Weekend reading:
- Just For The Health Of It- What If Albert Einstein Was On Ritalin? – Billerica, MA – Billerica Minuteman — This is not just a facetious question in my mind, but a very serious thing we need to contemplate in the face of 1000s of children being drugged. — “Have you ever imagined what the world would have been like if Albert Einstein had been on Ritalin? Would we ever have unlocked the mysteries of the universe and developed the technologies we depend on today? Well, had Einstein been born a century later, I’m certain that his genius would have been wholly misunderstood. — I make this supposition because this man, who possessed such a masterful mind, spoke not a word of English until he reached the age of four and was unable to read until his seventh birthday. As a student, Einstein was considered deficient. His teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable and adrift in foolish dreams.” In fact, he was alternately expelled and then refused admittance to the Zurich Polytech Institute. — It’s easy to see what sort of fate Einstein would have suffered had he been a student in today’s culture. He surely would have been labeled “Learning Disabled” and his parents would have sat through school conference after school conference where the teachers and guidance counselors complained that he was disruptive and unable to stay “on task.” Ultimately, someone would have advised that he begin taking Ritalin so that he could become a “better citizen and student”.
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- New Cosmetic Has Dangerous Side-Effects — Why Do People Use It? | Personal Health | AlterNet — when people will take dangerous toxins voluntarily for something as trivial as achieving thicker eyelashes, it truly must give one pause. As a culture we seem to be willing to swallow all sorts of vile crap.
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- Chocolate’s Bitter Truth: How to Avoid the Unethical Aftertaste | TakePart Social Action Network: Important Issues, Activism, Environmental, Human Rights, Political News — As long as we traumatize others with the choices we make as consumers we’re adding to the suffering of the world. We are all connected and the trauma that causes us pain is linked to the trauma we cause half way across the globe. That is why I sometimes post things that may seem at first glance unrelated. As I get further away from drugs I do plan to go Beyond Meds entirely. So entirely I can’t wait to retire this blog! I gotta get well first though.
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- Todd Kashdan: How to be Happy — Emotional Pain and the Politics of Rejection — “Did you know there is only one single characteristic that separates extremely happy people from “merely” happy people? They aren’t more grateful, kind, or compassionate. They aren’t more energized when they wake up in the morning (drinking the same amount of coffee as the rest of us). Rather, they possess an abundance of significant, meaningful, lasting relationships. — That is, there are people they can confide in, call on during difficult times, and share joyous events that have absolutely nothing to do with them. Human beings depend on other people for their well-being and survival. We might even say that human beings have a basic “need to belong.” For this reason, it makes sense that being rejected by other people might be as painful as physical injuries.” Oh, yeah…we need each other!
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- t r u t h o u t | Carrying a Backpack of Sorrow … Soldiers on the Edge of Suicide — More of our young soldiers are now killing themselves than are being killed in our wars in the Middle East. The sad statistics are at the end of this article, but the following poem by a 24-year-old former Marine, who slashed his wrists twice after four years of duty and two tours of combat, tells it all.