mermaidcamp
Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys
The Fine Line Between Culture and Cult
August 10, 2016
— 2 Comments
Originals by Adam Grant
I am listening to the book Originals by Adam Grant. This audio book is the second of my free treats in the 3 month Audible subscription I have initiated. I am employing Alexa in the Echo to read the book to me at home. When I go to the gym I switch to the iPod or iPad for a workout. The system knows how to bookmark my last page and start in that spot without a hitch. This is fun for now, but I don’t see myself keeping the membership for the extra $15 a month. You still have to purchase the audio books beyond that basic dues payment. I like it as a temporary novelty, but I still have some of my favorite books on audio CD, which is the only way I can listen in my car.
I love the theory as well as the writing in this book. The way originality develops and makes change possible in the world is a subject this author has studied from many perspectives. His many concrete examples of entrepreneurs who both fail and succeed to execute meaningful change help the reader understand how power and status quo operate. The common beliefs that great risk and speed are the keys to cultural change are disproven with real stories. Procrastination may well be the innovator’s best friend. By waiting for the first line to fail in various ways, the second line is an a much better position to correct mistakes while proving the need for the same innovations. “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives, and in his own household.” Mark 6:4
Birth order and other lifestyle factors are studied as possible catalysts for becoming a meaningful leader. Groupthink is the enemy of originality. When non-conformists are able to use influence to create a change in culture, in business or in politics, it is because the original has learned to open a cultural mentality, destroying the myth of the cult. Even in our fast-changing world with innovation running copiously toward individualization status quo is still the strongest force.
Establishing Borders
August 9, 2016
— 3 Comments
“I encourage people to remember that “No” is a complete sentence.” ~ Gavin de Becker 1. Identify current boundary crossers The first step in setting healthy boundaries is identifying who it is that is the boundary crosser. How does this person make you feel? Most likely, telling this person how you feel will get you no […]
Why Frugality Is So Liberating?
August 1, 2016
— 1 Comment
Freedom from financial insecurity is at your fingertips.
Two Tigers and a Dog Psychic Protection Agency
July 25, 2016
— 4 Comments
Judge Celina
suiting out
Judge Ardell
Judge Donna
A few years ago I went to California to take a workshop from a group called Tribal Truth. I was invited to go by a good friend who flaked out after I had paid for it. I decided to go because it was taking place at a hot spring I like in SoCal, so I figured I would have fun at the hot spring at least. We were assigned roommates to share dorm style accommodations. The lady assigned to me was a working Jungian therapist who told me right off the bat she had always been a “good girl”. She was relatively sophisticated…I mean, she did actually have a practice in Jungian therapy…but her “good girl” had been blinded by the light. I think her dad had been a preacher. She and I discussed the events of the first night and had different opinions about them. I thought the whole thing was bogus because the meditation they used was plagiarized from Carolyn Myss without crediting her, and they seemed generally lame.
I don’t remember how I found Celina and Donna, my rebel with a cause soul sisters, but we met and conferred about the nature of this Tribal Truth business. We had all paid a lot, and they had driven down from the fabulous east bay to make the most of the weekend. Donna had a lot of experience in the physic realm, along with some bad experiences with a “psychic” cult. She was instantly against the ethics in the room because she was sensitive to the use of so-called truth to control, rob and manipulate others. I didn’t like it because of the plagiarism and this idea that these leaders were somehow gifted, holy, and tribal. Celina is an osteopathic manual practitioner who is highly attuned to dishonesty too. On the first night in the conference room we were given our assignment for the weekend. We were to make up an imaginary business and pitch it to the crowd, like a start-up generator run by plagiarizing glitter fairies. Donna was born in the year of the dog. Both Celina and I were born in the year of the tiger. We decided our business would be the simplest of business plans. Our company, Two Tigers and a Dog Psychic Protection Agency would just sell stickers to put up on any home or business. The stickers would say “This building protected by Two Tigers and a Dog Psychic Protection Agency.” That’s it. We laughed uproariously.
When we told the group we were dropping out because we were all finished with our assignment they went crazy. They tried to shame us into “not breaking the sacred circle”. They made us stay to do something stupid with this circle concept, so I stood up and said something like “sacred, my ass”…and the three of us left to spend our day at the hot spring having fun. Two Tigers and a Dog had so much more fun than those who struggled to identify themselves with these bogus sprit guides. The Jungian therapist moved out of my room because I was a heretic to the tribal situation. This was the best because my room then had 3 beds for…two tigers and a dog to have slumber parties. We partied on, then parted.
We got together years later in the Mission District of SFO with my friend Ardell, a long time friend and personal healer. The federal government had been closed by the Zodiac Killer (Ted Cruz), but we were invited to visit the 9th circuit court of appeals building, probably the most elegant building in the city. We felt so lucky to see the building and meet justices. Then we all got to wear my friend Peter’s robe for a photo shoot. If I knew how to photoshop I would make that sticker for the protection agency, with us all dressed in Peter’s robe. Ardell is a snake, but that can be scary too. Two Tigers, a Dog, and a Snake Psychic Protection Agency is a thing. If you see these women on a sticker….just leave that property alone..don’t take a chance. We are watching you. You never know where we might be.
in chambers
Pamela the Persuasive
Munich Shooter Planned Attack for a Year, Officials Say — TIME
July 24, 2016
(MUNICH) — The teenager behind Friday’s deadly shooting rampage at a Munich mall had planned his attack for a year and chose his victims at random, investigators said Sunday. Bavarian investigator Robert Heimberger said the shooter, an 18-year-old German-Iranian identified only as David S., visited the site of a previous school shooting in the German…
via Munich Shooter Planned Attack for a Year, Officials Say — TIME
Resisting Evidence
July 23, 2016
— 3 Comments
babes of justice
What is the opposite of resisting arrest? The cops resisting citizens who want to present evidence to stop crime is that. I have spent almost a decade trying to stop the obvious crime in my immediate neighborhood. This has turned out to be an illusive dream because I could not manage to show the TPD the evidence. Once this had been going on for a few years, we were then subjected to a fake neighborhood watch for the sole purpose of willfully denying crime is crime. This proved the point that crime left to fester just get worse. Now we were forced to keep all the crime in place, and pay taxes to support a fraudulent neighborhood watch. Everything has gone in the opposite direction of justice. We have been forced to keep the crime we have (which is significant) by a completely clueless system designed to serve and protect us. You don’t have to be shot in the back by the cops to have your life ruined by their dishonesty.
Finally, about a month ago I physically took the evidence to the station for the captain to review. During the month nobody has contacted me or informed me at all. This week TPD sent 3 cops to my house to ask what is happening, as if this is the first time they have heard of this. I showed them the evidence I still had at the house and told this very long complicated story one more time. They did not understand and asked me to call 911 if the ongoing financial fraud continued. This is not a realistic way to stop financial fraud.
Still TPD is completely silent. I told them I am not at all comfortable leaving that evidence at the station since the captain is on vacation, and he is specifically the only one I can trust. Silence. I fully expect that evidence to disappear at the Midtown police station and the whole 10 years of obstruction of justice to be swept under the table. We hear about corruption in government, but I have lived through a decade of it at the most extreme levels. These people aren’t even in collusion. They are simply clueless, too clueless to even collude. This is the scariest discovery I have made. They don’t intend to prevaricate. They just have no contact with reality. This corrupt bubble must be broken for the safety of us all.
Is Life The Entry Gate Of Friendship?
July 22, 2016
— 1 Comment
fame, power, death
Fame is a food that dead men eat,-
I have no stomach for such meat.
In little light and narrow room,
They eat it in the silent tomb,
With no kind voice of comrade near
To bid the banquet be of cheer.
But Friendship is a nobler thing,-
Of Friendship it is good to sing.
For truly, when a man shall end,
He lives in memory of his friend,
Who doth his better part recall,
And of his faults make funeral.
What impart I delivered from this poem? Praises and fame are heaped over the humans only after his death.
In the Cases of Majority of people especially famous people, the food of fame is not possible during their life time. If fame is considered as a food in most cases, it is supplied to the men only after his death, so fame is dead Men’s Food…
View original post 216 more words
When Does The Ship Come In?
July 9, 2016
— 3 Comments
Pacific
When I was a freshman a the University of Texas at Austin in 1968 I was an idealist. I was a folk singer, hum dinger. I protested the war in Viet Nam and civil rights atrocities. We thought that an egalitarian, high minded society was just around the corner. We thought the empire of fascist evil would end as soon as Barry Goldwater died. We knew less about world affairs then, but we knew that war was not only the only true sin amount nations, but also unconstitutional in the way it was being waged with no declaration. Since 1968 the United States has been at war with at least one part of the world all the time. Peace has not been achieved, and civil rights have been all but forgotten. Now we have the for profit prison system to mass incarcerate people of color, and laws designed specifically to feed that system. Our war on drugs has produced an epidemic of cheap heroin and an addiction crisis.
I was too young to march on Washington in 1963. I was busy living as an ex-pat petroleum princess in Venezuela. I spent a lot of time listening to Radio Havana because it was the only station that we got with a strong signal on the radio. I usually turned it off when Fidel went off on his speeches, but I liked the music from Cuba. Back in those days Venezuela had a natural contempt for Cuba and Fidel, and dependence on oil companies for their entire economy. This worked very well for the preteen petroleum princess, but not so well for the impoverished worker class. Like the historical Buddha I was exposed to suffering I never could have imagined in the world. The really interesting part was that my parents had no problem with the semi slavery and obscene show of wealth we enjoyed. I didn’t either until I thought about it. Now my own country has almost the same level of income disparity I observed in 1963 in Venezuela. The hippies have not yet accomplished our mission. I wonder if in the chaos and violence of this time, so similar to 1968, we might finally see the ship come in. The whole wide world is certainly watching.
Pacific
Mind the Gap #NoJustice
July 8, 2016
— 5 Comments
There are gaps of understanding between the citizens and the police. This has always been the case. Today we face an ever growing divide that makes everyone in the United States vulnerable to senseless violence and hate crimes of all kinds.
We have a new police chief in Tucson who has come to teach us neighborhood policing. When he held up a hashtag sign in his former town of Richmond, California, he was criticized widely across the nation for betraying cops. The Police Union in Tucson soundly rejected his bid to become chief over this sign. Thank goodness they lost the battle and Chief Magnus has started the very serious task of bringing our cops together in unity not only with each other but, for the first time, with the community. He has reorganized the department, focusing on more stable local assignments so the cops learn more about the same area all the time. He has eliminated some of the “specialties”, as recommended by the DOJ’s 21st Century Guidelines for Policing, in order to make each cop more full service and user friendly. He knew he was moving to a much bigger city, but I don’t think he could have imagined how much we needed him down here in Tucson. This will be a very big job for him, but I am glad he has started it.
Chris Magnus
Welcome to Tucson, Chief Chris,”357″,Magnus. You are just what the doctor ordered.
