Can I stop telling you how to eat?

As I've recently catalogued (The End of Overeating) I have struggled with food and eating my whole life.  Many years ago, I discovered that I needed to avoid foods that contained conventional flour, sugar, dairy and most animal proteins, especially beef and chicken.  For a while, I became one of those people who would tell you all about how I ate, full of recommendations for how you should eat.  Unfortunately, the Youtube video below, "How to Become Gluten Intolerant," hits very close to home:

I am still (imperfectly) eating (mostly) this way and it is still working for me.  But I am, largely, no longer telling other people that this is how I eat (unless they ask) or, more importantly, implying that this is how they should eat.  In fact, imagine this if you will, to the degree that I have stopped talking about it and started actually just eating this way, the health and fitness I always have sought has been more mine than ever before.

One thing that I have been told in this struggle, and am now starting to internalize, is that what I can eat could kill you and what you can eat could kill me.  There's no one size fits all to food.  Some people's bodies thrive on animal protein.  Some do not.  Some people do great on legumes.  Some do not.  Some people can just eat anything and everything their whole life and smoke and drink and live healthily into their nineties.  Others do not.  

My need for control and certainty in the universe, for rules I can understand, combined with the mirror effect, drives me to assume that what works for me will work for you and that you need me to help fix you.  You do not.  You are whole and complete the way you are.  You are a hero on your own life journey.

For this reason, I am drawn to plans of eating that are not one size fits all.  I like Eat Right for Your Blood Type because the plan is by blood type and they are all different.  But even that does not work for many people.  What DOES seem to be universal is that our beliefs drive our experience.  If I believe something works for me, it usually does.  So that's another reason not to preach new food ideas.  I don't have the right to mess with other people's beliefs unless they are hurting me in some way.  

Obviously, the American diet's dependency on meat, dairy and sugar does have a global effect on land use and the environment.  So there's some argument that it all affects me.  But I still don't need to tell you how or what to eat.  We can all invite ourselves to learn more about how the choices we make with food affect ourselves and each other.  

past lives/parallel lives

What we used to call past lives, I now call parallel lives.  What we used to call soulmates, I now believe are just people we already know from one of our parallel lives.  When I was a professional public interest advocate, people rarely talked about past lives or soulmates to me.  But in the years that I trained for and have been a woo-woo Centers for Spiritual Living minister, they do.  A fair amount.

Something about past lives never really rang true to me.  I remember my kids, when little, once trying to do the math on past lives.  "Mommy, if there are millions more people today than there were 200 years ago, how could all the people today have past lives?  would there have been enough lives to have?"

People with psychic abilities have sometimes volunteered that I was all sorts of mostly terrifying things in a past life.  I've been told I was a high level inquisitor in the Spanish Inquisition (which nobody expects, by the way), a Kamikaze pilot in WWII, and, a fearsome pioneer woman on the Oregon trail (what a relief after the first two).

Having studied our version of quantum physics with Amit Goswami at Holmes Institute for Consciousness Studies,  I know that at the level of the quantum field there is no time.  At the ground of all being is only space and light. In the quantum field the exact same particle can be in multiple places at the exact same time.  This is practically impossible for us time-based beings to understand but it is one fact that even "real" scientists (Goswami is a real physicist who dumbs it down for the rest of us) agree upon.  

Meanwhile, mathematicians (without whom physics would be impossible) mostly agree (something about String Theory I think, totally don't understand any of this but like to throw it around as if I do) that is it mathematically probable that there are multiple universes and timelines existing simultaneously.

A minister friend and I were talking yesterday about how this makes more sense to us than past lives: parallel lives.  Since consciousness, or choice, collapses possibilities into probabilities and reality and since the exact same object can being in different places doing different things at the same time, to me that means that there are multiple versions of my life happening simultaneously.  

In some of them I am thinner; in some I am fatter.  In some of them I am still practicing law.  In some of them I agreed to run for public office.  In some of them I'm an episcopal priest.  In some of them I'm probably in jail.  But right now, in this timeline, I'm in my mother's new home in Davis watching her "pack" to go "home" and I have no idea how I'm going to handle this delusion.  Maybe in another timeline, I do...

Who Does that Biker Think He Is?

The other day I brought my automobile to a complete stop in a bike lane in downtown Davis, California. I didn't know which way to go and I needed to check my phone.  No one was in the bike lane and I didn't see any parking spaces, so it seemed like the safest option.   After I had been sitting there a while figuring out my next move, a cyclist hit me.  Not hard.  And not like he didn't see me.  Like he DID see me and was ramming me to send me a message.  He then screamed at me, "get out of the fucking bike lane!" and sped off.  

I started shaking and came very close to tears from the experience.  I felt like a victim.  I had been lost.  I had been late.  I was in an emotional state regarding one of my family members already.  To be screamed at and judged by this angry man, felt like the last straw.  I pulled myself together and drove safely off.  I passed the cyclist in question and turned left at the next corner.  He turned left too, again it seemed deliberately, and used the opportunity of passing me at the next light to scream at me a second time. This upset me mightily.

The following week I read How I learned to bike like a Dutchman in The New Yorker.  In this lovely piece, Dan Kois describes his American family's experience of living in the Netherlands without a car and merging into their bicycle-oriented culture.  Thought it wasn't the point of the piece, my eyes were opened by this article to the arrogance, privilege and primacy I assume behind the wheel of a car in the United States.   In the Netherlands, as the article informed me, there are "18 million residents with more than 22 million bicycles."  In Holland, bicyclists not drivers own the road.   There it is the cars' responsibility to get out of the way of the bikes not the other way around.  Kois describes how difficult it was for him and his family to stop cautiously assuming that at any minute they were going to be hit by a car.  He tells how they kept disrupting the massive flow of bicycle traffic by slowing down. 

After reading this article, I realized how incredibly thoughtless it is for me to casually use a bike lane as a place to pull over.  Imagine how I would feel as a driver if a biker (or any vehicle) came to a complete stop in the lane of a super busy car thoroughfare.  I would be outraged and terrified. "What the hell do they think they're doing?" would be among my best thoughts.   When I bike, I ALWAYS assume that cars have the right of way.  Same as a pedestrian (although legally, its the opposite).

Davis, California, home of UC Davis, is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the US.  Out of the 69,000 residents of that city, the majority are students at the UC and of those a huge chunk rely on bicycles as their main transportation (with the lack of parking and the size of the campus it is by far the smartest option).  When I came to a halt in that bike lane, I was selfishly endangering the lives of these students with my arrogance and privilege as a driver.  

If I want there to be alternative transportation options in the world, I need to bike more like a Dutchman myself, and drive less like an American.

Everyone had better pay close attention

Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Photo is from Stan Greenberg's piece in the New York Times

I believe we have called #HeWhoShallNotBeNamed to us in order for us to pay attention to the intolerable which we have tolerated in our society.  Frequently we have paid attention because #HWSNBN is making the tolerably intolerable even more intolerable, as with the exacerbation of institutional -ized racism, unsustainable energy use and cruel immigra- tion policy.   

Sometimes, as with the recent criticisms against housing crisis in California or the poverty of Baltimore, or  on the campaign trail with trade policy, we are being directly called to face what even those who perceive themselves to be the most compassionate makers of public policy have tolerated or ignored.  

Again, I must apply the excellent question Stan Greenberg asked in The New York Times  (which I examined after last week's debate: Which Democrats in last night's debates understand this "transformational moment"?).  Greenberg's article should remind every person in this country, whether a candidate for higher office or simply a member of the Sovereign People, that if you think that all that needs to be done right now is to change back to the kind of leadership we had before is tragically mistaken.  

#HWSNBN got elected because people in this country are no longer willing to tolerate the way things have been: the growing gap being rich and poor, the homelessness, the financial insecurity.  He is continuing to fan those flames that elected him.  We cannot go back.  We have to go forward.  Those who have disproportionately benefited from the current system need to understand that a sea change is underway.

4 Snouts for Between Riverside & Crazy at Capital Stage thru Sept 29

(:)(:)(:)(:) 4 snouts up out of a possible 5 snouts (click here to understand my snout-based rating system) for Between Riverside and Crazy up at Capital Stage in Sacramento midtown through Sunday September 29th.  

Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, who wrote Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train' perhaps the best play I ever saw produced at Capital Stage, this play toggles between hilarious dialogue and performances and genuine pathos.  Guirgis's writing and Judith Moreland's direction are superb.  The performances are very strong, with notes below.  

There are more characters and actors on stage then one usually sees on the Capital Stage--that's great fun.  They're all strong.  Darn it I recycled my program and can't find the cast list online.   Particularly strong performances by the actor who plays Oswaldo the sober (or not) ex-con friend of the son and the manipulative self-serving Lieutenant.  

My only note would be that while the lead actor, James Wheatley, who I believe is also the artistic director of the wonderful Celebration Arts theater in Sacramento, gives a physically and emotionally strong performance, he doesn't seem to have fully inhabited the words of the script--he stumbled over some of what he was saying and it didn't feel as if his character embodied those wonderful lines.  

The music is also fabulous.  Please catch a performance this weekend or next and tell your friends.

Below is everything I could cut and paste from the website about the play

Between Riverside And Crazy

Between Riverside And Crazy
by Stephen Adly Guirgis

Directed by Judith Moreland

August 28 – September 29, 2019
2015 Pulitzer Prize Winner
Sacramento Premiere

Ex-cop and recent widower Walter “Pops” Washington and his newly paroled son Junior have spent a lifetime living between Riverside Drive and crazy. But now, the NYPD is demanding his signature to close an outstanding lawsuit, the landlord wants him out, the liquor store is closed—and the church won’t leave him alone. When the struggle to keep one of New York City’s last great rent-stabilized apartments collides with old wounds, sketchy new houseguests, and a final ultimatum, it seems that the old days may be dead and gone.

“Capital Stage launches its 15th anniversary season with one of its best productions ever.” —SN&R

“New Capital Stage Play is ‘Crazy’ Good.” —Sacramento Press

“…It’s chock-full of entertaining surprises.” —Sacramento Bee

“If you only have time for one play in Sacramento this month, ‘Between Riverside And Crazy’ at Capital Stage is the one see…This darkly funny drama [is] a must-see theatrical event.” —Outword Magazine

Buy Tickets

Act I: 60 minutes. Act II: 50 minutes. One 15 minute intermission.

Featuring: James Wheatley, James R. Ellison III, Nestor Campos Jr.*,
Viktoria Luna, Kelley Ogden, Aaron Wilton*, Dena Martinez*.
*Member Actors’ Equity Association. Photos by Charr Crail.

The End of Overeating?

I almost don't remember a time I didn't struggle with food, body image and eating.  Like many in my strange fraternity, I wake up every morning resolving to eat healthy food that serves me.   For decades, I would be able to do so until some point in the afternoon and evening, at which point I would fly off the rails into eating whatever was available.  I would wake up the next morning hungover, sick and ashamed from eating food that didn't serve me.  I would resolve to do it differently.  And I would fail.

Throughout my teens and adulthood, I would go on a series of diets (in my case, only the kinds where you can eat an unlimited amount of X, never the kind where you have to weigh and measure or buy your food from someone else who made it).  I was EXTREMELY successful at these diets.  I would lose whatever the maximum predicted amount you could lose very quickly: sometimes as much as 40 pounds in one month.  

When I was 16 years old I was cast in the part of Ethel Toffelmeier in the The Music Man because I was pudgy and so is Ethel.  I was horrified (that is not me on the left, but remarkably evocative of the part and my state of mind) .  I seized onto the popular Liquid Protein Diet.  For 30 days, while rehearsing for this summer production,  I ate only 3 tablespoons of liquid protein a day.  I lost something like 35 pounds during this period.  I drove the costume mistress crazy.  As performances neared and my weight dropped, she kept sewing more and more padding into my costume to retain the pudgy look of Ethel.  Then, in the final rehearsal week, while my parents and younger brothers were out of town on a family vacation, I passed out during a dance number and fell into the orchestra pit, my fall broken by a cello case.  I woke up with a physician parent force-feeding me Oreos and OJ and asking, "when did you last eat?" "What day is it?" was my reply.

Whatever I lost I would quickly gain back with interest.  As a result I got heavier and heavier.  I oscillated between a normal size and pretty darn fat.  When I am a normal size, people look impressed and compliment me and ask me what how I did it.  When I am heavier, they ask me if I'm okay and look concerned.  When I am heavier, I have hated how I look and judged myself harshly.  I have also judged myself for not being perfect and doing this perfectly.

Finally I stopped trying to do this alone.  By having help I have been able to stay a lot closer to my goal weight for years at a time and to refrain from dieting or yo-yo plans.  I have a healthy food plan that I work hard (with a huge amount of support from others) to stick to.  The most important part of my recovery is that I largely am also able to be loving and kind to myself.  Today I love my healthy body and how I look.

I learned, as this book details, that I have a disease, which the scientists call "conditioned hyper-eating" and that there is treatment available.  In my case the treatment involves getting a lot of support from others and staying out of my own head.  This book, written by the former head of the Clinton Food and Drug Administration, who says that he himself is a "conditioned hyper-eater, " is really three books in one.  The first third is a description of how the fast food industry has manipulated ingredients to get people hooked on certain products and eating them compulsively.  The second third is a description of the science that proves that there is such a thing as "conditioned hyper-eating."  And the final third is the science that explains what works to help people recover from "conditioned hyper-eating." 

I have found this book to be the best scientific explanation of why my approach works. For 14 years, I have been more free (not completely free) from the constant obsession with my body and food and eating.  

Which Democrats in last night's debates understand this "transformational moment"?

Last night's Democratic presidential debate at Texas Southern University provides an opportunity to examine the candidates in light of this wonderful recent question presented in the New York Times by Stan Greenberg-- "The Republican Party Is Doomed: This is a transformational moment. Do the Democrats understand how to take advantage of it?"  

Candidates who do NOT understand this transformational moment:

Joe Biden--While most pundits observed that Biden "did well" last night, which means he didn't meander, dodder or make any giant gaffes, he also continues to demonstrate quite clearly that he does not understand that a sea change in the country is underway.  Hillary Clinton was the last major candidate to make that mistake.  IT is possible that he can win the nomination with this strategy (because it is possible that a majority of those who are likely to vote in a primary are all about the past not the future) but it is NOT possible that he can a) win a general election with this strategy or b) govern for a world that works for everyone.  

He is clinging to a patchwork healthcare system whose only benefits are catering to corporate clients.

He still can't talk about race for s**t.

He still demonstrates no urgency on dealing with the effects of climate change.

The only urgency he demonstrates is defeating Donald Trump.

Uh, yeah, we all get that, thanks, Joe.

Candidates who definitely DO understand this transformational moment:

Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Beto O'Rourke and Marianne Williamson

Bernie of course has played a YUGE role in creating and guiding us to this moment.  So to say he understands it is a massive understatement.  Every major initiative being talked about on stage last night, with the possible exception of gun buy backs and reparations for slavery was brought to you by Bernie.

Elizabeth, who has largely embraced Bernie's policies with her emphasis on regulating capitalism, and her focus on some key consumer protections, also is part of the movement for change.

Cory shows that he understands the moment.  He is a great talker and could win it all.  So far, I don't hear the cynical manipulation that I detect in Kamala and Pete but it's possible that it's lurking.

Julian did not create any of this and, like Biden, is associated (former cabinet secretary) with the Obama administration but unlike Biden does show that he knows there is a sea change and he wants to be part of it.

Beto has no chance whatsoever at this point, but he still has shown he knows what is going on.

Marianne was NOT in this debate but I watched part of her livestream. It was good.  I missed her in the debate.  Obviously she gets that this is a transformational moment.  More than anyone other than Bernie.

Candidates who have demonstrated they are willing to hijack this transformational moment and bring corporate america along:

Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg are both very clearly cynically using the language of this transformational moment and paying lip service to the issues that bring it forth while assuring the corporate oligarchy with code words that they will do nothing to change the status quo that Sanders and Warren are working to change.   If corporate America were smart, they would hitch their wagon to Harris, who has the best chance to go all the way with this strategy.

Last night they both blew the corporate dogwhistle on healthcare by talking about "choice."  Trust me, from years in the trenches working for universal health coverage.  "Choice" is the word that the health insurance industry has market-tested as the way to stop government financed insurance.  As Elizabeth Warren so eloquently articulated last night, consumers do not care about choice of health plan, they care about choice of physician.  Government financed insurance once universal, should provide considerably more choice of physician than any closed panel HMO most of us are currently on, but managed care plans have continually used "choice" as their buzz word to avoid losing their add-nothing profits.

Amy Klobuchar

Amy may or may not understand this moment.  She explicitly and clearly positioned herself last night as the centrist midwesterner who finds others positions extreme.  Yet I find her to be WAY better at talking about this moment than Joe Biden plus she is female and better at talking.  That is smart.  If she can stick around long enough for Biden to implode (which I still think is inevitable), she could split his support with Kamala Harris.

I find Amy's approach a lot more honest and appealing than Kamala's and Pete's--ironically, Kamala and Pete like to talk like transformational progressives and raise-money from huge corporate donors, Amy Klobuchar is probably more of a real progressive than either one of them but is posturing as a midwestern centrist.  I'd rather a transformational sheep in status quo clothing than a status quo sheep in transformational clothing.

And, yes, I'm still married to Bernie and dating Warren, Booker and Williamson (goodbye to Tulsi Gabbard).

The Spiritual Wisdom of "well that happened..." both personally and politically

Lately I am appreciating the spiritual wisdom of "well that happened."  Way back in 2009 when it entered the lexicon, it had a snarky dismissive feel, often used to cut off conversation.  And some people probably still use it that way.  Urban Dictionary: Well That Happened   

But now I feel like it's a profoundly useful spiritual and political concept.  In my culture, so much (maybe all) of the pain of life comes from a strong sense of judgment, that something has gone wrong.  I wake up every morning with a to do list and then life happens and certain or all things on it don't get done.  The derailing is painful to me, because I often judge it and think it should be different from how it is.  As the Buddhists say, all suffering comes from attachment, and all suffering is optional (depending on my ability to release attachment).

"Well that happened" may seem pointless but actually it is just true.  The things that I'm worried about and upset over are really just stories I'm believing.  I think things should be one way and they actually appear to be another way.  This phrase, this spiritual truth, is really a great way to release attachment and sometimes feel better fast

It's not, I'll hasten to point out, the same as "it's all good."  "It's all good" is actually judgmental.  It's a "good" judgment, but its still a judgment.  At the level of the unified field/One/Divine Love/God there is no judgment.  It/S/he/They always say "yes" without judgment.  Judgment is a human idea, not a Divine one.  "Well that happened" (which, yes, I do want to insert a comma in, but that's not usually how it's written) is something that the Divine would say/feel/know/be.

In the political realm this can be even harder than in the personal.  First, a reminder that there's not something out there that is political that is separate from the spiritual.  We are all One.  There is no separation in the Mind of the Universe/One/unified field.  So what's true in the personal is necessarily true in the political realm.  And, indeed, the pain of the political is entirely experienced as personal, right?  I am in pain when elected officials/the government does something that I don't feel should have been done.  It feels as if something has gone terribly wrong.

In the personal realm as well, the worse the experience is the harder it is to refrain from judgment.  It's one thing to say "well that happened" when I can't find my car keys and I'm late to a minor appointment.  It might be possible for me to find relief from the application of "well that happened" to my mother's very interesting conviction that Netflix fiction is true (even when she's very very angry and yelling at me about it).  But if I were to get a life-threatening diagnosis or lose a close loved one or to have my house or business burned to the ground, I suspect I would have a violent reaction to anyone saying "well that happened."  The higher the perceived stakes are, the greater the degree of attachment, the more I will probably cling.

In politics right now, I perceive that a great deal is at stake.  I might be able to rub some "well that happened" on the leader of the country for deceiving people as to the trajectory of a hurricane (despite the incredibly dangerous possibilities that brings), but it's a tall order to be nonjudgmental and nonattached about racist policies, children being separated from their parents, global instability and policies that encourage wildfires, record heat and rising sea levels.  It's seems like the stakes are too high to see these things from God's perspective.  Which is a very  interesting statement if you think about it.

Is it possible for me to use the "well that happened" Divine invitation of nonattachment and nonjudgment to remove the stuckness of the polarities of the current moment in order to free up space for new possibilities?  Is it possible for something to shift in the void that nonjudgment can bring? 

What energy, space and consciousness can me and my body be to release all judgment and attachment and be "well that happened" in all aspects of my life in order to receive a new idea, a new moment in a life and world that works for everyone and everything that doesn't allow it, can I destroy and uncreate it all right now? 

My Training Regimen to Care for Mom

I remember a few years ago a couple of friends of mine infuriated me with stories of the loving and wonderful time they were having caring for their aging parent.  They were far along in the process and I was just beginning it.  Why should this have infuriated me?  You would think that I would want to wave a magic wand and be having a "loving and wonderful time," right?  There was nothing loving and wonderful about the time I was actually having.  Mom was leaving three to six angry blaming voicemails a day on work, cell and landline (remember landlines?).  

Later, I remember another friend, who is the full time primary caretaker for her angry mother with dementia, saying "everybody's always talking about the importance of self care when you're caring for an aging parent.  Who the fuck has time for self care?  How would that even happen?"  

Down the road aways, I find both perspectives equally relatable and mystifying.  My brothers and I recently moved our 85 year old mother with advancing dementia from her (our) home of 53 years to a little house in northern California near all three of us (and all six of her grandchildren).  

This frugal public schoolteacher did us the immense favor of saving enough to pay people besides us to provide the care and to keep her in a private home, rather than institution.   I am extremely grateful to be one of the few only daughters on the planet who can rely upon her two brothers to be equal partners in this endeavor.  Even so, the business of arranging, supervising and filling gaps in care along with managing her affairs is quite challenging.   At least once a week I have been the primary caretaker for an overnight or two.  I have found even the best of these nights to be exhausting and stressful and I get relieved by others.

To get through even my version of elder care, I have to attend therapy every week, meditation, prayer, support groups and exercise pretty much every day, and work very hard not to use food, shopping, Netflix or controlling other people to manage my feelings.  I find I am crying a real lot.  

All of it helps but none of it has yet transformed the experience into "loving and wonderful."  I am often angry at my mom for being the way she is.  The night before last she woke up a whole household furious and terrified that a woman was being threatened with murder.  She was sure this was true and that we were not doing anything about it.  This is my fault for turning her on to Jane The Virgin.  Sigh.  To be sure, I started out very compassionate for how scared she was.  But compassion wanes at 3am when someone has been screaming at you since midnight that you are a co-conspirator to murder.   

I cannot imagine what it would be like inside my head if I had to do that day in and day out without a care regimen.  It's heartbreaking to think of all the people who do.

Even in all this there actually have been many loving and wonderful moments.  I have had great lunches with mom.  I have enjoyed having her fall asleep on my lap.  I have often felt humbled at the opportunity to help her with this phase of her life.  I didn't exactly expect that to happen but it has.

I think the thing I wish that everyone would do is just admit that this is incredibly difficult.  Its a marathon not a sprint.  So let's train for it.

American Alcoholic Family System Called Marianne Williamson to Run for President

In today's New York Times Magazine, "The Gospel According to Marianne Williamson: do spirituality and self-help have a political constituency?" 

Great piece.  In it, she says that what called her to run for president was the realization that entire country is like an alcoholic family system in which the children just know something terrible is going on.

There is truly only One mind. In August of 2017 I wrote Father Knows Worst: America's Dysfunctional Family Reality TV Show.  Unfortunately its as apt today as it was 2 years ago.  And yes, I'm the sort of person who is quoting myself.  Not from egomania, just expediency:

"Some of the kids are really really clear that Dad is out of control and has to go.  Some of them try to pacify him and hope that he will not hit them or Mom. He invariably hits them anyway.  He blames all the victims.  Nothing is ever his fault.   It is always the kids' fault or Mom's fault.  Or someone else's fault. Some kids, the ones that are emulating him the most, sometimes hurt the other kids. "

Why and How I Believe in the Power of Prayer Despite Everything

I grew up in a household led by an Episcopal altar cowboy turned socialist agnostic professor and a Methodist southern belle turned "I'd like to go to church someday, if only I could get out of the house on Sundays."  My father's mother believed in dreams and synchronicity.  

We never prayed.  We marched.  We carried signs.  We protested. We canvassed.  We voted.  We called our representatives.  But we never prayed.

I went to law school.  I became a member of Ralph Nader's cadre of lawyers in Washington DC working for consumer rights, including single payer health care (enhanced medicare for all).  I wrote reports.  I held press conferences. I called people sell-out pigs. I went on talk shows.  I buttonholed congressmen.  I never prayed.

Then we moved to California with our 2 small children.  I worked in and out of California legislature.  I analyzed legislation.  I raised money.  I wrote letters.  I never prayed.

Then one of our closest family members spent several years in a living hell of the body.  And I learned to pray.  I couldn't decide whether it worked or it didn't.  It took that family member a long time to get well, but I felt better fast.  

Simultaneously, I saw almost no fruit from hard work in Congress and the California legislature.  Where was the single payer (Medicare for all) that we had worked for?  Where was campaign finance reform?  Where was the carbon tax?  Where was a living wage?  Where were real protections for consumers and workers?  If hard work as an activist in the real world is SO darn productive, where the heck were the results?

For over a century, Religious Science (now called Centers for Spiritual Living) has taught people how and why prayer works.  Lately the actual hard science has caught up with the early teachings.  We know that at the level of the quantum field below and including all things human consciousness directed purposefully "collapses" potential (waves) into material form (particles).  

And now, after over a decade of study and practice, I'm an ordained minister in the Centers for Spiritual Living.  I no longer am engaged in the business of politics or legislation.  What do I do for a living? I pray.  

I teach people how to use the power of prayer to bolster whatever it is they want to accomplish or change in the world be it heal their bodies, heal the planet, or heal the body politic.

Washington Examiner: Don't Mock Marianne Williamson's Emphasis on the Power of Prayer

When we mock Marianne Williamson for suggesting that we pray to effect the hurricane, we are rejecting our own spiritual power and authority.  We are forgetting a huge amount of what we can do to change the world.  We are not just human beings.  We are spiritual beings having a human experience.  The 21st century is a time where we are going to be learning more and more about the power of who we are.    Unfortunately, part of the president's success is he knows how to mobilize his spiritual power for what he wants and we don't.  See Donald Trump and the power of the word. 

Folks are working hard to create and bring forth a world that works for everyone.  Many of those fighting to change seek to stand side by side with indigenous peoples, and learn from their ways which are in harmony with the earth.  All indigenous peoples pray.  The original meaning of the word "protest" on the other hand was a bit patriarchal, it was to swear witness on one's testicles.  

I truly want health care, economic opportunity, clean air, clean water, safety and security and quality education for all people.  The current Congress and political establishment cannot achieve those goals without a sea change.  That requires phone calls and money and voting and, yes, it requires prayer.

The energy of Spirit is not a man in the sky with a beard directing events.  It is a responsive powerful field of love.  I have learned that Spirit always says yes and it is infinitely patient.  It says yes when we say we will fight and fight and lose because we believe there's a conspiracy against us.  It says yes when we say say that we hate and distrust half the country.  And it says yes when we say, Great Spirit, of ourselves we are not enough, we are tired of losing.  We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.  We need your help.  We know that there is more than enough shelter, clothing, love, clean air and clean water for everyone.  But we don't know how to distribute it.  We need the power that moves the tides to change the tides.  We do not know how, by ourselves, to keep our children safe from hurricanes or from violence.  We do not know how, by ourselves, to work together to create a green economy.  We do not know how, by ourselves, to create the political will to provide affordable cradle to grave health care for every single man woman and child in the country.  We do not know how, by ourselves, to live together in love and harmony and truly respect every person.  And so we need your help.  We are asking for your help.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, God, thank you, Great Spirit, thank you, Jesus, for your help, your power, your guidance and your love. 

I Don't Believe in Arthritis -- Part 1

First of all, hi, I didn't post once in August.  I am crawling out from a compressed summer of tons of short and longer fun fun fun travel punctuated by moving our 85 year old mother from her home of 53 years in San Diego to a little home she has owned in northern California where she can be near us all.  

So my first post out of the gate is: I don't believe in "arthritis."  What do I mean by that?  Well, I believe there is deterioration in bones and it can be witnessed and measured by x-rays and the like.  But what doctors call "arthritis" (and regular people think of usually as being caused by deterioration in the bones) is actually just a medical term for the pain and the stiffness and swelling that many people experience.  

And while I do very much believe that people are experiencing that pain, stiffness and swelling, I do not believe there is something called "arthritis" that causes it.  It's tricky because arthritis is really not a cause, it's an effect.  But of what?

What I don't believe is that there is some permanent condition that makes us have pain or discomfort and that cannot be healed.  And neither does Dr. John Sarno.

Dr. John Sarno, a physician who wrote such bestselling books as Healing Back Pain, Mind Over Back Pain, The Divided Mind, & The Mind-Body Connection, studied and published articles in respected medical journals about the mind's role in pain in the body.

In these studies, which have been replicated many times, he showed that deterioration of bones does not cause pain.  Pretty much every single adult over the age of 40 has deterioration of bones, compressed or crushed disks in the spine, and the like.  The vast majority of those who have these experience or report no pain, swelling or discomfort in the area of that deterioration.  

However, when people come into a doctor complaining of joint pain or swelling or discomfort and an x-ray is taken, these deteriorations in the area of the discomfort are discovered and connected with "arthritis" and then people come to believe that there is something called arthritis that caused their pain and that is caused by something called aging and it is not going to go away.

You could read anyone of Dr. Sarno's books to understand how you can actually heal yourself from almost any condition by understanding the role your brain/mind is playing in keeping you ill.  Or you could watch this old but still riveting 20-20 investigation into Sarno's work and how effective it has been for people.  

90% of Dr. Sarno's work (he died last year, but his clinic in New York continues on) is really working with people to understand that they can direct their brain to heal their body and it will work.   A huge number of people can't hear that.  They think that they are being told that their pain is all in their mind--it demonstrably isn't.  They think that they are being told they caused it--they didn't. 

What the work of Dr. Sarno is telling people is once they understand how the mind-body connection works, they can heal themselves of almost any condition (which is super exciting).

For more on Sarno's work go to this: Tension Myositis Syndrome wiki and resources

Standing for Human Decency at our Borders

Dear Centers for Spiritual Living Leaders, Practitioners, and advocates of a world that works for everyone,

 During many moments in history, faith leaders have been responsible for causing significant and beneficial change towards those experiencing inhumane, unkind, and unjust conditions, through conscious peaceful actions.  We have many examples of the power of this throughout recent history: Gandhi, Mother Teresa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., along with public leaders such as Nelson Mandela. 

 As faith leaders, we know we “treat and move our feet.” This  is our moment to join a groundswell of voices and actions to take a stand for what is right, just, and  humane at our borders. This Monday, July 29, 2019 a group of 400+ faith leaders, including a group of our own CSL ministers, will be standing for humanity on Moral Monday in a peaceful, nonviolent action called by Dr William Barber at the detention centers in El Paso, Texas. Let us unite in prayer and consciousness with those faith leaders. Please join us in holding the high watch for a resolution that is for the highest good for everyone involved and know with us that safety and love permeate this experience. 

 Let us join together in individual and collective actions dictated by our consciousness that embody the qualities of Inclusivity, Wholeness, Safety, Love, and Peace for those at our borders. You can get involved by holding a prayer vigil and dialogue in  your own community in support of our global vision:

We envision a world where personal responsibility joins with social conscience in every area of the political, corporate, academic, and social sectors, providing sustainable structures to further the emerging global consciousness.

We envision a world where each and every person has enough food, a home and a sense of belonging; a world of peace and harmony, enfranchisement and justice.

 Just as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned the Beloved Community, we can stand for that and more. 

 From the King Center:

In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.

 Thank you for standing in our Vision and empowering others to do so.

 Dr Petra Weldes, Co-Spiritual Director

CSLDallas

A Center for Spiritual Living

Radically Inclusive I Spiritually Progressive I Transforming Lives

therock@csldallas.org

214.478.9904 Cell

csldallas.org

Apologies for Buttigieg post

If you got an email of a post about Pete Buttigieg from yesterday, I apologize.  That was a draft I was thinking about and a note to myself.  It was not intended to be sent out.  I was wanting to think it through first.  If I offended anyone with that thought, I sincerely apologize.

Four Snouts up for The Roommate at Capital Stage in Sacramento now

(:)(:)(:)(:) (out of a possible 5 snouts) for The Roommate by Jen Silverman up at Capital Stage in Sacramento right now.

Off to enjoy the 4th of July weekend in Yosemite so not much time but since this is one of the few other things to do in town that is NOT 4th of July related and it is wonderful, I want to make sure you know about it.

How often do we get to see a play where there are only 2 characters and they're women in their 50s?  and where the play is written by a woman? and directed by a woman?  and where it's delightful, funny, and poignant all at the same time?  Basically never.

This play is that.  It's been called Thelma and Louise meet David Mamet (or something to that effect.  I really loved it.  And its directed by someone that I had never seen direct before--and she did a fantastic job--although something about the set was a little distracting, the long way around to the porch, she made it work.  It's up through July 21st.  See it

“This two-woman show is, in turns, hilarious, tense and surprising.”  SN&R 

“Outstanding acting shines in the hilarious Capital Stage play ‘The Roommate’.”  Davis Enterprise 

“Director Dena Martinez steers playwright Silverman’s dark comedy with aplomb. She lets the themes of friendship, trust and self-identity reveal the transformational possibilities of life. In her hands – and that of two extraordinary actors – Silverman’s saga of how to re-make oneself and how to deal with the consequences is excellent theater.”  Sacramento Press

Kamala Harris and the Power of the Word

Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) has moved up dramatically in my rating of her ability to use the power of the word to win the nomination and the White House but nothing has budged by estimation that she will govern based on a world that works for Kamala Harris rather than a world that works for everyone.

Going into last week's first nationally televised debate amongst the Democratic candidates for president, Harris scored lowest in my ranking of emerging top candidates for president because I didn't think she used the word well enough to win the nomination or the presidency. Coming out of the debates, she moves up. As it stands now, she is bested only by Sanders, Warren (and yes, Williamson) overall in the Democratic field in combination of use of power of the word to win with likelihood to work for a world that works for everyone as this chart below details. Read on to see why:

Harris performed masterfully in last Thursday's debate. That exchange between Harris and Biden was one of the most powerful moments of political theater I can remember. It is the only moment in either debate that is absolutely mandatory for your viewing, so I embed it below.

In this exchange, Kamala Harris pulls off something that is practically impossible to accomplish. By breaking into a raucous skirmish over just policing tactics (occasioned by the tragedy in Mayor Pete Buttigieg's city) speaking as the "only African-American on this stage," Harris turns the heat on Vice President Joe Biden. Cocking her head to the side, she lures all of us fragile ego white voters in, sounding very respectful and loving, by saying "I do not believe you are a racist." She continues, "[but what happened recently] was hurtful..." (again, very vulnerable and great television, as if the two of them are meeting alone over a drink and not on a debate stage--I cannot emphasize how hard this is to do.)

And then she proceeds to quietly, powerfully, and effectively make sure we all know about Joe Biden's recent crowing over his close work with segregationist senators to end Department of Education ordered busing decades ago. And she brings it to the personal by telling us that there was a little girl who was in the second class of children bused into integrate a public school in Berkeley, CA, "and that little girl was me."

There is no doubt, by the way, that this entire moment was planned by the Harris campaign, because within seconds of her saying "and that little girl was me" her campaign tweeted an adorable picture of that little girl out. Shortly thereafter, these t-shirts below appeared.

That little girl was me T-shirt

So, has Kamala Harris got game? Yes. The current resident in chief of the White House proves that many voters cast their ballot more on who they want to see on their screens than on who they think will make the best leader of our country. In the reality tv show that is the 2020 presidential race, you would definitely have to vote to keep Harris on the island.

But is that the same as effective use as the power of the word? Maybe. Remember I consider the incumbent president to be a master user of the word. So on the basis of last week's debate, I am going to move Harris's rating on potential use of the word to win the nomination and the presidency from a 3 to a 9. But on over all effective use of Power of the Word, I'll move her only from a 6 to 8.

And I still rate Harris on the low end of the Democratic field in word grounded a world that works for everyone or likelihood to govern based on shared values of diversity and inclusion, accountability love, compassion and caring. This is due to her record as a prosecutor and an Attorney General where she could have used her position to create prison reform and so much more, but didn't. Throughout her career, Kamala Harris has proven herself more interested in a world that works for Kamala Harris than a world that works for everyone.

Sanders remains the only Democratic candidate in my estimation who combines effective use of Power of the Word with likelihood to win and govern based on shared values. So he is head and shoulders above the rest. Warren has top marks for her values and likelihood to govern from them but lower marks on use of the power of her word.

Contrast that with the incumbent president who has top ranks on use of the power of the word to win and zeros for grounding his word in a World that Works for Everyone or shared values. In the total chart,

Scale of 1 - 10 10 being the best

• Harris effective Use of Power of the Word -- 9
• Harris potential use of the word to win the nomination and presidency -- 8
• Harris grounding her word in a vision of a World that Works for Everyone upon assuming presidency -- 7
• Harris in likelihood of governing based on shared values of love, integrity, diversity and inclusion, accountability, caring--5

This is Part 6 of a multi-part series examining how we use the Power of the Word in politics, particularly in the 2020 presidential race.  Rev. Sara S. Nichols is senior minister at the Center for Spiritual Living, Davis and the Spiritual Director of All is Well Institute which supports and teaches people how to heal themselves using spiritual tools.  Trained as an attorney, before coming to spiritual science, she was a legislative and communications advocate for Medicare for All and other consumer issues in Congress and the California legislature.

Part 1 -- What exactly is the Power of the Word and How does it Work in Politics?

Part 2 -- Donald Trump and the Power of the Word

Part 3 -- Bernie Sanders and the Power of the Word
Part 4 --Marianne Williamson and the Power of the Word

Part 5 --Pete Buttigieg and the Power of the Word

Part 6 --(Updated) Comparison of Top 2020 Presidential Candidates

In this series, we confine ourselves primarily to the question of how effectively does the candidate work with the power of their word. In other words, given how they marshall universal law to their favor through the power of the word, how much do they appear to be grounded in a vision of a world that works for everyone, how likely are they to win, and when they assume the White House, what are they likely to accomplish?

My assumption is that every Democratic challenger for president shares most of the same policy positions (affordable universal health care and education, pro civil rights, combat climate change, raise the minimum wage, pro gun control).  There are plenty of other writers out there that will spend their time evaluating the nuances of where Democratic candidates for president are on these issues. And most news forums will spend their time looking at the experience, the demographics and the charisma of the candidates, all of which play a role in whether they will win.