The Further Adventures of Deluzy

Pope Meets Privately With Abuse Victims

Link: After Mass, Pope Meets Privately With Abuse Victims - New York Times.

Don't ask me why, but I was interviewed on campus yesterday on the topic of the Pope's visit to the U.S. and his handling of the Church's problem with pedophilia. It's not like I'm a Religious Studies professor after all, but they still interviewed me.  My response was, to say the least, tart (I'm not real enthusiastic about how the Church has dealt [or rather, not dealt] with this issue, institutionally or individually, for the past many hundreds of years!).

And I'm not a fan of Ratzinger's, I have to say.  Way too ecclesiastically and politically conservative for my taste.

But as Benedict XVI, he gets a few kudos from me for meeting with token abuse survivors and looking them in the eye. It's more than any other Pope has done, after all.  Mind you, the apology is a tad overdue (like, hundreds of years -- um, didn't it take a few centuries for the Church to apologize for being so shitty to Galileo about a different issue? Kind of slow on the uptake, the Catholic Church ...)

Now, of course, the Church excels at ceremony and spectacle, and it's frickin' institutionalized confession and penance. Having apologized for the sins of his Church (and most sincerely, I suspect), what exactly is Benedict XVI prepared to do about it? That's what I want to know.

As a lapsed Catholic, I'm just putting that question out there.

Later: The abuse survivors that Benedict met with do seem to have experienced something positive, I see, so I'm glad for that. These days the problem isn't at the papal level, let's face it: it's a regional/local thing. May he do what it takes to get his underlings to toe the line.

Kudos to two WLS bloggers

I've done this before, but as I'm in the mood to procrastinate writing a proposal for a conference paper that's due by the end of the day, I thought I'd do it again -- and that is to point folks in the direction of WLS bloggers whom I consider amazing people and whose blogs are well worth visiting.

I have such admiration for Tia, who began her weight-loss journey at 500+ pounds and has, to my mind, been a model of how to work with her DS surgery to maximize weight loss and health. She blows my mind in her determination and follow-through, and she also seems like a really interesting, successful, head-on-straight kind of person in the rest of her life.

And Jen -- another amazing woman, who had successful RNY weight-loss surgery and then found herself confronting the demons that drove her eating disorder of bulimia.  (Losing the weight really is only the first part of the journey, and I think most WLS patients come to realize that sooner or later.) Jen's a beautiful writer, a creative soul, and she writes from a place of honesty that's bedrock-solid.  That woman is made of damn fine material, and I watch her journey with awe -- a real person going through real shit and coming out real strong in the process.

Check them out if you haven't already.

A new blog discovery (for me)

Wow.  Dances with DS -- which I clicked onto from Sharon's blog: at 6 years out from her DS, Jane is a great success story, and posts like the following illustrate why (I've taken the liberty of bolding her main points):

A good set of workable boundaries will automatically act as a ‘damage limitation’ structure. ‘Automatic’ is what we should be heading towards because if we feel we are continuing to make huge efforts longer term , it indicates that we may not have given things enough thought.

Here is my workable set of  boundaries which I still live by today:

• Always eat breakfast.
• At any meal: eat my protein FIRST then my veggies, then if I still wanted a simple carb I’d have it.
• Make my protein as tasty as possible. I started using lot’s of different spices and herbs and sauces to give my protein extra zing factor.
• Find out what head hunger is vs real hunger. ( I starved myself for a day to find out what real hunger felt like and boy is it different from the head stuff!). Once you feel it, you will know the difference.
• No food is utterly taboo, but I can only have sweet simple carbs after 8pm in conjunction with a ‘buffering’ snack such as nuts or a bit of cheese. A buffering snack is a way to evade a direct sugar hit on my insulin. Recently I use cinnamon sometimes, as it has been shown to help slow down release of blood glucose.
• Try to figure out my cravings & start to use less harmful food replacements. Chocolate can be replaced with hot chocolate milk. Processed cereals can be replaced with a muesli made of :organic oats, spelt flakes, rye flakes, seeds and nuts. Bread can be replaced with rye bread, or soya-linseed loaves. Desserts can be replaced with hot fruit & creamy yogurt or low fat(for those who follow low fat) ideal milk concoctions that include sugar free jellies perhaps.
• Taking vitamins and minerals is NOT a choice.  It’s a non negotiable daily fact for me. Point blank.

These are really wonderful "workable boundaries," as Jane calls them, and ones that I put in place for myself as well. I've slipped a bit in recent weeks, however, and so her guidelines are a useful reminder.

They're also an illustration of how livable the DS is.  In most cases there are really very few restrictions -- just more or less productive ways of maximizing the results of the surgery itself.

One more reason to be grateful.

For D

My friend D, with whom I'm going to Alaska in May, had some nasty dental work done yesterday, and so I arranged for a bouquet (pictured, left) to be delivered to him today.

Normally I'd pick something a tad more classic, elegant, and, er, less juvenile, but I wanted to cheer him up with something different.

With the bouquet I sent a note congratulating him for moving forward with a dental treatment that I know he was dreading but that I think will turn over a fresh page for him, and I also promised him a celebratory drink on the high seas come May in honor of that choice.

Hopefully he'll forgive the dippiness of the bouquet's theme and like its message.

Can I be his daughter? Please?

Link: No Impact Man: Entertaining Isabella without TV.

Only thing is, I suspect I'm getting close to the age when I could be this father's mother!

No Impact Man: Living in gratitude instead of desire

Link: No Impact Man: Living in gratitude instead of desire.

Wonderful blog, great post. 

The piece below is featured on No Impact Man's blog and deserves widespread distribution, as do his own reflections.

Myself, I'm printing this out and keeping it on my desk at work and at home.

Click the image above for a larger version.

Blech

Today's a day when nothing is cutting it, food-wise, for me. I'm getting in some protein, but nothing is all that satisfying:

• 2 Zone protein bars (I'm getting really sick of the Pure Protein bars, which are better for me in that they're  higher in protein and much lower in carbs -- but if I have to gag down another without taking a little break, I'm going to scream -- hence my temporary shift away from them)
• Thinly sliced deli ham and a little Jarlsberg cheese
• South Beach low-carb/high protein individual pizza (I wouldn't have eaten this as I was trying to lose, probably, as it's not that low-carb, but at 30 grams of protein, it's pretty damn good)
• Vanilla yogurt, banana, and cinnamon (this is nummy -- okay, it's not ice cream, but it's tasty)
• Soy milk

It's just kind of all-over-the-map eating. Grazing, more like it.  This is what happens when I get close to That Time of the Month ... I feel like shit and don't eat coherent meals.  I'm going to have to do a protein shake after I get back from my haircut (same style, just a trim) to amp things up in that department. Yuck.

Mid-afternoon (i.e., now) is also when I feel utterly wiped out these days.  As I've mentioned before I bet my 18-month labs will indicate it's time for another iron infusion.

Despite my general lethargy and sense of feeling a bit off, I was working at my desk by 6 a.m. I've spent the day divided between researching my article and addressing a faculty matter that arose out of yesterday's dysfunctional meeting. I'm going to do a little more research before my hair appointment and then call it a day as far as work goes.

Cuddling kittens, reading about governesses, and sundry activities remain on the schedule for this evening. Those should perk me up. 

Non sequitur: Ohmygod, I just spoke to my friend E who just landed a cushy technology job at an Elite Private University, at which he'll be brilliant. The place has deep pockets, isn't intimidated by folks with Ph.D.s from good institutions, and he's going to be making more money straight out the gate than a lot of faculty do when they're full professors.

How fabulous is that?! I'm so glad for him and so proud of him!  It's taken him just under a year to make a major career transition from teaching to technology. A lot of people in academia don't have the guts or the talents to make such a migration, but I knew he could and would do this and that he'd do it well.

What a coup for him.  And I have to say it -- for the place that hired him.  They showed excellent judgment.

Becky's "Body Talk"

This is quite possibly one of the most tuned-in, empowered perspectives on self-respect and self-acceptance and appreciation (well-deserved, I might add, and I don't even know her) that I've seen in recent memory.

This is also one cool chick. Whatever she sets her mind to do -- in whatever kind of endeavor -- she's going to accomplish.

No. Doubt. About. It.

Check her out and check out her site.

Thanks to Penelope *and* Ezpy

I'd like to thank Penelope Trunk for her gracious response to my take on her views about not pursuing a graduate degree in the humanities yesterday.  I still disagree with her (and in her own comments about Penelope's response to me, Ezpy articulated why better than I could myself), but I referred to Penelope's view as "shit" and I'm regretting that now. We disagree on this particular point (for the reasons that Ezpy outlined so well), but Penelope was certainly more gracious than I. :)

Good thoughts going out to Kim

Link: Tales of the Morbidly Obese.

It's a big day for Kim tomorrow and so we'll share December 12 from now on -- it's her turn for reconstructive surgery after a phenomenally successful 17 months of life with the DS, and it's my one-year DS anniversary (more on that tomorrow).  I'm so proud of her, first as a person, a woman, a wife and mother, a professional, and then as a DS patient.  I did my first angel duty with her, and she's been a constant inspiration to me since I met her on the OH.com DS board.

Prayers up for her.  She's having multiple procedures done -- wishing her strength and a swift healing.