Textual Healing

{From my paranormal/faith blog, The Shadow Side}

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read Breaking Dawn and you want to be surprised, stop reading RIGHT NOW! Major spoilers ahead!

( Cut to protect from aforementioned spoilers )

Babynames.com just came out with their Most Popular Baby Names of 2009 list, which I stumbled upon as I was searching for a character name to use in my novel. And I noticed a couple of trends that kind of startled me:

- The name 'Bella' is gaining in popularity; it's #18 on the hit list right now. But 'Isabella' (which is Bella Swan's full name) is the second most popular girls' name out there.
- 'Edward' is still not a popular name by any means - only #65. But it has jumped in the rankings by more than ten places.
- Though it's fallen a bit in popularity, Jacob is still the eighth most popular boys' name.
- Two of Edward's vampire siblings, Jasper and Alice, have seen their names jump more than ten ranks in the past year.
- Perhaps most indicative of Twilight's influence on naming, three of the thirteen names that are new to the 'Most Popular' list this year come from the Cullen family: Rosalie, Emmett, and Esme. The only members of the Cullen family not represented in the list are Carlisle and Renesmee.
- Let's talk about Renesmee for a second. This is the fakest of fake-sounding names, and has no right to exist or be treated as something anybody intelligent would actually call a human being. But BabyNames.com insists that it does, and they've given it all the dignity of a real name. And at least one person has actually given that name to a child, pictured here. No wonder the poor thing looks so troubled.

It's true, some of these names were already popular before Twilight. But for others, there's really no way to explain the boost they've gotten without reference to the popular series. Nobody's naming their kid 'Edward' because it sounds so cool. And Esme? C'mon.

Now I'm fully prepared to admit that Twilight is addictive, but the idea of naming your kids after characters in a trendy book . . . that's troubling. (Especially for poor Renesmee.) The trouble with naming a baby for characters in a book is that the child will always have to live with that name and everything it implies. For great works of literature that have stood the test of time, that's not a problem. I have friends who've named their daughter after characters from Shakespeare - it works beautifully. But ten years from now, Twilight will be a joke. Heck, it's practically there already. And these families will have to deal with baby-naming choices that unmask them as woefully short-sighted and tasteless people, people who leaped onto the bandwagon and fell in love with a piece of fantasy fiction that really wasn't even all that good.

The Bellas, Jacobs, and Alices can probably get away with it - the names, after all, could've come from elsewhere and aren't proof-positive of a Twilight addiction in the family. The Emmetts and Esmes will have a harder time explaining their names without revealing Mommy's sordid little secret. And any poor Renesmees out there are doomed. The second you hear that name, you know the poor little bugger has parents utterly without common sense.

{from my paranormal/faith blog, The Shadow Side}

Wow, it has been the longest time since I've written anything in this blog. I hope I still have readership. But who isn't super-swamped this time of year? Christmas shopping, winter tires, cooking, baking, giftwrapping, tidying, packing, getting ready to have guests or to be one . . . I think it would be a paranormal event if you're NOT busy!

The other day, while writing Christmas cards or some such, I listened to an old CBC podcast about addiction on Tapestry, CBC's program about faith matters. The podcast was called "Filling the God-Shaped Void", an interview with Gabor Mate, author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. Haunting title. But there's a twist - the hungry ghosts are us.

Mate works with people who are addicted to drugs, alcohol, and other really serious stuff, but he also sees elements of addiction in his own everyday life . . . and ours. We all have a void we're trying to fill. How do we fill it? Mate points out the extent to which many people in our materialistic society try to fill it by shopping, buying, acquiring things. For him, it's CDs. For me? Hard to say. I don't know if it's any one thing. But I have been known to turn to the mall when I'm in need of a little pick-me-up - just one book, on sale, or just one journal, one bracelet, one pair of shoes. Don't I deserve it? Aren't I good enough?

This is something worth reflecting on at this time of year. Mate points out that a search for meaning and fulfillment is essential to the human experience . . . but that marketers are taking advantage of the fact that we have to find that meaning, that it doesn't come pre-packaged into our lives. Marketing succeeds by forcing us to really feel that void, that lack of meaning, and then convincing us that if we buy this one thing - whatever it is they're selling - the void will disappear and we'll be whole. Remember George Bush telling people to deal with 9/11 by shopping? We're addicted to acquiring, and our entire economy is the pusher.

Think about that for a second. Our society's concept of commerce is based on a) marketers rubbing our faces in human emptiness, and b) marketers lying to us about what will make us feel fulfilled. And because this parade of lies starts from the moment we're old enough for Saturday morning cartoons - sometimes even earlier - it's hard to shake. Hard to question. From the cradle to the grave, we've got somebody telling us that the next purchase will fix our emptiness.

Some people get offended when a store clerk tells them "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". I wouldn't bother. Maybe it's time to look deeper. Forget what the store clerk said; take a look at what you just bought. Did you need it? And if not, what interior urge made you feel like you did? Are you buying something to fill up some empty place inside you that just can't be filled by something you put on your MasterCard? There's no need to be ashamed. We all are. It infuses every message we get from our society. It's in the air we breathe.

But as with any addiction, acknowledging it is the very first step.

{from my paranormal/faith blog, The Shadow Side}

I just read an op-ed my husband found online, all about how people's religious beliefs are shifting from strict dogma to a hodgepodge of beliefs that don't necessarily fall within the strictures of what their faith teaches. You'll never hear a sermon on reincarnation from my church's pulpit, but that doesn't mean the people in the pews have rejected it out of hand. You can't assume all church-goers are Bible-banging fundies anymore . . . or that everybody in your yoga class is a Bible-bashing New Ager. Hooray for diversity!

From the piece:

Twenty percent of Protestants and 28 percent of Catholics said they believe in reincarnation, which flies in the face of Christianity's rapture scenario. Furthermore, about the same percentages said they believe in astrology, yoga as a spiritual practice and the idea that there is 'spiritual energy' pulsing from things like 'mountains, trees or crystals'. Uh-oh. Someone's God is going to be jealous.

Surprisingly, in some cases, those who identified themselves as Christian were more likely to believe these things than those who were unaffiliated. [. . .]

The report is further evidence that Americans continue to cobble together Mr. Potato Head-like spiritual identities from a hodgepodge of beliefs — bending dogmas to suit them instead of bending themselves to fit a dogma. And this appears to be leading to more spirituality, not less.

Now there's the rub for tradition-minded believers out there, especially those who believe that "by their fruits ye shall know them". Because if spirituality is defined as "a connection with the higher power" (God, Jehovah, Ceiling Cat, or what-have-you), this flexibility of belief is creating more of it. More people are encountering God because they can do so in the cultural clothing that feels most comfortable to them, or through the beliefs that resonate most with them. They're coming to an understanding of God, forming a relationship with Him. Now how can that be a bad thing?

Of course, people who think reincarnation-believing Christians like me should be chased from the pews with pitchforks will undoubtedly say that unorthodoxy can lead to relationships with false gods (i.e. demons) and other unsavory entities, that the Capital-T Truth about God is not relative. And they're right that there's absolute truth about God . . . but as humans, we can't possibly fully know it, so what good does it do to be rigid if it means some people won't be able to relate to your God? Why is your image of God more right than that of the yoga-loving hippie down the block? And if God loves that yoga practitioner, does He care whose idea is more accurate? He knows none of us can get it right anyway.

As for the false gods and unsavory entities, I'm not that worried . . . because by their fruits ye shall know them.

Thieved from babyblue1016.

I give you money and send you into the grocery store to pick up 5 items. You can only pick one thing from the following departments... what is it?
1. Produce: A bag of onions.
2. Bakery: Tortillas if I'm shopping for me, bagels if I'm shopping for Adam.
3. Meat: I don't eat meat, so I'd spend this money on a bag of avocados. But if I could buy something for Adam, it would probably be chicken breasts.
4. Frozen: Coffee Rich; it's a milk replacement used in a lot of low-protein recipes.
5. Dry goods: white rice.

Let's say we're heading out for a weekend getaway. You're only allowed to bring 3 articles of clothing with you... besides your undergarments. So, what's in your bag?
1. My light blue jeans.
2. My purple T-shirt.
3. My periwinkle sweater with the granny-square patches on the shoulders.
. . . although in fairness, this is hard to plan without more information. Who is 'we'? Where are we going on this getaway? What are we planning to do? What time of year is it? Who else is coming?

If I was to listen in on one of your conversations throughout the day, what 5 phrases or words would I be most likely to hear?
1. Melanie
2. Adam
3. protein
4. novel
5. "I don't just sit around all day watching TV and eating bonbons, you know. I have a lot to do."

So, what 3 things do you find yourself doing every single day, and if you didn't get to do, you probably wouldn't be in the best mood?
1. Petting my cat.
2. Listening to my iPod.
3. Drinking 1000 calories worth of nutrients in reconstituted powder form, because I can't eat anything from two whole food groups and I have to get the nutrients somewhere.

Sweet, you just scored a whole afternoon to yourself. We're talking a 3 hour block with nobody around. What 5 activities might we find you doing?
Ummm, this sounds pretty much like every afternoon to me . . .
1. Working on my novel.
2. Exercising on my elliptical.
3. Reading a book.
4. Baking/cooking something from scratch. (This one time, I made mushroom dumplings, and they were wonderful.)
5. Housecleaning while listening to podcasts.

We're going to the zoo. But, it looks like it could start storming, so it'll have to be a quick visit. What 3 exhibits do we have to get to?
1. Reptiles
2. Primates
3. Big Cats (awww, kitties!)
. . . but I'd actually rather just visit all the exhibits in the rain.

You just scored tickets to the taping of any show that comes on t.v. of your choice. You can pick between 4, so what are you deciding between?
1. Desperate Housewives
2. The Colbert Report
3. Being Erica
4. The Agenda with Steve Paikin

You're hungry for ice cream. I'll give you a triple dipper ice cream cone. What 3 flavors can I pile on for ya?
Well, I can only eat sherbet, but if that's cool . . .
1. Raspberry sherbet
2. Orange sherbet
3. Rainbow sherbet

Somebody stole your purse/wallet. In order to get it back, you have to name 5 things you know are inside to claim it. So, what's in there?
1. My wallet, which is black and pretty nondescript, but I can tell you exactly where to find library cards from three different cities, my Ikea refund card, and my brother's business card.
2. My cell phone, which is blue. And it's a Texty!
3. My Ipod, which is purple. I can tell you some of the playlists on it, too, if you want to test me further.
4. A bright green plastic calculator on a keychain.
5. A silver travel vial of Sa Majeste La Rose perfume. Which is empty.

You are at a job fair, and asked what areas you are interested in pursuing a career in. Let's pretend you have every talent and ability to be whatever you wanted. So what 4 careers would be fun for you?
1. Author
2. Writer
3. Novelist
4. Librarian (just in case the others don't work out)

{from my paranormal/faith blog, The Shadow Side}

Lately I've been reading Cosmos by Carl Sagan, my new celebrity crush. (I was never typical.) The science may be a bit out of date - the book was published in 1980 - but it's a brilliantly accessible piece of scientific writing and fascinating to read. Did you know that everything is made up of atoms, and each atom is composed mainly of NOTHING AT ALL? I've been annoying my husband with this fact all evening: "You know what's crazy, honey? I just ate some melba toast, and it was chiefly made of NOTHING! But I'm not hungry anymore! Isn't that weird?"

He probably thinks it's not the only thing that's weird around here. But I digress.

A few chapters ago, I read about a particular theory Carl Sagan had heard about, suggesting that miracles described in the Bible were actually caused by events in space - planets and comets and things like that. They weren't miracles, but just acts of nature. The theory he read was probably incorrect, even by standards of scientific knowledge twenty years ago. But it captured my imagination anyway. Here's what appeared in Cosmos:

Major recent collisions from Saturn to Venus were alleged in a popular book, Worlds in Collision, published in 1950 by a psychiatrist named Immanuel Velikovsky. He proposed that an object of plaanetary mass, which he called a comet, was somehow generated in the Jupiter system. Some 3,500 years ago, it careened in toward the inner solar system and made repeated encounters with the Earth and Mars, having as incidental consequences the parting of the Red Sea, allowing Moses and the Israelites to excape from Pharaoh, and the stopping of the Earth from rotating on Joshua's command. It also caused, he said, extensive vulcanism and floods.

Sagan goes on to note that the first non-mystical attempt to explain Bible stories by invoking space matter was Edmund Halley's speculation that the Flood that made Noah famous was the result of a comet's impact. Clearly this is not a new idea. And in the past it has almost certainly had people of faith running scared: in a later passage, Sagan describes how some people tried to suppress Velikovsky's ideas. In some ways, religion hasn't changed a lot over the past few centuries. That's not always a good thing.

But do scientific explanations for the Bible mean that we can't see God's hand in these miracles? There's no reason to suppose that, if the parting of the Red Sea had been caused by a comet, there was no divine intervention involved and the whole thing was purely naturalistic. Are we to understand that the comet came and parted the seas just as Moses and the Israelites were approaching the banks, with Pharaoh's soldiers in hot pursuit? All by pure chance and coincidence? Or could it be that God uses seemingly random events to create life-changing miracles for His children? And that's you and me. God may not be parting oceans for us, but we can still see His miracles even in the most natural and coincidental-seeming circumstances. Why not?

There's a sound byte I've heard from time to time: "My religion tells me that God created the universe, and science tells me how He did it". Maybe science can tell us how God achieved the miracles He's created, how He built us up out of tiny atoms - essentially out of nothing. But science doesn't replace faith, because it doesn't tell us why. Where faith is committed to a genuine search for God's truth, it has nothing to fear from science.

{from my paranormal/faith blog, The Shadow Side}

Granted, many paranormal junkies (self included) aren't lucky enough to share their lives with somebody who's all wrapped up in the same interests. That's fair - it can be a pretty out-there hobby. But we love to feel supported by family members, friends, and loved ones who say, "Hey there, I don't get into this whole paranormal thing, but I think it's really cool that you do!"

With that in mind, Paranormal.About.com has put together a list of the Top Ten Christmas Gifts for Fans of the Paranormal. It's a great resource, not just for that supernatural seeker on your list, but really for creative ideas that could get anybody excited. Got a die-hard X-Files devotee in your family? According to this list, the Fringe series is just as good. (I want it already!) And you don't have to be a hardcore ghost hunter to love the Ghostbusters movies . . . so chances are the new Ghostbusters video game would be a delight to any twentysomething gamers on your list. If I had any money, I know I'd be headed out to the nearest electronics shop to snap it up for a friend or two.

My personal favourites? Say, for instance, if you're a procrastinating husband with no real clue what to get me? I'd be psyched to receive a subscription to FATE magazine or Fortean Times - pretty much any ghost-related reading material, actually. And I'm sure you could find something delightful in the CafePress paranormal section they've highlighted on Paranormal.About.com. (Hint: I've been looking for a new license plate cover pretty much since I got my car.)

Not that I'm hinting, of course . . . ;)

In an attempt to wean myself from my brand-whorish ways, I'm reading a number of books about branding, marketing, and consumer psychology. I hope to gain a better understanding of why brands have such a strong pull, and thereby to diminish the pull itself. I'll be posting interesting quotations from these books here, for my reference and possibly others' interest.

( Cut for longer-than-usual quotations )

Because I'm part of the First Communion Prep team at my church this year, I've been getting really involved in the parish. Today I took part in La Guignolée, an annual charity event that has been happening in Quebec pretty much since there's been a Quebec. No, seriously. It was started in the 1760s by the coureurs de bois. At least that's where its roots are - it took its modern form, as an event organized through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a century later. Now groups from many different denominations and even secular groups participate.

( My experience with an old French Canadian tradition )

I've got a few event pics posted in a Facebook album right here if you want to see them. They're near the end (at least so far - I might add more pics as time goes on). But you can also check out some of our Christmas decorations, and also some adorable pictures of my cat being festive. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

When I read Obsessive Branding Disorder by Lucas Conley, I was intrigued by the Zaltman approach to discovering what customers think about a product: "If you were a stick of chewing gum, what would you tell the world about yourself?" Now, chewing gum isn't the sort of product that you'd expect to inspire strong emotions—but I, at least, definitely have strong feelings about certain luxury brands. I thought it would be constructive if I were to do the Zaltman exercise, substituting certain powerful brands for chewing gum, to perhaps help me get at the essence of why I find them so desirable. Today's subject: Ralph Lauren.

"If you were the brand Ralph Lauren, what would you tell the world about yourself?"

You might say I work to live, not live to work - that is, if I actually needed to work. Because I've got a trust fund. I might work in an office, but I can gallivant off to the country at a moment's notice. I embody upper-class leisure, the WASP lifestyle, yuppies, old money. A distinctly American notion of aristocracy: inherited wealth, an established social position, ancestors who dined in the swankiest clubs of old New York. The freshly-mown grass of polo fields, the rolling lawns and snaking driveways of country estates, summers in the Hamptons and winters in Palm Beach. Prep school. Ivy League universities. Blazers and club ties, from clubs you actually belong to. Wood-panelled studies, leather-bound books, wingback chairs, hand-carved antiques. Money. Prestige. Respect. Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Gatsbys.

The sky was lit
by the splendor of the moon
So powerful
I fell to the ground

Your love
has made me sure

I am ready to forsake
this worldly life
and surrender to the magnificence
of your Being.

Just a poem by Rumi that I found pretty, so I figured I would share it. I like pretty poems. If only I were able write them myself!