Education Degrees
There are so many phony degree programs floating in cyberspace. Those most egregious and misrepresentative of value seem to be associated with either authors, speakers, "healers," or life coaches - the entrepreneurial whoo-whoo's who have great ideas to share (read: cash in on) but no educational credentials to substantiate their expertise in these espoused subject areas.
John Gray, author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, has his PhD from an unaccredited, correspondence course-oriented California university cited over years for unqualified staff and deceptive practices regarding issuance of PhD degrees. Eventually, in 1999, they were ordered closed by a California court.
The career choice of author or speaker or "expert" ought to require one be truthful and coherent in presentation and authenticity. Otherwise the moniker of "salesperson, charlatan, or b.s.-er" becomes applicable. Not everyone is an excellent presenter, but when one espouses knowledge in a public setting, the absolute ceiling of your knowledge base better match or exceed the expectation assigned. Hanging the letters, Ph.D., after your name should mean something similar to what it is generally accepted to mean.
I have no patience for phony, fast-lane, degree mills which exist because the market allows people to pay a monetary price for prestige, but not the intellectual or investment cost of learning through the process of time and rigor. There are many ways to learn. Sitting at the feet of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for nine years (as John Gray did) is certainly experiential applicable learning, but you don't get to say you have a Ph.D. because of this. You get to say you sat at the feet of Maharishi. In some people's eyes, this is much more impressive than a degree.
I'm glad I'm acquiring my degree the way I am. I'm glad I'm not taking short cuts just to say I have a degree. I'm glad I'm earning it the way it is generally regarded as earned.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
This Morning 5/25/12 Dream Haiku
In the dream alone
Sang my song, eyes closed, heart strong
Clapping hands awake
Sang my song, eyes closed, heart strong
Clapping hands awake
Thursday, May 24, 2012
This Morning 5/24/12 - To memorize
To Memorize
I have to memorize, at least in part, a 5000-word paper - 17 typewritten pages - for the Beacon Scholar Conference. I just found out this information yesterday and the presentation is in 8 days!
Two things come to me:
1. My daughter memorized a 30-page Italian aria. If she can...
2. This is not music!
Connecting with the emotional content of the paper is going to be the only way to truly deliver this presentation with any effectiveness. Repetitive practice - over and over - until I know and feel it in my bones.
Also, I must prepare some PowerPoint slides to highlight the paper, including my painting, The Rape of Leah. I also must sing as part of the presentation a verse from my song, The Rape of Leah.
The paper is a tome on choosing art over love, and discusses the inner and outer landscape which fuels such a choice or pathology, and how Willa Cather's personal life and characterizations of women and men fit this profile. As well, it is an autobiographical feminist criticism in which I am inserting several of my personal art pieces, fueled by a past traumatic experience, as it relates to the thesis of forsaking love for art's sake.
This will be a challenge.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
This Morning 5/23/2012 - 100 Posts
The Hundredth Posting of this Process
I've been looking forward to this day - to post the hundredth posting since I've begun to write every morning for every morning.
This process was started in order to shake myself out of feelings of despair and questioning of everything in my life. I had no idea where it would lead, but here I am. I have direction and confidence and beauty in my life. I have acquired my first degree and gave the commencement speech at graduation to two standing ovations. I should mention that this was the first standing ovation in the 25-year history of the college's commencement ceremonies. I am preparing for the Beacon Scholar Conference where I will present a paper on Willa Cather. I have steady employment and am leaving a very part time job of ten years. I have short, medium and somewhat long-range plans. I never make very long-range plans! I no longer dread waking up in my house alone or fear making choices which seem difficult and different from my previous choices. It's as if I am renewed, and making this commitment to write everyday has allowed me to find my way clear out of the dark woods I was seeing around me.
I have just reread passage of writing that set me on this journey; I have never posted it. I titled it "Trudging" which tells you something of how I was experiencing life. I don't quite feel far enough away from that time to publicly post it yet; maybe on my two-hundredth posting date. However, I am so happy to be on this path. It's a good way. It feels good, and since I've begun, many good things have come into being within my life.
For that I am very grateful.
I've been looking forward to this day - to post the hundredth posting since I've begun to write every morning for every morning.
This process was started in order to shake myself out of feelings of despair and questioning of everything in my life. I had no idea where it would lead, but here I am. I have direction and confidence and beauty in my life. I have acquired my first degree and gave the commencement speech at graduation to two standing ovations. I should mention that this was the first standing ovation in the 25-year history of the college's commencement ceremonies. I am preparing for the Beacon Scholar Conference where I will present a paper on Willa Cather. I have steady employment and am leaving a very part time job of ten years. I have short, medium and somewhat long-range plans. I never make very long-range plans! I no longer dread waking up in my house alone or fear making choices which seem difficult and different from my previous choices. It's as if I am renewed, and making this commitment to write everyday has allowed me to find my way clear out of the dark woods I was seeing around me.
I have just reread passage of writing that set me on this journey; I have never posted it. I titled it "Trudging" which tells you something of how I was experiencing life. I don't quite feel far enough away from that time to publicly post it yet; maybe on my two-hundredth posting date. However, I am so happy to be on this path. It's a good way. It feels good, and since I've begun, many good things have come into being within my life.
For that I am very grateful.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
This Morning 5/22/12 - Guns
Guns
I received an email this morning; a forwarded pro-gun rant from an Air Force enlisted man claiming there are over 600,000 registered hunters in the state of Wisconsin, all taking to the woods, and not one reported human casualty among them. He went on to say that our national defense can be built on the fact that in just four states - Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia - the combined registered hunters comprise the largest "army" in the world. Further, he assures that with that kind of "homegrown firepower," America will "forever be safe from foreign invasion." His conclusion, of course, is to not allow government to remove the right to bear arms from the citizens of the U.S.
The issue of gun control has never been about hunting licenses per se, but about the availability of guns in general to a population who, for the most part, do not need to put venison in the freezer or even defend themselves, as much as they want to play Rambo.
So while I appreciate the dramatic statistic that the licensed hunters in four states equal a defense force larger than most nations, let's face it, having a licensed gun doesn't qualify you to shoot one, or for that matter, doesn't qualify you to even possess one, except for the fact that the gun lobby funds the political lives of at least half of Congress and that's who makes the laws which say if you have a license, you can possess a gun.
The issue of "homegrown firepower" means nothing against an XM-29, RPG, ICBM or nuke! This is not the 19th century where the Reds and the Blues square up in a field from opposite sides and fight to the finish.
Gun control is a necessary part of managing a population where people get lost in the societal cracks of basic human needs. People become desperate, hungry, and homeless rather easily in the U.S. of A, especially during the last decade. These people do not needs guns to defend or provide for themselves; they need a community that cares.
Can I say this again?
People do not need guns to defend or provide for themselves; they need a community that cares.
I received an email this morning; a forwarded pro-gun rant from an Air Force enlisted man claiming there are over 600,000 registered hunters in the state of Wisconsin, all taking to the woods, and not one reported human casualty among them. He went on to say that our national defense can be built on the fact that in just four states - Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia - the combined registered hunters comprise the largest "army" in the world. Further, he assures that with that kind of "homegrown firepower," America will "forever be safe from foreign invasion." His conclusion, of course, is to not allow government to remove the right to bear arms from the citizens of the U.S.
The issue of gun control has never been about hunting licenses per se, but about the availability of guns in general to a population who, for the most part, do not need to put venison in the freezer or even defend themselves, as much as they want to play Rambo.
So while I appreciate the dramatic statistic that the licensed hunters in four states equal a defense force larger than most nations, let's face it, having a licensed gun doesn't qualify you to shoot one, or for that matter, doesn't qualify you to even possess one, except for the fact that the gun lobby funds the political lives of at least half of Congress and that's who makes the laws which say if you have a license, you can possess a gun.
The issue of "homegrown firepower" means nothing against an XM-29, RPG, ICBM or nuke! This is not the 19th century where the Reds and the Blues square up in a field from opposite sides and fight to the finish.
Gun control is a necessary part of managing a population where people get lost in the societal cracks of basic human needs. People become desperate, hungry, and homeless rather easily in the U.S. of A, especially during the last decade. These people do not needs guns to defend or provide for themselves; they need a community that cares.
Can I say this again?
People do not need guns to defend or provide for themselves; they need a community that cares.
Monday, May 21, 2012
This Morning 5/21/12 - Crazies (part 2)
When the Crazies Drop by (part II)
What are the Crazies? They are the visceral, often subconscious, aspects of our personality entertaining socially inappropriate responses to life's stimuli. They are the road rage-aholic, the drunk acting like a blithering idiot, the politician going downtown to the red-light district for a tete-a-tete, the boss who can't help but comment aloud his emotional responses to a business deal, or the sexually-explicit comments we see on television which are becoming commonplace. The Crazies are also the ways we set up ourselves to fail, our attempts to exercise power over another through words or actions, and self-destructive habits.
Sometimes the Crazies visit me. An old boyfriend stopping by is a prime set-up for one of these visits. I lose my balance and my sense of self-control and the next thing I know, I'm saying or doing something I might regret.
To keep the Crazies at bay, I pray every morning, I write songs, I sing, I breathe deeply, I create goals for myself and fulfill them, I practice gratitude. I work hard to keep myself more sane than crazy.
They drop by less often than the past, but sure enough, when one of the kids is doing something harmful to themselves, that will unleash those Crazies in an instant! Being a mom brings on the Crazies like crazy! All our insecurities are exposed and our sense of balance is challenged and often drowned by the sound of babies crying, kids fighting, teenagers drugging and young adults struggling! Being a parent is definitely high times for the Crazies.
Thankfully, the restoration of balance takes much less time these days. Perhaps it is my age or perhaps I understand the mechanism better and the realize the futile nature of losing my footing to the Crazies.
Choice is a wonderful thing and the Crazies are just visitors I choose to entertain much less in my life.
What are the Crazies? They are the visceral, often subconscious, aspects of our personality entertaining socially inappropriate responses to life's stimuli. They are the road rage-aholic, the drunk acting like a blithering idiot, the politician going downtown to the red-light district for a tete-a-tete, the boss who can't help but comment aloud his emotional responses to a business deal, or the sexually-explicit comments we see on television which are becoming commonplace. The Crazies are also the ways we set up ourselves to fail, our attempts to exercise power over another through words or actions, and self-destructive habits.
Sometimes the Crazies visit me. An old boyfriend stopping by is a prime set-up for one of these visits. I lose my balance and my sense of self-control and the next thing I know, I'm saying or doing something I might regret.
To keep the Crazies at bay, I pray every morning, I write songs, I sing, I breathe deeply, I create goals for myself and fulfill them, I practice gratitude. I work hard to keep myself more sane than crazy.
They drop by less often than the past, but sure enough, when one of the kids is doing something harmful to themselves, that will unleash those Crazies in an instant! Being a mom brings on the Crazies like crazy! All our insecurities are exposed and our sense of balance is challenged and often drowned by the sound of babies crying, kids fighting, teenagers drugging and young adults struggling! Being a parent is definitely high times for the Crazies.
Thankfully, the restoration of balance takes much less time these days. Perhaps it is my age or perhaps I understand the mechanism better and the realize the futile nature of losing my footing to the Crazies.
Choice is a wonderful thing and the Crazies are just visitors I choose to entertain much less in my life.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
This Morning 5/20/12 - The Crazies (part 1)
When the Crazies Drop by
Sometimes we lose our balance and the crazies come out of the closet. Our personalities, built by our DNA and our life experiences both helpful and hurtful, synergize with a new stimulus, and *puff!*, the crazies wiggle out of us and say "boo!"
Embarrassment, humiliation, contempt and far worse can result for both the crazee and the crazer (I believe I just invented two words!). We've all been there on both ends of that door. There is no way to take back the Crazies after they've emerged for their moment in the sun. We just have to calmly escort them back to where they belong, and breathe a sigh of relief when they cooperate.
We hang in the balance by threads. Even people who appear the steadiest from the outside are keeping themselves in check. It's very easy to go crazy in a world where the majority of your time is given to a company or job where you know you can be replaced at any moment, where the media is spoon-feeding you negative and fear-producing news, and where the future of the children is macromanaged by the economic balance sheet and the decisions of approximately 500 mostly-white, mostly men.
This is why people have religion or causes or obsessive hobbies - it keeps the Crazies from dropping by.
(to be continued...)
Sometimes we lose our balance and the crazies come out of the closet. Our personalities, built by our DNA and our life experiences both helpful and hurtful, synergize with a new stimulus, and *puff!*, the crazies wiggle out of us and say "boo!"
Embarrassment, humiliation, contempt and far worse can result for both the crazee and the crazer (I believe I just invented two words!). We've all been there on both ends of that door. There is no way to take back the Crazies after they've emerged for their moment in the sun. We just have to calmly escort them back to where they belong, and breathe a sigh of relief when they cooperate.
We hang in the balance by threads. Even people who appear the steadiest from the outside are keeping themselves in check. It's very easy to go crazy in a world where the majority of your time is given to a company or job where you know you can be replaced at any moment, where the media is spoon-feeding you negative and fear-producing news, and where the future of the children is macromanaged by the economic balance sheet and the decisions of approximately 500 mostly-white, mostly men.
This is why people have religion or causes or obsessive hobbies - it keeps the Crazies from dropping by.
(to be continued...)
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