Monthly Archives: January 2008

On the road again…

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… so I won’t be posting again until February 6 or 7. We’re off to various places to do various things; for at least part of the time, we’ll be out of range of modern communication. Whether I can handle such a withdrawal from news and the blogosphere in the middle of the most exciting primary season of my life is an open question at this point!

I’ll report on where we went and what we did when blogging resumes in three weeks or so.

Meanwhile, check out some of the blogs on my revolving blog roll. And go see “Michael Clayton”, a film that is not receiving its due.

And if you’re voting (I’m doing so absentee), consider voting for either one of the two very fine men named for the author of the final Gospel.

“Becoming available for the miracle”: in defense of psychotropics

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The discussion of medication, specifically anti-depressants, has made its way back into the blogosphere. Kactus posted on December 20 at Feministe about her relief at finding a good anti-anxiety medication. More than 120 comments followed, many critical of the pharmaceutical industry — and others questioning the usefulness of medication for depression or anxiety.

Responding to Kactus, my fellow vegan feminist Elaine Vigneault takes a fairly strong anti-medication tack, largely rooted in her own experience.

Yesterday, Daisy summed up the whole kerfuffle at her place.

I was on one form or another of psychotropic drugs (all prescribed, though at times abused) from 1987 to 1998. After my first hospitalization at age 19, I was put on Elavil, an old-fashioned anti-depressant that left me teary and sleeping 12 hours a day. I was a first-generation Prozac kid (from 1989-1992). As micro-psychotic episodes began to appear, I was put on lithium as well — and spent eighteen months on that drug. Others followed, from Anafranil to Wellbutrin to Klonopin. I became seriously addicted to the last of these; of all the substances I ever put in my body, none was as compelling and intoxicating as Klonopin. Continue reading →

The Books of the Bible

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I was recently sent a review copy of The Books of the Bible.

Using Today’s New International Version (TNIV) translation, TBOTB departs from “traditional” bibles in several ways: none of the artificial chapter and verse breaks (which, of course, date only from the 16th century C.E.), and the books are placed in a “sense order” that allows for the reader to connect more effectively with the intent of the original authors. For example, the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts are combined into one single document; the gospel of John comes at the very end of the bible, after all the other epistles and gospels, combined with the three letters of John and the book of Revelation. It’s not a chronological ordering (though that too would require that the Pauline epistles go before the gospels) — it’s an ordering based on historic views of authorship and upon what will “work” for the reader. Each gospel now heads up a set of other texts (Acts, Epistles, etc.) that allow for a new perspective on the life of Jesus.

I’ve been making my way through the New Testament portion of TBOTB, and am enjoying it immensely so far — especially reading Luke/Acts as a single coherent document. Best of all, folks, it’s soft-bound and available for only $8.99. I only endorse what I use, and I’m using this. It’s going in my carry-on.

Age is never just a number: on “Juno” and covert older men/younger women boundary violation

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My wife and I finally got around to seeing Juno this past Saturday night. It was as delightful as promised. Other bloggers have already dealt with the issues of sexual agency and teen pregnancy raised by the film, and the question of whether the picture carries a subtle “pro-life” message has been widely debated. I’m not going to add to the fine commentary already out there. But I was struck by one aspect of the film that dealt with an oft-posted on topic here, older men/younger women relationships.

Warning: mild plot spoiler below the fold. Continue reading →

In case you’re wondering…

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I’m not going to be posting about the whole “purists vs. popularizers” controversy until after I get back to regular blogging in February. During my upcoming hiatus (January 16-February 6), I will be thinking about many things — and one of those things will be where, when, how, and if I might have been mistaken.

The opprobrium that post attracted was severe. (The best of the responses was from BFP, here.) To what extent that condemnation was justified, I’m still not sure. I have an unattractive tendency to try and defuse tense situations with vague apologies, often without being entirely certain what I’m apologizing for and whether an apology is deserved. It’s a bad habit in relationships, and it’s a bad habit in blogging, and there’s no point in my inflaming the matter further until I’m clearer.

Stentor asks:

“Is it too much to ask you to hold off on the overwrought mea-culpa-cum-apologia until you can accurately diagnose the culpa?”

Fair enough.

I’ve got a couple more posts to put up between now and Wednesday morning, when my wife and I leave on an extended break. I won’t be back until regular blogging until February 6 or 7, and the next time I write about feminism, race, class, and inclusion will be after a time to rest — and to reflect.

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Passings, passings

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The obituary for Chuck Chumrau, my adored father-in-law, is in today’s Los Angeles Daily News.

George Douglas Albert’s obituary is in the San Francisco Chronicle today as well. Doug’s wife, my cousin Muffie, preceded him in death by just weeks. Dying so soon after a spouse is so often the case with those who have been married a very,very long time, and we can only count it a blessing. Doug, who was 90, was a beloved fixture at family gatherings my entire life; a proud Stanford man, he clearly waited to die until after the Cardinal had retaken the Axe. Usually in a minority at holidays, he gave as good as he got in friendly arguments with his many Old Blue relatives. Cousins by marriage are true cousins to me, and Doug was my oldest living cousin.

Both my father-in-law and my cousin Doug wanted any donations made in their name to be given to dog rescues, DELTA of Glendale and Northern California Beagles, respectively.

Sigh. 2008 is off to a bittersweet start.

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More election endorsements, and choosing Clinton over Obama

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I’ll be leaving the country again on Wednesday, January 16. We won’t be back until February 6, the day after “tsunami Tuesday” and the California presidential primary. I am eagerly awaiting my absentee ballot, quietly confident it will arrive in the next couple of days. I haven’t missed voting in an election since I turned 18 in 1985, and don’t want to break that streak now.

A prediction:

I’m fairly confident that neither party will have decided its nominee by February 6. Even after so many huge states cast ballots on the 5th, no candidate will have clinched his or her party’s nomination. I suspect that for the Democrats, Obama and Clinton will still be neck-and-neck, with dear John Edwards — sadly — eliminated. For the GOP, there will still be four candidates with a shot at the nomination: McCain, Romney, Giuliani, and Huckabee. McCain and Huckabee will be in the best position, but look for Republican party elders (who not-so-quietly loathe both these mavericks) to do everything they can to help their favorite lad, Romney, put together a coalition that helps him win a brokered convention. Frankly, I’d love it if both parties had exciting conventions.

So, below the fold, my endorsements for the California primary. Continue reading →

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Land of reconciled contradictions: a note on loving the Philippines

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Since I was a child, I’ve been fortunate to do a fair amount of traveling. One thing I’ve noticed is that certain places resonate with me much more than others. Most folks notice the same thing. Sometimes, even when one has no particular familial connection to a place, one feels at home; other times, that sensation of belonging is conspicuously absent.

I’m a Californian to my core. Wherever I go in the States or abroad, I am always reminded that my truest earthly home is on the gently rolling slopes of the California coastal range. But certain places touch me: Vienna, my father’s birthplace, always feels intensely familiar and welcoming. Austria enchants me and exasperates me and envelops me with smells and sensations that my soul knows. That makes sense, as it is the land of many of my ancestors. I also feel quite comfortably at home in England.

And yet there are other places to which I have little or no personal (or geneaological) connection, but which still manage to move me profoundly. Wales is one such place. As far as the Celtic fringe is concerned, I like Ireland and I like Scotland, but don’t feel “at home” in either; though I have virtually no Welsh ancestry, the first time I set foot in places like Carmarthen and Aberystwyth and Dolgellau, I felt a curious rush of excitement which I could not explain. I felt that same feeling in Stellenbosch, South Africa, but nowhere else outside the USA.

I felt this same feeling of happy familarity in the Philippines this past week. The only other places in East Asia that we’ve been are Thailand, Hong Kong, and Macao; though I enjoyed those visits, I felt no immediate sentimental attachment to any of those. But from the time we stepped off the plane at Aquino International early Monday morning until we left Thursday evening, I felt enveloped by warmth. It sounds hackneyed, probably because it is, and yet I have no other words with which to describe the sensation. Continue reading →

Lecturing on Kabbalah and Christianity in the Philippines: a report

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Though I don’t often blog about it, I’ve been studying Kabbalah since early 2004. Friends of ours invited my wife and me to come to a few lectures, and after a suitable period of suspicion, I became fascinated. My initial reservation about Kabbalah was the most common of all: wasn’t Kabbalah incompatible with Christianity? Like most folks, I was under the impression that Kabbalah was the “mystical aspect of Judaism”, with roots no earlier than the Middle Ages.

The Kabbalah Centre is quite controversial, particularly among Jews, for espousing the notion that Kabbalah is more of a “practice” than a faith — and that as a practice, it is universally applicable. While the study of Kabbalah was once reserved solely for married Jewish men over forty, the Centre makes the case that Kabbalah’s teachings can transform anyone’s life. The most famous practitioner of Kabbalah is Madonna, and she and other celebrities have given rise to the popular assumption that this ancient wisdom, at least as practiced by the Centre, is trendy, undemanding, and bastardized. (Let me note that Madonna’s commitment is profound and enduring rather than transitory and superficial.)

Doing internet research is a poor way to learn about the Kabbalah Centre. The one and only scholarly study of the Kabbalah Centre in print is Jody Myer’s recent monograph Kabbalah and the Spiritual Quest: The Kabbalah Centre in America (Praeger 2007). Myers, professor of Religious Studies at Cal State Northridge, spent years interviewing the Centre’s students, teachers — and detractors. Her work is fair, even-handed, and though not without some small criticisms of the Centre’s operations, ultimately quite laudatory of the work it does in the world. I recommend it strongly to anyone interested in learning more.

In any event, I’ve worked through my initial skepticism to discover that the Centre does offer helpful spiritual tools to those who have a strong faith in Jesus. When I first came to the Kabbalah Centre, I was told “Hugo, whatever Kabbalah does in your life will only make you a better Christian. We don’t want you to try and become Jewish. We want you to use whichever tools you find that are helpful to enhance your own understanding of God and your role in the universe.” I had my doubts. But to paraphrase William James, contempt prior to investigation is a sure bar against understanding, and so I gave Kabbalah my time and my effort. Continue reading →