USDA & APHIS must enforce the Law and protect Lolita! Oil will begin contaminating her water supply in 30 days!

Posted on July 10, 2010 by Josh

Please consider taking action to support the welfare of marine life at the Miami Seaquarium. This is from a Facebook post by John Kielty:

To whom this may concern:

As you may be aware, Andrew Hertz, General Manager of Miami Seaquarium, Miami, FL has recently stated his intention to file a $3 to $5 million dollar claim against BP citing his requirement to upgrade the marine park’s filtration system should the waters of Biscayne Bay become contaminated from oil resulting from the Deep Water Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico (www.justnews.com/news/23910898/detail.html). By this action, the Hertz family has admittedly demonstrated that they are not prepared, equipped or otherwise capable of carrying out a disaster contingency plan to provide emergency sources of water and/or arrangements for relocating marine mammals as is required by APHIS Regulation 9 CFR section 3.101(b). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts an 80% chance that the oil will hit the Miami area in August and I am deeply concerned the Miami Seaquarium wildlife is in jeopardy. In addition to Killer Whale Lolita the lives of 30 dolphins, 15 seals and sea lions, dozens of reptiles/fish, sea turtles, and at least eight manatees are in peril. Your immediate action is required to ensure their safety.

Should the Hertz family be successful in securing funds for this major reconstruction effort, it is my contention that Miami Seaquarium be required by USDA-APHIS to bring ALL provisions of animal welfare, including marine mammal housing size, into compliance with current APHIS Regulations under the Animal Welfare Act.

Since the brutal capture of killer whale (orca) Lolita in 1970, she has been kept in a tank that is illegal by current APHIS standards for space requirements as provided in Regulation 9 CFR section 3.104. Now 42 years old, Lolita (also known as Tokitae) is approximately 21 feet long and 7,000 pounds. Her tank is 20 feet deep at the deepest point, a mere 12 feet deep around the edges and 35 feet wide. Lolita’s life of misery in these substandard confines has continued long enough. The Hertz family has been profiting from Lolita’s exploitation for more than 40 years and the time has come to end her suffering and provide her the protection and quality of life she deserves. They should not be allowed to continue operating with no emergency contingency plans, under outdated regulations, and making piecemeal improvements aimed solely at protecting profits. Now is the time to act on Lolita’s behalf. Time is running out!

As a part of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at The US Department of Agriculture, I know that you are concerned with the future of marine mammals in captivity and the urgent crisis developing at the Miami Seaquarium. Please do your part and ensure immediate action is taken and provisions are provided that require Miami Seaquarium’s compliance with all current APHIS Regulations under the Animal Welfare Act for this emergency and any future construction and/or upgrades at their marine mammal park. If the Hertz family finds that complying with all current APHIS Regulations is not cost feasible, alternative viable solutions are under development to provide a safe retirement for Lolita in her native habitat in the Pacific Northwest. Details of this proposal can be found here: www.orcanetwork.org/captivity/2007proposaldraft.html. There are many wonderful people and organizations willing to work with the Miami Seaquarium and are ready, willing and waiting to move forward with a rehabilitation/retirement plan for Lolita.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,

Playgrounds, The New Yorker, and Total Crap

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Josh

An article in the most recent New Yorker entitled “State of Play,” gives a brief outline of the history of playgrounds in New York City, along with an overview of some of the playgrounds coming soon to a borough near you.

And it’s total crap.

Here’s the original Seward Park Playground:

And here’s David Rockwell’s upcoming Imagination Playground:

Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea of big blocks, and movable pieces. But the idea that imagination is contingent on those things is a perversion of thought, a disservice to imagination, and a marketing pitch.

What happened to playgrounds like the one the Bar-barians use? They’ve all disappeared in favor of molded-plastic “safe-houses.”

Don’t tell me it doesn’t take imagination to come up with some of those moves…

What about the outdoors? What about the playground of the woods? When I was a kid, it was my favorite place to play, hands down:

If the argument for these new-fangled playgrounds is that they’re more conducive to healthy imaginations, because they offer “movable objects,” and “diverse variegated shapes,” how do they stack up (pardon the pun) against nature – where there are sticks, stones, branches, leaves, dirt, water…and [gasp] other living creatures!!!

Not only that, but what about the fact that being in nature reduces stress hormones, improves mood, and increases the amount of physical activity you do?

It’s also nice and cool in the woods on a hot summer day. Ever notice that?

Oh oh! I’ve got another one! How about the fact that nature isn’t made of plastic? It’s totally biodegradable people! It’s GREEN! Get with the green revolution!

I’m making a serious effort to stay as positive as possible here.

Instead of planting some trees, grasses, and native plants, New York City has hired some architects to create safe playgrounds that will look like hell in 30 years after the sun beats down on them and degrades their plastic parts…or those parts get stolen or vandalized.

What are we afraid of? That, if we don’t “produce” something, it has no value? Or that, if we stop “producing” “things” we won’t be able to “make money?”

Don’t you see the fallacy in that? You’re just creating value anyway. I mean, actively making it up! Money is make-believe. We agree on the value of it. We agree that one thing is worth another. We agree to “follow the rules” of this game.

Now that’s what I call using your imagination!

However, we seem to be stuck in the game. We’ve mistaken the game for reality.

The reality is that the oil spill in the Gulf comes from this money-game we’ve decided to play.

The reality is that the plastic playgrounds of the future are made out of petroleum products.

The reality is that we have a choice. We can choose to plant park-grounds made of things that recycle the carbon we keep pumping out. We can choose to make places that are soft as grass…or we can choose to make places that are soft as “pebbled rubber.”

You choose.

Just don’t blame your choice on [your lack of] Imagination.

Here’s a good history of playgrounds in New York City.

Trauma, Somatic Awareness, Healing, and Athletic Performance

Posted on May 29, 2010 by Josh

Aight…if you’ve been reading recently, you may be wondering what all of my recent posts have to do with physical activity, health, or athletic performance.

It has come to my attention that most people seek personal trainers for motivation, support, or encouragement, over/above knowledge, instruction, or learning.

First, I think that this is a culturally-based bias. I think that because of the way we treat what we call “physical education” in this country.

Children (at least when I was a kid, in “one of the best school systems in the country” – Fairfax Co., VA) in PE classes are “taught” extremely little. The only instruction we received usually had to do with “rules” of various games we played.

There was one section of the class on “health,” which covered sex education, drug awareness (scare tactics), and something else I can’t remember.

But there was no real physical education happening. If I learned the names of any muscles in high school it was either in a biology class, or through my own readings. We didn’t learn anything about human physiology.

Worst still, we didn’t learn anything about our bodies from a somatic awareness perspective. For instance, what happens in our physical bodies when we experience a trauma (whether it’s an accidental bump or fall, a major accident, or the experience of abuse from some external source), how to trace that experience, how to allow our feelings to happen without judgment or restriction…

And then, how to help ourselves to heal, by playing between the feelings elicited by that trauma within ourselves and the natural healing responses our bodies create.

This is not “touchy feely” bullshit that I’m writing about. We can point, using “science,” to everything good about a somatic awareness practice.

For instance, it is well known that the body responds to distress with chemical flows that, if lasting, are incredibly destructive. Adrenaline and cortisol, while helpful in emergency situations, are killers if they are present for too long.

This type of ability, and the practice of it, go to the heart of everything we do. This ability is the foundation for the creation of lasting self-worth, self-respect, and ultimately self-responsibility – all of which are, in turn, the foundations for deep feelings of others’ worth, respect of others, and the holding responsible of others for their own selves.

As I’ve said before, emotions are physical states. They are characterized by particular postures/expressions (that is, muscular patterns), and by internal chemical profiles.

The body is always a two-way street. So, similarly (and again, as I’ve said before), if we hold certain postures/expressions, we reproduce internal chemical profiles associated with those postures, and “create” that emotional state in ourselves.

If you are in a “stressed” state, your body cannot perform optimally. The longer that state continues, the less-optimally you can perform.

If you experience a trauma that you do not resolve, your body sets into a self-sustaining cycle that, while it is attempting to resolve the trauma, reinforces the fact that you were unable to resolve it.

Play is one way out of this. Play is the ability to creatively approach situations. I don’t mean “play” as it is commonly construed (another problem with our society). I mean play as creativity, openness, vulnerability, expression.

As the cycle continues, it becomes a habit. Soon, your reaction to certain things (relationship problems, conflicts, physical challenges, etc.) “just happen,” and you “have no control” over them.

The only way to break the cycle is through an intervention. And the way we intervene in our own psycho-physiology is through awareness.

This awareness requires the ability to focus internally, on feelings as they are occurring, observing them as they happen, and sitting quietly with them. When we feel those patterns occur, of reactivity to stress, and can sit with them, we can feel their usefulness. We can feel their reality (are they still applicable to the now, or are they representative of a past event).

And then we can heal them.

I really appreciate Aaron Schwenzfeier’s recent post, quoting Carl Valle on athletes’ performance, posture, and motivation and confidence. Equally important is his earlier post on Emotional Movement Intelligence.

Oftentimes, athletes (or others) succeed in spite of the mental/physical/emotional blockages in their lives. But equally often, these successful people eventually – and when it happens, always tragically – succumb to these restrictions. It may come in the form of a torn ACL. Dog-fighting charges. Rape or murder. Suicide. Depression. Etc.

I have yet to see a single discipline that encapsulates all of the areas needed – physical, mental, emotional/spiritual – to address these issues. And perhaps such a discipline is impossible, due to the sheer amount of information needed to work in all of those areas…or useless, due to the incredible variety of individual experience in the world (i.e., “one size cannot fit all”).

But I encourage (and implore) you to explore your life in this way.

In addition to your “physical education” of working out, building muscle/strength/size/shape, or performing well, find a somatic practice that encourages deep awareness of your body and its movement, such as:
Feldenkrais Technique
Alexander Technique
Mattes Method
Hanna Somatics
Qi Gong/Chi Gong, Tai Chi, Yoga, and some other martial arts
Autogenic Training
Network Care

Here’s an example of what Network Care is about:

Similarly, seek out a method of psychological awareness that allows you to attune, listen, feel, release, and ultimately accept yourself, such as:
Meditation – Zen, TM, Buddhist, Taoist, Eckart Tolle’s works, etc.
Psychotherapy – Psychiatry, Psychology, Coaching, Therapy, etc.
Group Practices – Toastmasters, Religious groups, Wo/Men’s groups, etc.
Somatic Experiencing

Here’s an example of what Somatic Experiencing is about:

One size does not fit all, so you’ll have to do some searching to find what works for you. But please search. You can find videos about any of the things I’ve mentioned above on YouTube.

It’s worth it.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

A Most Revealing Pyramid

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Josh

Another great post from JR prompts a follow-up piece by me.

This one is about food subsidies by the Federal government, the Farm Bill. It comes from The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Hopefully, I’m not violating anything in reproducing this chart they created:

These Pyramids Weren't Built By Aliens!!!!

As PCRM’s post points out, the Farm Bill not only provides food subsidies, but also decides much of what will constitute school lunches.

With a Food Pyramid like that, who needs enemies?!

The most recent post on the Neuroanthropology Blog discusses Obesity and family medicine – and the fact that some family physicians are starting to recognize family and environmental factors as decisive in treating childhood obesity.

I point this out in my comment on their site, but the author (and the physicians) forgot to include governmental subsidization of different food products (and governmental leadership, generally) in their factor-analysis.

As I’ve said before, the body follows the head. This is true in organisms, cultures, and governments.

In cultural/organizational terms, the Federal government is often the “head” of the social-body. It leads via policy (such as subsidies, land-usage policies, etc.), and also by example (accruing massive amounts of debt, etc.).

Further, much of what constitutes “popular” media takes its cue from the Federal government. “Truth in advertising” relies on governmental moderation. The nullification of the Radio Fairness Doctrine in 1987 had serious repercussions as to what type of messaging has dominated radio advertising since (see my post on the anti-smoking campaign of the early ’70′s and how the Fairness Doctrine was a decisive part of that movement).

I’m happy that MD’s are not as “isolationist” in their thinking as they may have been in the past, but the issue needs to be sussed out in its full depths – which includes holding governmental bodies, and the bodies (i.e., people) who make up those “bodies,” responsible for the way food is produced and marketed in our country.

Change – Only You Can Do It

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Josh

Smokey the Bear once said “Only YOU can prevent forest fires.”

In fact, here he is now!

While it’s not entirely true, it is entirely true. Only YOU can make any kind of change in your world. Only you.

I was inspired to write this post by Aaron Schwenzfeiers recent blog-link to Scott Berkun’s blog. The question Aaron posed was whether or not Americans should receive more time off – if that might help to get people more physically active.

I’m not convinced.

Personal Responsibility

This brings up a huge issue that I’m writing a totally separate entry about – around the concept of “personal responsibility.”

I won’t go into that entire subject in depth here, but only comment on part of it. Change, and doing what you can, with what you have, right now.

Just Do It

My main question to Aaron was – What do people use their free time for now?

When life is stressful, and seems out of your control, you’re more likely to view free time as an excuse to “take it easy,” to relax, or to indulge in the things you don’t get to when you’re busy working (perhaps at something you do not actually derive any satisfaction or fulfillment from).

It’s very similar to what dieters experience, who deprive themselves of foods, and have one cheat day. The cheat day ends up negating the effects of the rest of the diet.

Better, I think, to focus on changing your individual situation.

The Serenity Prayer

The Serenity Prayer is typically associated with Alcoholics Anonymous, though it was created well before AA came into existence.

It says:

God, grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change

To change the things I can

And the wisdom to know the difference.

I really like this prayer. I think it does a good job of reflecting the attitude we need to have in life. Because, while “personal responsibility” is not the end-all be-all of existence (there are things that are truly outside of our control), we do have an incredible amount of power, especially nowadays, to make positive change in our lives.

Enculturation

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you say this coming. Culture trains us to think certain ways. That also holds true for the ways we think about our own personal freedom, and our responsibilities.

Most pertinent to this post, it holds true for our conceptions of what is possible. I still encounter situations, on almost a daily basis, where I realize that the only thing that had ever stopped me from doing a particular thing was the belief that it was actually possible, a plan to accomplish it, and the action to make the plan happen.

That is, I wasn’t given either the self-confidence to believe in such a possibility, or, equally as important, the framework for making change in my life once I had a belief or goal.

In our culture, we seem to foster a constant desire to “have/make things change.” While that’s not entirely bad, it’s not accurate, either.

“Things” never change. “Things” always are just as they are. You, you can change. Your life situation, you can change. Your actions (most importantly) you can change.

You can take control of what’s within your grasp to control.

The Panacea

If there is a “cultural panacea” it will have something to do with giving people self-confidence, and the tools to turn that confidence into positive action for their lives and well-being.

That being said, a lot of the folks whom we think should change, don’t think they need to change at all. We talk about creating change a lot – for instance, in the need to decrease obesity in the United States, or increase physical activity. But the people who are living in an “obese” state, or who are not physically active, often don’t feel the need to change either of those situations.

Do you think you need to change?

The exquisite training of the un-self-reliant

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Josh

The talk with Andy (of SF Bike Coalition) and Peter (of SF Gov Muni division) startled me at one point.

One of my classmates said that one of the reasons people are afraid to ride bicycles is they don’t know how to fix a flat.

Last Saturday, on the return drive from a hike in the Marin headlands, we came upon a car that was pulled over, with its hood up. There were four people in their mid-thirties in the car. I rolled down my window, and a girl in the front seat said “Do you guys have jumper cables?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. I used to have some, but hadn’t seen them in a while. I got out of my car and looked in the trunk. Nothing. Just then, the fifth person in their party came running down the street from a nearby house with some jumpers in his hand.

I backed up, got bumper-to-bumper with them, and opened my hood. “Well…” said that girl. “I don’t know how to do this.”

The guy who had retrieved the jumpers knew what to do, and so the two of us showed her how it works. The other four stayed in the car.

As I was leaving, the girl said “Thanks so much for showing me how to jump-start a car. I don’t even know how to change a tire.” I heard the other girl, who had stayed in the car, saying something about knowing nothing about cars, too.

Now, I could say that there’s nothing wrong with not knowing anything about cars. I could say that it’s ok.

But it’s not.

You can make all of the excuses you want – no one ever showed you how to do it, you forgot, you don’t need to know because someone else will do it for you.

None of them fly.

It is your own responsibility to know how to take care of yourself. To be self-reliant.

Which means, if you do not know something, you seek out the answer. You find it on your own.

My personal opinion is that, if you are the operator a car, or a bicycle, or a human body, you should know how that thing works, how to take care of it, and how to fix it. I’m not saying that everyone should become a car mechanic, or a doctor…well…maybe I am.

At the very least, you should know basic maintenance, and the basic principles behind how the things that you use work. If you know the basic principles, they can help you to suss out the solution on your own.

For instance, electricity flows, like water, from high concentration to low. In fact, this principle is essentially universal. Read this article for more information about things flowing from higher concentrations to lower.

If you know that, you know that you’d want to put your jumper cables from positive (+, often color-coded red) to the positive on the other battery, and from your negative (-), to the other battery’s negative terminal. That would create a circuit between the two batteries, allowing electricity to flow in a loop between them. Here’s a video-article from eHow about this topic.

If you own a car, buy the Chilton’s Manual for your car, and keep it by the toilet, or on the coffee table. Someplace where you can peruse it at leisure. Flip through it and get to know your car. It’s fascinating. Or, find a friend who works on cars and help them out for a few weekends.

Sadly, I don’t really wonder why this lack of self-reliance is so prevalent. The self-reliant do not need “roadside service.” They also are less frequent visitors of doctors, less frequent consumers of pharmaceuticals – they are less frequent consumers.

And the thrust of our culture is consumption. We are constantly told that we cannot do things on our own. Even to the extent that we need “self-help” books to get to know ourselves better!

At what point will kindergartners need “make-a-friend-help” books to help them to make friends? Rather, the parents will be sold the book (the kindergartners aren’t able to consume yet, except through wheedling their parents), and will then take over the friend-making process for their kids.

Find this weed in you and root it out. Find the areas where you rely on others for your own needs and figure out what they are. What are the areas? What are the things that are you, that are your responsibility, that you’re relying on others to do? What are the things that you need to do, need to know how to do (like how to jump start a manual transmission car if you’re alone), that you’re putting on others?

You aren’t a baby anymore. You’re an adult. You need to be self-reliant. Mostly, because when you need help the most, you’re the only person whom you can guarantee will be there.

Everyone talks about their “bucket list.” Of the 100 things they want to do before they die.

I’d like to recommend that you make a similar list – of the things you rely on others to do for you, that you should know how to do for yourself.

Make your list and get started finding the answers. As I mentioned, eHow is a great resource. Google the topic and start reading.

But more importantly, practice the solution physically – by actually doing it – even if you’re just going through the motions a few times. You can’t actually learn how to do something by reading about it. You have to do it at some point.

In the process, you’ll become more self-reliant, better able to take care of yourself and others.

You – Own it.

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Josh

The character “Taylor” (played by John P. Whitecloud – who was awesome!) in the movie Poltergeist 2 tells “Steve” (Craig T. Nelson), when Steve is losing his mind because his family has been overrun by evil spirits…AGAIN…that he must take responsibility…

Taylor – You understand me, no matter how much you want to feel sorry for yourself. That is the path you have chosen to take, whether you know it or not. YOU should assume full responsibility.
Steve – RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT!
Taylor – Responsibility for EVERYTHING. Everything in your world.

"God is in, His holy tem-PUL!"

I think he’s right.

Community is great. I think it’s wonderful to have a group of like-minded individuals around, to support you when needed.

But not at the expense of your self, your individuality, your soul.

The biggest part of being an individual is taking responsibility for yourself as an individual.

And this is something our culture does not (and many communities do not) teach.

Beyond that, is the extent to which you must take responsibility for yourself. And in this, too, Taylor is right – you must take responsibility for everything in your world.

There is no “your world” without “you the individual.” Your perception of your world = you.

I don’t mean this in a hard way. It shouldn’t be hard. It should be very easy. In fact, it should be easier still because your community supports you in this process.

If you live in a community like that.

I think our culture likes to tell people what to do a lot. “Prescriptions,” instead of education. Which is strange, since we live in a predominantly Christian society (at least, predominantly led by people who call themselves “Christian” – and I am not, just in case you were wondering). What I mean is, Jesus said something about teaching people to fish instead of giving them fish. In our culture, we like to tell people to catch their own fish, and tell them that they have to make their own fishing rods, and lines, and hooks. But we don’t show them how to do those things. We just tell them that they need to.

I encounter this effort to escape responsibility all the time – in myself and in others – and it’s extremely frustrating.

One of the funniest places to see it, for me, is in culture itself. We currently have a ton of excuses for why people aren’t self-responsible…number one among them is…

“ENTITLEMENT”

they need the extra space on the sides of the car...they're fat

…which, simply put, means, “feeling that one does not need to be self-responsible.”

Uh? What? So, when we have a problem, we approach it by making another name for it? That…doesn’t sound like it will have any effect.

Yeah, people complain all the time about their kids, their peers, their grandkids, their neighbors, having a bizarre sense of entitlement…

…and there it ends.

Instead of saying “you are not entitled to this,” they argue about it. They have debates. They talk about it on talk shows. Anything rather than facing their beliefs about the issue and doing something about it.

Beyond that, whose responsibility are your feelings/opinions? They’re yours. What are your estimations of other people as acting with false entitlement giving you?

Is it helping you to avoid pointing the finger back where it belongs?

When you tell someone else that they’re wrong, bad, not good, dumb, conceited, egotistical, silly, lazy, or anything else, do you take responsibility for the fact that it is you who thinks this about the other person? It is not they who think it. You don’t know what they think. You can’t. Even when they tell you what they think, you only have a vague notion of what those words mean to them as an individual.

And when you do own it, do you then hold that feeling inside from then on? Push it down? Debate about it with yourself?

Or do you play with those beliefs? Do you experiment, play, with the other person, to see whether your ideas match reality or not?

There’s a big difference between judgment and play.

One, judgment, says that you know “how it is.” You’re already certain, based on your (I’m sure vast) experience, what a person is thinking, who they are; or, what a situation is, and what the “right” response is.

The other, play, says that you might have an idea of what’s happening, but that you want to explore the possibilities – in a way that involves empathy, compassion, humor, lightheartedness…

Another place people often try to avoid responsibility for themselves and their world is in religion and politics. OH NO! THE TWO “TABOO” SUBJECTS WE SHOULD NEVER SPEAK ABOUT!

"I went down to the crossroads..."

Why is it that we should never speak about them?

Well, what happens when you speak about something?

No…not that you argue. I mean, the arguing leads to something else.

It means that you will be forced to confront your views of the world. By saying them out loud, in the presence of another person, you will be forced to look at what you believe. You will be forced to confront…

Yourself

Still other places I’ve noticed people hiding from themselves in are – jobs/careers, illnesses (ADD, ADHD? – it’s not my fault I can’t control myself, I have an illness), relationships…etc.

Can’t we all just play along?

What does all of this have to do with training?

I can provide a good answer from the response I just posted on Aaron Schwenzfeier’s Blog:

For me, the future of “training” is educating people about how their bodies work. Then they can become, as they should be, the boss of themselves…self-responsible.

How does a human body work, in general? What are the mechanisms at work? Chek doesn’t teach his people that…probably because he’s afraid that, if he did, they wouldn’t need him anymore.

That’s really sad, though. True coaching isn’t about telling people what to do all the time. It’s about being an artist. It’s about accumulating the time in the field, researching your field, seeing what works and what doesn’t, so that you can effectively help the individuals you work with in a faster and faster manner…

Coaching is an art.

More education. Less admonishment, less prescription, less arguing about “what’s right for everyone” (it doesn’t exist…every one individual is different), less “guru-ism.”

My goal here, has not been to prescribe an action to you, or to condemn anyone for behaving in any way. I hope you don’t take it that way. I’m just trying to describe the new state of behavior I’m trying to foster in myself.

If you want to do that too, let’s play.

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