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How to recognize an eating disorder

Posted on: Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 by Marianne Clyde

Rachel was a model teenager. Middle child of a large family, she always cooked the big Sunday dinner, the family event of the week. They all loved the sherry gravy. They all loved Rachel.

She worked at the rectory, cooking for the priests, helped her dad assemble widgets for his work, oversaw the grocery list so that there was always plenty of her friend’s favorite snacks when they came over. She was so efficient in the kitchen that she even oversaw her parents’ parties, where the whiskey sours were flowing freely. Everybody kind of left her alone to do her thing because she was so good at it.

Nobody noticed that Rachel never ate what she cooked. She was always catering to others: the priests, the family, her friends, her parent’s guests. Nobody seemed to see her take a swig or two of the sherry. The whiskey sours were flowing so freely, no one really noticed that more was missing than there should have been.

Rachel’s teachers loved her because she never caused a problem and was so reliable. Rachel was so responsible, who would have thought she had a problem?

Everyone laughed when...

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Madoff's suicide: The ultimate out?

Posted on: Monday, December 13th, 2010 by Marianne Clyde

What a tragic choice to choose death over working through this gift of life. When I heard of the suicide of Mark Madoff, my heart was broken. Madoff was a husband and father of two young children who will now have to work through why daddy left them; two teenagers are left to field the many lawsuits and still unanswered questions.

Of course it is easy on the surface to see the looming clouds on the horizon for this eldest son of Bernie Madoff, and to understand why he wanted out. The weight of accusations and lawsuits and hatred that engulfed a family name that has come to represent fraud and opulence and disregard for the many lives that have been devasted by his father's schemes is a burden that had to be most painful to bear. And none of us can know what really happened and what was going on in his mind, neither should we speculate. That kind of judgement and guessing is a mind game that can never work out well.

What I would like to emphasize though, for those that are living and watching this senseless loss of human life and the tragedy that still lies in the huge careless wake, is what we can learn from it....

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Uganda....what are you thinking?!

Posted on: Friday, December 11th, 2009 by Marianne Clyde

As a world leader in the eradication of the dreaded pandemic, AIDS, Uganda deserves the hugest respect and admiration. They have taken a stand to bring the issue out in the open and implement testing, treatment, education and prevention. Awesome.

In that country, homosexuality is currently illegal. At the present time, there is a bill before the parliament that would further, not only stigmatize same sex orientation, but would penalize practicing homosexuals with life-long prison terms, and potentially execution. It would also promote prison terms for anyone who knows that someone is a homosexual and does not tell. This one act in itself would cause the whole issue to go even deeper underground and absolutely undo whatever good has beenaccomplished to rid the country of AIDS.

It is being approached as a moral issue, promoting prison terms to anyone who even approaches someone to have a same sex liaison. This is breeding ground for false accusations...your word against mine....everyone becomes suspicious of everyone else; everyone becomes the enemy. It's "us" against "them". A certain way to destroy a country...

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Politics of Fear

Posted on: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 by Marianne Clyde

So it sounds like Obama wants to move away from the "Politics of Fear". I am not sure that that is possible. It is no easier to separate politics from fear by declaring it than it is to remove yourself from superglue by pushing against it. It is the nature of the beast! Whether you are blaming someone else or scaring people into submission, politics is just based on fear. Fear that "our side may not win and thus lose my job;" fear that "we are going to be taken over by extremists and die;" fear that "if we buy into a certain ideology, our society as we know it, will end;" fear of being voted out of office; fear of people thinking you are stupid, or heartless, or ignorant or cruel, or wishy washy, or conservative or liberal. Whatever. It's just all fear. We are human and we respond to it. Our instincts are for survival, as with all living beings. So, if something seems to threaten our survival or our comfort or our lives and well-being, we will react. It's natural. BUT is it normal?

I guess it depends on your definition of "normal". A oak tree growing from an acorn is "normal" as I see it. A bird hatching from an egg is also "normal". On the other hand...

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The treasures of darkness

Posted on: Monday, August 31st, 2009 by Marianne Clyde

There is a struggle going on for the very heart of Honduras. Nobody seems to know what to believe or how to act or what the proper response is. And while the U.S. is wringing our hands trying to decide who to believe and what action to take so we look masterful and in charge, the hearts and minds of the children are being slowly sucked into the vacuum of misinformation, and manipulation.

When recently asked their opinion about what needs to happen in Honduras,the teenswere hard pressed to answer. They did seem to agree that their country needs prayer. They are so overwhelmed by the infusion of Marxist ideology from some Zelayanista teachers. Nelle Petit Smith, of World Resources Group, an NGO who has been diligently grasping kids from the black hole of ignorance and poverty, says that it is appalling that there is so much misinformation and propagandaregarding human rights and political agendas. The children hear so many stories from teachers and parents that they don't know who to believe.

Nelle is encouraging the kids to read and study all that they can so that they can understand what is going on so...

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East meets west

Posted on: Sunday, August 30th, 2009 by Marianne Clyde

East meets west

I was attending a meeting the other day in Tokyo. The attendees were multinational, including ambassadors from 15 countries, spanning the globe, plus visitors from the U.S., Israel, India, Thailand, Korea, China, and others. We were reminded that the goal of the meeting is to find a way to establish world peace. (No, it wasn't a beauty pageant.) The MC commented that the "eastern way" is listening and the "western way" is dialog. My immediate reaction to that statement was that neither way, by itself, will accomplish much of anything, much like the idea that a half of a ball won't roll. We need to take the risk to do both.

This principle is not exclusive to world leaders seeking peace for the planet. It is also vital for our own personal relationships.As a matter of fact, if we don't take the time and effort to do this in our private lives, how can we ever expect that we can be effective as leaders of the world? We have to learn to be faithful inthe small things before we can take on a larger tasks. Taking the risk to 1. speak your mind, 2. express your impression of a situation,...

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Lasting Change in Sri Lanka?

Posted on: Saturday, June 6th, 2009 by Marianne Clyde

So they say the war is over in Sri Lanka. After over 30 years of fighting, the Tamil Rebels are no longer holding a hundred thousand people captive as human shields. The thousands of children that had been recruited as soldiers have been released. Everything is back to normal. Or is it?

Over 250,000, people have been displaced and are in need of shelter in disease ridden refugee camps where there is limited supply of food and clean water. Over the years, there have been thousands of documented cases of recruitment of child soldiers, who must learn how to feel safe again. After having been trained in heavy artillery and bullied into carrying cyanide tablets and grenades with orders to blow themselves up instead of being taken captive by the government, some find it difficult to blend. Go figure. Families, who live in neighborhoods where the only buildings left standing are latrines, are left to rebuild their lives. Children are trying to find some semblance of normalcy in attending schools that were used as base camps. Fields, where water supplies had been cut off by the Tamil Tigers, such as at the water gate near Mavil Aru,...

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Culture Awakening in Malawi

Posted on: Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 by Marianne Clyde

CULTURE AWAKENING IN MALAWI

By Wednesday, May 20, 2009, Malawi’s government will have some new faces. Ballots will be cast on the 19th and counted. Having gained independence from Britain in 1994, Malawi is still a relatively new democracy, and there is certainly still room for improvement as they consider who will be the next president and members of Parliament.

Malawi is still one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world. There are multiple issues that need to be addressed, not the least of which is HIV/AIDS with approximately 12% of the adult population being infected. Other concerns are centered around a literacy rate of 62%, and water borne illnesses with deaths resulting from that.

John Chikago, Parliamentary candidate for the Ntcheu Central Constituency, has already been working hard for the people of his district. Having served nine years as Ambassador to South Africa as well as Japan, it was in Japan that Chikago became a Christian and began to understand the importance of love and serving those who live in poverty.

This, he says, prompted him, on his return to Malawi in December 2005, to...

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Miss Beautiful Morals

Posted on: Thursday, May 7th, 2009 by Marianne Clyde

It finally happened. Saudi Arabia is having a beauty pageant. That's right. A beauty pageant. It's actually the second one and interest is growing: from 75 contestants last year to almost triple that this year. Who would have thought? The catch is that, instead of a parade of flawlessly firm, perfectly coiffed, expensively dressed (or not) beauties, there is a meeting of the mindsand souls of women.

Apparently, when the pageant opens on Saturday, approximately 200 women will meet, attend classes on topics such as "Discovering Your Inner Strength" and discuss morally relevant topics. One of the most highly valued virtues in the Muslim faith is to honor your parents. Interestingly enough, that is also one of the most highly valued beliefs of the Christian and Jewish faiths also, as well as most others, I presume. The winner of the pageant will have proven to the judges that she is most devoted to her parents and her commitmentto Islamic morals is strong.

What a radical idea to have a beauty pageant that values your inner beauty more than outer beauty. Of course as in all things, beauty is in the eye...

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Eye of the Storm

Posted on: Sunday, April 5th, 2009 by Marianne Clyde

The world seems to be turning upside down these days! Changes are happening every time you turn around. People are losing money; people are losing jobs; people are losing homes. These are indeed scary times. Most people I talk to, though, aren't really afraid, but they definitley are feeling in limbo. Several people in the last week have expressed the need to change their paradigm. We need to change the way we see the world and how to BE in the world. People are feeling an urgency to live their lives to the fullest; to use their gifts and talents for the benefit of others; to find the most profound way that they can to show love and change the world through BEING who we are. Certainly the big businesses and the big institutions that we have learned to trust are crumbling and we need to learn to learn to trust ourselves...and to trust our creator. His spirit of life and creativity and love live in us. It seems that if we are not expressing that love through actions that we are not doing our part to sustain what is good in the world. If we just stand by and let our business leaders and government leaders react...

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Either You Are, Or You Aren't a Renaissance Woman!

A renaissance woman is someone who sets her own agenda for personal achievement and will not allow herself to be manipulated or intimidated by self-proclaimed spokesmen who try and wrap their political philosophies around terms like "equality," "choice," "peace," "tolerance" and "diversity." She understands that she has been created for such a time as this and embraces her destiny as a challenge and not a curse, no matter what her personal circumstances. She is a winner not a whiner, a leader not a follower, a victor, not a victim. She wants to change the paradigm of the feminist movement that has served to marginalize and ridicule women who do not follow their collective agenda.

Millions of women around the country, from all professions, backgrounds and cultures, are courageously picking up the mantel of leadership and virtue, that the feminist movement has squandered. They are providing thoughtful and accurate analysis, on a variety of issues, of where, and who we are as a nation.

Remember, this is not a club. It is a mindset!