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Be it balloons, drones, sattelites or just plain laying cable under the surface, various companies are making an effort to digitally connect the world. Google and Facebook have both vowed to bring the Internet as we know it to parts of the world where connectivity is sparse or absent. Facebook is now laying out their plan of action, saying that … Continue reading
Casey Cooper believes he should be able to lay his head to rest in public. But the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, thinks otherwise.
Cooper is one of the city’s homeless that will be affected by a local ban on sleeping outside — an ordinance passed last week that prohibits “camping” within the downtown limits. An individual who violates the ordinance faces a $500 fine and 60 days in jail, the Sun Sentinel reported.
“I have to worry about where I’m going to sleep at, where’s the next meal at, how am I going to get the next piece of clothing, worry if the cops are going to mess with me, and you’re going to try to pass a law that’s … going to ban homelessness?” Cooper asked city commissioners during a public meeting to discuss the measure, according to Think Progress. “Sleep is a human right.”
A separate ordinance, also passed last week, bans panhandling at intersections of public streets. The law also bars those trying to raise funds for charitable causes. Those who violate the ordinance face a potential $500 fine and 60 days in jail as well.
Fort Lauderdale hasn’t been the most accommodating to its homeless population. In 2011, USA Today reported on the city’s controversial move to purchase one-way bus tickets for homeless people — a step that other Sunshine State cities have also implemented that, according to some, only panders to voters without addressing the real issue of homelessness.
“It looks like the city is choking out every avenue for the homeless to survive in the city,” Haylee Becker of homeless advocacy group Food Not Bombs told the Sun Sentinel of the most recent Fort Lauderdale laws. “I think that they’re all terrible ordinances, but coupled together, it’s a death sentence.”
Florida has been “in the midst of a crisis” in regards to combating homelessness, according to the Florida Coalition for the Homeless, which points to inadequate services and the inability to access affordable housing as major hurdles perpetuating the issue. Deemed the most dangerous state for homeless people last year, Florida had 8 percent of the total U.S. homeless population, or 47,862 people, according to a survey conducted in January of 2013 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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About six years ago, I received the startling news that I had breast cancer. The diagnosis arrived shortly after I went to work at Cedars-Sinai as chief of surgery. Happiness, of course, was fleeting during those months as I underwent my own surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
Ironically, I happened to be writing a speech at the time for fellow surgeons titled, “Finding happiness in life and work.” As I wrote, I found myself thinking about that great American philosopher Woody Allen. “Life,” he said, “is full of misery, loneliness and suffering, and it’s all over much too soon.” I also found myself contemplating two questions that apply to anyone who yearns for the elusive feeling of joy: What produces a happy life? And perhaps even more important: Can we meaningfully influence our happiness by our attitudes and behavior?
I discovered answers in hard science — specifically, the field of “happiness research,” which has blossomed over the past decade as it merged with psychology, neuroscience and economics. Much of this scholarship has focused on the relationship between money and fulfillment. And it has produced a complex picture.
Personal happiness does seem to increase as family incomes rise, a phenomenon apparent in both the U.S. and Britain. But once we reach a modest level of income, more money doesn’t bring greater satisfaction. On the national level, the percentage of the U.S. population describing themselves as “very happy” has remained constant at about 30 percent from the mid-1940s to 2000 despite a three-fold increase in per-capita income, according to economist Richard Layard.
Social scientists explain this happiness plateau through the “aspiration adjustment hypothesis.” As soon as we acquire a moderate amount of wealth, our expectations rise for a higher quality of life. When we don’t reach these new levels, our spirits flag, leaving us disillusioned. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants — they all find themselves on what experts call the “hedonic treadmill,” working harder and making more money but still feeling blue.
A second explanation comes from the idea of “relative position”: We compare our wealth and place in the social hierarchy to those around us. No matter how high we climb, we almost always encounter someone who is richer or who has more things.
The hectic pace of our lives takes its own toll. According to a recent Pew survey, 27 percent of people who are rushed in their daily lives describe themselves as “very happy,” but 42 percent who are never rushed are very happy. Whether we are frantically thumbing our smartphones or staring at a television in an airport terminal, too often we spend our time focused on matters that lack any intrinsic meaning. I call this “urgency without importance,” and it’s a defining characteristic of our time that will not make us happy over the long haul.
Thankfully, there is a solution. It lies in the concept of “flow” — when we completely immerse ourselves in an activity inspired by our own talents and interests.
The initial observations of this phenomenon were made among surgeons, athletes and musicians who trained for years to develop skills to perform at the highest levels. In detailed interviews, individuals described a sense of clarity, serenity and even ecstasy when they engaged in activities that paired their innate abilities with meaning and purpose.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a former University of Chicago colleague who coined the term, explains that true happiness is found among those who maximize the time they spend “in flow” in their personal and professional lives.
Experts point to other important factors for creating a joy-filled life, including satisfying personal relationships at home, spirituality or religious observance, and strong doses of optimism. After 40 years in the doctor business, I know that all of these are important. I spend my days in the hospital, talking with all kinds of doctors. Despite their comfortable incomes and positions of authority, many bemoan the pressure they experience along with sleep deprivation and a lack of time to enjoy their lives outside the operating room. Many seem downright unhappy. I also spend my days listening to patients who feel robbed of any hope, the way I felt when I had cancer.
As I listen to all of these people, I can’t help but think of Woody Allen. For all his wit and wisdom, he had it wrong. Life can have moments of misery, loneliness and suffering, but there’s plenty of joy if we know how to find it.
Bruce L. Gewertz, MD, is surgeon-in-chief and chair of the Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Today is the Equinox! The Sun transits from Virgo into Libra, initiating Autumn (in the Northern hemisphere). You might not even know it, but most likely you felt it somewhere in your body, mind, and/or soul. Today is an auspicious day celebrated by many different cultures and traditions in the past as well as the present. Right now, in this very moment of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, the day and night’s duration is equal.
Balanced in perfect harmony on the scales of Maat are the night and day, feminine and masculine, Yin and Yang, material and spiritual, compassion and judgment. Equality, receptivity and reciprocity reign today. A solemn reminder that even the most opposing contradicting forces can sign a peace treaty. If Darkness and Light can live in harmony, well, so could we.
How incredibly intuitive and wise were those early men and women star-gazers of Babylon, that they assigned to Libra, the sign of balance and equality, the ruelrship over marriage and relationships. I am not sure if they were truly egalitarian, or just stumbled upon a powerful truth. Relationships can only function in balance and equality. These early astrologers assigned the Autumn Equinox to be the first day of Libra, the sign Justice. Libra is not only the sign of partnerships but also enemies. Our enemies as well as our partners hold a clear mirror in front of us and that is why we love and hate them so much.
Equinox from Latin, “aequus (equal) and nox (night),” is the perfect time to celebrate our partnership and sign a peace treaty. This is the true Valentine’s according to the Zodiac wheel.
Libra in Kabbalah
According to the Talmud and Kabbalah, Rosh Ha’Shana, the Jewish New Year, celebrated on the New Moon in Libra, (September 24/25 this year ) was also the day God created Adam and Eve. This suggests that mythologically speaking, humanity is indeed a double Libra. We as humans have to master relationships in order to graduate this earth school by attaining enlightenment, or in other words, move on. A few years ago, I made two videos explaining how humanity’s birthday falls on the New Moon in Libra: PART 1, PART 2. The Shofar (Ram’s horn) is blown on Rosh Ha’Shana to open the skies for the deluge of prayer. Astrologically, the Ram’s horn is the symbol of Aries, Libra’s opposite and complimentary sign. When we are experiencing a Moon and Sun in Libra, we need the Aries as a support beam. Here is a video of me blowing my Shofar:
The gospel of Libra goes something like this: “It is not the strong who survive but the one who formed the strongest partnerships. Born as two but function as one, that is the superpowers bestowed by the magic of relationships.” The Equinox, as the initiator of Libra, is the time in the year we celebrate taking care of another and finding common grounds. The moment in the zodiac wheel when it is easier to see God in everyone we meet. Indeed, Libra is the sign of mirrors and it uses relationships to best reflect our true colors.
According to the oldest Kabbalistic text, Sefer Yetzirah, every zodiac sign is associated with a Hebrew letter. Kabbalists believe God created the universe using the 22 archetypes depicted by the Hebrew letters (associated later with the 22 Major Arcana in the Tarot). Libra was assigned the letter Lamed, the tallest letter, which stands right in the middle of the alphabet, just as Libra occupies the center of the zodiac wheel.
Lamed holds the scales in balance, distributing equal energy between the masculine part of the year (Spring and Summer) and the feminine (Autumn and Winter). Lamed means two things in Hebrew, and true to its Libra nature, are equal but opposite: learning and teaching. In Hebrew the same root is given to the process of bestowing and absorbing wisdom and understanding. A true teacher learns when she emanates knowledge and a studious student teaches his mentors. I picked up Brazilian Jujitsu lately and therefore a humble white belt, but when I roll well with my brown or black belt teachers, they comment how it so amazing that they can still learn from sparring with absolute beginners.
According to the marriage of Astrology and Kabbalah, in order for relationships to be successful, the partners need to give as much as they receive, teach as much as they learn and help in the same measure they are helped. Otherwise, the bedroom becomes a therapy room or worse.
Depictions and traditional celebrations of Autumn Equinox
As we mentioned earlier, today is the day when daytime and night are equal in duration, however, this balance changes tomorrow as the nigh (goddess) grows in comparison to the day (god). This symbolizes the goddess conception. As the nights grow until the Winter Solstice, the Great Mother grows bigger (in the Northern Hemisphere) as in her womb she carries the savior god of light who will be born, if all goes well, on the Winter Solstice (Apollo, Artemis, Horus, Marduk, Attis, and Jesus to name a few).
In ancient Greek mythology, today is the day, that true to the added stipulation of her prenuptial agreement, Persephone must return to the Underworld, and join her husband Hades. Her mother, goddess of the earth, Demeter, must let her daughter die so she could return to be queen to the realm of dead. mourns for her beloved daughter and the trees, being her extension, shed their leaves to match her tears. Demeter goes into a sever winter-blues and with her all living creatures, frozen in snow by her depression. But no worries, she will reunite with her daughter in spring when she will reincarnate enabling nature to bud again.
In the Chinese tradition, the 15th day of the 8th moon, often coinciding with the Autumn Equinox, was celebrated with mooncakes as the festivities of harvest. In Wicca tradition, the equinox is celebrated as Moban, one of the eight pagan holidays.
In Japan it is called Higan-e, a week long celebration when people are encouraged to give offering to the image of the Buddha as well as the ancestors.
And in Middle Earth, at the Shire, on the Equinox, both Bilbo and Frodo were born. That is what lead the American Tolkien Society to declare back in 1978, that Hobbit Day be celebrated on September 22nd. The Equinox.
How should we celebrate?
Even if you opened this email not on the day it fell into your binary-devices, no problem, in the ancient world, many cultures celebrated this auspicious day for an entire week. You can look at the Equinox as your “Relationships’ Day.” We have Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, Birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Anniversary Day, but we have no Relationships’ Day that felicitates the people, past and present, that shared our lives one way or the other. Autumn Equinox is the perfect time to meditate on your partners, from your first love to today. Maybe find three reasons why you were together and three reasons why it did not work. These relationship could include your training buddy, your business partner, your hiking pal etc.
The Equinox helps us reassess our relationships to relationship. It invites us to experience light and dark equally, good and bad, the positive as well as negative in every relationship we have or had – the seen and unseen, the conscious and subconscious. In other words, today is a great day for healing our significant relationship and reboot them with the new equinox 2014.0 upgrade…
Happy Autumn for those above the equator and happy spring to those below.
As above so below..
Peace,
Gahl
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
