The Portal to Boomeranger World

Barack to the Future: What Will Presidential Hopefuls Do for Women?

Madelaine Albright signed on to Senator Obama's advisory team the other day in a move to heal the wounds from the recent historic, mind-blowing, I never thought to see in my life time, Democratic party presidential primary campaign.

I was a Clinton supporter, because I believe that having our first woman president in 230 YEARS would be an EXTRAORDINARY move forward for our country in declaring to the world that America has at last decided to acknowledge the bedrock depths of sexism and all its crafty and insidious interlinkings with racism, ageism,  class, and all the other power imbalances in our country.

BUT I will give my full and enthusiastic support to Senator Obama and HOPE if he is elected that he will do right by America's women and girls who constitute the majority of the population, the majority of the poor, the majority of the elderly, the majority of income discrimination, the majority who are at the bottom ranks of the labor force, the majority who are raped and sexually abused and harrassed, the majority of those who carry the double and triple burdens of caregiving to their own health detriment.

Jennifer H. Mieres, MD, FAHA and Terri Ann Parnell, RN and MA (with Carol Turkington) have pointed out the deliterious health effects, especially on women's heart health, of stress, gender, ethnicity, and other social factors such as poverty in their new book, "Heart Smart for Black Women and Latinas" (2008 St. Martin's). Our presidential candidates need to take into account issues such as these authors raise as they are crafting their strategies.

I HOPE Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain will do what no other presidents have ever done and recognize that women of ALL SHADES OF TAN are the majority of their citizenry.  Terressa Stovall writes in the current issue of the Montclair Times about the challenge to blacks and whites dealing with racism. I could not agree more. We have to acknowledge and repair the injuries of slavery and racism and how those continue to play out in the life of our nation. And we must change.

AND I challenge all to think beyond the simple dichotomy of black and white that excludes those of other heritages.

I challenge us to think in shades of tan and understand how those shades interlink with the  divides and discriminations that reside in the artificality of gender. We already see it with Michelle Obama getting slammed.

Sandwich Generation Pt. 4: Care for the Caregivers

A critical issue for caregivers is maintaining their own stamina and health. How can women who are the bulk of caregivers make it through without collapsing? And how can women who are socialized to care for everyone else first, begin to care for themselves? Gail Sheehy, author, and Jane Bryant Quinn, columnist, speaking on a recently televised panel in connection with WGBH's current documentary, "Caring for Your Parents" both noted that caregivers need (to) care for themselves. This is an issue that is critical for both women and men.

In the coming months, I will be discussing a range of methods and ways to care for yourself. And as August 8, 2008 approaches and vaboomer.com blossoms into a larger website offering books, music, art as well as advice and resources, there will be a greater array of means for self-care.

Look for inspiring books such as "What Will You Do 'Til You Live to 100?" and "Sixty Tips for a Sensational Second Sixty After Sixty." Look for enlivening original R and B, jazz and rock by backbone artists who are boomeranging. Look for enrichening teleconferences led by knowledgble experts. But most of all always look inward to that flame that is beginning to burn brighter and brighter--aiming to blaze forth.

Why 8/8/08 to expand the site? 8/8/08 is the most auspicious day in the entire 12-year lunar ccyle and a day that will not come again for 100 years. As much as I think I have a possibility to live to 100, I don't think I will live to 163--but hey who knows--there are more things Horatio...

Next week, I'll be writing about nourishing that inner flame.

Sandwich Generation Part 2: Goodbye Mr. Lucy

Mr. Lucy did not survive the weekend.

He was an elegant, dapper old fella, always dressed in his tux and white gloves. When he walked up on our front steps in Newark nine years ago purring, he walked into my daughter's heart. She was entranced with Barney at the time and so named him Ms. Lucy after one of the characters. I'm usually pretty good at identifying, but I totally missed it this time.

When we moved, he was hit by a car and after a long night at the emergency pet vet, diagnosed with a torn diaphragm and a sex change, she became Mr. Lucy--Mr. Lucy Three Dots, because of the three black dots on his nose. He could be a tough customer, annoying, with an ear grating meow, and at times the best snuggler of all.

Pets are playing a larger and larger role in health care--serving as guides of course, and bringing cognizance to dementia patients. In nursing homes, pets are a happy thing for even the most withdrawn.

In "The Instinct to Heal", author David Servan-Schreiber, drawing on the work of The Institute of Heartmath.org, notes that animal human relationships can bring what is called heart coherence. In other words, when emotions run high or negative and a corresponding chaotic zigzagged heart rate ensues, overall health--physical and mental  degrades. Heart coherence--a more regular heart rate without wild jagged peaks and valleys, promotes over all health. 

What Mr. Lucy brought to my daughter especially, for whom he was her pet sibling, was a close coherent heart connection.

We Americans are very attached to our pets--sometimes we lavish more care on our pets than our elders. Since my daughter's elders all have become stardust, Mr Lucy meant more to her, at once her "sibling" and her funky old cat. they had a real heart to heart connection.

Tuesday, in company of many of his admirers, we will lay him to rest under our neighbor's 100 plus year old copper beech tree. It's silky skin and  bower of leafy limbs overhanging our yard will provide a fitting shelter for him--who as always will be dressed in his best black tux and spotless white gloves.

Nothing earthshaking in social observation...just a mark of observance for the old cat.

This afternoon the house was less filled with energy. It was a little more empty and cooler--for the time being--with a little less fuzzibutt heart.