I began to reflect back on when I was growing up in Asia. I was a skinny girl with a big appetite. Meals would last for an hour and I usually ate two to three plates of food in addition to mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks and also supper. I then began to realize that American food was the culprit.I was a skinny girl when I first came to the United States twenty two years ago. But after several months of eating American food, I gained 25 pounds.
For two years, I fought to lose the weight. I read at least a dozen weight-loss books; I tried diet patches, fat reducing creams, diet pills, diet tea, Slim-Fast, and everything that was on commercials at the time. The expensive diet patches and fat-reducing creams showed no results even though I applied them religiously. The diet tea gave me diarrhea for a few days, and I lost a couple of pounds. Then it lost its power, and my stomach didn’t react anymore. Consequently, I gained back the weight, most of which was probably water anyway. Slim-Fast was just like any regular milk for me.
I would stay full for an hour, and then be hungry again. It could not substitute for a regular meal. Diet pills were a scary experience. They made my heart beat so fast, I thought it was going to explode. I also followed the directions in the many diet books I bought, but the result was always yo-yo weight loss; I would lose 5 pounds, then gain back 7 pounds. It was very discouraging [Read more]
Making Love and Logic a Lifetime Habit
My dad had his own special parenting program. It was called "My Way or the Highway." When I complained to my childhood friends that my dad bossed me around and made a household slave out of me, I was told how lucky I was because that's what loving parents were supposed to do. When he said, "Sit down and shut up," I sat down and shut up.
Needless to say I grew up knowing nothing else and tried to use the same techniques on my own child. Unfortunately, when I said, "Sit down and shut up," my kids didn't sit down and shut up. They said, "We're calling Social Services. We have rights." The parenting style my dad used so effectively didn't work on kids a generation later. I also had a hard time getting his style to work for me as a classroom teacher. I was fortunate enough to discover some new skills that worked better. But they only worked when I remembered to use them. Unfortunately that wasn't often enough. I was getting frustrated [Read more]
Teenangers and Substance Abuse
In fact, most parents who care about their children see their kids growing up to become decent members of society who will hopefully be happy and successful in their life. The sad truth is that many teenagers do become involved in things they should not, such as drugs. It could be alcohol, it could be a prescription drug or it could be a street drug. What it is does not matter; what does matter is what encourages these kids to start taking such things in their bodies. Some do it because they like the high and they keep taking it because they can’t stop, others do it because they are trying to hide from a world they have no control over.
Many teens will often turn to substance abuse because they feel it is the way to deal with the stresses and/or abuse they are suffering at home. It could be both, or just one or the other, but both play a significant role in pushing teens toward substance abuse. The sad part in all this is that in many cases this could have been avoided. It starts with the parents communicating with their child. Parents should be talking to their kids and taking part in educating the child in what is and isn’t a good idea. Parents should be encouraging their kids, supporting them and ensuring that if things are going wrong the child knows that their parent is there for them to talk to [Read more]
What Does Life Do For an Encore?
As a human being do our eyes behold what few have ever seen or have we hardly seen anything at all? Do we see life as it should be or as it might be? Are we a large gathering of copyists? Are we complete outsiders to the position of being human? Are we here to trust in our instincts, instinctively care for the Earth or are we here to slip into the effects of our mind and cobble the body of the dreamer back together? Perhaps we are here to pass our accomplishments on to some other world where failure is later accepted.
Does life reveal passwords of truth hidden in crumpled up papers stuffed in cardboard boxes only to star in tomorrow's trash bundles? Are the secrets of life standing awkwardly over us or do they fly past us as memorable experiences that scant our mind two or three days and then are forgotten? Is the mystery of life shot off in emails, dropped off in manila folders, diagrammed stiffly on tables or is the mystery of life given to us as history in walls torn down as timely symbols?
One day filled with covered wagons and the next day jotting jazz on a map of trumpeting icons life remains under the microscope of reality's researching eyes. Camera-shy about gravity and cautious of schemers life presents a world premiere of utopian visions in real world consequences. A fearless dedication to dance with its visions life is a space of readable presentation where we are never quite sure just what is proven fact and if human beings are artists judging on fact or if human beings have in fact turned life into a laboratory realm for judging souls [Read more]
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