Short Takes
August 20, 2009
Homework for Parents: Please Watch This Video
It happened to a Miss America winner. It happens today to one in every four girls, one in every six boys. And one big reason why: The adults in their lives are clueless about the kind of men who really abuse kids. (Hint: It’s not gay men.) The good news: With knowledge, predators can be identified, abuse can be prevented, kids can grow up unscarred. If you have a kid you care about, please watch this video. Then go to Darkness to Light and learn what you can do. Thank you.
August 18, 2009
California Dreaming
Times of collective and personal crisis always afford the opportunity for great breakthroughs and transformations. In his new Esalen workshop, which starts August 30th, Jeffrey Rubin will share his tools for getting through — and, more, flourishing.
August 17, 2009
District 9
If you want a see a real film — original, brilliantly made, disturbing as hell, violent, but not a thrill ride for 14-year-olds — "District 9" is almost all that’s out there. [Watch the preview.] Some of you will realize it’s Childhood’s End turned upside down. It occurs to me that all of us might do well to read that Arthur C. Clarke novel.
August 12, 2009
Do I Have a ‘Problem’ with Elizabeth Gilbert?
Reading my review of Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man’s Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand, some have asked if I have a “problem” with Elizabeth Gilbert. Well, yes. Let’s ignore the possible calculation in the book’s content — I have an odd feeling that food, spirit and love are issues that resonant deeply with millions of dissatisfied middle-class white women, who are, as it happens, big book buyers — and consider her publishing deal. On one hand, I applaud any writer who can score a contract for writing about her next, as-yet-unlived year. On the other, as a reader noted, “Isn’t it amazing how she negotiated a fat book deal during her most profound spiritual and life crisis?” Finally — and chalk this up to intuition, which is often flawed — I don’t buy her story of the end of her marriage, not that I expect her ex-husband to correct it in his book.
August 11, 2009
Health Care & Mozart
My rant on health care inspired more reader comment than any piece in the five-year history of this site. I’m not surprised. Health care is a moral issue. An economic issue. And a national security issue — as a threat to the country, health care costs make terrorism look small. I didn’t expect to read so much agreement about gutter politics and irresponsible media. And I was saddened to read so much despair about the prospect of an intelligent political solution. But I was cheered that so many of you recognized that one way to fight this despair is to seek out beauty — like the Mozart violin concertos. Finally, a short history lesson on Leadership. I looked up John F. Kennedy’s 1961 confrontation with U.S. Steel, over its announcement of a price rise. You want to see executive power in action? Read this. Finally, thanks to all who understood that I wasn’t violating my no-politics covenant. If anyone has the right to bend the rules, I’m that guy — but I’m not doing it, and I don’t intend to.