My daughter Ari is a performance artist, she is also a grant writer, a list maker, a graphic artist, an organizer of other people’s stuff, a thinker, a positive person, a person of reason, an old soul and a questioner.  She’s much more than that too.  As a person in her 20′s, she questions her life and her dreams and her future in this year of 2011.  She works hard and doesn’t get paid much…yet!

When the News is Bad…Make Your Own!

I think it is not easy for people of Ari’s age to stay hopeful in these economic times.  We are all being

pummeled with bad news on a daily scale.  Stocks, bonds, the Euro, the debt all of these things permeate the psychology of the society and create a low grade anxiety that flows through the family and our neighborhoods, seeping into our relationships with other people at home and at work, creating a pessimistic view of our futures as a whole.  These seem to be trying times, and yet we know there have been worse than this throughout history!  Certainly there are places all over the globe with people that are starving, or are witness’s and victims of  killings, or simply prisoners in their own homes.

We can go on and on with all the wrongs on this earth and we can feel helpless about it all.  After all what power do you have, just an individual, just a person, just one voice.

There is Hope But It’s Up To You!

It may not be much but if you can get a few strangers together to talk about things that are meaningful to them, if you can bring people together to exchange ideas without any agenda, that is; The reason to come together is not to “meet” someone, or to “learn” how to cook, or “network”, if you can bring some people who have never met to simply exchange some ideas, have a conversation, learn about the experiences of others, without the obligation to ever see each other again.   Well my friends, that is something.

…and that’s what my daughter does when she has a Stranger Dinner – It’s Performance  Art. It brings together strangers, creates a simple space for people to connect on a level that we so rarely do. From the heart. From the mind. Without any agenda.

And that’s a very powerful thing.

Well, Mr. McCormack is at a meeting tonight so I am in charge of “Workout Wednesday”!  As you know, he would probably have you doing leg lifts, deep squats, running in place, or how about those kettle balls!  (oh, sorry, that was me).   But this Wednesday, my friends, is going to be a little different because I would like to tell you all about the importance of laughter!

Yes, LOL, laughing till you cry, splitting a rib, laugh till you wet your pants!  You see?  Laughter is a very physical exercise!In fact, one of the most important things you can do to balance your life is to laugh out loud every day.  Yes, that’s right, it gets the endorphins working, the serotonin flowing, not to mention the dopamine that kicks in.   When you laugh you breath deeper and use muscles you haven’t used for quite some time, unless you laugh a lot and in these grim economic times that ain’t many of us.  In fact, when Mr. McCormack comes home every evening, one of the first things I ask him is, “Did you laugh out loud today?”

Laughter can actually change your perspective when facing a tragic experience.  Remember,  the Academy award winning film “A Beautiful Life” there were some scenes in that film where I was laughing and crying at the same time, but it was life affirming to witness the love in that movie.

I remember when my father was dying and the family had gathered around his hospital bed to say goodbye.  My daughter sang Ave Maria to him…then she went on to sing the entire program of the San Francisco Girls Chorus because she knew he wouldn’t be around to see the Chorus performance.  I joined her in singing his favorite tunes, then we sang our favorites and every single song we knew, including the entire Beatle Collection.

Finally, when we ran out of songs we became silent.  Such a moment of quiet fell over the somber room, when my sister suddenly belted out the only song she knew:  “The minute you walked in the joint, I could tell you were a man of distinction …a real big spender!’ Hearing “Big Spender”, a Broadway show tune about a prostitute and her customer, we all burst out laughing and crying at the same time.

I guess you had to be there.

….but the point is, laugh!  It’s good for you!

I love my dad.

Next time you are at the park or the beach or just walking around your local shopping mall take a look around you at the kids. What do you see? I’m guessing that you’ll see a huge number of kids who are either overweight or downright obese. In some places it may be much harder to find a kid who is normal weight than it is to find a chunky child.

All that struck me as Shirley and I were in Hawaii on our recent vacation, not because the kids we saw were fat, but because so many of the ones we saw weren’t. It got me to wondering why, and if the answer to that couldn’t help kids nationwide.

One evening we were at a bar-b-q at the beach with some local families and it was fascinating to see their kids, mostly boys, just running around for hours, playing, fishing, swimming, and generally just goofing about.

It reminded me that that was how most people used to grow up. That for generations children were able to run around and play in their own neighborhoods. In some cases, in some places, kids can still do that but for most children today, living in the city or the suburbs, that’s just not possible. There’s too much traffic on the streets, too few parks or other safe places to play.

That lack of freedom to just run around is one of the reasons why so many children today are struggling with their weight (though obviously diet plays a big role too). It may also be one of the reasons why we have seen an increase in the number of kids diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) in recent years.

Think about it. If children don’t have the opportunity to run around and burn off all their excess energy it gets channeled into other things, other ways. One of those may well be acting out, one of the critical factors in getting a child diagnosed as ADHD.

On Kauai the kids have plenty of room and even more opportunity to run around. They can play soccer, swim, surf, run, run, and run some more. In essence they were able to just be kids.

Clearly it’s not possible to replicate those conditions in cities and suburbs throughout the country but maybe there is something we can do to help increase the opportunities for children to get exercise, and along the way to help boost community spirits in economically depressing times.

In cities around the U.S. tens of thousands of homes are in foreclosure, in many cases they are derelict and ready to be pulled down. Instead of leaving those soon-to-be-empty plots to grow grass and get decrepit, why not turn them into play areas for children? After the houses are torn down and the lot is empty, the area could be turned into places where children can play and run and burn off steam and calories at the same time.

Clearly there isn’t much money around to do this but it wouldn’t take that much, and perhaps instead of relying on the city or county or state to provide the funding, the local community could do it themselves. People in the neighborhood could work together to provide the labor to dig up these abandoned pieces of land, to turn them into places that were big enough to allow kids to play.

They wouldn’t need to be fancy. They wouldn’t need to have equipment. They wouldn’t need to be pretty. They just need to be safe.

Right now there are a lot of people out of work, people who are struggling to find purpose in their daily activities. Helping out with a project like this could give them a sense of value, a sense they are contributing something to the community, while they look for work.

It could do something equally valuable too. It could give kids their childhood back.

Apparently the recession isn’t just resulting in cuts in the job market. According to a new survey the souring economy is also resulting in cuts in other areas.. men’s genitals!

I kid you not. According to an article in Healthday, doctors are reporting that since the recession began they have seen a sizable increase in the number of men getting vasectomies.

The article quotes a doc at New York’s Cornell Institute for Reproductive Medicine saying he has seen a 48 percent increase in the number of men coming in for vasectomy consultations in the past year.

The folks at Cleveland Clinic have seen similar swelling in volume, with the number of chaps getting the chop up by 75 percent.

So what is behind the uptick in dick docking? The doctors are speculating that with all the job losses some men have decided they don’t want to take any chances they might have more kids.

Or it may be that some are men who still have a job and want to take care of this issue, by ensuring they don’t have any more issue, while they still have health care coverage.

So while some people may say there is no difference between a downturn and a depression this shows there is in fact a vas deferens!

And speaking of which. Here’s another fascinating non-economic sign that could be a reflection of people’s feelings about the state of the economy, or their hopes about the economy, or just a reason for otherwise sober economists to stare at women.

It used to be thought that if  the hemlines of women’s skirts rose, that was a sign that the stock market too was on the rise.

The other night we were out walking and Shirley, taking into account that old maxim, observed that good times surely lay ahead if the length of skirts was any indication because half the gals we saw were wearing very short skirts indeed.

This so-called “hemline theory” reportedly has its roots in the 1920′s when economist George Taylor pointed out that when times are good some women raise their hemlines to show that they are wearing silk stockings. In bad times they lower their hemlines to hide the fact that they aren’t wearing any.

But apparently no one really cares these days if you are wearing silk stockings so the changes in fashion are really just that.. changes in fashion.. and not indications of stock market prognostications.

Still, you have to allow for the fact that this could be predictive of something. Or at least pretend it is because otherwise how are econ geeks ever going to have a chance to stare at cute gals in short skirts and pretend it is research.

But don’t despair, there is a theory that it wasn’t the silk stockings at all, but the general feeling of taking more risks.  Thus, a shorter skirt is risky!

Then again, you could always remind them of the words of that genius economist J. K. Galbraith who said “That the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable!!!