Song in my Head: Times are a'changin......................Bob Dylan

In Season: digging potatoes, property tax bills, backstrap


Traumas of My Childhood

I get a kick out of reading blogs from moms and dads. It intrugues me how people adapt from singlehood into a full time caregiver. I read this last night from Self-Esteem for Women by Lynda Field and loved the honesty of this passage.

Motherhood is a truly amazing and miraculous experience, but it is not bliss. Being a mother can take us to the heights of love and the depths of anger and resentment. All mothers ride this rollercoaster, and when we can accept this more readily, our self esteem will no longer be on the line. You are not an unworthy mother if your feelings are less than saintly. Our children are humans too and they can relate to our humanness. Perfection is not part of the job description. because perfect mothering does not exist. The best we can do is the best we can do!

With that in mind I need to relive an early trauma I experienced. When I was a child I attended the Catholic church regularly with my family. During the late 60's women still wore dresses and hats to church. I was fully indoctrinated by Catholic priests while being baptized, making holy communion and confirmation.

While on vacation with my family we attended a strange catholic church in another town. Or shall I say my parents wanted to attend, yet I had forgotten my church hat and could not enter without properly humbling myself, and covering my head. My parents were in quite a dilemna and were very traditional, so this was a huge deal. I can recall my da pulling out his snotty handkerchief from his pocket and deciding that was too gross. So Mom, always prepared for runny noses, pulls a tissue out of her handbag and places it squarely on top of my head. Voila'. My hat for church. I hated it. Try walking with a tissue on your head.


Alter-Abled News

From today's Newsday

The public's growing unease with the current health care system has built support for a new approach that would mean care for all Americans and changes in laws governing prescription drugs, a poll suggests.

Being alter-abled this is a huge and important issue for me in regards to the 2004 upcoming election. However, I feel disouraged with the current administration and its unwillingness to change our ludicrous policies.

Living in Oregon, under the ex-governorship of John Kitzhaber, Oregon's family doc, affordable health care was made available to the poor and the working poor. His latest endeavors are admirable, too:

He is director of a new drug research center at Oregon Health and Science University, he has an endowed chair at the Foundation for Medical Excellence, and he is president of the Estes Park Institute, a health-care think tank.

Kitzhaber's main legacy to the state, the Oregon Health Plan, began the clear-eyed debate about health-care efficacy and rationing. He is now trying to take the debate to the national stage.


From today's Newsday:

U.S. Should Let Doctors Advise the Use of Marijuana


And from today's Corvallis Gazette-Times

Let fed quit fighting Oregon over marijuana

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency, at the behest of Attorney General John Ashcroft, seems bent on starting a Second Civil War against Oregonians who are trying to comply with the state's regulations regarding production of medical marijuana.

Drug WarRant has a fine collection of editorials regarding medical cannabis from the following cities: Palm Beach, Baltimore, Ste Petersburg, Detroit, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, and Chicago.