Question of the Week:

As a society, do we really care about a celebrity's death more than the hundreds dying in Iran just the day before? Do we care more about a million $$ talent than a million children starving to death- right now?? 

 

Can you make a comment that will restore my faith in humanity?

- The madly confused blogger...who may have been stopped in her tracks.

 

 PS. here is an MSNBC article about what happened on the internet yesterday w/ MJ and Iran etc... They say that just because everyone was tweeting & posting things on facebook about Jackson doesn't mean they 'forgot' about Iran...I have to beg to differ there. I mentioned this to some friends also and many didn't even hear about the massacre that had just occurred! What are we all paying attention to?? Sure, even in Iran they are mourning for him... I just think we need to keep a little perspective that's all. We don't pay enough attention as it is to what happens in the world, let alone when we are allowed to be distracted by something like the death of a pop legend...Voices of dissent are there for a reason NBC, thank you very much.

 

If the title of this blog post (minus the "spoiler alert" part) was a question the answer would be "disappointing."

I saw the ad for the new Sandra Bullock movie "The Proposal" a few weeks ago when I went to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine (oh yeah.)  As a woman who proposed to her man (he agreed, we are getting married in September, and no he is not chained up in my basement... I don't even have a basement.) Anyway, as  a woman who proposed I was stoked (yes I said stoked..) to see this poster. I thought "Could it be! Pop culture is catching up!?" 

 

 Sadly, I was wrong.  In my naive excitement  didn't notice the suits or the fact that she seems to be pushing him up against a wall... I haven't seen the movie yet (I admit)...I really don't know if I will.  But I've seen a few previews. Its a movie where some mean boss coerces her employee (Ryan Reynolds, who coincidently was in the wolverine movie...) into marrying her because she is getting deported. What the hell. THEN (according to the synopsis) as if that isn't bad enough...when they really fall in love he comes back and proposes...because of course the only legitimate proposal is when the man proposes to the woman. arrggggg!!

Do all female power types in movies have to be like Legally Blonde or  this? For a woman to know what she wants and pursue a man does she have to have some ulterior motives ? (think the SJP movie Failure to Launch... )

 Do women have to curb their strength by wearing the color pink and using the word "like" excessively? (I'm certainly guilty of the latter, and occasionally the former.) Why do we watch and enjoy movies like "The Hangover" and laugh at men being fools and make movies where when women are in power they are bitches...( I know its all satirical, but it does say something about our society...)

 I think there is a happy medium people..its called EQUALITY.

Thoughts?

 

6/25

After posting this I found Joss Whedon's (creator of Buffy the vampire slayer, etc.)  speech when being honored by Equality Now. He makes some great points.

 

An Excerpt- 

-Why do you create these strong women characters?"

Why are you even asking me this? ... Why aren't you asking 100 other guys why they don't? ...because equality is not a concept...it is a necessity...We need it to stand on this earth as men and women."

I recently came across this site and thought it was too amazing to keep from my you, my dear readership.

 Since Playing for Change has been featured in People magazine, on VH1, BET, Univision, NPR music, and a bunch of other blogs you'd think I would have heard about it...but I had not! You may have seen it before but it is so worth repeat viewings and support.

The Athens Blur Blogazine articulated my experience well-

Every once in a while I stumble across something online that is so interesting and genuinely intriguing that I end up getting lost in it and losing half of my day checking it out. I recently had one of those moments when I happened upon playingforchange.com mid-Internet perusing."

Playingforchange.com is..well this video explains it better than I can, other that to say "It is awesome!" Truthfully I think it is music therapy on the largest scale possible

... again, awesome.

Here's another good one

 

Peace Through Music Film Clip: Playing for Change from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

 

 

The Playing for Change Foundation has now been building music schools around the world, which is even more incredible. You know me I love me some arts, and some arts education! ;) One of these schools has its own blog, that of course I think you should check out. Informal teaching at the school has just begun! Be prepared to get lost for an afternoon...seriously, this stuff is that amazing. 

Much Love, 

- The RunMad blogger who is totally inspired

 

 

 

PS. Here are some other links you should check out-

Join the facebook fan club here!

Visit the Playing for Change Foundation on Facebook

Check out the Playing for Change You Tube channel and subscribe

Follow them on Twitter

 

 

 Oh yeah, and  buy the CD! I already did!

 

 

hmm...maybe this is why I think so much on the future, why I struggle to stay in the present:

"A change agent lives in the future, not the present. Regardless of what is going on today, a change agent has a vision of what could or should be and uses that as the governing sense of action. To a certain extent, a change agent is dissatisfied with what they see around them, in favor of a much better vision of the future." -Dennis Stevenson

 

 

To Blogger Sally McGraw at alreadypretty.com being an agent of change means not identifying as  a  activist, but enacting small changes in her circle of friends:

"I don't campaign for body image issues by lobbying Congress or volunteering at clinics that treat eating disorders - I'd rather work within the circle of people whose lives I can touch. Directly.
Affecting the people you can touch directly is simple, rewarding, and lasting. As we've been saying a lot recently, just one well-timed compliment can cause someone to open like a flower. Reaching out to someone who already trusts you reinforces that trust and creates safety. The simple act of listening reminds people that they are valued and cared for and supported and loved."

 

 Really deep Question of the Week that might just force you to look inside of yourself (no, not literally...)

What does "being a change agent" mean to you?

 

Hi Friends,

 This is a little localized, but I wanted to give a special shout to all my Phoenix Valley friends... to tell them about myartscommunity.org

 

 

Okay, so I know I just posted a blog about how I wouldn't be posting buuut

I need your help!

I am writing a paper on Career Counseling and I would love to hear your own antidotes/thoughts/resources about 

Balancing Career & Family Responsibilities: What do you do? How do you do it?

Some chose not to have a family or a career etc... I want to hear about that too. This is also a topic of personal interest as I am getting married soon and want to eventually have a career AND a family....

 There are 148 MILLION google hits on the subject of "career & family"  and 267,000 for "balancing career and family" - I want to hear what you have to say!! I suppose this is our question of the week. :)

 

Please feel free to comment or email me - RunMadBlog at gmail (.) com

Just in case you wondered:

If I choose to share the info you provide in my paper it will be cited as personal communication or annonymously. One graduate advisor will be the audience & it will not be published. This is not a research study. I will not re-use it for any other purposes without your permission. Please understand that this no way places you in a therapeutic relationship (or any other kind) with the run mad blogger. This is like any other blog post -if you comment it is on the internet for the world to see and you consent by sharing the information. Thanks....

Well I just returned from Disneyland, where I have never been before! I had hoped to finish planning a paper for school- of course that did not happen.Had a great time...but clearly no blog posts were made either. Don't worry I have several in the works.

I'll be scrambling for the next few days to finish my last paper for the semester. I plan to be back up and blogging by the 10th or 11th....Perhaps I'll post a question of the week in the meantime- Look for one tomorrow.

Thanks for being understanding!

-The Running Madly around Disneyland blogger :)

 

(Here is me getting eaten by Pinochio's whale. I think this is about when the euphoria/exhaustion/confusion of Disney set in...haha)

A 'bitter old hag' and 'an angry black man'  have something in common.... (and now California gay and lesbian couples too)

its called  "post-traumatic embitterment disorder."

(Don't get mad yet I promise I have a point...)

Apparently this disorder was named by Dr. Michael Linden who is a German psychiatrist. He presented this information to the "enthusiastic" crowd at the American Psychiatry Association meeting last week. (The only image that comes to mind of that group is a room full of Freuds with cigars, beards, big egos and prescription note pads...no women mind you, or minorities... though I bet I am totally wrong about that one...heh.)

 I just stumbled upon this info in an LA Times article published on Monday-

Bitterness a mental illness?

This is what Linden has to say- (paraphrased by the LA Times I assume)

 "Embittered people are typically good people who have worked hard at something important, such as a job, relationship or activity, Linden says. When something unexpectedly awful happens -- they don't get the promotion, their spouse files for divorce or they fail to make the Olympic team -- a profound sense of injustice overtakes them. Instead of dealing with the loss with the help of family and friends, they cannot let go of the feeling of being victimized. Almost immediately after the traumatic event, they become angry, pessimistic, aggressive, hopeless haters."

 Wow.  Those are damning words if I've ever heard them. (But ya know, at least they aren't "bad people who have had bad things happen to them" heh...)

Here is my immediate issue with this diagnosis...

Every student in a Counseling Psych 101 class (or Education, or any other degree where you are learning to work with people and not robots) gets educated about multi-cultural issues ie. "how to not be a total racist jerk." Anyone who has taken one of those classes could spot that there seems to be  a BIG HOLE in the information on this disorder-

Uhm, Hello? What about populations of people who have been marginalized??

How about the people who just found out about the court ruling on Prop 8? Do they now get a special sort of diagnosis because they have been denied the right to marry again?

 

(thanks to Mercury News for  this photo)

 Isn't it normal for any person who has repeatedly experienced rejection, discrimination, racism, had their civil rights violated, been made fun of... etc. etc. to be bitter as hell???  Could it even be someone's right to be disillusioned after a great loss? Could becoming bitter even be  a prudent and healthy choice for self-protection?

Did the big bad psychiatry machine decide that those people were annoying so now they deserve a new socially constructed category??  I'm enraged...really. O0ppsy! I better be careful I might become bitter and then I'll have to live with the stigma of a special kind of mental disorder just for me! hehe...

 

Alright, so clearly I have issues with the basic idea of a "mental disorder" anyway.   Some of our greatest scientist, inventors, artists, actors and world leaders had a diagnosable mental disorder and perhaps they wouldn't have contributed near as much to society if they were "normal" and mentally "healthy. " Also if you pick up any book on psychopathology (mental disorders and their study) you'll learn that we have no idea what we are talking about and no real way to determine where mental illness begins and sanity ends. There's a gray area...

I propose this gray area is in our our gray matter. Why can't we be what we are? (Ooh, how Zen and hippie of me!) Why do we put people in categorical boxes like they are a commodity to be bought and sold?

"Hmm... I think today I will buy some white 8% Irish female with a side of post-traumatic bitterness disorder...aaand a little anxiety on top- just to make me feel manly." Lame. 

I fear for what "they" will come up with next.

 

 

Here are some extra fun links I found on "PTED"-

A journal abstract from Dr. Linden himself

 A review of Dr. Linden's book, where some of the critical issues with research are noted

Moaning workers 'are ill'  from the BBC

An Interview with the good Dr. Linden from the Portland Independent Media Center

 

(*Disclaimer: If somehow my late night research on PTED was not thorough enough and I missed some kind of information on multi-cultural issues, well I promise not to be bitter, just pass the info along and we'll discuss! Thanks- The Madly Running & possibly Bitter Blogger)

Question of the Week #2:

"Scientists say the higher your I.Q. The more you dream" ...If this is true does it then follow that dream analysis or dream work (etc.) is inherently an elitist activity??

 

Aaaand Go- 

This is a little thing I wrote while studying Family Therapy....enjoy

Friends, Flirtation, Fun, Feelings
Fresh, Fiancé, Fidelity, Fertile, Fervor
Fueled, Flesh, Face time, Fate, Festivities, Fuck, Fecundate, A Facsimile of one another
Fetus, Foundation, Feed, Fussy, Formula
Formation

Four, Five, Fever, Flu
Fables, Fairy Tales, Fairy land
Fight, little Fingers, and Finger paint
Falling down
Fence, Fern, Ferret, Feline
Fireflies, Firecrackers and Fireworks
Fishing Fifteen, Flatulence, Frustration, Fundamental, Framework,
Facade, Freakin' weird, Favoritism
Fixed, Fixated, Forbidden, Frazzled.
Face-off, Fair, Feud, Fed-up, Fuzzy logic, Freedom, Far
Flown, Flounder, Fearful, Fearless, Foreign,
Freelance, Frenzy, Free-spirited, Flux, Fog, Fret, Frost, Fulcrum, Follow, Folks, Foxhole, Future,
Frame of mind

Forty, Fifty,
Firm, Fail-safe, Fallible, Familiar
Feminine, Father, Fellow traveler, Fellowship
Forgotten, Forgiven, Fondly, Forever

(Repeat)