Notes From A Bear's Journey

Dimensions    One of my aquarium fish passed away the other night, that after a rather lengthy battle of being upside down (swim bladder infection, something that usually comes on unexpectedly and almost always without explanation).  It was and is terrible to watch something once so strong and once so vibrant just struggle to come back, and as with any living being, a difficult decision for the observer, whether viewing from behind a glass tank or behind a glass window in a hospital.  It (the passage of life, no matter the difficulty) is something that all beings need to go through, said Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, although when you are there watching, you find those words difficult to embrace as true.  End the suffering, you think...take the dog to the vet and have her put down, that old quality of life vs. quantity of life debate.  But a fish, you wonder?  Ours was over 12 years old, as are most of the other fish in our 55-gallon tank, trapped as prison...

Respect Yourself    Some of my friends ask me why I subscribe to Ellle , a popular woman's fashion magazine.  But I subscribe to a variety of magazines, over two dozen, maybe more.  And no, I'm not into fashion, or the countless thin models that look as if they could use a good meal, or the endless pieces on cosmetics or the latest goings-on of the fifth cousin of a fashion icon from ancient Romania.  But I am interested in hearing what the other side (so to speak) has to say, and some of what I hear is really just plain fun.  So from the recent 30th anniversary issue of Elle, who would think said this, when interviewed:  Even as an adolescent I had trouble with the way I look.  I always saw myself as "brown haired" because of the myth that surrounds blonds--that they're privileged somehow...My father was a milkman; I quit school very early on--I don't really have a formal education.  What I am has nothing to do with the way I look.* ...

Junkies, the Conclusion    Finally, you say, the end of this series on prescription painkillers, anxiety drugs, supplements and other such ingestibles.  And again, this series has tried to point out that for many this is a necessary part of their lives, the pain or stress of daily life needing some sort of relief; and while this is recognized, this series was meant more as a caveat to study further and realize exactly what you may or may not be putting into your body, to dig deeper and find the interactions of what you're consuming, for in the end (and in many cases), you may be little more than a guinea pig no matter how strong your beliefs about its efficacy...and don't feel alone in this for my full disclosure is that about twice a year I'll take the occasional echinacea root or valerian root capsule...and yes, I tend to feel better (but then, I don't usually take any sort of prescription drugs or vitamins).  Who knows, I might be consuming a bunch of sawdust si...

Junkies, Part III    If you've been following this series of posts, you've read about the growing dependence on pharmaceutical drugs in the U.S., as well as the difficult job the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) has since it's hands are basically entirely controlled by Congress (indeed, throughout its history, FDA administrators have resigned in frustration due to being limited in what they can and cannot do).  And you've also read that in the U.S., supplement and vitamins are NOT inspected, tested or otherwise regulated so that market is an open one and quite probably a dangerous one (especially the combination of supplements such as St. John's wort with pharmaceuticals, an herb known to render most pharmaceutical drugs ineffective*, in some cases, leading to hospitalization).  So what this series has been attempting to show is little more than a buyer-beware message.  Our pharmaceuticals are getting out of hand, but at least they have a few hoops to go t...

Junkies, Part II    In the earlier post, the discussion was on the onslaught of prescription drugs, primarily pain-killers and anxiety-reducing drugs, how such prescriptions had gotten out of control and how many people in the U.S. had become hooked and were suddenly (and perhaps unexpectedly) medical "junkies."  So how did we get here and how prevalent is the problem?  Before that question arrives,  one needs to step back for a bit of historical perspective.  Those little flyers that come with each bottle or container of prescription drugs, advising you of all the studies and testing done and all the possible side effects (the papers one usually just tosses aside before crazily opening the bottle and taking the pills)...that's pretty recent, like 1962.  One reason is that the FDA, which oversees much of our dietary safety, is controlled by Congress;  and for the most part, Congress has told the FDA to back off, that our citizens are more than c...

Junkies    It's a terrible name, isn't it?  Not that "addict" is any better, for both seem belittling, and coming at what likely is a difficult time for people so caught up.  But certain opioids and narcotics are no better than street drugs when it comes to addiction.  And lest you think that the problem is not that prevalent, especially since you likely don't live near broken homes or darkened alleys, a report in 2011 by MedCo Health Solutions (they are the title company of Express Scripts) showed that 1 in 4 women are addicted.  That's 25% of women...but they're not hooked to any drugs on the street, but rather something quite legal and now quite out of hand...prescription drugs.  From the report: Overall, the number of Americans on medications used to treat psychological and behavioral disorders has substantially increased since 2001; more than one in five adults was on at least one of these medications in 2010, up 22 percent from ten years earli...

Twenty Cards    There was an interesting exercise by author Claire Bidwell Smith , who's book (titled After This ) I had mentioned in the last posting.  While working as both a hospice bereavement and volunteer coordinator, she tried this exercise to give new volunteers and others a sense of empathy with those who were dying, and if you're still healthy, wealthy and wise, you may find this exercise to be quite difficult.  As a matter of fact, even if your not healthy, wealthy or wise, you may find it difficult, for this exercise touches all of us, or will touch all of us.  So here is the exercise...    She asks you (and I'm paraphrasing here) to fill out 20 notecards.  On each of the first five cards, write down the name (and only one name) of some person or animal close to you (this can be a grandmother or parent or child or spouse or dog...you get the idea).  Now write down five material items that you treasure on the next five cards ...

Alone, and Yet...    There's something about being alone, although in this case, I was alone in a different sense since I was with company. Out in a remote area (but in a house, complete with all the amenities), it was a refreshing change, as if camping in luxury.  Okay, it's not the wild adventure of Dame Ellen MacArthur who sailed solo around the world (her fascinating TED talk is well worth watching...truly, your jaw will drop as she runs into rough waters, waves breaking over her mast, the waters icy cold, and the closest help available --and she's not joking-- is the International Space Station), but as someone who is somewhat used to routine, that is, checking emails and such (even watching TED talks), this was a nice break.  For out here (we were in a somewhat sparse part of Wyoming, the picture a bit hazy from nearby forest fires but you get the idea), what we did, morning, noon and night, was talk.    It's a lost art of sorts, that of talki...

A Pause    Just a quick note that once again, there will be a slight pause in these posts as my wife and I escape for a getaway, one without the internet, without the dogs, without the television...one with only books and nature and the quiet chatter of friends and conversation.     In the meantime, I can heartily recommend this story from years back, a story listed by editor Glenn Stout as one of his best of the best of the best, and it's about baseball...but nothing like you'd think.  It's by sportswriter, Bill Plaschke, who wrote this for the LA Times , and one which goes back nearly 15 years but is in fact, timeless.     There's an old saying from author Anne Lamott -- "Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."  We are taking her words to heart...back with you in less than a week.

The Animas River...an Update    Normally, I try to let a subject drop once covered; but this recent spill into the Animas River has become somewhat of a microcosm for showing the depths and tangents of any subject.  Here are just two comments received on the site, Common Dreams about the recent toxic mining spill on the river in Colorado: 1) I wonder if this was intentional...the EPA is basically an arm of corporate industrial America...they have now ruined a river that people depend on...Native people...more genocide? The people responsible for this should be arrested...and after they work their fingers to the bone cleaning this up they should be imprisoned for life.  And 2) They did not ruin the river - a Google Earth visit to the area shows that the reach below the mine and well downstream from Silverton had been badly acid-impacted and mostly dead for a while.  They tried to get this area listed as a site eligible for superfund money - but the ...

Touch    Loosely defined as " to come into or be in contact, the word "touch" comes with many meanings, not only as a noun, but in other forms.  A healing touch, a gentle touch, a touch of sadness, or your words touched me...for us, touch is one of our primary senses; and yet, as a recent article in Scientific American Mind points out, up to now we haven't really studied the sensation much and are now discovering how widely and delicately the feeling resides within our bodies.    Wrote the editor of the magazine, Claudia Wallis:  Scientists have long been familiar with the tactile nerves that transmit pain, texture and temperature.  The surprising news is that we also have nerve fibers uniquely adapted for the kind of "social touching" we do when we soothe or greet one another or cuddle a child.  These fibers are calibrated for strokes that are slow and gentle (below five millinewtons), and they are abundant in the parts of the body we ...

U.S. Seafood, Goodbye    Perhaps that is a bit harsh, for seafood around our vast shores is indeed plentiful...but little of it stays in the country.  We harvest it along our 94,000 miles of coastland and our 3.5 million miles of rivers...and then export nearly a third of that catch (our seafood exports have jumped 400% since 1985).  Consequently, we now import 91% of our seafood (and that includes exporting nearly 80% of wild-caught Alaskan salmon), a figure that has increased nearly 1500%.  And why?  It's probably better explained by author Paul Greenberg, himself asking that question in his book, American Catch (recently interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR ).    We did not know that when we drained our salt marshes and turned them into fields for soy and corn and other commodity crops that we were destroying the spawning and rearing grounds of 70 percent of our wild seafood.  We didn't realize that by removing our natural oyster beds we...