The Priest

I love this song by Joni Mitchell. It's one of those songs that's so raw it pierces right through me...longing for the sacred, a priest whose faith moves her, her internal struggles...and at the end her questions and her hope are side-by-side.


The priest sat in the airport bar
He was wearing his father's tie.
And his eyes looked into my eyes so far
Whenever the words ran dry.
Behind the lash and the circles blue
He looked as only a priest can, through--
And his eyes said, "Me," and his eyes said, "You."
And my eyes said, "Let us try."

He said, "You wouldn't like it here,
No it's no place you should share.
The roof is ripped with hurricanes
And the room is always bare.
I need the wind and I seek the cold."
He reached past the wine for my hand to hold.
And he saw me young, and he saw me old,
And he saw me sitting there.

Then he took his contradictions out
And he splashed them on my brow.
So which words was I then to doubt
When choosing what to vow?
Should I choose them all--should I make them mine,
The sermons, the hymns and the valentines?
And he asked for truth and he asked for time,
And he asked for only now.

Now the trials are trumpet scored.
Oh will we pass the test?
Or just as one loves more and more,
Will one love less and less?
Oh come let's run from this ring we're in,
Where the Christians clap and the Germans grin--
Saying, "Let them lose," crying, "Let them win,"
Oh make them both confess.

Shameless family pictures

Top Ten Pieces of Gym Trivia

Let's face it: I spend a lot of time at the gym. That doesn't mean that I'm in better shape, just that I'm slow. Since the most crowded gym month is fast approaching, I thought I'd share a few things I've picked up over the years.

10. Every gym has its Naked Woman In The Locker Room. She is usually over 40, unusually tall, and loves eye contact.

9. Every gym also has its Smelly Man On The Elliptical. Or sometimes the stairmaster. If he's smelly once, he will be smelly again. Nobody wants to make him feel bad, but be aware some odors can carry the distance of five or six ellipticals.

8. Don't be fooled by guest passes. You will be asked for your firstborn child and your car keys, and will only enter after gathering a barrel of honey from your neighborhood beehive.

7. If you notice yourself becoming angry, you are probably watching too much Fox News and CNN.

6. Farting during yoga class: you laugh, you get kicked out. Or so I've heard.

5. Personal trainers are model flirters. My favorite overheard quote: "Pain is temporary. Wedding pictures are forever."

4. Don't worry, everybody has dropped their ipods. Those things are sturdy.

3. Note the men who have perfected the weightlifting swagger. They travel in groups. Don't steal their machines. Also, if the freeweights are scattered all over the room, it's usually their fault.

2. Even at the gym, everybody fights over the closest parking spaces.

1. The best day to go: Super Bowl Sunday. It's way better than even Thanksgiving or Christmas. God Bless America!

She's already famous!

My sister and Coenn are in the Orange County Register today:

http://www.ocregister.com/photos/baby-chairs-nursing-2257355-room-center

I love this article.

"When Emilie was a baby, not yet talking, I was convinced that her deep, dark eyes could read right into my soul. She would stare at me with those eyes, and in my mind I would hear a low, gravelly voice say, 'Mommy, I am very disappointed in you.'

"I was surprised then, when she started to speak, and followed those particularly intense looks with words like 'cookie!'

"But that could just have been a lack of adequate vocabulary."

Client quote of the day:

"Life is gay." --14 year-old girl

I think we should structure mental health like we do medicine: a heirarchy of different levels of education and experience. Those with less education have to be supervised by someone with more. A national board keeps tabs on everyone, and requires us to be meticulous and to stay up-to-date on current research.

Social workers would be like Physician Assistants. We know a lot, but there are, shall we say, gaps in our eduction. Case in point: I'm reading an article on working with Hispanic immigrants in schools, looking for ideas. The article repeats three times: "The school system is presented as a natural support agent that is psychologically, culturally and geographically accessible for the delivery of cuturally competent mental health services."

Social work textbooks LOVE sentences like that. We love lists of broad discriptive words that say almost nothing. We call our assessments "biopsychosocials." Ha! This is as specific as the article gets: "In particular, school-based clinicians must incorporate into their treatment of Hispanic immigrant children an understanding of how multiple socio-environmental factors interact with individual and family dynamics within a specific ethnic-cultural context."

COME ON!

"If I could meet those Buenos Aires taxi drivers again, those Mexican farmers, I would say: 'The United States is a lot like your country. We're going through a rough time. We speak a lot of Spanish. And we're wondering how safe it is to keep our money in the bank.'

"How much deeper will the recession sink us? Can the new regime in Washington rescue us? No one can say.

"Residents of Latin America, generally speaking, have more experience living with that kind of uncertainty.

"There is a Spanish proverb that is resonating in my brain these days. It's a favorite of my mother, who lives in Guatemala, where the people know a thing or two about hard times.

"No hay mal que dure 100 anos, ni enfermo que lo aguante.

"Translation: There is no illness that lasts 100 years, and no sick person who could survive it anyway."

--Hector Tobar, "Coming Home to a New America," LA Times 12/5/08.