the value of empirical reason. We over-achieve, out-compete and alienate our fellows. We become isolated in our autonomy.

We are a culture starving itself to death. Our love affair with the objective and the productive over the past two hundred years has produced a society of external plenty and inward poverty.

We fail to transcend the various social crisis such as racism and disparity of wealth. Our meager attempts to survive social boundary and limit are usually through rational and physical approaches. Mystery, awe and wonder are absent. The major symbolic structures of the human--language and culture--have been stripped of their potential to speak of the transcendent mystery. Transcendent symbols of wholeness have been destroyed or lost.

The personal alienation and social isolation we find in America now extends to and threatens the survival of our whole planetary community. We live under threats of nuclear holocaust and the destruction of our environment. We place greater value upon efficiency of production than upon the quality of people's lives. Our spiritual hunger for connection to noble purpose and uplifting meaning is not only neglected, but is actively rejected unless it has a functional purpose. We offer each other, and our children, the meager sustenance of training for competition, power and control. We espouse so-called "success" and "career climbing" over trust, fidelity, compassion and vision.

American culture is degenerating. Materialistic beliefs in wealth and power have largely replaced the original transcendent beliefs in freedom and expression. Our "sacralized" American way of life is limited. It flattens out our experience of the world, of our openness to awe, mystery and love. It is but a collection of pseudo-spiritualities that mislead, misdirect and end in frustration. It does not provide healthy guidance to our longing for transcendence and quest for meaning.

Humans are both free and determined. Our freedom is quite limited. It is not something that is always present--it has to be developed. The degree of our soul making capacity and skill is the degree of our freedom. To a large extent we are determined by our history and traditions. It is only through soul making that we are able to break through these determinisms, and then only to a limited degree. The thinker Hans-Georg Gadamer has written: "Long before we understand ourselves through the process of self-examination, we understand ourselves in a self-evident way in the family, society and state in which we live." The problem is that the majority of us never come to an understanding of ourselves through self-examination. "

Some Texans Boycott Girl Scout Cookies

CRAWFORD, Texas (March 3) - Some families are boycotting Thin Mints and Do-Si-Dos and other Girl Scout cookies. Troop 7527 is down to just two members after the other girls were withdrawn by their parents. And Brownie Troop 7087 is no more.
Why are folks in this conservative Texas town where President Bush has his ranch so mad the Girl Scout organization?
Planned Parenthood and sex education.
HOW'S THAT WORKIN' FOR YA?
Oh Texas people, don't you know selling Girl Scout Cookies IS birth control? Think about those cookie sales and all the time and effort they require...any girl in America could not possibly keep up with orders, collections, distribution AND an active sex life! Okay, I'm kidding.
But apparently we think we're doing quite well around Crawford, Texas without Planned Parenthood.
Hmmm...I wonder what the stats would tell us about that....
In 2002, 659 women in McClennan County, Texas (county in which Crawford resides*) had abortions---112 of them under 20 years old and 4 under 15
1078 unmarried women gave birth (looks like these folks haven't fully bought into W's views on marriage)
261 teenagers gave birth
McClennan county ranks 6th in the nation for percentage of teen births...that's 6th highest out of 3,066 counties in the whole U.S.**

I guess that Girl Scout sex ed wasn't helping.

Well, hey--just in case you Crawford moms want to keep selling cookies out of that new and improved organization for girls you're cooking up, try this time-honored, foolproof recipe:
Mix 1/2 c Lard and 1/2 c Butter until creamy. Mix in some flour, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Work this over until it is thoroughly mixed, then blend in more flour. Add about 3/4 of a bag of chocolate chips, mix it all up, and bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
Remove cookies from oven and let cool.
Place cooled cookie between teenage daughter's knees and be sure she keeps it there until marriage.

*Yes, I know...Crawford is one small town in a county that includes Waco, Tx. It's gotta be those wild and crazy Waco girls skewing the figures!
**Source: 2002 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

My very own blog!!!!
My first entry!!!!
I've considered this moment for a while and always expected that I would begin some great statement, a sort of "blogifesto" of sorts that might change the world...or at least the internet world...as we know it.
But my first entry has to be about this day.
I set up a class at the Rescue Mission where I preach each Sunday morning. This class is based on the 40 Days of Purpose book by Rick Warren. I wanted to offer the study to the folks going into the Residential Treatment program. What better time to consider what you're here for than while you're trying to kick a heroine, cocaine, or alcohol addiction?
That was part of the equation.
The other part involved who came as my helpers--affluent people. People who go to church every Sunday and believe that the world is basically black and white. Republicans.
And therein laid the chemistry. Because as those good people sat with those good people, something miraculous happened. The scales fell off their eyes (not the homeless guys' eyes, the homed peoples' eyes!) and they saw something they'd never seen before.
"Those people" out there on the streets, struggling with poverty and addiction and life on the downside of things...they are people. And they are worthy of our time and attention.
It is just too easy to revert to a "bootstraps" mentality, expecting people to pull themselves out of the miry clay. It is not easy to sit with them in the dank and skank of the Rescue Mission as you listen to their life stories and not be moved by the reality of "life in the gray regions of humanity."
What does that mean?
It means that it's not all black and white. The day Eve took a chunk out of that apple black and white went away. Gray won the day. And we are left not to deny it, contend with it, or endure it. We are left to love it...and all those who are carried in its wake.
One of my people wrote me an email tonight after she got home. Her words:
"WHAT AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE THAT WAS! I LEARNED SO MUCH FROM THOSE PEOPLE AND FROM YOU. HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO MISERABLE SOME OF THIS WEEK WHEN I HEAR FROM THEM? I HAVE HAD SOME DIFFICULT DAYS THIS WEEK AND TONIGHT TAUGHT ME I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT DIFFICULT WAS! THANK YOU FOR INVITING ME TO HELP. I WILL BE THERE NEXT WEEK."
Lifestyles of the poor and disenfranchised! Who woulda thought....

This is Pastor Ellen's daughter, Annie. This blog is her gift from me. Soon she'll be blogging away her life, so watch this space!