July 13 - Sleep and sleep

Report on week three:

Started writing my sleep research piece and I've wanted to sleep most of Saturday . . .

Other thoughts:

1. I liked reading all the other blogs. There's always the outer person and the inner person, and when I read someone's writing, it's a whole other self. I think of it as a geode--a rock with beautiful gems inside. Oh, unless there's lots of mud and crap inside. But that's still fascinating. I related to some of the feelings even though my chronological numbers are way past most others.

2. Issues I"m thinking about:

a) Famous obese men not having shame about their weight (apparently), and getting props for losing 35 lb. when they still weigh 300-400, while women have more shame and self blame around obesity than men. Is it because women are seen (and still identify more) as sex objects, while men identify more as a "mind" or a "leader"? Self concept of gender binaries. Bad stuff. Also, the moral blame and shame game of TV shows about fat people, their complicity in self hate disguised as "entertainment," and the lack of real solutions. My belief is that obesity is largely due to early trauma + food used as a drug. The the poor have more of both going on. It's not a moral issue and not their "fault;" it's a class one. There are treatments that work and have nothing to do with diets, religion, paying money, drugs, or operations.

b) Churches in schools and schools in churches. Whatever happened to separation of church and state, esp. with Obama embracing faith based government programs? It's tricky; the right has usually run these things with Fundamentalist mores (sorry, kids, "abstience only"--or "Procreation, not recreation!" as we used to mock-chant). But the left been represented in liberation theology in South America and the US as well, to promote more socialist style value systems and not just help the poor, but ask why they are poor. It just hasn't been as loud or rich as the right. My Dad was a minister and he always advocated separation of church and state "so that we'd never have to follow one church." The government used to help the poor, withour having to insert religion. FDR did a lot, with no strings attached except compassion, and we're clinging to Social Security and Medicare for dear life.

Ah, back to my point. I know a school across the street, King Open School, where a largely black church congregation streams out every Sunday. The liberal/radical church where I sing in the choir houses a ballet theater. Churches are too big to pay their bills, and schools must need the rent as well. Kind of odd. I could do a survey (after seeing if I'm re-inventing the wheel) on local (Cambridge) churches and public schools and finding out who is where.

c.. My old apartment. In 1972, I was paid $1000 to move from 200 Columbia Street by the Cambridge Redevelopment Auth0rity. There were four of us, paying $50 each, and we all got a thou'. It was the era of the Great Society (Johnson at the federal level) and the Model Cities program in Cambridge. We knew all along that we were middle class hippies and that poor people deserved to live there. We moved across the street to another hovel, and paid nothing for the move. My roommate Joe spent his on pot, I used mine for a feminsit studies masters, and I'm not sure what David #1 and Davis #2 did with theirs. I'd like to do a property ownership trace on it, see who owns it now, and who owned it between, and if it is being used as affordable housing for non middle class overeducated types like me. When I ride by, I see a largely black community. But in this country, "black" has many version and origins. The houses are well kept.

Nuff for now.