this is… The Neighborhood
the Story within the Story
ROSEANNE IS NOT AN ABSOLUTE.
Absolute zero was once a big thing. Zero degrees on the Kelvin Scale, -273.1C and an unrelatable -459.7F. At Absolute Zero, it was thought that there was nothing that could tolerate such an extreme, as even the water bear may succumb at -272C and it can withstand a gamma burst that would annihilate humankind. In 2014 The Neighborhood was introduced to the world of quantum physics in a co-written feature about memory loss, appropriately titled A Forgotten Life. And while there is still no cure to dementia, Physicist Tomaj Javidtash believes that if there is any flicker of hope it would be found in the atom – the basic unit of matter. And there is something about the atom that keeps that flicker alive, as according to LiveScience, the atom has reached temperatures colder than absolute and is still moving. That’s power.
“Ignoring all prejudices of caste, creed, class, color, sex, or race, a swami follows the precepts of human brotherhood. His goal is absolute unity with Spirit.” – Paramahansa Yogananda
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Lord I’m Sorry
by AnewDuo
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“I believe there were real demons in Jesus day and I believe there are real demons right now.” – Billy Graham, Victory in Spiritual Warfare
ROSEANNE IS NOT AN ABSOLUTE
by Kendall F. Person
The Latest
Donald J. Trump is not responsible for Roseanne’s words, but he is responsible for giving the show an interpretation that it did not deserve. I only watched the opening episode, and while the issues were overboard, it was not the divisive-just-for-an -alt-right-middle-America-kind-of-show, that his enthusiastic opening statement was spun – with his usual, but unnerving psychological snake oil – into.
We missed all the shows about black and Asian families,” Dan says, referring to ABC’s Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat.
“They’re just like us,” Roseanne responds. “There, now you’re all caught up.” There just like us should have been a moment of awareness, but the shows us against them depiction, never gave lines like that a chance. But as it turns out, it did not matter, because Roseanne had a different platform all together.
RACISM –thingification
A term coined by Martin Luther King and given a reboot by Charles Blow during his remarkable response to an otherwise blah blah blah Anderson Cooper 360 CNN panel. “Thingification – reducing a person so they are not human on the same level that another person is, and if you are able to do that, you can do anything to that person, that short changes their humanity.” The depiction of Africans as monkeys made it much easier to justify slavery, for the soul does not allow human beings – in a wholesale type of way – to treat other human beings in a demonistic sort of way – but monkeys were free game.
original color piece by @Magnifique_Queen
Rather Roseanne just stumbled upon one of the most racist, demeaning and historically demoralizing insults imaginable or her reboot is her gearing up for another Presidential run matters, for if it’s the latter, she decided to take a page from President Donald Trump’s day one winning strategy “When Mexico sends its people…. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
We try to pretend the circle of life is just a silly song. That people are not connected and the earth is not God’s song. But he is the President and she is by far not his most impressionable constituent. Racism is America’s sickness. It permeates everything and everywhere and even when we are not looking for it – in fact do not want it – it is there. But we cannot look the other way. With wars and marches and laws and love, racism has endured since the foundation of our nation, and no one is happy about how it affects their of state of mind. To hate for the sake of or to be hated for the same sake, should make even the staunchest hater bow their head in shamee, for they are not an absolute or so many mixed Americans could not have arisen from slavery.
[How White Supremist Respond When Their DNA Says Their Not White, PBS Newshour]
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The Butterfly Strikes Back.
When Alabama voters banded together, in a cross section of demographics, to defeat a man accused of unspeakable acts, it was not so much for the Democrat but to maintain decency in the United States Senate and to stop a free fall into societal madness. When Starbucks and ABC sprung into action, it demonstrated that the wave of anger and bitterness that caught us so off guard, is in for a fight. It becomes disheartening to see the talking heads concerned more about their self righteousness of being right and less about healing the nation – and racism is too overpowering to be tolerated. Or lest we forget, that the Civil War killed 3% of the population and 20% of the Black soldiers¹.
But I imagine, that if the Confederacy had won, even the monkey illusion would have worked no longer, for either side. The superiority/inferiority complex it would have taken to justify that fighting and dying men, were doing so to become slaves in the richest nation the world had ever created, is more than the mind could have taken. But it has culminated into a President that does not give a damn about anyone but he and his oldest daughter. It was not free.
However for the good of America, it is necessary to refute the idea that the dominant ideology in our country, even today, is freedom and equality while racism is just an occasional departure from the norm on the part of a few bigoted extremists. Racism can well be, that corrosive evil that will bring down the curtain on western civilization. – Martin Luther King, Jr. AUG 1967
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The Butterfly Warriors
As a staunch believer in peace, I admire Valerie Jarrett for not waging a twitter counter attack, but rather suggesting that we see this as a teachable moment. As a writer and creator, my heart goes out to Sara Gilbert for it was her and not Roseanne who spearheaded the idea for a Roseanne reboot. And I salute Channing Dungey, whose decision to stop the madness on a show that she was rooting for, is the kind of strength that is so lacking in our government ‘leaders’. And I feel for Roseanne, but her aura is so damaged: No matter how successful, rich and wealthy, she must be so unhappy. Because why else? Perhaps now she will comprehend, that she is not an absolute and in fact, no one is. But the downfall of a star, is a useless endeavor. The same amount of energy, blown toward the butterflies could have seen her make a contribution toward a united nation. But alas, she preferred the side note of a Racist American. Perhaps a conspiracy theorists, informed her that she was indeed made up of atoms, and she believed she had the absolute power of matter. But humans fizzle when body temperature reaches 70 degrees Fahrenheit, not even Celsius.
this is… The Neighborhood.
created by Kendall F. Person
Live Science, Atoms Reach Record Cold, Colder than Absolute
TIME Magazine, June 16, 2015: Donald Trump’s Presidential Announcement Speech
Jstor Daily, Early America’s Troubled Relationship with Monkeys
Blog #42 Martin Luther King’s The Three Evils of Society
¹Wikipedia, American Civil War
The Neighborhood: The Confederacy of The Last Slave
Built on an all-inclusive foundation, and since 2013 via collaborations, events short stories, poetry and editorials, we have tried to deliver thought-provoking and original blog entertainment. And this year is to be no different.
Release Your Butterfly
2 of the 12 contestants have been found. We look forward to discovering the remaining, but feel free to say hello now that you have found The Neighborhood. The Search for the Butterflies is a contribution we all can make. contact@thepublicblogger.com or @KendallFPeron or The Neighborhood Facebook
DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER (FORMERLY MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES) BY ROBERT M. GOLDSTEIN
“If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?” – George Carlin
from
San Francisco California
Which Mask Shall I Wear Today? by Robert M. Goldstein
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
by Robert M. Goldstein
No one has multiple personalities.
How easy it is for myth to replace simple fact when it comes to mental illness.
Multiple Personality Disorder became Dissociative Identity disorder in 1994 to reflect a new paradigm for understanding how such a condition exists.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is not more than one personality; it is less than one personality.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is the fragmentation of a single identity into roles and areas of competence. As we move through the life cycle we adopt different roles.
A teenage girl graduates high school, and becomes a young adult.
She enters medical school and becomes a doctor as a practitioner and a role.
She marries and becomes a wife.
She gets pregnant and becomes a Mother.
She slides from role to role without thinking and uses memory to create an internal timeline that allows her to create a unified sense of self.
She can nurse her baby and affectionately tell her husband about the patients she saw that day. A person with DID does the same thing but there is a problem.
Rather than transitioning from adolescence to young adulthood the person with DID creates new identity or personality state that may have little or no memory of life as a child or adolescent.
Each personality state creates a body-image and a sense of itself as distinct from the whole. These fragments of identity may deny knowledge of one another, be critical of one another and be in open conflict.
The characteristics of these different identity states—such as name, reported age, gender, vocabulary, general knowledge, and predominant mood are often different from the primary identify but are essentially similar in basic structure.
This is one of the reasons that DID is so difficult to detect. To the observer someone with DID may seem moody or may seem to have a mood disorder.
click image to enlarge
The life of someone with a severe dissociative disorder is marked by disruptions in behavior, broken relationships, abandoned projects and difficulty in the workplace.
The best and most public example of this is Marilyn Monroe. Whether or not Norma Jeane Mortenson had DID the character of Marilyn is an excellent example of a personality state designed to fill a roll.
Marilyn’s job was to sexually disarm the world and make it love her.
She succeeded brilliantly and is still doing it.
Imagine that my hypothetical doctor forgets everything about being a doctor when she goes home and becomes a wife.
Imagine that she forgets everything about being a wife and believes that she is a teen when she goes home to visit her parents.
The internal experience of someone with severe DID is that these identity fragments are separate from the self.
He may feel as if his body is taken over by an outside entity or as if he is not in his body at all.
Identity fragments are called alters.
Alters may have different ages, a different gender from the physical body; a different name, or no name; and different skills of daily living.
It is not unusual for someone with DID to enter therapy and express what appears to be a proliferation of identities.
What is really happening is that the alternates emerge as they build a trust with the therapist.
The appearance of hidden identity states is a sign of therapeutic progress.
Severe dissociative symptoms are most often the result of a history of prolonged physical and psychological childhood abuse which means that Dissociative identity disorder is a severe and complex form of posttraumatic stress disorder (Kluft, 1985; Spiegel, 1984; Spiegel & Cardena, 1991).
How does it happen?
Not all abused children develop a dissociation disorder; however, studies show that abused children demonstrate more dissociation than children who aren’t abused.[3, 4]
Dr. Richard Kluft views the condition as a chronic dissociative PTSD that begins in childhood.
According to the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation physical and sexual abuse in childhood cause dissociative disorders (e.g., Putnam, 1985). Dissociation is an adaptive response that reduces the overwhelming pain of the abuse.
When the dissociative strategy continues into adulthood the dissociative adult automatically disconnects from any situation that seems threatening.
This leaves the person “spaced out” and unable to protect themselves in conditions of real danger.
The international Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation
For trauma survivors with dissociative disorders losing time is normal and they may not be aware of how much time they lose.
A Flight of Ideas by Robert M. Goldstein
For me the disruptions in time includes age sliding.
I know how old I’m supposed to be but not how old I am.
I don’t know what I look like, I don’t recognize pictures of myself or I recognize them as other people.
At my best I have the disciplined mind of a trained academic and at my worst I am confused by simple directions.
Prior to becoming too symptomatic to work I was the director of a mental health program in San Francisco.
I knew that something was wrong with me but I didn’t know what it was.
The first suggestion that the problem might be DID came from my assistant.
A week before I stopped working she said, “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not Rob.”
Inside Dissociative Identity Disorder: Introduction
My first reaction to the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder was to feel guilty about it, as if I was morally flawed.
“Dissociative identities exist in a third reality, an inner world that is visualized, heard, felt and experienced as real. This third reality is often characterized by trance logic.
In trance logic, ideas and relationships of ideas about things in reality are not subject to the rules of normal logic. Because they are kept in separate compartments, contradictory beliefs and ideas can exist together; they do not have to make sense. In the internal world the alternates experience themselves as separate people. There is a pseudo delusional sense of separateness and independence.
Trance logic is characteristic of dreams and hypnosis.” Elizabeth F. Howell
My alternates are well-educated, skilled in their roles, and tend to be playful and witty.
Most people online can’t tell that the “person” they’ve met is a “face” that is no longer in use in life but is highly adept at “appearing” normal.
The debate over the ‘reality’ of Dissociative Identity Disorder is of no consequence to me.
People use all of their being to survive, this includes the mind.
Even if Dissociative Identity Disorder doesn’t exist the “delusion” that one has separate selves is still an illness that causes suffering for the patient and the people he loves.
I consider myself a decent man, and I do my share of the heavy lifting in my friendships by working to manage those aspects of my illness that are under my control and by taking responsibility for those that aren’t.
My advice for anyone who has a friend with DID or who is considering friendship with someone who has DID is learn about the illness.
Expect your friend to be hyper-vigilant and forgetful.
Expect him to express contradictions in opinions.
Expect him to need downtime; especially if he is in therapy.
Expect him to be completely loyal to people who treat him with respect.
People who are unable to tolerate ambiguity have no business involving themselves with anyone who has a PTSD and CPTSD.
If you think that you know what DID is because you have seen or read Sybil and the Three faces of Eve, you’re wrong.
In a post about the partners and friends of people with DID Holly Gray, on the Dissociative Living Blog, says it best:
“Those of us with DID don’t have the option of walking away from it. You do. For my part, I’d like to remind you that no matter how it feels, DID isn’t forced on you. You can leave, or choose not to get involved at all. Those of us with this disorder would spare you if we could. So when it gets rough – and it will get rough – please remember this: living with Dissociative Identity Disorder is a decision you’re making, not something we’re doing to you. Blame us for our choices and behaviors … not for having DID.”
Dissociative Identity Disorder is one of the most misunderstood of all of the misunderstood mental illnesses, and that makes living with it far more difficult than it has to be for many people.
Exposing these misunderstandings may not seem to accomplish much. But I believe that if we continue to talk openly about DID and other mental illnesses, the lives of people with mental illnesses twenty years from now will be less painful and more productive.
(c) Rob Goldstein 2014-2016
this is… The Neighborhood
PROFESSIONALISM IS A MISUNDERSTOOD WORD
‘Have fun’ is my message. Be silly.
You’re allowed to be silly.
There’s nothing wrong with it.
– Jimmy Fallon
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Every Evening
by 2AM Club
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(spun from a quora response about professionalism)
Professionalism is a Misunderstood Word
by Kendall F. Person
The Flashing Inn
Amy and her crazy boyfriend Charles, vacationed on a free spirited beach at an overpriced Inn, that took months to finally get in. What made The Flashing Inn so special? You see, every single time, Amy and Charles – or anyone for that matter – walked through the innkeepers front door, someone flashed. And this went on all day long and the placed stayed jammed packed. And the only time anyone left, was to walk through so the new people or the vacationing rebel rousers could be pummeled with lots and lots of flashes.
Hotel, Kayak Wallpaper
The bar was ran with utter efficiency and the food was magnificent. The Flashing Inn even kept muscle men on hand. Not to stop fights, since the Inn’s reputation preceded itself, and there never were any to speak of. So the musclemen were hired to carry the laughing, vacationing, flashing-time-of-their-lives-having-vacationers the few feet to their luxurious rooms.
There were more than a few prudes, who thought the level of unprofessionalism was simply unbearable and never left their room. Because when they did a sequence of flashes erupted and oh, they would tell everyone “Heathens all!!” Little did they know, that their outrage had helped double the prices and sell out The Flashing Inn for months. But that was not the real lesson unlearned. They simply did not understand, that the pettiness in government and on the news had infiltrated so deep, that a mindless, schedule less, un-divisive vacation of flashes was exactly what the world needed.
Breaking News The White House Burping Contest exposed
CNN has been reporting for the last 3 days in elaborate descriptions and raucous debates, that took themselves way to seriously, about the now infamous White House Burping contest. It is thought to have been leaked, when one of the young guns felt shafted when the Chief of Staff was awarded the title. The guest panel on CNN – sometimes measuring seven strong – inclusive of politicians, academics and world renowned journalist went on and on until only Fox News was the only remaining audience.
The Nut House by cactus cowboy
When Fox News had enough of CNN’s latest which hunt, they put forward their most dramatic and ridiculous spin. Burping Contest would suddenly rise in stature. and be hailed as the American Way. Video tapes of Hillary would be scoured with teams of high priced investigators pointing to every time a burp should have come out “Oh my God. Her 3rd sip of Pepsi, no one can withstand that type of pressure.”
”Lock her up!” a crowd would chant from a small convention center in Maricopa County Arizona. And as the final measuring: burping contest would set the new standard for entry into the country, as the demographic with the lowest average burping decibel, would be placed on the ban list for being unexceptional.
Update:
When word got out about The Flashing Inn and cable news media descended, it did not take long before the luster was gone and the silliest place on earth for absolute fun was lost. But those who had been during its heyday, would often recount it as the best damn getaway.
The President soon declared that no one burped louder than him, although proof was unsustained. It meant absolutely nothing, but for four whole days, it gripped cable news as if it was everything. But its most notable moment – recounted by historians at a future point – was when it was declared as the very first and only scandal in the Trump era to find an end.
this is…. The Neighborhood reporting
a satirical bit of comedy relief to Mental Health Awareness Week, which continues tomorrow. (big smile)
WHAT IS SANITY? BY AHMAD AL CHARIF
cover Black by Verdewall
Just about any ordinary person can slip into madness, In fact, all it may take to trigger the process is a special kind of blow to one’s self-image to push someone over the edge of sanity. – Why and how normal people go mad, by Jennifer Daw, American Psychological Association
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by Renan Javier
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from
Beirut Lebanon
WHAT IS SANITY?
by Ahmad Al Charif, Beirut Lebanon
Butterfly by Verdewell
How do we really decide if someone is in possession of soundness of mind and judgement? There does exist obvious cases. For instance, a person committing heinous acts of violence, against others or themselves, does not match the criteria, therefore must be insane, correct?As I write this article, media stations are saturated with news of wars in so many different countries, I find it difficult to keep up, so I gave up trying. These are major conflicts, that in essence, and no matter how hard politicians try to dress it up to be, are all about power, and money. What else do people fight about, really?
These politicians, these individual human beings make statements, argue about making a stand for what they believe is right, and of course on the other end you will find an opposing force, equally as stubborn and with the same brutal amount of conviction.These people, in the name of patriotism, law, ethics, religion, morals, values, and so on and so forth, create conflicts. They develop weapons, and create soldiers. They send them to war, to kill and destroy, no… to vanquish the enemy.
Everyday. And all for what? Really, nobody truly knows…Politicians have become experts at stirring up emotions, and off to war we go. Killing an enemy that is exactly like us, only with a different perspective than ours. When does it end, Or how? Most importantly, can it? As humans, are we sound of mind and judgement, if we continue doing what we have been doing throughout history, but expecting a different result?
Has this idea of conquering the enemy, with brutal force, harvested any true peace, that withstood the test of time? Or are we simply stacking up bodies, in an overpopulated planet?In the days of the Romans, people killed each other, while others watched in pleasure and cheered on. Back then it was normal, but now that same act would be deemed outrageous, bordering insanity. So are the things we do today really that sane? Or are our great great grandchildren, hundreds of years from now, going to look back at us and wonder what in God’s name were we doing?
Where do we draw the line? Sanity is much more difficult to define, than any dictionary could provide. It is about knowing full well who you are, and staying true to that. Its about learning to give full value to all there is to your existence. To your dreams, but above all, to your soul. And your soul does not want people senselessly dying.
I hereby relinquish my sanity for today. I will relinquish my sanity everyday, for as long as I live.
If sanity is to be blind, and self-centered. If it means I have to put my needs, before that of everyone else. If sanity requires that I become a mindless drone, blind to the voice of reason, answering only to the endless needs of a corrupted society and not the mind, then I would much rather be labeled insane, and live happily ever after.
I believe that to be the only sane thing to do.
Ahmad Al Charif
this is… The Neighborhood, created by Kendall F. Person
Release Your Butterfly
MY BIPOLAR ELEVATOR
I’m bipolar but I’m not crazy, and I never was.
I’m stark raving sane. – Emile Autumn
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All We Do
by Bap Mason
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MY BIPOLAR ELEVATOR
by Kendall F. Person
An adult living under the constraints of bipolar disorder must play tricks on their own mind. My tricks begin with the labeling of the box. The lighter used medicinal term, bipolar, is interchangeably listed at random with the psychologically damning diagnosis ‘manic-depressant’. I reject them both, along with the pharmaceuticals that the terms rode in on. So engaging in trickery, I created my own term, as well as, developed a combat-technique more conducive to how I see me.
My elevator. I offer no complaints or ‘woes are me’, for my elevator stays way up high 90% of the time. But it is the 10%, which is my test, engaging me in a mental battle, that ultimately decides my fate. When emotions are in direction downward, I reach upward for my natural armor, and defeat the demons before they can arise. I drown my world in the positives that I see. I read forceful prose, like If by Rudyard Kipling
I am at my best, within a scattered, manic organizational flow, balanced atop the high-wire – until I fall, crashing my elevator in the process. But self-awareness and experience remind me, that the only outcome a downward spiral offers, is submission to defeat. So I open the blinds, embark on a long bike ride, telephone an old friend. or simply, I return to my center and write.
The old montage, ‘finding strength in the misery of others’ is archaic at best. The real mantel is finding inspiration within your fellow man or woman. In knowing you are not alone. In believing there is a natural beauty all around us and inside us, as well. Rather we choose to see by finding techniques that allow our elevators to rise or by choosing a return to bipolar, a world we do not accept nor recognize – is up to us..
-this is… The Neighborhood
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