Markham's Behavioral Health

Quote of the day

"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

George H.W. Bush

Modern Marriage is a status symbol says Professor Andrew Cherlin

Sociology professor Andrew Cherlin examines the modern status of marriage in the U.S. as compared to other western countries. Video lasts 2:30 minutes

A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut summarized by The Resident

The Resident has a 6 1/2 minute video on Kurt Vonnegut's book, A Man Without A Country. It is well worth watching.

Hillary, a propoganda mouth piece of the Bush Administration push for war in Iraq

Hillary has no mind of her own. She parroted the propaganda and was a mouth piece for Bush. She has never said she was wrong or apologized for her mistakes. For this reason, she is not fit, nor has the character to be my president.

Video lasts 3:04

The Appeal, the book

Bill Moyers interviewed John Grisham on January 25, 2008 on his show, Bill Moyers Journal. I learned that John Grisham is a religious man and takes his faith seriously.

In Grisham's latest book, he tells the story of how corporate interests have corrupted our democratic elections to the point of being able to even stack the state Supreme Courts with judges sympathetic to corporate interests.

The story is about a huge award granted by a Mississippi court to a woman whose husband and son both died of cancer as the result of a chemical company dumping toxic waste which found its way into the city's drinking water. The chemical company pays millions of dollars to get a supreme court justice elected who will knock down the award upon appeal.

This book is important for every American to read who wants to understand how contemporary campaigning is designed and whose interests are being promoted and represented. This book should be assigned reading in every high school civics class in America. Before the kids read it, parents would be advised to read it first so parents know what the kids are talking about when they ask questions.

I highly recommend this book.

Link: Bill Moyers Journal . John Grisham | PBS.

Sweet Land, the film

The last couple of weeks, I have felt the urge to go see a movie and searching through the listings in Brockport and Rochester, NY, there is nothing but garbage. If films are any measure of our cultural literacy or pop culture, we sure are in trouble. However, I had the good fortune of renting a wonderful movie from Netflix made in 2005 entitled, Sweet Land. It is the story about Inge, a German mail order bride, who arrives in Minnesota in the 1920s to marry Norwegian, Olaf Torvik.

The creative tension in the film is derrived from the circumstances that Inge doesn't have papers to prove her nativity or citizenship and so cannot legally marry Olaf at a time with strict mores that governed the appropriate interaction between the sexes. At one point, Inge and Olaf are ostracized by the minister and the church for living in sin even though Inge slept in the house and Olaf slept in the barn to minimize scandal.

Overall, this is a lovely love story set in a historical time which was in some ways more simple but much more constraining.

Warning, there is no sex, car crashes, explosions, aliens, drugs, or obscene language. Further more, there is no loud music or hyper stimulating special effects. Therefore, this movie is recommended only for a more sophisticated and mature audience. For such an audience, I highly recommend Sweet Land.

Link: Sweet Land (2005).

Quote of the day

"Let us hope that our lives are preceeded by a love story."

Tag Line from the movie Sweet Land

A Mother's Day Moment

A Mother's Day Moment from Igniter Media. Video lasts 2:39 minutes.

http://www.ignitermedia.com/products/sea/singles/608/Mothers-Day-Moment

Can you find your original face?

When you grow up in a dysfunctional family you learn all kinds of dysfunctional stuff. You learn dysfunctional stuff about who you are supposed to be. You learn dysfunctional stuff about how other people are supposed to be, and you learn dysfunctional stuff about how people are supposed to deal with each other.

Andrew Boyd, in his book Daily Afflictions, says, "Not only are you ready on a hair-trigger to detonate a flexible array of adult issues, but you've been rigorously trained to handle operational systems of adult institutions, including passive aggression in the school system, guilt bartering in organized religion, and domination-submission patterns between corporations and government." p. 29

You are also well trained to screw up your personal relationships and bring plenty of pain and anguish and suffering to yourself and others whom you claim to love.

As Osho points out in his book, Compassion, we have forgotten our original face. Our original face was the face of love and innocence that we were born with. Our mother's womb was a place of love, serenity, security, and contentment, and then we got born and we came into the world perfectly innocent and were corrupted. The challenge of a lifetime is to rediscover our original face and when successful, we have achieved enlightenment, and hopefully that enlightenment includes compassion in such away that conscious love includes the whole world like that of an innocent, trusting, loving child who delights in sight of its mother's face.

Quote of the day

"When the President does it, that means its no illegal."

Richard M. Nixon

Quote of the day

"Meditation is the flower, and compassion is the fragrance."

Osho

Triumphing over misery in dysfunctional families

Growing up in a dysfunctional family has its advantages. Children learn how to deal with dysfunction. Children learn what they don't want to replicate when they grow up in their own families.

Oldest children in dysfunctional families often enter helping professions like Social Work, Psychology, education, nursing, criminal justice, fire fighting. They often make great EMTs and cops because they love bringing order out of chaos.

Children who grow up in functional, happy families often don't know much about life. They are innocent and naive and don't understand why and how hurtful, evil things happen. Children who grow up in dysfunctional families know these things only too well.

I don't wish a dysfunctional family life on anyone. A dysfunctional family life is fraught with hurt, pain, anger, fear, sadness, and tragedies of various types. Dysfunctional families wreak all kinds of havoc from abuse, alcoholism and drug addiction, mental illness, crime, bankruptcy, hunger, incest, exploitation, intimidation, domination, subjugation and terrible, heart wrenching unhappiness. And yet, people who grow up in these situations are either scarred and wounded for life or they thrive and become very vibrant, determined, compassionate, and enlightened people.

In many ways I like people who grow up in dysfunctional families better than people who grow up in functional, happy families. They are much more interesting and have fascinating stories to tell about the resiliency of the human spirit as well as the pathos of evil. Of course, I am a therapist, and being the oldest child in a somewhat dysfunctional family, and the husband and father in a dysfunctional family that I tried to fix for 35 years, I suppose, as the old saying goes, misery likes company, but more than that I like the hopefulness of people who have seen misery and triumphed over it.

Quote of the day

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in is own way."

Leo Tolstoy

Annuale- a new pill for women who only want to have a period once per year

George Carlin says America is founded and continues on bull shit

George Carlin says America is based on bull shit and makes a very compelling case. The video lasts about 2 and 3/4 minutes. Warning - Language is coarse.