Side curses, and clarity
Sandra Dodd
I received commentary on the side that amounts to cursing me, oddly, with an odder “good luck” ending.
When someone participates in a public discussion, it’s not okay to follow someone home and attempt to hurt them in private. The original (now deleted) comment will be preserved with the name removed, and I’ve excised the author’s e-mail, as she has left Always Learning.
(Oh… she insulted the group, too.)
In response to your public ridicule, I bet you probably honestly believe that vaccinations are safe for children ... or that there are really no health problems directly tied to petroleum based products ... I bet you probably also believe that the Susan G Komen foundation is ethical ... or that maybe all that hype about aluminum in deodorant is just that, hype ... or maybe you believe that it's okay for doctors to receive monetary compensation from pharmaceutical companies for keeping people sick.
Some day, you will hear the small voice and you will awaken ... and it will be all at once ... and you will never know that you were once so very close-minded in your control over such a small group of people focused upon being Victims rather than self-empowerment. And some day in the not-too-far-off future, you will experience a huge number of health challenges and your public ridicule of another human being will surface from your memory banks as a gentle reminder that close-minded perspectives are not ones to be freely shared with under-educated and under-informed people.
Good luck Sandra ... I wish for you a healthy path that is not so focused on you, but rather on sharing the ever-evolving perspectives of others.
From: "Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning]" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, June 4, 2016 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] Re: finding balance regarding dental care
From: Caryn Stockwell <bikerchick...>
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] Re: finding balance regarding dental care
Date: June 4, 2016 at 10:05:53 PM MDT
To: "Sandra@..." <Sandra@...>
Reply-To: Caryn Stockwell <bikerchick….>
It's really unfortunate that you are so very stuck in an old paradigm that your mind is closed to anything outside of your very small box. I've deleted my comment and I've left your group. I follow my intuition as to unschooling my children ... and I don't really need my email inbox filled to over capacity with a few hundred daily posts from folks whose egos are so very loud that they cannot hear the small voice of intuition telling them the direction to go.
In response to your public ridicule, I bet you probably honestly believe that vaccinations are safe for children ... or that there are really no health problems directly tied to petroleum based products ... I bet you probably also believe that the Susan G Komen foundation is ethical ... or that maybe all that hype about aluminum in deodorant is just that, hype ... or maybe you believe that it's okay for doctors to receive monetary compensation from pharmaceutical companies for keeping people sick.
Some day, you will hear the small voice and you will awaken ... and it will be all at once ... and you will never know that you were once so very close-minded in your control over such a small group of people focused upon being Victims rather than self-empowerment. And some day in the not-too-far-off future, you will experience a huge number of health challenges and your public ridicule of another human being will surface from your memory banks as a gentle reminder that close-minded perspectives are not ones to be freely shared with under-educated and under-informed people.
Good luck Sandra ... I wish for you a healthy path that is not so focused on you, but rather on sharing the ever-evolving perspectives of others.
From: "Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning]" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, June 4, 2016 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] Re: finding balance regarding dental care
I let the long post through from Caryn Stockwell bikerchick even though some of it isn’t great unschooling advice.
Dental treament is likely screwy. Everyone who is in business is in business to make money. So politicizing it and demonizing dentists isn’t going to help a single human anywhere in the world. But because dental theories do change, I don’t mind some other ideas being out there.
Please, anyone, everyone, don’t believe anything you’ve only read once, especially in a forum like this, or on facebook. In all my life I’ve never seen as big a flood of falsehood and nonsense as I’ve seen in 2016 so far. The second worst was 2015. Next year should be worse.
BE CAREFUL what you get excited about or fearful of. Be thoughtful.
Read a little. Try a little. Wait a while. Watch. Not just about unschooling.
-=- Current dental practices actually end up destroying the remaining tooth and underlying bone structures, creating further damage to the human body and causing an eventual loss of all teeth-=-
This is incorrect, as to eventual loss of all teeth. For people born in the 1920s (in the U.S.) LOTS and lots lost so many teeth that dentists pulled the remaining teeth and created full dentures. VERY few people born in the 1950’s and 60’s have full dentures, compared to their parents and grandparents. For millenials, it’s plainly too soon to know. Beliefs WILL change again, and then change again. So don’t be duped by any extremists, and don’t believe everything you read.
-=-The majority of dentists are not working to heal teeth or educate the public on oral care, they are in business to make money.-=-
Quite damning of people who learned a trade and got a job and have families to support. “In business to make money” seems so cold and evil, there.
-=-Use toothbrushes with soft bristles made from activated charcoal, bamboo bristles (available on Amazon) ... these are much gentler on teeth and will not erode the enamel from the tooth surfaces like conventional bristles will. If you must use toothpaste, switch to one that is 100% natural with ingredients that are beneficial to the human body ... Twin Lotus makes a good one with activated charcoal (also on Amazon). -=-
Those are not “in business to make money”? Is Twin Lotus not a corporation? If they discover that their product isn’t as great as they’re advertising, will they send money back all over the world and apologize, or won’t they dodge and weave to defend the company from loss?
My strongly held belief about most things is that no one knows for sure, knowledge grows and changes, but that stress and fear are always harmful.
People live when they live. If they need medical treatment, when and where they live will determine what might be happening to them. Nobody lives in the future. I doubt there will be a future in which humans know everything perfectly. So far that hasn’t happened, and what’s recommended in one country isn’t the same as across an imaginary line. So ANY freak-out or self-righteous fright will hurt more than help.
Avoid buying into other people’s fright or assuredness or sales pitches.
Check other sources, calmly, Know that it will all change by the time your children are grown.
Sandra
Dental treament is likely screwy. Everyone who is in business is in business to make money. So politicizing it and demonizing dentists isn’t going to help a single human anywhere in the world. But because dental theories do change, I don’t mind some other ideas being out there.
Please, anyone, everyone, don’t believe anything you’ve only read once, especially in a forum like this, or on facebook. In all my life I’ve never seen as big a flood of falsehood and nonsense as I’ve seen in 2016 so far. The second worst was 2015. Next year should be worse.
BE CAREFUL what you get excited about or fearful of. Be thoughtful.
Read a little. Try a little. Wait a while. Watch. Not just about unschooling.
-=- Current dental practices actually end up destroying the remaining tooth and underlying bone structures, creating further damage to the human body and causing an eventual loss of all teeth-=-
This is incorrect, as to eventual loss of all teeth. For people born in the 1920s (in the U.S.) LOTS and lots lost so many teeth that dentists pulled the remaining teeth and created full dentures. VERY few people born in the 1950’s and 60’s have full dentures, compared to their parents and grandparents. For millenials, it’s plainly too soon to know. Beliefs WILL change again, and then change again. So don’t be duped by any extremists, and don’t believe everything you read.
-=-The majority of dentists are not working to heal teeth or educate the public on oral care, they are in business to make money.-=-
Quite damning of people who learned a trade and got a job and have families to support. “In business to make money” seems so cold and evil, there.
-=-Use toothbrushes with soft bristles made from activated charcoal, bamboo bristles (available on Amazon) ... these are much gentler on teeth and will not erode the enamel from the tooth surfaces like conventional bristles will. If you must use toothpaste, switch to one that is 100% natural with ingredients that are beneficial to the human body ... Twin Lotus makes a good one with activated charcoal (also on Amazon). -=-
Those are not “in business to make money”? Is Twin Lotus not a corporation? If they discover that their product isn’t as great as they’re advertising, will they send money back all over the world and apologize, or won’t they dodge and weave to defend the company from loss?
My strongly held belief about most things is that no one knows for sure, knowledge grows and changes, but that stress and fear are always harmful.
People live when they live. If they need medical treatment, when and where they live will determine what might be happening to them. Nobody lives in the future. I doubt there will be a future in which humans know everything perfectly. So far that hasn’t happened, and what’s recommended in one country isn’t the same as across an imaginary line. So ANY freak-out or self-righteous fright will hurt more than help.
Avoid buying into other people’s fright or assuredness or sales pitches.
Check other sources, calmly, Know that it will all change by the time your children are grown.
Sandra
Alex & Brian Polikowsky
All the fear and anger in this email makes me wonder how can one unschool well.
Conspiracy theories, fear mongering , government and doctors keeping you sick!
Aigoo!!!!! I rather life happily in this world providing my kids peace and stability and not a life surrounded by big bad wolves out to eat you!
Alex Polikowsky.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 5, 2016, at 11:15 AM, Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning] <[email protected]> wrote:
I received commentary on the side that amounts to cursing me, oddly, with an odder “good luck” ending.When someone participates in a public discussion, it’s not okay to follow someone home and attempt to hurt them in private. The original (now deleted) comment will be preserved with the name removed, and I’ve excised the author’s e-mail, as she has left Always Learning.(Oh… she insulted the group, too.)From: Caryn Stockwell <bikerchick...>Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] Re: finding balance regarding dental careDate: June 4, 2016 at 10:05:53 PM MDTTo: "Sandra@..." <Sandra@...>Reply-To: Caryn Stockwell <bikerchick….>It's really unfortunate that you are so very stuck in an old paradigm that your mind is closed to anything outside of your very small box. I've deleted my comment and I've left your group. I follow my intuition as to unschooling my children ... and I don't really need my email inbox filled to over capacity with a few hundred daily posts from folks whose egos are so very loud that they cannot hear the small voice of intuition telling them the direction to go.
In response to your public ridicule, I bet you probably honestly believe that vaccinations are safe for children ... or that there are really no health problems directly tied to petroleum based products ... I bet you probably also believe that the Susan G Komen foundation is ethical ... or that maybe all that hype about aluminum in deodorant is just that, hype ... or maybe you believe that it's okay for doctors to receive monetary compensation from pharmaceutical companies for keeping people sick.
Some day, you will hear the small voice and you will awaken ... and it will be all at once ... and you will never know that you were once so very close-minded in your control over such a small group of people focused upon being Victims rather than self-empowerment. And some day in the not-too-far-off future, you will experience a huge number of health challenges and your public ridicule of another human being will surface from your memory banks as a gentle reminder that close-minded perspectives are not ones to be freely shared with under-educated and under-informed people.
Good luck Sandra ... I wish for you a healthy path that is not so focused on you, but rather on sharing the ever-evolving perspectives of others.
From: "Sandra Dodd Sandra@... [AlwaysLearning]" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, June 4, 2016 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] Re: finding balance regarding dental care
I let the long post through from Caryn Stockwell bikerchick even though some of it isn’t great unschooling advice.
Dental treament is likely screwy. Everyone who is in business is in business to make money. So politicizing it and demonizing dentists isn’t going to help a single human anywhere in the world. But because dental theories do change, I don’t mind some other ideas being out there.
Please, anyone, everyone, don’t believe anything you’ve only read once, especially in a forum like this, or on facebook. In all my life I’ve never seen as big a flood of falsehood and nonsense as I’ve seen in 2016 so far. The second worst was 2015. Next year should be worse.
BE CAREFUL what you get excited about or fearful of. Be thoughtful.
Read a little. Try a little. Wait a while. Watch. Not just about unschooling.
-=- Current dental practices actually end up destroying the remaining tooth and underlying bone structures, creating further damage to the human body and causing an eventual loss of all teeth-=-
This is incorrect, as to eventual loss of all teeth. For people born in the 1920s (in the U.S.) LOTS and lots lost so many teeth that dentists pulled the remaining teeth and created full dentures. VERY few people born in the 1950’s and 60’s have full dentures, compared to their parents and grandparents. For millenials, it’s plainly too soon to know. Beliefs WILL change again, and then change again. So don’t be duped by any extremists, and don’t believe everything you read.
-=-The majority of dentists are not working to heal teeth or educate the public on oral care, they are in business to make money.-=-
Quite damning of people who learned a trade and got a job and have families to support. “In business to make money” seems so cold and evil, there.
-=-Use toothbrushes with soft bristles made from activated charcoal, bamboo bristles (available on Amazon) ... these are much gentler on teeth and will not erode the enamel from the tooth surfaces like conventional bristles will. If you must use toothpaste, switch to one that is 100% natural with ingredients that are beneficial to the human body ... Twin Lotus makes a good one with activated charcoal (also on Amazon). -=-
Those are not “in business to make money”? Is Twin Lotus not a corporation? If they discover that their product isn’t as great as they’re advertising, will they send money back all over the world and apologize, or won’t they dodge and weave to defend the company from loss?
My strongly held belief about most things is that no one knows for sure, knowledge grows and changes, but that stress and fear are always harmful.
People live when they live. If they need medical treatment, when and where they live will determine what might be happening to them. Nobody lives in the future. I doubt there will be a future in which humans know everything perfectly. So far that hasn’t happened, and what’s recommended in one country isn’t the same as across an imaginary line. So ANY freak-out or self-righteous fright will hurt more than help.
Avoid buying into other people’s fright or assuredness or sales pitches.
Check other sources, calmly, Know that it will all change by the time your children are grown.
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
When deciding what sources to consider, I think of the integrity of the book / magazine / website, and the intentions of the writer. Credibility (believability, trustworthiness) matters, to me. Some people are more careful and thoughtful than others. Some are writing to make money, or to create shock value to get hits to profit from advertising. Some assume that being strident or negative will impress the group they’ve chosen to address.
But for unschooling discussions, what I look for is evidence of thoughtfulness and sincerity, and the intention to help people think and see things in ways that will help them unschool better, more happily, more confidently.
For the record, I suppose, and for anyone who wonders, I’m going to respond to accusations made in the side message I received. Anyone who doesn’t care or is busy should feel light and free about skipping the rest of this.
________________________________________
-=-It's really unfortunate that you are so very stuck in an old paradigm that your mind is closed to anything outside of your very small box. -=-
I don’t think my mind is very tightly boxed in. I don’t think Im so very stuck in an old paradigm, either. But it made someone feel better to think so and to say so.
-=- I follow my intuition as to unschooling my children ... and I don't really need my email inbox filled to over capacity with a few hundred daily posts from folks whose egos are so very loud that they cannot hear the small voice of intuition telling them the direction to go.-=-
Two things…
Intuition doesn’t come from reading alarmist books and articles, does it?
Second, it’s been a very long time since I got a hundred e-mails in a single day. It’s been a while since Always Learning created any heavy traffic, hasn’t it? At the bottom of this page you can see how many posts were made, by month, since 2001:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/AlwaysLearning/info
Some months (none lately) it was over 1,000 in a month, and so in those months perhaps there was one hot topic that garnered 80 in a day, maybe. If so, the other days would’ve averaged 30 a day. But generally, this discussion group is high quality and low quantity. This will be the 22 or 23rd post in the past five days, I think.
-=-In response to your public ridicule, I bet you probably honestly believe that vaccinations are safe for children ... or that there are really no health problems directly tied to petroleum based products ... I bet you probably also believe that the Susan G Komen foundation is ethical ... or that maybe all that hype about aluminum in deodorant is just that, hype ... or maybe you believe that it's okay for doctors to receive monetary compensation from pharmaceutical companies for keeping people sick.-=-
So there seems to be a set of things that one must reject wholly to prove one is listening to her own intuition. If someone questions whether a toothpaste from Thailand is also made by a corporation, then she must think that the Susan G Komen foundation is ethical. But WHY would one “bet” that I believe a series of things, based on my reminder that anyone and everyone should check more than one source before freaking out about something?
So… before I get to the actual curses, I will reveal what I believe or have done regarding those (lost) bets.
Vaccinations: Kirby got some, Marty got few, Holly got nearly none. As an adult she had a reaction to a drug (this is her belief) that looked a lot like measles (which is what I and the older doctor think she had). The younger doctor tested her, she was quarantined for nearly a week, which caused her to miss work, and the lab declared it not to be measles. Holly, as the adult she was, decided to get a measles/mumps/rubella vaccine. I know some anti-vaccine stories. I WAS one. I was not never given a smallpox booster because of a bad reaction to the original polio shot I received when I was five. When the oral polio vaccine was offered freely to everyone, my parents were happy to take our family for the three-dose series (drops on sugar cubes, given in paper medicine cups, on a series of Saturdays) because they had both had relatives and friends who had contracted polio, and didn’t want their children to suffer that. No bad reactions in our family, nor in our town, that I know of.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Petroleum based products:
Paraffin?
Vaseline? Vicks?
Mosquito repellant?
Plastic?
Nylon or polyester?
Kerosene and gasoline?
Earthquakes in Oklahoma…. that’s a problem. Sinkholes, but that can happen even from pumping too much water from underground.
My grandfather had a block of tar he used to cut little pieces off of and chew, to clean his teeth. That kind of brings us full circle. But he also had a possum cage where he would fatten a caught possum and eat it, and he ate crawdads, so clearly there’s probably a LONG list of stupid things he believed that could be extrapolated from that.
Yes, there are problems from petroleum products. If I believe that some are harmful, must I run in screaming fright from ALL of them?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Deoderant with aluminum:
My best friend in elementary school had a father who was a doctor. He told us to avoid anti-perspirants, because blocking sweat isn’t healthy and toxins will be trapped. That was 1966. I passed information on to my children—not saying that it would kill them to use it occasionally, but that it would be good to take more showers and use less deoderant of ANY kind, in general. I use anti-perspirants before getting on airplanes or speaking at conferences, usually. Stress and close-quarters… and then I take a relaxing shower and I don’t freak out. At home, I haven’t used deoderant routinely ever.
Interestingly, lately there is news about the genetic differences in groups, and some groups that have said other kinds of people had more body odor were absolutely right! But their reasons were wrong. :-) (If someone has a link to one of those articles, or there was a YouTube video, or some of the research links, please respond with that, if you feel like it.) The vaguest summary is that people with the very most underarm sweat pores of the sort that cause body odor are in Africa, the least in Asia, and Koreans have few to none. The Japanese have more than the Koreans, but they’ve said for decades that Westerners stink because of…. [cheese, milk, meat, whatever] and it turns out those reasons are not valid, though in the 1970’s part of the justification for becoming vegetarian was to avoid the body odor that Japanese could smell on meat eaters. It was one of thousands of beliefs that have been discredited during my lifetime, though I was assured at one time that it was obvious TRUTH.
As to breathing aluminum and it going into the brain and causing Alzheimers, that was a big fear at one time, and I stopped using aluminum cookware when there was suspicion that it could contribute to Alzheimers to ingest aluminum. That fear has faded, among researchers, but Iike stainless steel better anyway. There are problems with other metals, and always have been, in various ways. But many of our ancestors were poisoning themselves with pewter and with lead-glazed pottery, so knowledge evolves, and we find new ways to endanger ourselves.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
-=-I bet you probably also believe that the Susan G Komen foundation is ethical …-=-
No knowledge, no contact, don’t know, don’t care.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
-=-or maybe you believe that it's okay for doctors to receive monetary compensation from pharmaceutical companies for keeping people sick-=-
I’ve never smoked cigarettes, and I’ve read stories of cover-ups there. If there are pharmaceutical companies paying doctors not to help people know how to be well, that’s not okay. If what is meant by that is that there are doctors who prescribe medicines that are known to have harmful side effects… I think that has gone on since doctors were making their own medicines—knowing that sometimes the strength of a treatment can have adverse effects. But as to major conspiracy theories, I don’t follow those trails because of the adverse effect of negativity on my own life. My husband and I both read all the fine print on any prescriptions we get, and have rejected advice up front, or opted to take less of, or none of, a prescribed medication when it seems of questionable benefit.
There are laws that require the directors of corporations to act in the interest of the stock holders of the corporations. I didn’t make those laws, but if you want to blame doctors who work for large HMOs or hospitals (which are, I think, corporations, perhaps with stock holders), it might be enlightening to look at the laws on misfeasance.
____________
Now to the curses.
___________________________________
Some day, you will hear the small voice and you will awaken ... and it will be all at once ... and you will never know that you were once so very close-minded in your control over such a small group of people focused upon being Victims rather than self-empowerment. And some day in the not-too-far-off future, you will experience a huge number of health challenges and your public ridicule of another human being will surface from your memory banks as a gentle reminder that close-minded perspectives are not ones to be freely shared with under-educated and under-informed people.
Good luck Sandra ... I wish for you a healthy path that is not so focused on you, but rather on sharing the ever-evolving perspectives of others.
__________________________________
All at once I will awaken and not remember how I was before?
But wait… The next curse says I will lose my health and then remember that I ridiculed another human.
People should get their curses straight.
So I am accused of controlling a small group of people who are focused on being Victims rather than self-empowerment…
AND I was freely sharing close-minded perspectives with under-educated and under-informed people?
The unschoolers who read and discuss at Always Learning are NOT under-educated victims. No one has been made to join this group and no one has been prevented from leaving this. There has never been any attempt to ask people to ONLY read here an nowhere else. Most posts have links outside. My site is full of links outside itself. Anyone with internet access can get to more information than they can ever read, which is why I say (and said again yesterday):
Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch.
NOT read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read.
And the “try a little, wait a while, watch” is going to involve direct personal experience, which will surely involve some intuition.
______________________________
The final “good luck” is another insult:
-=-Good luck Sandra ... I wish for you a healthy path that is not so focused on you, but rather on sharing the ever-evolving perspectives of others.-=-
Instead of focusing on what I know about radical unschooling, I should instead focus on sharing the ever-evolving perspectives of others? I have no obligation to share anything with anyone —not my own knowledge or experience or collections of ideas, nor anyone else’s. But I DO share the perspectives of others.
http://sandradodd.com/othervoices
And I DO get excited when perspectives evolve.
http://sandradodd.com/change/ (Thoughts on Changing)
http://sandradodd.com/change.html (How Unschooling Changes People)
http://sandradodd.com/gettingit (Unschooling: Getting It)
Years ago, when Ren Allen’s opinion of TV changed, she encouraged me to document it!
http://sandradodd.com/t/debate
Because I’ve chosen to collect and share ideas about unschooling, I have zero interest in nor obligation to provide a forum for conspiracy theories and fear-spreading about topics that aren’t directly about unschooling anyway.
Sandra
But for unschooling discussions, what I look for is evidence of thoughtfulness and sincerity, and the intention to help people think and see things in ways that will help them unschool better, more happily, more confidently.
For the record, I suppose, and for anyone who wonders, I’m going to respond to accusations made in the side message I received. Anyone who doesn’t care or is busy should feel light and free about skipping the rest of this.
________________________________________
-=-It's really unfortunate that you are so very stuck in an old paradigm that your mind is closed to anything outside of your very small box. -=-
I don’t think my mind is very tightly boxed in. I don’t think Im so very stuck in an old paradigm, either. But it made someone feel better to think so and to say so.
-=- I follow my intuition as to unschooling my children ... and I don't really need my email inbox filled to over capacity with a few hundred daily posts from folks whose egos are so very loud that they cannot hear the small voice of intuition telling them the direction to go.-=-
Two things…
Intuition doesn’t come from reading alarmist books and articles, does it?
Second, it’s been a very long time since I got a hundred e-mails in a single day. It’s been a while since Always Learning created any heavy traffic, hasn’t it? At the bottom of this page you can see how many posts were made, by month, since 2001:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/AlwaysLearning/info
Some months (none lately) it was over 1,000 in a month, and so in those months perhaps there was one hot topic that garnered 80 in a day, maybe. If so, the other days would’ve averaged 30 a day. But generally, this discussion group is high quality and low quantity. This will be the 22 or 23rd post in the past five days, I think.
-=-In response to your public ridicule, I bet you probably honestly believe that vaccinations are safe for children ... or that there are really no health problems directly tied to petroleum based products ... I bet you probably also believe that the Susan G Komen foundation is ethical ... or that maybe all that hype about aluminum in deodorant is just that, hype ... or maybe you believe that it's okay for doctors to receive monetary compensation from pharmaceutical companies for keeping people sick.-=-
So there seems to be a set of things that one must reject wholly to prove one is listening to her own intuition. If someone questions whether a toothpaste from Thailand is also made by a corporation, then she must think that the Susan G Komen foundation is ethical. But WHY would one “bet” that I believe a series of things, based on my reminder that anyone and everyone should check more than one source before freaking out about something?
So… before I get to the actual curses, I will reveal what I believe or have done regarding those (lost) bets.
Vaccinations: Kirby got some, Marty got few, Holly got nearly none. As an adult she had a reaction to a drug (this is her belief) that looked a lot like measles (which is what I and the older doctor think she had). The younger doctor tested her, she was quarantined for nearly a week, which caused her to miss work, and the lab declared it not to be measles. Holly, as the adult she was, decided to get a measles/mumps/rubella vaccine. I know some anti-vaccine stories. I WAS one. I was not never given a smallpox booster because of a bad reaction to the original polio shot I received when I was five. When the oral polio vaccine was offered freely to everyone, my parents were happy to take our family for the three-dose series (drops on sugar cubes, given in paper medicine cups, on a series of Saturdays) because they had both had relatives and friends who had contracted polio, and didn’t want their children to suffer that. No bad reactions in our family, nor in our town, that I know of.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Petroleum based products:
Paraffin?
Vaseline? Vicks?
Mosquito repellant?
Plastic?
Nylon or polyester?
Kerosene and gasoline?
Earthquakes in Oklahoma…. that’s a problem. Sinkholes, but that can happen even from pumping too much water from underground.
My grandfather had a block of tar he used to cut little pieces off of and chew, to clean his teeth. That kind of brings us full circle. But he also had a possum cage where he would fatten a caught possum and eat it, and he ate crawdads, so clearly there’s probably a LONG list of stupid things he believed that could be extrapolated from that.
Yes, there are problems from petroleum products. If I believe that some are harmful, must I run in screaming fright from ALL of them?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Deoderant with aluminum:
My best friend in elementary school had a father who was a doctor. He told us to avoid anti-perspirants, because blocking sweat isn’t healthy and toxins will be trapped. That was 1966. I passed information on to my children—not saying that it would kill them to use it occasionally, but that it would be good to take more showers and use less deoderant of ANY kind, in general. I use anti-perspirants before getting on airplanes or speaking at conferences, usually. Stress and close-quarters… and then I take a relaxing shower and I don’t freak out. At home, I haven’t used deoderant routinely ever.
Interestingly, lately there is news about the genetic differences in groups, and some groups that have said other kinds of people had more body odor were absolutely right! But their reasons were wrong. :-) (If someone has a link to one of those articles, or there was a YouTube video, or some of the research links, please respond with that, if you feel like it.) The vaguest summary is that people with the very most underarm sweat pores of the sort that cause body odor are in Africa, the least in Asia, and Koreans have few to none. The Japanese have more than the Koreans, but they’ve said for decades that Westerners stink because of…. [cheese, milk, meat, whatever] and it turns out those reasons are not valid, though in the 1970’s part of the justification for becoming vegetarian was to avoid the body odor that Japanese could smell on meat eaters. It was one of thousands of beliefs that have been discredited during my lifetime, though I was assured at one time that it was obvious TRUTH.
As to breathing aluminum and it going into the brain and causing Alzheimers, that was a big fear at one time, and I stopped using aluminum cookware when there was suspicion that it could contribute to Alzheimers to ingest aluminum. That fear has faded, among researchers, but Iike stainless steel better anyway. There are problems with other metals, and always have been, in various ways. But many of our ancestors were poisoning themselves with pewter and with lead-glazed pottery, so knowledge evolves, and we find new ways to endanger ourselves.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
-=-I bet you probably also believe that the Susan G Komen foundation is ethical …-=-
No knowledge, no contact, don’t know, don’t care.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
-=-or maybe you believe that it's okay for doctors to receive monetary compensation from pharmaceutical companies for keeping people sick-=-
I’ve never smoked cigarettes, and I’ve read stories of cover-ups there. If there are pharmaceutical companies paying doctors not to help people know how to be well, that’s not okay. If what is meant by that is that there are doctors who prescribe medicines that are known to have harmful side effects… I think that has gone on since doctors were making their own medicines—knowing that sometimes the strength of a treatment can have adverse effects. But as to major conspiracy theories, I don’t follow those trails because of the adverse effect of negativity on my own life. My husband and I both read all the fine print on any prescriptions we get, and have rejected advice up front, or opted to take less of, or none of, a prescribed medication when it seems of questionable benefit.
There are laws that require the directors of corporations to act in the interest of the stock holders of the corporations. I didn’t make those laws, but if you want to blame doctors who work for large HMOs or hospitals (which are, I think, corporations, perhaps with stock holders), it might be enlightening to look at the laws on misfeasance.
____________
Now to the curses.
___________________________________
Some day, you will hear the small voice and you will awaken ... and it will be all at once ... and you will never know that you were once so very close-minded in your control over such a small group of people focused upon being Victims rather than self-empowerment. And some day in the not-too-far-off future, you will experience a huge number of health challenges and your public ridicule of another human being will surface from your memory banks as a gentle reminder that close-minded perspectives are not ones to be freely shared with under-educated and under-informed people.
Good luck Sandra ... I wish for you a healthy path that is not so focused on you, but rather on sharing the ever-evolving perspectives of others.
__________________________________
All at once I will awaken and not remember how I was before?
But wait… The next curse says I will lose my health and then remember that I ridiculed another human.
People should get their curses straight.
So I am accused of controlling a small group of people who are focused on being Victims rather than self-empowerment…
AND I was freely sharing close-minded perspectives with under-educated and under-informed people?
The unschoolers who read and discuss at Always Learning are NOT under-educated victims. No one has been made to join this group and no one has been prevented from leaving this. There has never been any attempt to ask people to ONLY read here an nowhere else. Most posts have links outside. My site is full of links outside itself. Anyone with internet access can get to more information than they can ever read, which is why I say (and said again yesterday):
Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch.
NOT read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read.
And the “try a little, wait a while, watch” is going to involve direct personal experience, which will surely involve some intuition.
______________________________
The final “good luck” is another insult:
-=-Good luck Sandra ... I wish for you a healthy path that is not so focused on you, but rather on sharing the ever-evolving perspectives of others.-=-
Instead of focusing on what I know about radical unschooling, I should instead focus on sharing the ever-evolving perspectives of others? I have no obligation to share anything with anyone —not my own knowledge or experience or collections of ideas, nor anyone else’s. But I DO share the perspectives of others.
http://sandradodd.com/othervoices
And I DO get excited when perspectives evolve.
http://sandradodd.com/change/ (Thoughts on Changing)
http://sandradodd.com/change.html (How Unschooling Changes People)
http://sandradodd.com/gettingit (Unschooling: Getting It)
Years ago, when Ren Allen’s opinion of TV changed, she encouraged me to document it!
http://sandradodd.com/t/debate
Because I’ve chosen to collect and share ideas about unschooling, I have zero interest in nor obligation to provide a forum for conspiracy theories and fear-spreading about topics that aren’t directly about unschooling anyway.
Sandra
Sandra Dodd
Another kind of changing perspective I collect is comments on the benefits of having read here, or other places (sometimes they’re specified). http://sandradodd.com/feedback/
The last three I added are these. One was last week.
________________________________
Sandra, I'm still learning growing and deschooling, but something has clicked, or melted away, actually, in the past year and I just wanted to thank you. Thank you for saving my relationship with my children. I feel happiness and lightness where there was once dread. Thank you so much.
__________________
Your work has changed my life in countless ways and, most importantly, it is improving the childhood my daughters will have to build their lives upon.
__________________
My family is happier together than I ever dared to dream – and so much of that has to do with the trailblazing you’ve done and the words you’ve written. Thanks again for having such an impact on my family.
___________
Those make up for an occasional curse. The BEST curse I ever was sent was better constructed than the new ones. It was:
"You are closed minded and I truly hope karma smites you and yours.”
Such a misuse of the concept of karma. So much wished-for smiting of my innocent children and husband.
When someone wishes another person will be sick or smitten, I don’t think there’s a religion or philosophy out there that doesn’t suggest the harm (if any) will come upon the curser and not the cursee. But I never wished them ill. I wishes for them to be calmer, less negative, more helpful to other unschoolers.
You can read the karma-smiting curse in its context here, second item:
http://sandradodd.com/feedback/rude
Sandra
The last three I added are these. One was last week.
________________________________
Sandra, I'm still learning growing and deschooling, but something has clicked, or melted away, actually, in the past year and I just wanted to thank you. Thank you for saving my relationship with my children. I feel happiness and lightness where there was once dread. Thank you so much.
__________________
Your work has changed my life in countless ways and, most importantly, it is improving the childhood my daughters will have to build their lives upon.
__________________
My family is happier together than I ever dared to dream – and so much of that has to do with the trailblazing you’ve done and the words you’ve written. Thanks again for having such an impact on my family.
___________
Those make up for an occasional curse. The BEST curse I ever was sent was better constructed than the new ones. It was:
"You are closed minded and I truly hope karma smites you and yours.”
Such a misuse of the concept of karma. So much wished-for smiting of my innocent children and husband.
When someone wishes another person will be sick or smitten, I don’t think there’s a religion or philosophy out there that doesn’t suggest the harm (if any) will come upon the curser and not the cursee. But I never wished them ill. I wishes for them to be calmer, less negative, more helpful to other unschoolers.
You can read the karma-smiting curse in its context here, second item:
http://sandradodd.com/feedback/rude
Sandra
Deb Lewis
***you were once so very close-minded in your control over such a small
group of people focused upon being Victims***
If you believe doctors and scientists and dentists and toothbrushes and
Vaseline and deodorant are out to get you, who is focused on being a victim?
***Please, anyone, everyone, don’t believe anything you’ve only read once,
especially in a forum like this, or on facebook.***
And don't mistake feeding your fear with becoming informed, or "awakening."
Don't *only* read the things you agree with, or that thrill you... the
"proof" that the boogie man is hiding in your toothpaste, or your armpit.
Read arguments counter to what you believe. Listen to people who have ideas
different from your own. I know that's not popular right now. Value evidence
over confirmation. That's the way you can have some certainty that what you
think you know might be true.
***My strongly held belief about most things is that no one knows for sure,
knowledge grows and changes, but that stress and fear are always harmful.***
That's so brilliant it should be here twice.
Deb Lewis
group of people focused upon being Victims***
If you believe doctors and scientists and dentists and toothbrushes and
Vaseline and deodorant are out to get you, who is focused on being a victim?
***Please, anyone, everyone, don’t believe anything you’ve only read once,
especially in a forum like this, or on facebook.***
And don't mistake feeding your fear with becoming informed, or "awakening."
Don't *only* read the things you agree with, or that thrill you... the
"proof" that the boogie man is hiding in your toothpaste, or your armpit.
Read arguments counter to what you believe. Listen to people who have ideas
different from your own. I know that's not popular right now. Value evidence
over confirmation. That's the way you can have some certainty that what you
think you know might be true.
***My strongly held belief about most things is that no one knows for sure,
knowledge grows and changes, but that stress and fear are always harmful.***
That's so brilliant it should be here twice.
Deb Lewis
Sandra Dodd
First me, then Deb Lewis:
***My strongly held belief about most things is that no one knows for sure,
knowledge grows and changes, but that stress and fear are always harmful.***
That's so brilliant it should be here twice.
_____________________
If Deb likes it, it must be good. :-)
I’ll use it for Just Add light and stir tomorrow.
The photo from today’s is really pretty. The last several photos have been good matches for the quotes.
http://justaddlightandstir.blogspot.com/2016/06/mindfully-and-deliberately.html
Robyn Coburn words, Celeste Burke photo
http://justaddlightandstir.blogspot.com/2016/06/thoughts.html
Jennie Gomes photo (my words)
http://justaddlightandstir.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-easy-way.html
my words, Abby Davis photo of a sword in a haybale, which I’m glad I came across easily when I was looking for something to match “take the easy way!”
Sandra
***My strongly held belief about most things is that no one knows for sure,
knowledge grows and changes, but that stress and fear are always harmful.***
That's so brilliant it should be here twice.
_____________________
If Deb likes it, it must be good. :-)
I’ll use it for Just Add light and stir tomorrow.
The photo from today’s is really pretty. The last several photos have been good matches for the quotes.
http://justaddlightandstir.blogspot.com/2016/06/mindfully-and-deliberately.html
Robyn Coburn words, Celeste Burke photo
http://justaddlightandstir.blogspot.com/2016/06/thoughts.html
Jennie Gomes photo (my words)
http://justaddlightandstir.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-easy-way.html
my words, Abby Davis photo of a sword in a haybale, which I’m glad I came across easily when I was looking for something to match “take the easy way!”
Sandra