Archive - Mar 1, 2008

Being Heard

A lot of my therapist friends are talking about HBO’s series, In Treatment. They argue about whether it is a realistic representation of therapy. They question whether it is misrepresenting the experience of therapy because of problems of how it was translated from the Israeli series “Be Tipul”.

The New York Times reviews the series with an article, He Listens. He Cares. He Isn’t Real. In the article, Diane O’Rourke, a medical writer from Chicago is quoted, “There is an old saying that most men would rather have you hear their story than grant their wish.”

When asked about this I responded that as a blogger, putting my story online daily, so I might not be the best person to ask this, however, I've often felt that the deepest wish that many people have is simply to be heard.

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Perhaps the ADD lion starts off by chasing the rabbit that we invoke to bring good luck at the beginning of each month, and then gets distracted by, “Oh, look, there goes a squirrel…” This gives ways for us to contemplate the Paschal Lamb.

This March starts off more a little more strangely than most after leap day. I didn’t get a chance to do anything special for leap day, but it seems like several of the mailing lists have gone berserk. On one list a person starts acting up, gets placed under moderation, complains about it on several other mailing lists and starts receiving legal threats before, hopefully, shutting up and leaving. On another list, people claiming to be Democrats start saying the most hate filled racists and xenophobic garbage I’ve heard in years, prompting me to ask, in the best imitation of our generations Joe McCarthy, “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of a Muslim organization?” On a third list about social networking, one person was wandered off on several rants that make me wonder if they are a broken Markov Chainer.

Looking forward, this will be quite the month. On Tuesday, I will be at the Second Circuit of appeals to blog about the court hearing the Avery Doninger appeal. Details can be found at Andy Thibault’s blog.

Tuesday will also be the day that voters in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island express their opinions about whether they want judgment or someone experienced with the way things have been done for the last thirty five years answering the three A.M. phone call in the White House. When I saw the first ad in that series, I thought, “Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!”

I expect that we will finally see the old house sold this month, as well as a special event that I’m waiting for permission to blog about and some other great opportunities to talk about using online digital social media to help groups get their message out.

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