Small Town Support is the Cure

Children aren't supposed to get the Big C, and yet, they do. Click on the link below to hear how a cool kid in a close-knit Colorado community is coping, as I wrote in my Dec. 26, 2103 monthly column for The Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper:





I hope your Christmas was made merrier than ever, thanks to those you love. Here's to a beautifully bountiful 2014!

Giving Thanks for the Arts

We who call Fort Collins, CO "home" have so much for which to be thankful. Being recognized as a community that supports the arts, and one wherein the arts flourish and nourish, is high on my 2013 Gratitude List. I handpicked an insider to feature in my Thanksgiving Day column in The Coloradoan, and I invite you to click on the 3:23 link below to hear all about it:






Wendy Ishii is amazing, as is the play based on Joan Didion's book. Put it on your must see/read list...trust me, you'll eat it up!

"The Year of Magical Thinking" starts NOW.

Charting a responsible course in government and elsewhere

Why is it so hard to get others to take responsibility and just do what needs to be done when it seems to be the obvious route to a better reality? Click on the link below to hear how Fort Collins resident Dean Miller intends to us in the U.S. rolling along more responsibly by starting at the top as published in my Oct. 24, 2013 column in the Coloradoan newspaper:
                                                                                                                

What is responsibility but our ability to respond to whatever comes our way in the most positive way possible. It certainly makes traffic flow along better and more smoothly.

Read on to see Dean Miller's work, and thank you for checking in on mine.

                                                                                                                C. Dean Miller, Ed. D.

                                                                                                                Emeritus Professor of Psychology

                                                                                                                    Colorado State University

                                                                                                                Fort Collins, CO 80525

April 11, 2013

Mr. Barack Obama

President

United State of America

The White House

Washington, D. C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

                I wish to thank you for your leadership, vision of what we need to become as a nation, and openness to new ideas and change.

                I was second born in 1929 to a family of 10 children in Western Kansas.  My memories of the dust bowl, depression, standing in line for commodities and World War II are still vivid.  My father was a laborer who worked in lead zinc mines until his health broke and he became a truck driver and then a custodian.  He taught me the love and importance of working hard.  I graduated from high school at the age of 16, spent one year on active duty then several years in the reserves. 

                Since I retired from Colorado State University I have continued teaching classes on Aging Well for approximately eight years.  The last four years I have assisted with and participated in classes for people diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's.  Growing old is not for sissies.

                I wish to thank you for your leadership, vision of what we need to become as a nation, and openness to new ideas and change.  I have a responsibility to support you and others in the Executive and Legislative Branches of our government.

                I personally believe we both share a desire to greatly improve our country's ability to solve complex and recurring problems.  The enclosed draft of a Bill of Responsibilities reflects my interests in helping to resolve the problems our country faces.

Respectfully Submitted,

C. Dean Miller

Enclosure

cc.  Mrs. Michelle Obama, Senator Mark Udahl; Senator Michael F. Bennett; Representative Cory Gardner; Mr. Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader; John Boehner, Speaker of the House; Governor John Hickenlooper, Mr. Alan Simpson               

Bill of Responsibilities

                As a member of Congress you are to represent all citizens and not just your party or special interests which support you financially or in other ways.

                You have been elected to promote not only the welfare and well being of all citizens but also the well being of all who inhabit the earth.  You are expected to become an expert problem solver who can learn to collaborate and cooperate with leaders of diverse and different historical backgrounds to solve both complex and recurring problems.  You have a moral and ethical responsibility to become an expert problem solver. 

                The first week of each new session of Congress shall be spent learning more about the paradigms that have been developed to successfully solve complex and long standing problems.

                Selecting leaders to head the various committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives can no longer be based on seniority alone.  Evidence of the ability to foster respect, collaboration and solving complex problems needs to be paramount in selecting committee chairpersons and other leaders.  One of the crucial considerations in selecting leaders is to identify individuals who have the experience, ability and maturity to foster interactions which promote development of consensus.

                At the beginning of each new session some time needs to be spent on reviewing the effects and intentions of both "positive" and "negative" framing.  Members of Congress need to be knowledgeable about "framing" which is constructive and "framing" which is destructive.

                Members of Congress are making decisions which channel large amounts of assets to individuals, corporations, and countries.  There is a construct called "enabling".  Enabling is a process that involves attempting to help someone or a business, or a corporation in such a way that the individual, or corporation is enabled to continue the maladaptive practices or behaviors.  The assumption is without the "outside" help the individual, corporation or country would fail.  Enabling is "helping" in such a way that the maladaptive behaviors are reinforced and continue.

                Members of Congress will have to include an assessment of the extent to which "enabling" exists in the help proposed to some entity.

                When ideology trumps science and reason, confusion and conflict will reign. 

C. Dean Miller, Ed. D.

Emeritus Professor of Psychology

    Colorado State University

Fort Collins, CO 80525                                 

Flood forced us to stop

I was listening to NPR early Monday evening when most of Colorado was tuned into the Broncos-Raiders game. A rancher was telling listeners about how his field was under 7-feet of water. This was land cows grazed - or used to. When this Weld County man talked about losing several of his livestock - the herd was forced to tread water for much of the day - well, I did what any cattleman's daughter would do. I cried. Click on the link below to hear some other thoughts about the latest disaster to hit northern Colorado as published in the Sept. 26, 2103 Fort Collins Coloradoan:




I've heard some call this unnatural natural event the Great Flood of 2013. "Great" doesn't quite do it, does it? What happened here, starting on Friday the 13th, is beyond words.

Celebrating angels like Ellie

As wildfires continue to rage throughout the western U.S., northern Coloradans continue the recovery process from the 2012 High Park Fire. What a difference a year a makes! And then again, for those in the literal direct line of fire, it will often seem like yesterday. Here's the story of one survivor named Ellie, as I wrote in the Aug. 22, 2013 Fort Collins Coloradoan:



Oh, Ellie! Methinks I, too, have fallen for you.

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer vacationing old-style

I'm revamping my ill feelings toward camping, as I shared with Coloradoan readers in my monthly community column on July 25, 2013. Click on the 3:09 link below to hear all about it:

Sure hope tramping through Europe is next on the list. Wouldn't that be sick, as the youth today would say! Thanks for visiting, and enjoy your summer vacation!

I will not chair another sale

And yet...I know well enough to never say never! Garage Sale season is in full swing, and it's a rare collector that has neither attended nor hosted one. Click on the 3:23 link below to hear about my family's recent sales experience, per my June 27, 2013 monthly community column in the Fort Collins Coloradoan:

I pledge to be an even more discerning buyer in the future, because I do not, I repeat, not, not, not want a repeat performance. If only finding "the find" wasn't so fun, right?

Guess there's always eBay and/or Craigslist!

Thanks for stopping by...

I believe in Yesterday

I also believe in the power of the tornado. How can one not after our most recent deadly destroyer in Moore, OK? I'm sure you, also, were brought to tears by the actions of so many of that city's Good Samaritans. We are surrounded by good people...like the Christen family of Fort Collins, CO, for whom yesterday - literally, as in May 22, 2008 - summons emotions that defy description. Click on the 3:33 link below to hear more of their inspiring story that appeared in my column in the May 23, 2013 "Coloradoan" newspaper:





To all whose lives have been changed by shocking, out-of-nowhere events, including the Windsor, Colorado tornado: may you never, ever again have to experience such severe loss. Should something unimaginable happen to you again, I pray, instead of being horribly so, it is beautifully so.

Know what else I believe in? The same thing Rachel Christen and her people do: the power of love.

Thanks for your time.

Is Feminism Dead?

No, is the short answer. In writing the following column for the April 25, 2013 Coloradoan newspaper, I realized that while we've come a long way, baby as the cigarette TV ad once proclaimed, we do have a lot of territory yet to cover. Click on the 3:33 link below to hear what I mean:






Remember when bras couldn't be shown on television on "live" female bodies? It's incredible that the first "real" model appeared wearing a bra on May 4, 1987 in an ad on NBC for Playtex's Cross Your Heart bra. I would've bet money it was back in the seventies.

Thank you, men and women, for your, ahem, support!

Weathering March's Madness

With the topics of religion and politics being so potentially divisive and explosive, man, what would we civilly discuss under shady trees if we couldn't talk about the weather? Meteorologist Don Day and I "go there" as you'll hear in my monthly community column in "The Fort Collins Coloradoan," published March 28, 2013: 

Here's to those brave souls that daily go out on limbs so that we might know whether or not we need to wear our coats! Thanks, as well, to you for checking in!

Hearts and Horses is Saving Lives

Used to be that when I thought about horses and vets, I thought only about horses and veterinarians. That is no longer the case; not after being introduced to the wonderful work that Hearts and Horses of Loveland is doing with our nation's veterans. Click on the link below to hear more from my column in the Feb. 28, 2013 Fort Collins Coloradoan:

"Hearts and Horses" - kinda says it all, doesn't it? God bless the U.S.A. and thank you, Veterans, for allowing us in on your pain. Oh, and thank you, too, Red!

Teaching how to graduate from fear

In the face of senseless violence, how do we become fearless? We choose not to be afraid. Easier said than done? Click on the 3:08 link below to hear what I wrote on the subject for the Jan. 24, 2013 Fort Collins Coloradoan:

In memory of all those who died violently at the hands of another, let us soldier on as peaceful warriors.