She Bets Her Life

My thirteen-year old stood at the top of the stairs, face scarlet, eyes squeezed tight. "I hate you.  I hate you."  I looked up at my child.  I hate you too.  I hate you too. shrieked in my mind.  Why won't you just do what I want you to.  I forced back the words.  Just then, one of the other kids slammed in through the front door. Read More

I wrote about a study released in Pediatrics that linked video gaming to depression, anxiety and social phobia in children from third to eighth grade.  You may already be worried about your child - you have good cause when two and three-year olds are playing with their parents I-Phones and other hand-held devices.  Many kids access video games on HHD's.  What can you do? Read More

Thirty-five years ago I took a break from the American Psychological Association Convention. I needed to clear my mind of theory and debate.  The zoo was within walking distance of the big hotel in which I'd been sitting in rooms with no windows, listening to words that seemed to suck the air from the already airless rooms.   Read More

I haven't watched television in thirty years, but I watched 60 Minutes The Big Gamble on-line last night and  imagined tens of thousands of gambling addicts and/or their families getting the information and insights they would need to address a deadly addiction. Please see for yourself. Read More

You're no fool.  You were outraged at the Goldman Sachs bail-out. Read More

My friend looks over at me.  We're driving through gray light and mist to the eastern desert. "So what is your practice?" he says.  I laugh.  "Practices," I say.  "One is the morning meditation; another is eating almost a whole bag of potato chips; another is Not Doing; another is driving with a friend out into the eastern desert. Read More

The ache in the blood, the longing for what no longer exists, the wish that the holiday lights and old music still wove magic.  The only magic you hope for is to wake on January 2, 2011 and know the holidays are over.  You're a newly divorced person, a parent who's lost a child, a worker without your work.  The only words you really want to say are:  "Beam me back, Scotty. Read More

My degree is in Common Sense.  My favorite human bumper sticker is:  If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!  If you haven't been paying attention to this blog, you might not know that I am Dr. Chi Chi LaChatte, a fabulous feline queen (see photo) with a degree in Psychology and expertise on the roots of human folly. Read More

Be careful with vows.  It is dishonorable to be forsworn.  ---Ancient Pagan teaching.  I am forsworn.  Despite my best intentions, I did not post Antidotes 11-16 on December 11-16.  There are two explanations, the first too easy, the second more pertinent to the essence of this blog. Read More

You could be anybody anywhere: the grand-father at the holiday feast surrounded by loved ones; the working mom finally able to exhale as your kids' shining eyes tell you the work was all worth it - the glittering tree, the presents you'll be paying for till June, the home-baked kuchen scenting the air... Read More

Perhaps you have lost a partner, a mother, a father, a child, a dearest friend.  Perhaps you have lost your beloved work, a home, a pet, a sense of yourself you would have believed you couldn't live without.  It seems more than cruel that the loss has occurred during the holiday season. Read More

You've filled a ten pound bag of life with a hundred pounds of things-to-do.  It's only December 3 and already you want to scream every time you hear Alvin and the Chipmunks or What Child is This?  As you step into the neighborhood supermarket to pick up a roasted chicken for the dinner that is now an hour late, you have a deep spiritual moment. Read More

My father was Catholic; my mother a near-atheist agnostic who loved X-mas. She, as is still the case in many families, did the bulk of the chores that made the holidays radiant;  cooking, buying and wrapping presents, decorating and creating ritual. Candles glowed in the living-room windows.  Swedish angel chimes spun slowly on top of the old piano. Read More

Here moi is again!!!  Did you miss me?!  So many of you wrote brilliant comments on my last post that I feel encouraged to write more.  I know many humans are mystified by feline behavior.  We are much like dolphins, quietly going about our miraculous lives without drawing attention to our wisdom or cuteness.  While dolphins don't make hairballs, we cats do. Read More