Guest Post Roundup: Sex, Generations and A Whole Lotta Love
As we come closer to the year’s end, I’d like to express my gratitude to a few of my colleagues who took the time to publish their thoughts on Flashfree this year. And, althoughI receive a lot of solicitations, there are few that I feel are worthy of your time or your close read. These, on the other hand, rocked my world, not only because of their breadth and finesse but also because of the love behind the words and thoughts.
This is a Roundup that you don’t want to miss.
[Credit: Special and enduring thanks to artist Darryl Willison of whimsicalwest.com. Please visit his site and support his work!]
- Should fatties get a room? Dr. Brian Hughes has lent his fine prose to this blog several times and often writes insightfully about how our society takes advantage of women. When I stumble across something on his blog that screams Flashfree, I reach out and say pretty please. Brian rocks!
- Should I or shouldn’t I? Oncologist, journalist and educator Dr. Elaine Shattner has spent most of her online bandwidth on discerning the facts about breast and other cancers. Let’s face it; there is a lot of information swirling around the Interwebz and when it comes to figuring out what it means, well, the challenge can be daunting. Want to know more? Elaine’s your girl for the 4-11.
- Anti Anti-Aging, Pro Great Glow. Do you want to fight your years? Or fight FOR them? Writer and author D.A. Wolfe dishes up some provocative prose and challenges the inner you. This one’s got “win” written all over it.
- Counterterrorism, women and 9-11. Doesn’t sound like a topic for Flashfree, does it? But my friend Anne Weiskopf shares a poignant piece about what it means to be a woman. And a mother.
- Want to get your groove on? Move. Alexandra Williams, motivational speaker, fitness writer, radio host and inspirateur nails it with a wonderful post on sex, exercise and wellbeing.
- Vagina’s are like self-cleaning ovens. Wait! What?! Yes, gynecologist and sex expert Dr. Jen Gunter makes a guest appearance to shake up the idea that douching is a good idea.
- Have you crossed the Big M finish line? Author Sarah Bowen thought she had. And tells us how she hit the reset button before the race ended.
- On Becoming Bendy. Author Patti Digh is at it again. She’s changing our world, one day at a time. And wow, has she ever changed hers’ this year. Want to be a better you? Bendy. Who said that Gumby didn’t have an alterior motive?
- Are you becoming your mother? When was the last time you looked in the mirror and asked yourself the very question that my friend, motivational speaker and author Cherry Woodburn asks in this post? Are you a generational profiler?
Occupy…Give to the Max
We interrupt our regularly scheduled program…
“All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'”
Do you recall this famous monologue from the 1976 film, Network? In it, Actor Peter Finch, playing a news anchor about to lose his job, takes the airways and actually spikes the ratings responsible for the pending demise of his job.
This scene reminds of the ‘Occupy’ movement that has taken hold of our country to protest social and economic inequity, corporate greed and corruption in government. However, one of the paradigms operating in our culture is that many of the very organizations formed to help individuals in need and lend assistance to people who have lost their jobs or their homes or their livelihoods are in higher demand than ever. And yet, their coffers are emptying quicker than they can be filled.
That’s why I’m calling for an ‘Occupy’ to reverse the backlash that has turned it into a four-letter word and reframe it positively.
The path? Give to the Max.
Back in early October, I wrote about Give to the Max Day, a one-day regional online fundraiser to support local nonprofit programs in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Developed and supported by an ‘Eight Neighbors Group’ alliance of the area’s leading nonprofit and civic organizations (Center for Nonprofit Advancement, Greater Washington Board of Trade, Leadership Greater Washington, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington and the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers) who have joined forces with the online fundraiser Razoo, The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region and the United Way of the National Capital Area, Give to the Max aims to help local organizations fill their coffers through social giving. And this effort, while certainly focusing on the immediate area in which I reside, is truly an offshoot of Occupy in the sense that it provides an example of how individuals can take back their power and and heal communities that are suffering because of economically-driven cutbacks. Even better? This isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ event that focuses on a single type of assistance; in fact, more than 100 nonprofits have joined the movement thus far, proving that giving doesn’t have to be strangled but can be as small and large as one can afford, and focused on causes that individuals are most passionate about.
In the United States, the Occupy movement started in the Wall Street area, the quintessential birthplace of capitalism and greed. It has since spread like wildfire, with events held in Boston, D.C., Oakland, L.A., Pittsburgh and St. Augustine. This coming Wednesday, November 9, we have an opportunity to leverage Give to the Max, focus attention away from greed to toward charitable giving and occupy the interwebz without even leaving the comfort of desks. Truly, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves if we’re mad as hell at cutbacks that many of these organizations (or organizations in your region) have been forced to make to stay afloat? On November 9, why not boot up the computer and make your voice (and donation) count?
Occupy Give to the Max? Sure, why not? Occupy does not have to bet a four-letter word and neither should giving. And it starts with you. And me. And we.
Let’s occupy the Interwebz and Give to the Max on November 9. I hear that it spreads…like wildfire.
p.s. Pass it on…
Read MoreAnd then the power died…what did I forget?
I was planning on writing a review of a new documentary about menopause when the power died. Mama Nature and her power surge obviously has other plans for me so I will leave you to an oldie but goodie. Look for Wednesday’s Bubble cause this doc is worth consideration.
And so, without further ado…
If you’re anything like me, you are starting to forget things. Things you need to do, why you walk into rooms, shopping lists, things you said, the whole nine yards. For me, it’s become the norm, not the exception and while I spend a lot of time making jokes about it, it also drives me crazy.
Yet, today’s Bubble is not one that I’m likely to forget. I’d like to think of it as one part inspiration and one part WTF? And it leaves me with a whole lot of questions to boot.
Study findings suggest that gaining weight during menopause may increase the risk for loss of gray matter. Gray matter refers to the cortex of the brain, which contains nerve cells. It is involved in muscle control, sensory perception (seeing/hearing), emotions, speech and finally, memory.
In this study, which was published in the online edition of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers evaluated brain imaging data, demographic information (height, weight) and behavioral measures (perceived psychiatric stress) obtained from 48 healthy postmenopausal women. Data were collected over a 20-year period.
The findings showed a unique association between increase in body weight during the transition from peri- to post-menopause (as measured by body mass index or BMI) and a 22% reduction in grey matter volume. These findings occurred in women who were otherwise healthy, had no history of heart disease or psychiatric illness and did not meet the threshold for obesity (>30 BMI). All women had also undergone natural menopause.
The researchers suggest that weight gain during menopause is a “highly modifiable risk factor” that may help to prevent or slow “potential alterations in brain function that are important to quality of life.”
I’ve written previous posts on cognitive issues during menopause, whether they be linked with life stressors, HRT or aging. Now it seems that researchers are telling us that weight gain may also be a risk factor.
Less clear is how much weight gain and what we should do about it. In general one solution to combating weight gain in midlife is restraint. Coupled with exercise, this may just be the magic formula. In the meantime, I think that we need a few more studies to take a closer look at brain matter changes in midlife.
What do you think?
I just forgot why I’m asking you that…!
Read MoreWednesday Bubble: working the transition
I’ve been absent for about a week now. The reason? I’ve been in transition, not menopausally-speaking but literally and physically. I’ve moved about a mile away from my last home. However, it feels as though it’s taken miles to get here.
I spend a lot of time on Flashfree discussing how the transition (and midlife) affects our wellbeing, our general health and our moods. And I would like to offer that this stage of life comes with a set of challenges that feel unlike any other. Whether it’s a change from full house to empty nest or a divorce or a new career, it’s tough. Throw a move into the mix, and well, it’s enough to get a person out of sorts.
The last time I moved, I was in another sort of transition. You can read about that here. This time, the move was again, out of my control but it was in my hands and on my terms. And as such, this transition, albeit difficult, holds promise for all good things to come.
Sheer exhaustion permeates the rambling words on this page and yet, underlying them is a hope that I’ve not felt in quite some time. So, I am taking a mental break this week. Friday’s post will be a guest post and next week Flashfree will be back to business as usual.
I’ll be working this transition to the fullest. Hope you’ll stick it out with me.
Read MoreMonday Musings: crank this one up for size
Stumbled across this silly headline in my weekly perusing of interwebz:
Dr. Oz Explains Why We Get Cranky
A few gems in this article, menopausal-worthy, probably bubble bursting too but it’s not Wednesday.
My favourites?
Stay away from fatty foods. Get more sleep. Avoid too much caffeine.
Sound medical advice or bollocks?
p.s. “Progesterone is like valium for the brain.”
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Musings for a Monday: Menopause. Be Very Afraid.
Don’t let the change of life torture you with fear!
I stumbled across this vintage ad for Mrs. Lydia E. Pinkham’s vegetable compound for menopausal symptoms. Evidently, Mrs. Pinkham had a history of brewing home remedies to combat menstrual and menopausal woes. Among its many ingredients (pleurisy root, life root, emmenagogue, fenugreek, unicorn root), it also contained black cohosh, which does raise the question of whether it was truly snake oil or a modern miracle?
Regardless, a simple musing for a Monday.
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