Furry Halloween

 

A Halloween tip from Spunk and Teddy on behalf of our feline brethren:
When trick-or-treating tonight, watch your toes.
We are ferocious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, except for Spunk. 

 

Stay tuned for our future guest blogs…

 

Example of Excellence: Firecrackers Jump Rope

A friend of mine forwarded me the video below of a team of 4th-8th graders who do amazing things with jumpropes.  It’s worth watching all the way to the end, evidenced by the increasing amazement on the faces of the audience at the Naval Academy, who are no strangers to precision.  

In order for these 9-13 year-olds to performance their jaw-dropping show, every single one of them has to excel individually while also being a tight-knit team, and they have to put in a lot of work to do it. According to their website,  these Firecrackers from Kings Local School District in Ohio practice 2 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. That’s an inspiring example of commitment, but what’s even better is that their performance is infused with fun and pride, the greatest symptoms of excellence.

Kudos to these kids and to their coach, Lynn Kelley.

Kittens and Characters by Any Other Name

I went north for Canadian Thanksgiving and not only had a great turkey dinner but also came home with two kittens, Spunk and Teddy. Spunk (top below) was all spunked out when I took the picture. And Teddy (bottom below), well, we went to the vet this week, and it turns out Teddy is a girl.

The first time someone asked me if I planned to change her name, I responded with a stunned, “Well, no.” It would never have occurred to me to do that; I mean, it’s her name. On the 6-hour car ride from Maine to Boston, I tried on everything I could think of, and that’s the one that stuck. So, Teddy she will be. Not Bear, not Cub, not Tina or Tammy or Theodora – just Teddy.

I spend that much time naming characters, too, because it helps them come to life in my stories. A pre-reviewer for The Neurology of Angels recommended changing Galen’s name because, coincidentally, she didn’t know whether it was a male or female character. It sounds as easy as just a find and replace in Microsoft Word, but it is more like extracting a tooth; there are roots there. After 2,000 hours with these characters, they became real people in my head, people with histories and families that may never show up on the page but that influence their responses in every situation. And for Galen, whose name means “healer”, changing his name might have changed his destiny.

Am I crazy? Are there other writers out there who know what I mean?

Olfactory Hallucinations

I have been smelling a litterbox in my apartment all week — but I don’t have a cat. According to a brief search of the Internet, the word for what I’m experiencing is phantosmia, which is exactly what it sounds like – phantom smells, also known as olfactory hallucination. This can be a real chronic disorder where people have full-blown olfactory delusions, and there are a variety of related disorders, including parosmia, anosmia and hyposmia,  dysgeusia, and  cacosmia .

I would think having such a disorder would be disruptive to the extent that it could change the way you perceive life, because smell is that underrated but everpresent sense that can enhance or ruin any experience. Just imagine a romantic date at an outdoor restaurant: a lovely June breeze is making the candle on the table flicker while you gaze into each other’s eyes, and wafting on the air encircling the two of you are the summer fragrances from the lilacs to the rose bushes to the steaming garbage bin overflowing with half-eaten and rapidly decomposing shrimp, boiled broccoli, and curdling cream sauce.

Smell what I mean?

I have often thought that the next great invention will be a camera for smells, with a cartridge you can bring home and plug into a USB port to run along with the pictures. A way to truly relive the experience. But then I think, selective memory can be a wonderful thing. I wouldn’t bring home a jar of blackflies to go with a slide show of summer in Maine, so why retain a souvenir of that carcass odor in Grand Central Station? It was a lot funnier once we got away.

I ran across an article that suggested a smell disorder can cause depression and obesity, because it messes with your brain signals. It makes sense, because olfactory symptoms can also be important indications of a brain tumor, epilepsy, diabetes, or Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

My issues this week are nothing as serious as all that, thankfully. I’m quite sure they are due to the power of suggestion; my niece helped me set up my apartment for a couple of kittens we picked out last weekend. Even though another family adopted those particular kittens before I got back to the shelter to fill out the paperwork, the clean boxes and new bag of litter (or “glitter” as my niece would say) have been sitting in the hallway. It hasn’t deterred me from adopting, though; if I’m going to smell it anyway, I might as well have the furry little guys curled up on my bed to make it worthwhile.

Personalized Health vs. Mandatory Preventive Insurance

Every day, science is moving us closer to personalized health based on our own genetic makeup. The government is actually part of this progress – http://www.hhs.gov/myhealthcare/ – which is why I’m a little stymied by the concept in the health care bill of having a Health Choices Commissioner in Washington, DC deciding on a one-size-fits-all insurance coverage for preventive medicine. I’m not talking about catastrophic coverage; I’m talking about the preventive components defined as essential basic insurance, which currently includes at minimum the items in the Task Force for Clinical Preventive Services grade A/B  - e.g., HIV screening, tobacco prevention counseling, and aspirin – as well as vaccines, maternity care, well baby and child care, oral health, vision, and hearing services.

Every law-abiding U.S. citizen will be required to purchase this level of insurance, which necessarily takes away choice in a very simple way. Consider the two scenarios below:

Scenario 1

 Lila works at the computer 8 hours every day at her primary job and another 3-4 hours every night for her second job. So her risk for repetitive strain or related injury is nearly 100%. She had numbness in her hands and a physical therapist recommended her to get regular massages to reduce the strain in her neck and back, on top of the stretches and exercises for her arms and wrists.

She suffers from anxiety and depression, or what she views as just plain stress, which contributes to her weight and her blood pressure, which are of course contributing factors to other potential health issues. Exercise and meditation keep the symptoms at bay enough so she can avoid prescription medications and their known and unknown side effects. But it’s a vicious circle that makes it difficult to keep up a regimen without an external commitment.    

Finally, based on information that she has read in reputable medical journals, she believes that pesticides and preservatives may increase her risk for health issues suffered by others in her family. So when she has extra money, she chooses to shop organic.  

Lila is otherwise healthy. Due to a bad experience in the past, she hasn’t been to the dentist in 15 years, choosing instead to take meticulous care of her teeth, such that she doesn’t have a single cavity. She has no intention of ever getting a cervical exam; she has accepted the possible consequences. For minor maladies, she prefers home remedies to going to a doctor.  

So with her limited budget, she has chosen catastrophic insurance with a high deductible,  to cover any huge unforeseen circumstances. This has the lowest premium so her health budget can include periodic massages, organic food, dance lessons, and books on holistic medicine.

If the current health bill passes, she will surely pay a higher premium because her required coverage would include universal preventive care such as dental visits, gynecological exams,  and other screenings that she will never undergo. Instead, she will have to forego some of her personalized health choices.   

 

Scenario 2:

Bill has recently discovered that he has the gene for ALS. There is no treatment for ALS.  Although it is not certain he will develop the disease, he has already started to experience the same early symptoms that he saw his father and brother go through.  He would rather die of a heart attack or a car accident or a hundred other common maladies, so he has decided that he will exercise what little control he has and never go to the doctor or the emergency room again. He has filled out the paperwork and his wife has agreed. Yet to be a law-abiding citizen, he will still have to pay for the government-mandated health insurance instead of putting his money toward long-term disability insurance or a daily living fund for his wife after he becomes disabled.

His wife is barren, so fortunately they don’t have to worry about their children inheriting the gene. But she will still have to pay for insurance that covers maternity care, well baby, and child care rather than grief counseling.

 

Both of the scenarios above are real people. I’m sure you know others. In fact we could come up with a real-life scenario every day for the rest of the year in which mandatory preventive insurance will directly trade off one individual’s personalized health choices in favor of someone else’s general preventive care. Whether intentional or unintentional, the consequences are the same, and deeper than the surface of the bill.   Again, this isn’t about the part that keeps people from going broke if they get sick; this is about the scope that extends beyond catastrophic care and pushes the boundaries of freedom.

We Don’t Always Get What We Deserve

     This afternoon someone mentioned college acceptance letters, and a shiver ran through me – a good one. I remember the day years ago when I came home from school to find my acceptance letter for MIT. I can still feel the paper shaking in my hands, see the Congratulations swimming on the page, and recall where everyone was positioned in the living room, including my grandfather with his bewildered expression as I screamed unintelligibly, “I got in!” and jumped up and down then ran out of the house to go back to school to tell Mrs. Wilbur, my math teacher.

     It isn’t often that you get to experience 17 years of hard work coming to fruition in a moment. Because there is no guarantee that 17 years of hard work are going to bear fruit at all. People don’t tell you that when you’re a teenager. “Life’s not fair”, sure. “Things will be different in the Real World”, definitely. But never “You could study your butt off and work your fingers to the bone and still end up with a job you hate, or no job at all.“

     Everyone figures it out eventually, of course. When people would ask me where I wanted to go to college, I always said “MIT, but I’m not sure I’ll get in.” Because it wasn’t all up to me. In the Real World, there are plenty of Simon Cowell types who take every opportunity to tell you how hard it will be to succeed. I went to a Writer’s Digest conference a couple of weeks ago and came home with a lot of new ideas, plus the recurring theme that a person could write the greatest American novel of this century, but it doesn’t mean anyone will read it, because there is way more to being published and bought than just content.

     This could be discouraging, and it is on some days. But it’s also good to know, for planning purposes. I’m now figuring out a way to enjoy my day career so I’ll be prepared to spend many more years doing writing and marketing as just a hobby, on my own terms. (If you want to encourage my hobby, join my author page on Facebook! =))

     So, I’m interviewing for a job right now that I really want, that would make use of every varied experience I’ve chosen since that college acceptance. There are many possibilities in the role, and I have many ideas for it, but also butterflies about the obstacles being bigger than I am and crazy thoughts that I might welcome the challenge. In a way, I’m back to being 17 and knowing I’ve done everything in my power to earn what I want but my immediate future is in someone else’s hands. My head knows my value, but my heart is still not sure I’ll get in.

     I do have several contingency plans. That’s one good thing about feeling 17; a lot more options seem open. But being in my 30s, I know something better; that we don’t always get what we deserve — and it’s a mercy sometimes!

Strength in Sadness

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past month thinking about the Emily C. Specchio Foundation. Most of the organizations I donate to are born of sadness, but none have touched me in the same way as this one. It seems that Emily Specchio’s life was a seed that her family cultivated in their grief, and I admire them tremendously for it. To me, sadness is the most debilitating of injuries, so to see evidence of strength where I wouldn’t think it could ever live is hope-inspiring.

I’m reminded of a lady I met during my first visit to Westminster Presbyterian in Alexandria, VA. I had been to many kinds of churches before, and I was often left to cry alone in the pew throughout the sermon – or worse, pressured to talk. But this lady sat next to me and just gave me tissues. Then at the end of the service, she said it was wonderful I could experience such emotion.

Noone had ever looked at my tears that way before. I always considered them to be a character flaw and something I learned to hide everywhere except in church.  So when I found out the lady’s name was Bea Hurt, it made sense. Like she was put on earth to give us permission to feel.

I think about her often, especially when I want to stop caring about people because the sadness or meanness is just too much. She reminds me that the same part inside that allows us to hurt also allows us to hope, if we can look at things a little differently.

Emily Specchio Foundation

Today’s post is a special interview about the Emily C. Specchio Foundation , whose mission is to encourage, identify and financially support university undergraduate and graduate students who want to change the world for the better, both nationally and internationally. In her 21 years, Emily Specchio managed to inter-relate the ideas of academic excellence with social responsibility. Emily was part of the Phi Sigma Pi national honor fraternity and embodied the virtues of Scholarship, Leadership, and Service. She participated in fundraising for cancer research, Teach for America, tutoring children, and the Foundation for Peace. Emily was a marketing major and graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Tech University on May 13th, 2006, but sadly passed away suddenly and unexpectedly two days later of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm  . The foundation celebrates Emily’s life by following her inspirational lead in continuing to support charitable organizations close to her heart.

 
Question for Kate: The foundation website includes a quote from Emily: “Sunsets remind me that there is always beauty in the world, even when you feel like everything is falling apart.” It sounds like Emily had a great outlook and tried to live it every day, which is truly inspirational. Who established the foundation?    

The foundation was established and is completely run by Emily’s immediate and extended family. Emily, my sister, was an extremely vibrant, determined, and giving young person. Growing up she always found ways to give back to her community. This started at a young age with volunteer trips with my mother to help out our county nursing home, and blossomed throughout her teenage years as she participated in four separate humanitarian trips to Appalachia and the Dominican Republic, and frequently mentored young children at the elementary school close to her university, among other activities. She was a lover of life, a “chaser” of sunsets, and truly believed in the power of the individual to make a difference.

Our family was completely shocked by Emily’s sudden passing – it occurred only two days after her graduation from Virginia Tech, and less than a month after my wedding engagement. One headache, one day changed our family forever. Emily had her whole, promising life ahead of her. There were no signs or warnings. However, my family is extremely tight-knit and determined, and while waiting in the hospital on the day of Emily’s passing, plans were being made to accomplish something special in her honor. The initial idea was to form a scholarship in her name at her beloved alma mater, Virginia Tech. We set this up and were quickly astonished by the outpour of support. It became apparent to us that this movement was bigger than we realized and we promptly started a foundation that would allow us to grow and accomplish further initiatives to honor Emily and follow her inspirational lead in giving back to others.

 

So far, the foundation has provided scholarships to 9 young women in marketing studies and has reached full endowment. Do you keep up with the girls who received the scholarships? What kind of work are they pursuing now?

The Emily C. Specchio Memorial scholarship at Virginia Tech has been so successful! Due to the wonderful generosity of the supporters of our foundation, we have raised enough money to fund the full tuition for a study abroad semester for two Virginia Tech students each year. As this scholarship is now fully endowed, it will be given every year in perpetuity.

I do still keep in touch with all of the past recipients of the scholarship. They are wonderful young women who have a commonality in their strong drive to succeed and compassionate interest in the world. Six of the recipients have now graduated from Virginia Tech, and all list their study abroad experience as one of the things that most changed their life. Many of them have caught the “travel bug” and take every opportunity to learn about new cultures and places. This is so enjoyable to see as the study abroad program also affected Emily in the same way. 

 

One of the preferences for the scholarship is that the recipient has or will study abroad in Switzerland. Why?

We tried to model the preferences for the scholarship around Emily’s college life. She was extremely strong academically, graduating magna cum laude in 2006 in Marketing. As mentioned, she also was very active in community service, leading Relay for Life teams, mentoring children, and helping beautify the Virginia Tech campus. But, hands-down her favorite experience in college was her study abroad semester in Lugano, Switzerland, which is run through the Marketing department. This is a very unique study abroad program as it places a high priority on traveling and learning about other cultures for the curriculum. During her spring semester abroad in 2005, Emily traveled extensively throughout Europe and really developed into a strong, independent, and compassionate woman as a result.

Emily loved Lugano so much that she had made plans to return after her graduation to start a masters program in social marketing with an option to enter a Ph.D. program after the 1^st year. After seeing Emily fall in love with Europe and her transformation as a result, we decided that we would use the memorial scholarship as an opportunity to expose additional students to other cultures, opening the door for students who may not traditionally be able to afford such a luxury as study abroad. We also rank the scholarship applications by academic excellence and strong history of community service. This scholarship is gaining in popularity every year, with the number of applications tripling since its inception in 2006. From this scholarship, we hope to allow other young men and women to learn about the world and hopefully inspire them to make a difference.

 

I understand that your yearly fundraiser, A Night with an Angel, last year raised upwards of $45,000 and has allowed the foundation to expand into some new initiatives, one of them being the Ambassador program, which will award grants to young people with big ideas for community outreach either domestically or internationally. Can you share with us some of the ideas or your thoughts about the applications you’ve received so far?

I am so happy to report that our annual “A Night with an Angel” benefit has continued to grow each year, even despite the current hard economic times. It is held every May, near the anniversary of Emily’s passing. It helps our family focus on something positive during that time of the year, and has been very healing.

Once we reached the point of a fully endowed scholarship (our initial goal) we recognized the potential of the foundation for accomplishing much more in Emily’s memory. Starting this year we’ve launched several new initiatives supporting and encouraging youth to make a difference both locally and internationally. These new initiatives include the ambassador program, a partnership with the New Jersey Community Development Corporation (NJCDC) to fund students involved in improving inner-city life in Newark via legislature, supporting young women entrepreneurs with Kiva.org, and the start of a mentorship program at Gilbert Linkous elementary school in Blacksburg, VA where Emily often volunteered.

The Ambassador program is one of our larger efforts, and we’ve already received support and interest for the position. Some of the applications thus far include ideas for microlending efforts in Africa, humanitarian efforts to set up medical clinics in the Dominican Republic, and local mentorship programs. We are very excited to see all the applications and encourage anyone with great ideas to apply! 

 

Background: The Ambassador program requires a clear statement of project goals and mission, along with estimated timeline and funds required, and The Foundation provides mentoring to support the ambassador to help set up a blog or website and raise funds for their cause. The ambassador must present their project ideas and progress at a minimum of five venues (schools, organizations, churches, etc.) and The Foundation will provide funding for the project as well as a 2:1 match for money raised by the Ambassador for one year.

It sounds like the Ambassador program is set up not only to assist the young people in their projects, but to provide them with the experiences and responsibility to continue such projects on their own in the future. How did you come up with this idea, and what kind of time, effort and people does it take to keep up this program – and the foundation in general?

The Ambassador program was thought up by a cousin of ours, Marco Ambrosio. Marco graduated college a year after Emily, and was inspired to become a social entrepreneur and writer. He raised his own funds after graduation to complete a global HIV project exploring the disparate realities of living with HIV around the world. He gives frequent talks about his research and is currently writing a book entitled “Hope in Action”. His blog and website are linked through our foundation homepage.

Marco spearheaded the idea of an ambassador program for our foundation. He realized the potential for one individual to make a difference, but also the lack of funding and mentorship available for driven youth. We hope that our ambassador program, which provides funding and mentoring support, will promote youth-driven community service. We are prepared as a foundation to put in as much time and effort as required to fully support and help our ambassador complete his or her goals.

All of the work done for our foundation is completed by family members on a voluntary basis. My parents and extended family help organize our annual fundraiser as well as mailings to our supporters. I have setup and manage our website, twitter, and e-newsletters. Marco has volunteered to act as a mentor for our ambassador(s), and we hope to establish a network of past ambassadors through the years that can provide valuable advice and information. We will also help design a website/blog for our ambassador and help them set up speaking engagements to further their cause and inspire others. Many of my family’s spare hours outside of work are spent on foundation development, but it is very rewarding and enjoyable. We are so excited about this new initiative, and hope to see this program grow with each passing year.

 

The foundation also has a team through Kiva , and with only $400 has provided 8 microloans to women entrepreneurs in their 20’s living in developing countries. Each of those loans has already been paid back 30% or more, freeing up that money to be used elsewhere. It seems like even individuals can get involved at this level; can anyone participate in microlending through Kiva and support Emily’s vision? 

Microlending is truly a way for any individual to make a difference – it is no surprise that this idea recently gained recognition by the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. Kiva.org is the first person-to-person microlending site that connects microlenders to entrepreneurs in poverty-stricken countries. Our interest free loans have been to women involved in many different career fields from storeowners to farmers, and live everywhere from South America to Asia. Kiva has an extremely high rate of repaid loans, which allows us to continue to fund additional entrepreneurs. You can actually see the money loaned taking action in an individual’s life, which is so rewarding. We have established a foundation team page on Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeamLoans/?team_id=5173) where supporters can view our loans, and even join the team and select their own entrepreneurs to support!

 

Is there anything else that you would like people to know about Emily or the Foundation?

First, I would like to extend a thank you to Krista for choosing our foundation to showcase for the month of August – we deeply appreciate her support. Second, I would like to stress that we are still a young foundation and would love to hear any comments/feedback/suggestions that any of you may have! Please do not hesitate to contact me at kate @ emilycspecchiofoundation.org. This foundation serves as an extension of Emily’s life. Although she may no longer be with us in mind and body, we truly feel that her spirit lives on through all the people that our foundation helps. Thanks to all for reading!

 

For the month of August, $2 from every copy of The Neurology of Angels sold through the book website will be donated to the Emily C. Specchio Foundation.

Shades of Twilight

On Twitter the other day someone said to me that drugs are dangerous and asked why I choose to work in the pharmaceutical industry rather than an industry that works to heal. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, wondering what it’s like to live in a world where there is only night and day: All companies in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry are greedy and evil and dangerous, therefore all people who work within those companies are misguided. Any academic research or alternative medicine is pure and safe and good and selfless. If only all science, religion, and politics were so clearly delineated.

 

I live in a world where there are shades of twilight. I know what my Twitter follower said isn’t true of me or my company. I know that we have developed treatments for people who would have died and now live. But I also know that not all companies in the industry have that same mission and that good nutrition and exercise can take the place of drugs in many cases. It’s the same way I know that all politicians aren’t self-serving — but some are.

 

I think the source of a lot of the tension and frustration in the world is not good vs. evil, but just twilight people and night/day people trying to have a conversation. In general, night/day people hear either agreement or criticism and react accordingly; either you support them or are intentionally trying to impede their good intentions. Twilight people get their hackles up when their comments get categorized this way or they feel pressured to make all-encompassing statements in order to defend their position, which is frustrating because they know most statements are only true some of the time. Many people can switch types, depending on the issue. For example, I’m usually twilight, but when it comes to planning, it’s all night and day: more planning is always better. =)

 

I think there is necessity for both in the world.  Twilight people can take longer to move forward, because they see the merits of many sides of an issue and need to resolve them, which causes progress can zigzag. Night/day people forge straight ahead because they’re so very sure of their position. What is critical is that we acknowledge these two types of people exist, try to see the good place they’re coming from, and recognize when a situation calls for one approach or the other – meaning to acquiesce when necessary. I think our current president is a night/day person, and so far, I’m not convinced that he sees the merits of twilight, which makes it hard for me to accept his forging forward. But he’s learning as he goes, so I’ll keep watching.

 

As for my Twitter follower, I’m still perplexed at her one-sided perspective on drugs. She had cancer, got chemotherapy, and lived to tell the tale. She would rather have had adult stem cell therapy that used her own cells to heal herself, which I can understand, of course. But until adult stem cells are proven effective that way, isn’t chemo a twilight between life and death?

Measuring Aura

If you saw a course on “aura”, would you assume it was taught by Sheila the Psychic or Beverly the PhD? If someone said there was an “electric” feel in the crowd at an event or that two people had “chemistry”, would you say those characterizations were literary analogy or biologically based?

I have always had an interest in the concept of auras, but I can’t see them. More than once I’ve signed up for a class that I never went to, some of the reasons for which included the caped/fringed/bangled person that I imagined might teach such a class. At the same time, I know that the human brain works by electrical and chemical messaging, so it seems logical that a person would have an electrical or chemical “aura”.

The obvious conclusion that can be reached from this is that subconsiously I think that if I can’t see it, it must be hooey. It’s disappointing to realize this, because it bothers me to no end when my ideas are dismissed because the people in the decision-making role can’t see my vision. Of course, with any vision, unless you have the same gift as Barack Obama, you can’t expect people will trust it without a wealth of former demonstration of your ability to make the vision reality. So, it’s all about communicating, starting from where a person is in their own vision and bridging him or her to you with evidence. People have a tendency to see just what they want to see, so it takes a lot of effort. And in the case of making a scientist believe in auras, it takes a lot of data.

So I was excited to run across this article, which is a scientific perspective on auras and measuring human energy. http://www.trans4mind.com/psychotechnics/energyfield.html

This is on my mind, because it’s shaping up to play a big role in the writing project I’m working on. So, I’m curious about your thoughts on how close you are to believing that human energy can be measured and applied for such things as very early diagnosis of disease or other practical uses.