Mid-month, July 2015, I attended my ten-year reunion for my master’s program in Spiritual Psychology. Around the first of the year when it began to be planned, I already had been musing over my time there, especially the second year when we prepared our master’s project; many psychology graduate schools no longer have their students write a thesis, but do a project that reflects their studies.

In mid January, we were traveling from our home north of Houston to Colorado Springs to share in the birth of my granddaughter and our route took us through the Texas panhandle to Raton. From there, as we took I-25 north to the Springs, several things came to me while driving.

First, it was a bit snowy, luckily only slowing us down on certain stretches. However, although I had been in New Mexico since moving away, it has not been in the winter nor entailed driving through snow; the combination brought back memories of ten years ago, driving from Taos to Denver each month for a project support meeting. I could travel two different ways the winter of 2004-05, depending on the forecast. The quickest was north through Alamosa, to Walsenburg and I-25 or, if that pass was closed, east through Cimarron to south of Raton and then north. So coming into Raton mimicked a portion of that latter drive and brought back many memories.

Since the University of Santa Monica is a one weekend a month on-campus graduate school, they had the second year students form project support teams; this allowed for both encouragement between classes and to insure a student didn’t fall too far behind with their project while completing all the other coursework. Being the only student in New Mexico, I needed to join a group in an adjoining state; I cannot remember why I ended up choosing the Colorado group, we called ourselves the Rocky Mountain High team. Looking back, I was being watched over.

There was also an Arizona group, with the travel time being approximately the same, and, although I have kept in contact with one person from that team and, back then, was great friends with another, I am grateful for joining the RMH group for several reasons, the biggest having to do with relationship.

The great friend in the other group did her best to get us to become more than friends and, with my divorce all but final by that March, another member would have been very tempting for me to date. I know, because even not being in their team, it was all I could do to remain just friends with the one and, although we did a few excursions together, I specifically named them as non-dates with the other.

The former was too much of an “A,” like my mother, sister, and ex and, even though that relationship would have been easy, it would not have lasted. Easy because she was a known quantity, so I knew what would have pleased her, but I was becoming too knowledgeable to have ever allowed myself to get trapped again. I’m thankful because I would not have wanted to hurt my friend, but in being true to my needs, an end to the relationship would have come at some point.

As it turned out, a relationship with the letter would have been great for me/us, but I was just too confused about relationships at that point. I was mistaking the fireworks of a challenge relationship (“A” personality types) with happy relationships and dismissing no fireworks as meaning a dull relationship. In truth, what I thought dull turned out to be peaceful, gentle, and loving! This second friend may have resulted in a wonderful relationship, but then I would have never married my wife, who I met through another USM classmate’s project, and we are an absolutely perfect match!

My team just didn’t present those same temptations, but not because my female teammates were not beautiful, sexy, and brilliant. One was married, another seemingly was looking for someone other than me, the third was too young, and the fourth probably fell into the “dull relationship” scenario, but without all the shared experienced the AZ team member and I had, both being from Texas. So I was able to enjoy my CO team member as wonderful friends, without additional entanglements; hopefully I was a good friend back.

Driving up to Denver, I remember the anguish over the team name, Rocky Mountain High, due to the drug reference, but it seemingly worked as we were high on achievement. I remember one blizzard I drove through, the weather report was very wrong! I also remember the loving support I received on my master’s project and the love I gave back. I remember time spent both working at the Denver team member’s home and then working and playing at another’s out west of Denver.

I remember being called out by one member on sighing while she presented and I remember not being aware enough to use my emotions to look inside, but dropped into a defense. Luckily, I was just aware enough to listen to myself and did acknowledge to this friend later that she was right, I did sigh a lot! I remember encouragements, challenges, skepticisms, and love flowing to me and from me. I also remember thinking we’d never drift apart.

Wow, what a difference ten years makes. As our ten-year reunion illustrated, the journey we all began in October 2003 is still continuing. The person I had become at graduation that July a decade ago, while ten times the person I was when I started USM, had not even reached the “adolescence stage,” as compared to the more authentic person I am now. Thanks to the Colorado group for not only being a part of that journey, but for including this outlier, both geographically and by gender, into their group.

I figured I might only see only one of my team members this weekend, and I was correct; I also hoped I was wrong (although I heard back from all of them!). But I carried each of them in my heart and missed them deeply while enjoying my other USM classmates. I am also mindful of my classmate and friend Chuck, whose birthday was the day before the reunion, I miss him terribly. Susan and two other classmates have also transitioned, Love and Light to you all. I also miss being with all my teammates twice a month. Thinking back on all the fun times and sorrows, tears of gratitude and sorrow abound.

Is it me, or has the media in the country gone to mush? What prompted this question is mainly reading the Houston Chronicle (and a specific editorial cartoon which I will discuss further in this blog), but also seeing other written and visual reports from various outlets.

I am not a news junkie like I was back in my thirties and forties, so my sampling is certainly not extensive, but I find that I am reading and seeing what amounts to news reporting pabulum. This is true whether we are talking the equivalent of front-page news, be it world or local, business, and, even, sports. I cannot figure out if it is apathy or ignorance driving this poor reporting.

I once read that most articles are written at the fifth grade level, but that does not explain the drop in coherent content. When a larger national school bought the graduate school where I was pursuing my doctorate, I was required to retake my third year due to graduation requirements; this entailed taking three on-line courses that were at the Master level.

For those that have not ever taken on-line courses, the students not only posts their own work, but also must read and comment on several other classmate’s work. I was appalled! Maybe that is a bit of an overstatement, but not much. It was not the technical aspects of writing a graduate level paper; many had just entered graduate school (I am sometimes ashamed when re-reading some of my early papers!). Unfortunately, the content, cohesiveness of making a logical argument, and even the grammar would have gotten me an “F” in my undergraduate classes back in the early 70s.

I find these same flaws in most of the articles I read in the Chronicle, and they employ editors to supposedly oversee their reporter’s writing! However, an even worse problem for me is trying to create a problem out of normal practices, which brings us to the editorial cartoon by Walt Handelsman I saw on Friday, 26 February.

The cartoon was titled, “Pick The Most Accurate Portrait of Governor Jindal…” and showed a framed picture of what appeared to be a young Jindal, a second framed picture from a few years ago, and then a third with just the frame, no photograph, and a note saying “Away at campaign event… Good luck at home! –Bobby.” For those of you that may not know, Bobby Jindal is the Republican governor of Louisiana.

Oh, the shock of it all!!! Really, I have never, never I tell you, seen a current governor, national senator or congressional representative spend time away from their job attending presidential campaign events! I cannot even believe that Mr. Handelsman thinks this is news.

And why is this cartoon even in the Houston paper? How does the campaigning of a neighboring state’s governor even have relevance? Further, in researching Mr. Handelsman, I found this cartoon appeared in the New Orleans’s paper on the sixth of February and the Chronicle thought it so funny and so significant that is waited three weeks to run it?

It is bad enough that those of us that still read newspapers have to put up with nothing news, but we also have to stomach these cartoonist’s, reporter’s, and editor’s sophomoric hypocrisy. While I could not find anything from so far back, I wonder if Mr. Handelsman considered a similar cartoon on Massachusetts’s governor Michael Dukakis and New Mexico’s governor Bill Richardson when they ran for president in 1988 and 2008? Granted, neither was from Louisiana, but I wonder if it is just because Mr. Jindal is Republican?

Worst, from seeing a collection of Mr. Handelsman’s cartoon on Mr. Jindal, his hypocrisy is even more flagrant in that he should be happy that Gov. Jindal is out of state where, in Mr. Handelsman’s political universe, Mr. Jindal cannot do any harm to his fellow Louisianans! Oh, the scintillating arguments from Democrats that President Bush spent too many vacations at his ranch and from Republicans that President Obama plays too much golf! Give me a break. Please!

I want to take on another peeve I am still witnessing in the national arena. I am old enough now that this has happened several times in my life and I wonder if others don’t have a functioning memory, are so stupid as to not see history repeating itself, or are simply so egotistical that they don’t think a nonsensical judgement can happen to them. As is usually the case in life, I suspect all three are in play to some extent. The last time this déjà vu happened in politics, it was about four years ago and Mitt Romney was running for president on the Republican side. I am certainly no fan and would not vote for the man, but what struck me as totally asinine were people wondering if he should be elected because he is Mormon? Is the voting public still so bigoted and paranoid about someone who is “different” from them? I thought this argument, at least in the realm of politics, was laid to rest half a century ago.

The presidential election of 1960 was the first election in which I was old enough to be interested. Living in the South where Roman Catholics (I was raised Roman Catholic) were only two steps up from Blacks and Jews, I heard all the OMGs from folks thinking the Pope was going to rule the US through JFK. Conversely, I also had an Aunt that stated she was voting for JFK because he was Catholic. I remember thinking at the time how stupid and myopic both arguments were. I don’t remember thinking the former bigoted, probably because I wasn’t introduced to that idea yet, just stupid. Knowing uncles and other men that were Catholic, even at six I knew they were not the Pope’s lackeys. Reverent and obedient to their faith when practicing their faith, these men (and women) seemed to do their best to live their secular life according to the tenants of their faith, but when it came to the law and life in the United States, they were Americans; I figured JFK would be the same as all the Catholics I knew, even the clergy, were Americans first and Catholic second in their every day affairs.

To even suggest Romney is anything but an American and interested only in bettering America is ludicrous. Further, having known a few Mormons in my life and seeing the love, respect, and drive to succeed they instill in their children, I have to say we could all benefit from learning how they achieve this consistently with all children, regardless of their faith. I would ask those that question how Romney’s religion might play a part in his governance to substitute a few different words into the sentence and see how it sounds. “I’m not sure how good a presidency it will be, remember she’s a woman.” “I’m not sure how good a presidency it will be, remember he’s a Black.” “I’m not sure how good a presidency it will be, remember he’s a cripple.” Geraldine Ferraro, Elizabeth Dole, or Hillary Clinton might not have made good presidents, but I sincerely doubt it would be because of their gender. You might take issue with President Obama, but his successes or failures has nothing to do with his skin color. Likewise, you may think FDR is either a great president or not, but I hardly think his being paraplegic entered into the equation. Isn’t it time we put every form of bigotry behind us and discuss the issues as nonjudgmental adults?

Wow, what a cornucopia of ideas stemming from the Anthony Weiner fallout to blog about! I will start with a short one. Also, I remember the old adage that one should never talk about politics or religion, however this is just too juicy!

I heard the other day that congressional twitter usage was down by almost 25% and that got me to thinking why? There is a very sacrosanct rule in research about never drawing a conclusion from a correlation. The usual example is that red cars are ticketed the most, so don’t buy a red car. Studies have shown that there is nothing, per se, about the color of the car. However, people that like to drive fast seem to also favor red cars. That is the reason red cars are ticketed the most, not just the color. Without interviewing every representative and senator that Tweets, anything postulated is simply conjecture on my part, but moving fast towards my sixth decade and with my career change into psychology, I have found that common sense, past experience, and psychological tenants can offer some generalizations.

Have you ever noticed while driving on a highway, that when people come upon a law enforcement officer doing ten miles below the speed limit, most everyone slows down? Now a percentage might simply be wondering if their speedometer is off and want to play it safe, however, there is a portion that will feel apprehensive or guilty about their usual tendency to speed and over compensate by slowing down also. Those that know their speedometers are basically accurate and tend to obey traffic laws will simply pass the patrol car at the speed limit without any worries.

This leads me to the question of why has congress’ Twitter usage dropped? Further, and unfortunate as far as I am concerned, the majority of the drop off is by Democrats. It seems to me that if the only information these representatives or senators have been Tweeting are normal, job related Tweets, there would be no concern about continued Tweets and, therefore, no drop in the overall amount of Tweets. If, however, someone is concerned about possible inappropriate Tweets they have posted in the past, well …?!? I know, I know, this is painting every congressman that has reduced her or his tweets with a broad brush, but it is worth pondering.

I find it interesting, this call for boycotting that has arisen so often lately; the current focus of punishment is, of course, British Petroleum. In the spirit of full disclosure and credentials, for those that do not know my background, I was in the oil and gas exploration business for 30 years. However, I ran a very small family business that BP, or any other major energy company, could and would squish without even noticing our extinction. So while there is no love loss on my part for a mammoth oil company, I do understand most aspect of the hydrocarbon energy business and I feel I can bring some unbiased thoughts to the situation.

First, I would ask if those of you calling for or actually boycotting BP, have you done any research on whom it will affect, do you know the extent of ramifications, and if, indeed, BP will be hurt? BP has been in the US for over 50 years and is now the biggest producer in the US, having bought out several other companies, but let’s dissect their business.

BP spent over $50 billion in the last 10 years and some would argue that this is just to further their profits. But all that money didn’t just vanish, it ultimately goes to people somewhere down the line. They directly paid salaries for their some 23,000 employees, rented office space and rigs, and purchased oil field and refinery equipment. Indirectly, they paid the salaries of the rig crews and those that built the rigs and refineries, and oil field service and support workers. Further, they paid royalties to federal and state government and to individual property owners, dividends to their stockholders, and some of that money going to pay federal, state, and county taxes.

If the boycott is wildly successful, BP might lose 2% of its global income, but are those at the top really going to see a reduction in their benefit packages? I doubt it. If they are impacted by the boycott, BP may lay off lower level workers, they may rent fewer rigs, and may buy less equipment and supplies. However, I bet they simply cut back on their investment in solar, wind, and bio-fuels, which historically have a lower profit margin. Also, when I hear most people talk about corporations, they seem to think they are an entity unto themselves and their only mission is to make as much money as possible. Legally they are considered a single unit but, notwithstanding what I consider to be obscene salaries at the top, they are owned by regular folks. This is either through direct stock ownership or through market or pension funds. I would bet that investors and pensioners too will lose money before any executive has his or her salary cut.

So how will the boycott manifest and who really gets hurt in a typical boycott these days? About the only way for the public to participate in a boycott will be to stop buying BP’s gasoline. While BP is one of the largest gasoline marketers in the US with almost 12,000 gas stations, do the boycotters know that BP does not actually own any of these stations? They are owned by small entrepreneurs, may of whom are moms and pops that saved up their money to get a piece of the American dream by owning their own business. Ultimately, yes BP does get a few cents on the dollar from every gallon sold, but if a station closes, it is the owners and their 2 – 4 local employees that lose jobs. The state and county loses the taxes no longer paid. Local owners of McDonald, Dominos, and Blockbuster lose business as those out of a job cut back. Hotel owners and others where those now unemployed would have vacationed lose income. Get the picture?

However, I will bet that BP actually does not lose 1¢ in even a “successful” boycott. That is because gasoline supplies remain fairly tight. I find that people are generally very unknowledgeable of almost every aspect of the oil and gas business. If a non-owned BP station closes, corporate BP will simply sell the gasoline that would have been allocated to that station to another company, either through their local distributer or right from the refinery. However, BP wouldn’t probably even have to do that as, unbelievably, there are people boycotting BP stations and, instead, they are buying their gasoline from Amaco and ARCO, both owned by BP!

And this boycott is not really atypical. There was a call to boycott Whole Foods last year after its owner, John Mackey, had, what some deemed, the audacity to propose an alternative to what is now called Obama Care before it was passed. Once again, I found not a single person that knew that Mackey did not receive a salary and hadn’t for many years. So who would have been hurt? Laid off store employees, local distributers, organic farmers, charities, and not-for-profits that Whole Foods support. Wow, talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I understand the impotent feeling the public has over this abominable ecological disaster and the need to strike out. I totally agree that BP needs to be both held accountable and fined, but let’s let President Obama, Congress, state and local governments and regulatory agencies punish BP. If anything, we should be supporting our local BP station owners to help them in this time of recession, not heaping additional torment on them.