Politics
What's my excuse for the absence of politics in my blog ramblings? It's complicated.
First, it isn't that I don't care. It's more that I don't hope. The late sixties (MLK, RFK) were responsible for my politicization as well as my defeatist cynicism. They came so close together they nearly canceled each other out. I was aroused by the civil rights movement and thrilled by the moral outrage of its proponents. This was my first political feeling. Left-leaning values of social justice followed naturally.
The assassinations shocked me and broke off a piece of my heart. Perhaps they converged with a private neurosis, reinforcing the feeling that to expect good things to happen just exposes me to painful and inevitable disappointment. Cynicism reduces that risk. It also gives me an excuse not to try.
Every year at this time when the media recycles the tragic stories, I cry. That time feels to me, in retrospect, like my own private psychic abortion, a death of hope just beginning to sprout. What happens when inspiring and effective leaders emerge who glimmer with the possibility of genuine social progress? We kill them. The moral of the story? We can't have that. The dark side always wins. So goes the self-pity train.
Nevertheless, by the late 70's I was aroused once more by the peculiar circumstance of infatuation and marriage to a passionate marxist, my first exposure to the extremes of left. I joined one group and another, distributed newspapers, marched, chanted, and finally gave it up as a dubious waste of energy. Other events (motherhood, divorce, single-motherhood) brought an end to my self-indulgent semi-permanent graduate-student life. I needed a job, got one, and barely raised my head again for nearly 20 years.
Now, retired with time on my hands, I grudgingly feel a tingle of inspiration to hope for the possibility of change again. Could it really be possible that, after two astonishing terms of saturation in the social-political insanity of neo-con Republicans, even the largely self-absorbed, self-destructive, and self-congratulating U.S. population could be receptive to the need for change? Am I too bitterly cynical to pitch in? I can't answer those questions yet. It's just a feeling.
First, it isn't that I don't care. It's more that I don't hope. The late sixties (MLK, RFK) were responsible for my politicization as well as my defeatist cynicism. They came so close together they nearly canceled each other out. I was aroused by the civil rights movement and thrilled by the moral outrage of its proponents. This was my first political feeling. Left-leaning values of social justice followed naturally.
The assassinations shocked me and broke off a piece of my heart. Perhaps they converged with a private neurosis, reinforcing the feeling that to expect good things to happen just exposes me to painful and inevitable disappointment. Cynicism reduces that risk. It also gives me an excuse not to try.
Every year at this time when the media recycles the tragic stories, I cry. That time feels to me, in retrospect, like my own private psychic abortion, a death of hope just beginning to sprout. What happens when inspiring and effective leaders emerge who glimmer with the possibility of genuine social progress? We kill them. The moral of the story? We can't have that. The dark side always wins. So goes the self-pity train.
Nevertheless, by the late 70's I was aroused once more by the peculiar circumstance of infatuation and marriage to a passionate marxist, my first exposure to the extremes of left. I joined one group and another, distributed newspapers, marched, chanted, and finally gave it up as a dubious waste of energy. Other events (motherhood, divorce, single-motherhood) brought an end to my self-indulgent semi-permanent graduate-student life. I needed a job, got one, and barely raised my head again for nearly 20 years.
Now, retired with time on my hands, I grudgingly feel a tingle of inspiration to hope for the possibility of change again. Could it really be possible that, after two astonishing terms of saturation in the social-political insanity of neo-con Republicans, even the largely self-absorbed, self-destructive, and self-congratulating U.S. population could be receptive to the need for change? Am I too bitterly cynical to pitch in? I can't answer those questions yet. It's just a feeling.
posted by Cranky Ol' Lady at 10:30 AM
6 Comments:
I enjoyed reading through the last half dozen or so of your blog entries. We seem to be of similar mind. I've just started my blog, don't know why I didn't start sooner. I have always kept a journal. This is so much more fun!
"Every year at this time when the media recycles the tragic stories, I cry. That time feels to me, in retrospect, like my own private psychic abortion, a death of hope just beginning to sprout."
Your language around this is beautiful and heart-wrenching.
I am not an American but I too feel a sense of something brewing in your country. I want to hope that there is healthy change coming down the pipes and that maybe we've evolved beyond killing what we fear. Time will tell.
To oyasophia -- You bet it's more fun! There's a chance someone will actually read what you say and be moved to respond. I used to write short stories, but when I got too busy to keep that up, I thought that a blog would at least keep me writing, keep the words flowing, until I got back to it. I've kept journals too, lots of them, all with mostly blank pages cuz I ran out of steam. Another thing -- there's a lot of depressed whining in my journals. Interesting how much less of that wheel spinning there is when there's a possibility of being read.
To tall penguin -- I hope so too. I hope Bush will one day gain national recognition as the last straw.
Hi, I enjoy all your posts and, in a sick way, kind of miss all your whining about stupid college students. Hey, I've had tall penguin bookmarked for a short while and enjoy reading her sometimes.
Thanks, Hooly, but you wouldn't enjoy the sort of whining in my journals, which was all about myself. I don't know whether to burn them before I die or to burden one of my sons with them, or what.
Dear Cranky Ol' Lady,
I apologize for contacting you through your comments section but I couldn't find an email address. I was wondering if this would be anything you can use in your blog:
The new Sex and the City movie continues to glamorize torturous shoes of fashion. Pain specialist Christina Lasich, M.D., author of High Heels to Hormones: A Woman's Guide to Spine Care, wants women to use their heads and resist ruining their feet--and their backs. From head to toe, stiletto heels cause pain:
* Wearing high heels makes women to walk on their toes while forcing their weight forward (like a feeling of falling forward).
* The toes are subjected to extraordinary pressure and strain from walking on them for prolonged periods of time.
* Bunions and foot arthritis are caused by this stress of wearing high heels.
* Knees and ankles are easily twisted and injured with wobbly shoe wear.
* A permanently shortened calf muscle can also lead to knee and ankle pain.
* High heels throw the spine out of alignment with resulting back and neck pain.
Dr. Lasich is available to discuss high heels as well as other influences on women's health: bras, pregnancy, hormones, shapely bodies, osteoporosis, plus the impact of convenience foods, smoking, exercise, high-achieving, multi-tasking lifestyles, and more. Would you like a review copy of the book, or to schedule a blog interview?
Thank you!
Kathlene Carney
kathlene@carneypr.com
PRESS RELEASE:
High Heels to Hormones: A Woman’s Guide to Spine Care
Light, Humorous Pain Relief
SACRAMENTO, CA . . . Bra straps, high heels, hormonal swings––oh my aching back! Women are three times more likely than men to suffer from some types of back pain, they’re more susceptible to a whiplash injury, and are prone to low back pain.
As a woman suffering from chronic low back pain herself, Christina Lasich, M.D., knows all too well how gender influences pain. Frustrated by the lack of gender-specific information available for women, Dr. Lasich was inspired to write High Heels to Hormones: A Woman’s Guide to Spine Care (iUniverse, May 2008), a book they can turn to for advice about their spine.
Contents include information about bras, pregnancy, hormones, high-heeled shoes, shapely bodies, osteoporosis and other topics specific to women’s health. She also discusses the impact of convenience foods, smoking, exercise, high-achieving, multitasking lifestyles, and more.
Highly informative, High Heels to Hormones is also a quick and easy read. It’s laced with humor, charming cartoon illustrations, and a lighthearted tone, giving the reader a sense of optimism and hope.
In Dr. Lasich’s discussion about posture she writes: “Did I threaten your sense of decency by telling you to stick your chest out with the shoulders back? Don’t be shy, because shyness creates an unhealthy, slouched posture.”
Dr. Lasich has practiced in the area of spine rehabilitation for over 10 years and is an award-winning graduate from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. “Spine care needs to be gender specific,” she advises. “Being one of those women with chronic low back pain, I have struggled and sacrificed to bring my discomfort under control.
“The concepts that I present in High Heels to Hormones are derived not only from evidence-based medicine, but also from my experiences as a woman with spine pain and as a physician who treats it. Never underestimate what the power of being a woman does to your spine.”
Throughout High Heels to Hormones women will appreciate the fun manner in which Dr. Lasich presents the information. Cartoon book meets self-help book, Dr. Lasich gives women an opportunity for a healthier spine with a humorous twist.
ABOUT CHRISTINA LASICH, M.D.
Christina Lasich, M.D., is a concerned physician with spine pain herself. She has practiced in the area of spine rehabilitation for more than 10 years and is an award-winning graduate from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. Although she focuses on back, neck and other musculoskeletal injuries, she also meets the rehabilitative needs of people with spinal cord injuries, strokes, traumatic brain injuries, muscular dystrophies, ALS, multiple sclerosis, amputations and other painful conditions.
Prior to entering medical school, she worked as a firefighter for the California Department of Forestry. She loved the job and she found her husband. Loyal to her original dream of becoming a doctor, she hung her firefighting helmet in the closet forever in 1993. (Thankfully, she still has a great husband.)
Dr. Lasich currently has a private practice in Grass Valley, near Sacramento, CA. Her philosophy is simple: “Pain is your doorway to transformation.” For more information, please visit www.gvbacks.com and www.christinalasich.com.
Post a Comment
<< Home