(This Editorial was published in Free Venice Beachhead, February 2013)
We all lay down once in a while. Be it sunbathing, napping, reading a book, or just stretching out, we all do it. Personally I like the beach; I can do all of the above on the beach. The thing is, the act of lying down can be controversial, because it has been occasionally illegal. Not here though, at least not in LA anyway. The 2006 Jones v. City of Los Angeles case found the need to laydown, specifically to sleep, to be a consequence of being human. Furthermore it found that ‘needing to sleep’ when there is nowhere available to sleep, should not be an act for which a homeless person might be punished, ticketed, or woken up and told to move on, when there is no available option. So protected by the 8th amendment, under cruel and unusual punishment. Continue reading
A worker must be open (within a safe and boundaried construct) to consider (through an empathic visualization) that their client was once a child (as they were) with hopes and aspirations. We must accept the universalism of experience, of the human condition, and of the ever-present and pervasive notion of self; not only as a construct, but also as a force that drives the personality to action, inaction, reaction, and disintegration. Continue reading
This hits me deeply when I hear it, I understand it, I even weave the concept indirectly into my practice, but hearing another person say it aloud makes me ruminate on what it actually means. Both sides of that coin ring true: you tried your best and you arrived at where you are / your best attempt, given all possible permutations, only amounted to this. A tough pill to swallow, but a welcome awakening if there is something to follow it. Continue reading
The pathway of compassion is traveled one step at a time. This seems trite the moment you hear it, but much like a recovery model begs you to understand we can only work on today, the fostering and nurturing of compassion within is firmly rooted to the now. The thing is (that is to say the secret of it is), we can transmute that now into always, we can one step, two step, foxtrot our way along a continuum which transcends time and space. Figuratively of course, but there is still something in the notion that we might apply our grace retrospectively – in order to find compassion for the past, as well as our present. Continue reading
Turning the 3-strikes concept on its head is one of the healthiest things I have done for myself in a long time. In the name of taking ultimate responsibility for our own reality I posit the following – set a standard for yourself; a way of approaching the world that promotes healthy interaction. Continue reading