I didn't realize I'd skipped two days of blogging!  Apologies all around...the time was well spent though.  Napping to regain energy.  Visiting with friends and family.  I guess things just got away from me a tiny bit.

Thank heaven's Katie Nielsen mentioned the Sunday question to me this morning or I'd be really behind on things.  I've been pondering since what it is I'd like to know this Sunday about you, dear readers.  And Dan provided the perfect question when he walked in the door with two HUGE heart balloons.

I vividly remember, as a 1st Grader, addressing about 20 little Valentine's cards and decorating a bag that went on the back of my chair.  We filed along the rows and deposited Valentine's Day cards as we went.  I've had many Valentine's since then (including today's balloons and a very cuddly bear from Dotty this week), but that first memory sticks with me.  The decorated bag.  The anticipation of getting cards from my classmates.

Which leads to the Sunday Question:  What's your most vivid memory of Valentine's Day?

I've been embroiled over the past few days in a round robin email about the Economic Stimulus package which is about to go to Senate vote if I read all my articles today.

As I have freely declared to the participants of the email group, I've not paid much attention, frankly, to the ins and outs, the plusses and minuses  of the plan.  The more right wing members of the email group seem to believe that the answer is to do nothing, let the market take its natural course to correct its own ills and we'll all muddle through somehow.

They also seem to believe that this is only going to be a recession if we do nothging but that if the government intervenes, that will make it a depression.

I don't have the crystal ball to be able to prognosticate the exact results of the proposed package, but my instinct, my reading of recent history, leads me to believe that, as usual, the truth is somewhere between the extremes.

Are there parts of the bill that won't really stimulate any real economic growth (increased jobs, better infrastructure, development of new and innovative products and processes)?  Undoubtedly.

Are there parts of the bill that will create jobs, in the process stimulating our much neglected ingenuity in the areas of green technology, repairing our crumbling infrastructres while doing so?  Yes.

Are there parts of the bill that will provide assistance for the neediest among us (at some cost to the wealthiest among us).  Yes.  And I say go for it.  The time for greed is done.  The time for coming together is now.

For more along these lines, don't miss this editorial by LA Times Rosa Brooks.

I am finding myself embroiled in a debate about the stimulus package based on my gut feelings and the history I've seen over the last 30 years of political leaders.  Since I've got a little bit on my plate besides politics these days, I've quite honestly not paid any attention at all to the details of the stimulus package.

Bigger fish to fry?  Battles to fight where I might actually make a difference?  I dunno.  Politics still interests me.  But not ideology.

On another note, I had a great second day of chemo.  Yes, there are side effects (relatively mild and all tolerable).  AND I got time with my mother that was really lovely.  Time with my honey.  Yoga with Erik.

How could it be other than a good day?  And the chemo is busily doing its work and trashing Earl, Ed, Fred and minions.  Go team!

G'night.

I love it when I'm tooling along in the universe and I read two articles from very different publications written at different times with different purposes...and the articles reinforce and expand each other and my thinking.

Such was the case today.  Just yesterday I blogged about the Oportunidades article in the New York Times Magazine.  Today, a concerned friend's string of emails about how Obama's going to break us lead me to this excellent article in the Huffington Post: The Voice of American Pragmatism. 

The article's author, Jeffrey Feldman, talks about Obama's approach to problem solving being a return to a type of American pragmatism where we evaluate programs based on their utility, their effectiveness, rather than whether or not they agree with our preconceived ideology.

Very useful reading in this time where the Right seems to be all about ideology and Obama must fail (oh please, oh please) because I disagree with his ideology.

IMHO.  And with chemo brain.  Read the article.  You might find it useful!  The serendipity comes in because Oportunidades is best described as a pragmatic program to change some fundamental dynamics that seem to lead to cyclical proverty.  And  today's article gave me the insight that such pragmatism is exactly what we need now.

Chemo's going well, btw.  Thanks to all who are pulling for me.

I read a fascinating article in the New York Times Magazine (thanks, Paolo for sending it via Mamacita).  The Magazine was a few months old (December 21st if memory serves) but I always love reading the Magazine so I've been browsing through it the past week or so. 

The article I read today is about a program in Mexico called Oportunidades (Opportunities for you gringos out there) that seems to be making a significant difference in the lives of the poor and very poor in Mexico.

The idea behind the program is quite simple.  In order to break the "cycle of poverty" wherein poor people pass on the very beliefs and values that help keep them poor, the program pays cash to women who are willing to implement changes in the way they raise their children.

Cash payments are tied to school attendance for the children, to the mother's attendance at various classes on nutrition and child rearing, and for annual physical exams for the children.

So instead of working in the fields after basic education, children are attending high school (and earning more money for their family by doing so than they would by working on farms for low wages like their parents did before them.)  Dreams are sparked along the way.  Young women dream of becoming teachers or nurses.

In a culture where machismo was the rule and girls were routinely not educated because their only lot in life was to become a wife and mother, this is a huge shift.  As the article outlines, it's not been without resistance, but change has come.

And it costs less than general welfare.  The infrastructure is minimal.  It's a fascinating project and one that has potential to teach us a thing or two about social programs and effectiveness.

Give the article a gander.  It's worth the time.

Earlier this week, I watched an episode of The Daily Show where host Jon Steward interviewed Karen Greenberg, among other things, author of the soon to be released book, The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days."  The interview was fascinating.  The book sounds like intriguing reading.  But what triggered the Sunday Question was this exchange between Stewart and Greenberg.

Stewart:  What's wrong with us?

Greenberg:  We don't plan ahead.

I found myself nodding in agreement with Greenberg.  There's truth to what she said, at least in retrospect.  We didn't plan well in our (not well thought out) decision to go to war with Iraq.  We didn't plan well with our unwinding of banking regulations.  Some of my friends would argue that we didn't plan well in establishing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, specifically when requiring them to loan in previously redlined areas.  (I disagree on this one, but wanted to give a nod to the concept anyway.)

I found myself quickly thinking though, because of the work I've been doing in narrative therapy, because I believe what we tell ourselves can have power effect on what we do, that we would benefit from turning Stewart's question on it's head.  Hence the Sunday question:

What is right with us (America)?

Dan and I went out for breakfast this morning.  It was lightly raining and he took a short cut to Mimi's through a preschool parking lot.  As we drove, I noticed a stroller sitting out in the rain on a raised area between parking rows.

"Someone's going to be sad when they get home without their stroller," I said.

Then we turned and noticed that there was a little boy sitting in the stroller.  Startled, we both looked around and noticed a somewhat harried Dad bending inside an SUV.

The kid in the stroller was sitting in the rain and the Dad hadn't pulled the little cover down so that his head would be shielded.  I cracked up.  "What, he doesn't know there's a cover?"

Dan said, "He's a Dad."

Which made me laugh even harder.  Hope the little tyke doesn't get a cold.  At least it wasn't raining hard.

We're off to the beach tomorrow for a much needed getaway, celebration of our anniversary.  So probably no blog tomorrow...Sunday question should be a doozy though!

There was at least one silly movie made several years back about a giant snake that lived in the "remotest jungle in the world."  Who knew that such a thing was possible, that there was such a thing as a snake big as a school bus?

Of course, this was quite a few million years back.  Between 58 and 60 million years ago according to the LA times article I read today.   I imagine we would barely have registered as a snack on the "Titanboa" scale.  But still...glad to know they're extinct.

Scientists believe the reason Titanboa failed to make the evolutionary grade is that the snake simply was too big.  So as the earth's weather changed, the giant boa could no longer survive.

A cautionary tale for us perhaps.  But certainly not a reason to rent Anaconda...I don't care how many movies you can get on Netflix.

Just a quick blog today...I have to work a bit on the novel and then get ready to go to yoga.  Which means eating, changing, driving over and putting in 30 minutes of writing time over the next 90 minutes.  Cutting it close!

I did want to post a celebratory note in honor of a special occasion.  Yes, it is Dad's birthday but that's not what I'm talking about.  (Happy Birthday again, though, Dad.)

I went to the driving range this afternoon with my friend, Renee' and hit a bucket of balls.  I have a little bit of a twinge around the surgical scar...but otherwise it wasn't bad (and I was so darn relaxed because there was NOTHING on the line that I was hitting the ball pretty well!).

It's all part of my plan for getting back on the course.  I'm hoping to play three or four holes this weekend (after the rains pass).  It felt good to be out on such a beautiful day, to hit the little white ball up into the net, to be with a friend.

So yaay!  And now to the page that beckons.

One of the things I battle with (in staying positive about my current fight with cancer) is my tendency to predict the future...usually in dire terms.  My mantra to contradict these unhelpful thoughts is "I am not a prophet."

So today, when I read through a journal entry from September, 2007--well, I was struck by how much application the lesson I was learning then has to my situation now.

By way of background, several friends were confronting severe issues in their lives.  One of these friends was having an old problem crop up again.  Of her, I wrote:  "She is approaching this unexpected circumstance from a point of view that asks, 'How do I make this work?' rather than 'Why do I have to do this?' "

I went on to write:

"It occurred to me that a) life will continue to get more challenging and b) thank God for learning, growth and maturity or we'd all be stuck as bitter old farts and c) most lives are filled with good and bad.

The good is sometimes so out of proportion it seems we'll never come down off the mountaintop.  The bad is sometimes so oppressive and overwhelming, it seems we'll never laugh again.

It's when we believe either of these extremes that we set ourselves up for trouble.  Maturity reminds us both that good times follow bad and vice versa.

If we believe, like many addicts do, that life should be fair, that we should only experience blessings and grace--that suffering is an assault and unfairly assigned to be our lot--well, then we grow bitter, angry and depressed.

If we believe that health, wealth, and ease are signs of God's approval or our own worth or value, we set ourselves up for a mighty judgment when, inevitably, the shoe drops.

So today, I praise you LORD for the growth that has come from adversity.  I am a stronger, healthier, wiser, more compassionate and loving woman because I have been melted down by trauma and reborn by your grace and a lot of hard work.

I wish a lot of these challenges hadn't happened.  And yet I am informed by these experiences.  And in an amazing way, I have both witnessed and participated in the way you subsume evil and create beauty from the whole."

Maybe that entry doesn't make me a prophet...if it did, I'd have gone for a colonoscopy two years ago and every six months since.  But my self from September 2007 sure had a lot to say to myself in February 2009.  I'm glad I flipped the page over and listened.