Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Subject: Compounding in Crisis

Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 18:56:05 +0000

If this bill goes through, MB12, LDN, Transdermal Chelation, Glutathione,
Compounded Supplements, many anti-fungals, Secretin, etc. will become
illegal or extremely hard to get. Now it the time to call your representatives
and stop this bill.


http://www.iacprx.org/site/PageServer?pagename=P2C2001secKennedyLeg




I urge you to enter the link below and add your message; it will automatically go to YOUR Representatives. Limiting access to Compounded Pharmaceuticals will profoundly affect the successful treatments I need for my child and myself. The autistic children following the bio-medical treatment protocols also need this Bill stopped! Please help! It will take you maybe 45 seconds to complete this letter and it will automatically be sent to your representatives in Congress.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Judging ourselves

St Paul tells us that if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged. How true! The human ego is amazingly selfish and resilient.

The funny thing is that Christians should be as free from their egos as they are from sin and the devil but they are often as bad as the rest of the world. They (we) often disguise our stubborn refusal to be open-minded as "standing up for what's right" or some other excuse.

I'm going on about this because I'm an avid lover of American Idol and any reality show in which expertise (such as talent judges and judges of the law) encounter someone who is a novice or someone who simply doesn't know the rules.

The attitude of some folks never cease to amaze me. As I watch the way folks take criticism -- some of it often brutal-- and see the way their hackles come up when a judge tries to help, I think of a few critique groups I've been in.

I like critique groups. Don't get me wrong. I belong to a few and I have a yahoo group that shares writing information and also does crits: multicultigenrewriters.
1. What I've seen are
1) people who lurk and never crit or put stories up for crits.
2) people who generally lurk but who pop up only when they want something critted.
3) people who belong to other crit groups where everything they write is considered perfect
4) people who argue about the writing world's "stupid rules"
5) people who gossip about you behind your back with other groups (and post your crits to those group) when you challenge them.
6) people who aren't willing to learn because they don't realize they're beginners
7) people who think you're being unkind when you're honestly trying to help perfect their work.
8) people who are mimicking other great works (LOTR knock-offs) and don't have an original bone in their bodies but who think they are "following the rules of the genre"
9) people who are writing thinly-disguised memoirs and who are so personally involved in their stories that when you tell them a character is just too unrealistically evil (or good) you end up with a major meltdown.
10) good kind talented people
11) people who get spiteful when you crit them by giving you a very dismissive critique...just to show how good they really are...and how bad you are.
12) people who are better writers than I am.
The mix is tough and unpredictable -- writers are people-- and at a point in most people's life they simply don't want to grow or want to be told what to do. But there are some good folks out there...and truly I wouldn't have been published if it weren't for the good crittters.

Now, forgetting the way other people react for a minute -- because I can't help how other people behave-- I'lll only talk about the way yours truly -- MOI-- behaves whenever I get a critique on a work-in-progress.

I get into an inward struggle.

If the critique comes from an authority figure whom I respect I'll accept it pretty well. Hey, I have my good points...and listening to authority is one of them. Why remake the wheel? If we all tried to live an experiential life and only believed what we ourselves understood or had experienced we'd all start out as cavemen and forget the works of our forebears. So I'm cool with this kind of critique.

If, however, the critique comes from someone who is not particularly swift, I'll simply say thank you and ignore the critique...telling myself the person is not as published as I am so why the heck should I listen to her?

But even the most uneducated critter often has good points and there is where the inner battle begins. OOOOOOh, my friends! How difficult it is to say "thank you" to someone one does not respect.

And if the critique comes from someone who has a chip against me...wow, it really gets bad then. Because whether the critter is right or wrong, the very idea of giving in to him/her is like eating crow. And crow tastes like crap. I've eaten it before.

Ah well, we have to learn. The Bible warns us against not being able to take criticism. A noble heart is a teachable heart that thanks even its worst teachers. YEah, I just made that up.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Decisions, decisions

Well I’ve got to get some wisdom. Have been praying for guidance. I live in a 75 year-old house which needs a LOTTA work. It’s embarrassing to live in, cramped, and I just don’t like living in it. But I like the block and I like my neighbors. And it IS a house, after all. And we must learn to be grateful. But the house has taken a toll on my health, my son’s health, and my life because of mold issues, darkness issues, repair issues and a whole LOTTA issues.

If I had the money to do all the repairs on this house, I’d be doing something that would be good but also useless. The house would be repaired but it would still be cramped, might still be moldy, and all those repairs would not be recouped.

Truly, if I had the money to repair the house, I would probably knock down the house and build a new one on the spot.

In our town there is a non-profit fund that repairs your house for nothing. Did you hear me: nothing! But there is one catch: after they repair your house you must live in it for five years. If you move before the five years are up, you must pay them back.

But there’s also another catch: the emotional spiritual vampire catch. I simply do not like charity and I don’t like people involved in charities. They are like leeches who use your distress to feed their egos and they go about saying things like, “we helped her...her house was such a mess but...” At a Christmas party I met the woman who is in charge of doing this. Alas, she was everything I feared! A white liberal young type who talked a lot about the poor people she helped. I just can’t do it. I feel it would kill my soul to be helped by this woman. And it’s not even a black and white thing. There are black charity leeching types out there also whose souls are fed by humiliating people they help and who get some sick boost from being able to say to one person (or an entire community) that they are ever so helpful. Hey, as the prophet Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?”

Anyway...so now here I am. In this fix...because the house has to be fixed. I’m hoping my book will sell a lot...but is there a chance to get a financial miracle THIS year? With God all things are possible. I just need prayers for guidance and financial reaping for the many seeds I’ve sowed. Trusting God.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Relief Writer's Network

Christian Relief Network
I've created a writing group on Christian Relief Network. It's for black and minority Christian writers. If you wish to join, do drop by. There are other groups out there...and you can also create your own group. -C


Dark Parables -- Ethnic Christian Writers
http://www.reliefjournal.com/rwn/node/78

or go here
Relief Writer's Network
http://www.reliefjournal.com/rwn/

to make your own group....or join one of the other groups there.

-C

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