An Apple A Day

Health.

On July 30th, 1965 President Johnson signed Medicare into law.  In doing so he created a national health insurance program for the middle class elderly.  The visionary for the program, Harry S. Truman, became the first enrollee of the program. There is much discussion and debate over the Medicare system, how it is implemented, whether or not it is sustainable, and if it is making any kind of real positive impact.  What is largely lost in the modern Medicare debate is the original purpose and intent of the program in the eyes of its creators.  Truman imagined the program as a way of giving the middle class access to medical care, yes.  But by his own words, and from the viewpoint of the mid-20th century, access to medical care was not primarily for the purpose of receiving treatment, at that time people still considered medical care to be a means of prevention first, then treatment.   I think that it is important to consider the fundamental changes in the American mindset around health, treatment, prescription medications, and prevention that have taken place in the last fifty years before entering into any policy discussion related to the health care system.  The most important things that we can do in terms of our own health are all related to prevention, it is time to turn our thinking with respect to health and how we care for it.

Photograph Courtesy of:

www.aarp.org

Of All These Friends And Lovers

Passages.

For all the work of building connections, relationships, and community there is an inevitable slipping of people away to other things, other people, other places.  Like most things in life the passing through of people seems to follow no particular course or trend but happens in fits and starts, as isolated incidents, the death of someone special or a good friend moving to a new job, or sometimes altogether, upon graduation or in connection to a breakup. Some of these passages are hard, some bittersweet, and some are surprisingly easy.  The ones to pay attention to are the ones that do not feel like loss.  The relationships that are the most important to us can weather all kinds of distances and periods of time.  These are the friends with whom we pick up right where we left off, regardless of a year without actually being in the same place at the same time.  These relationships are the ones that sustain us, they are the people to whom we will turn when things really go awry, and they are the people to whom we should be listening when we need advice.  These are the people that we should invest in.  

Consider for a moment the people in your life, the relationships to which you tend.  Which of them sustain you? Which of them exist solely because of proximity?  Try to identify the people that you cannot bear to lose and hold them close before they slip away.

The Beatles, In My Life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI0Q8ytD44Y

Like what you are reading?  Then support the Kickstarter for my book Girl Gone Wild- On Being a Woman in the Wilderness.  Thanks!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1731666363/girl-gone-wild-a-guide-to-being-a-woman-outside?ref=city

Photograph Courtesy of:

http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20101111/Old-Rusty-Chain-Links-1700793.jpg

Communication and Loving Touch

Johnson.

In 1966 Little, Brown published Human Sexual Response a 366 page compendium of the physiology of sex.  In many respects, it was the book that changed everything.  For the first time Americans accepted frank and scientific language about the mechanics and occurrences of sexual response into the public lexicon.  Perhaps more importantly, acceptance of the research required an acceptance of the research techniques, which though conducted by discreet and charming researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson, still required, well, sex; and people to watch it.  In short, the book blew apart the centuries-old notion of sex as a sacred, unmentionable act and opened the worlds eyes to the idea  of it having quite a lot to do with biology.  It was the first published, mainstreamed, scientific step towards the sexual revolution in the United States.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Virginia Johnson, who never earned a college degree, though was awarded two honorary doctorates for her work, who broke barriers as one of the first acclaimed female researchers, who was a country singer, who alternately married and divorced her research partner William Masterson while maintaining their working relationship, died yesterday at the age of 88.  She was an early pioneer of women in the workplace, and an advocate for homosexual rights.  She also developed the first sex therapy methods, sensate therapy, which focused not on medical treatment but on the role of communication and loving touch in the establishment of healthy sexual function,  It is still in use today.

References/Photograph:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/us/virginia-johnson-masterss-collaborator-in-sex-research-dies-at-88.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/25/health/virginia-johnson-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

http://www.amazon.com/Human-Sexual-Response-William-Masters/dp/0316549878

http://www.backstage.com/review/ny-theater/off-off-broadway/sexual-healing/

My Baloney Has a First Name

Weiner.

Not that Anthony Weiner has a particularly interesting sex life, or even a particularly twisted fetish, but he does seem to have a really self destructive and public compulsion that warrants at least a few words.  Is there anything wrong or perverse about his private behavior taken from the context of him as a private citizen? No.  Will it really impact his ability to serve as a political figure? No.  Is it really any of our business? Probably not.  But it is in poor taste, especially the second time around.  That being said, the far more interesting figure in this whole thing is his wife, who is standing by him for a second time.  Mrs. Weiner is young, beautiful and accomplished in her own right, and, ironically, employed by Hilary Clinton.  That she is staying with him indicates that her sense of self esteem, and what she needs from a man and a life partnership is pretty well developed.  While it might be easy to kick him to the curb, that she chooses not to indicates that the relationship serves some other kind of purpose in her life.  Any good, long term relationship is most likely not based primarily on sex and most likely comes with a deep understanding of one another's weaknesses, proclivities, and needs.  Perhaps Mrs. Weiner has taken a page from Mrs. Clinton, and knows that the road is long and that her character may be well fixed in the public eye as solid, loyal, and compassionate, opinions that may serve her well if she wants to continue working in the public sector. While she might be playing the tragic figure right now, she, hopefully, is aware of how this all may serve her in the end.  It worked for Hilary.

Photograph Courtesy of:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/click/0611/Weiners_wife_stays_mum_.html

The Royal Family

Prince.

For a country pretty much founded on the idea of the elimination of monarchical rule, the United States sure loves royalty.  While the American fascination with the royal family could be dismissed as just another symptom or our fixation on fame and wealth, I think it says something a little more complex about our collective psychology.  In American media royalty is always the basis for the fairy tale ending.  The ubiquitous happily ever after story is almost always cast from a royal heritage, making it just that much farther from the grasp of the average person.  I think also that in the states having a royal title represents a kind of transcendence, proof of ones ascendance past the nouveau riche class that has forever been the glass ceiling for the American upper class.  There is a sense of entitlement that we attach to royalty, but that we covet for ourselves, the idea that we could be placed outside of the grind, the expectations of success through hard work just by lucky birth or the right marriage.  Americans increasingly value the easy way, and the life of a modern royal seems to be a template for a beneficent and enviable life of leisure. So we watch, from the outside, and hang on their stories our own hopes and fantasies for ourselves, a better life, the easy way.

Photograph Courtesy of:

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/game-of-thrones/images/20742672/title/iron-throne-photo

Truth and Absurdity

Dream.

This morning I awoke hot and sweating from a tangled mess of midsummer dreams.  I lay for a moment, resisting the day, chasing pictures of brides in massive dresses wearing top hats, party goers comprised of long-lost friends and new acquaintances, a hurried rush on a sunny day to fix some unexpected glitch and...then I lost it.  What I did not lose though, was an overwhelming sense of letting go, of people specifically.  Something about the dream allowed me to step into my day with a sense of calm and peace regarding the people in my past that have moved on and away.  What was most interesting to me about this was that I had no idea that I was longing for that kind of closure.  

Researchers are still investigating all the purposes served by dreaming, deeper sleep, the building of neural pathways, and free association to name a few.  For my part, throughout my life, they have largely been informative.  Dreaming has always been a way for me to identify underlying problems and priorities, solve problems, and find resolution.  That the usefulness of dreams is knitted with the absurdity of my subconscious has never bothered me, rather I believe that the role of the absurd in my dreams is to allow me to face things I would otherwise not be willing to see.

I still do not know what caused the dream I had last night, or why I chose that peculiar set of images to bring me to closure, but I am glad for it.  Dream on baby, dream on.

To Watch More About Dreams:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i539ynXmh-c

At Home Again

Place.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the nature of home, what it means, and how it is created and kept.  These days I feel myself at home in most places, content, at peace, and comfortable with myself and my place in things.  The older I get the more I realize that home, at least for me, has more to do with people, community, and way of life than place or tradition.  I think about my body as my primary home, and remind myself that if I do not care for it I will have no place to live.  I do not know if  a happy home creates a happy person, or if a happy person creates a happy home, but to me, at least today, they seem like one and the same.  

Where do you call home?

Photograph courtesy of:

http://www.foresthomerusticdecorartprints.net/rustic_decorating/architectural_styles,_design/log_cabin_rustic/