DO YOU KNOW HOW TO HAVE FUN?

	LITTLE OF THE TIME 1-pt/each √	SOME OF THE TIME 2-pt/each √	A LOT OF THE TIME 3-pt/each √	MOST OF THE TIME 4-pt/each √
I enjoy hobbies or playing sports.
I am fun loving and cheerful.
I surround my self with happy, positive, and fun-loving people.
I laugh at my mistakes and blunders.
I take a long weekend away from work when I begin to feel burned out and tired.
Leisure activity helps me feel rested.
Sports and games bring me more laughs than frowns.
I enjoy creative play—dancing, painting, party games, playing a musical instrument, etc.
I laugh at least once a day.
I take vacations without worrying about the job.
Multiply √ by the value given in each column

 

Add the total for each column to get the GRAND TOTAL = ________

 

Scoring

10-14 points = President of Eeyore International

15-24 points = Party pooper

25-34 points = Fun to be around

34-40 points = Life of the party

Dumb Is Better

In a Met-Life Insurance Company study, insurance executives hired a special group of applicants who failed the normal screening tests, but scored high on optimism. The first year on the job, the "dumb" optimists sold 21% more insurance than the "smart" pessimists. The second year, the optimists sold 57% more insurance than the pessimists. "Dumb" opti­mists sell more insurance than "smart" pessimists.            

DO YOU WORK FITFULLY OR DOES WORK FIT YOU?

MAKE CHECK MARK (√) IN APPROPRIATE COLUMN	LITTLE OF THE TIME 1-pt/each √	SOME OF THE TIME 2-pt/each √	A LOT OF THE TIME 3-pt/each √	MOST OF THE TIME 4-pt/each √
I enjoy my work.
My work is a great way for me to use my talents and abilities
People respect my work.
I get satisfaction from my work.
My work gives me an opportunity to learn new things.
My work helps me feel good about myself.
I have friends at work.
I get feedback at work that helps me produce more efficiently
I avoid taking advantage of others at work.
I feel appreciated where I work.
Multiply √ by the value given in each column

 

Add the total for each column to get the GRAND TOTAL = ________

 

Scoring

10-14 points = Apply for a welfare check

15-24 points = Give yourself an attitude adjustment

25-34 points = You would be surprised how few people score this high

34-40 points = ˜˜˜˜˜ work satisfaction

LOVING GOD

We love God by:

1. Worshiping him
2. Loving other believers
3. Becoming like Christ
4. Serving others with our gifts
5. Telling others about him

80% of Success Depends on Emotional Factors

            We all know someone who scored a perfect 2400 on the SAT and flunked out of college by the second semester. That’s because success in college, and in life, has little to do with raw intelligence. IQ predicts success about 20% of the time. Behavioral scientists have discovered that 80% of success depends on emotional factors.

            Harvard students from the 1940s—a time when there was a wider range of IQ at that school—were tracked into middle age. The high IQ men were not anymore successful than the lower in intelligence. Similarly, 450 boys from Boston slums were followed into middle age. Success in this social group was not dependent on intelligence. Ten years after 81 valedictorians and salutatorians graduated from their high school, only four were at the highest level of young people of comparable age in their chosen profession. Academic intelligence fails to predict how one will react to the vicissitudes of life.

Thankful for the American Girl Doll

If your family has so many things that you can’t put them in a big house all at once but have to store some of the things in the attic, or the basement, or the garage, or even in the shed way back behind the main house, you probably have heard of American Girl dolls.

            These dolls cost a lot of money, because a girl who has a house with lots of storage space buys an American Girl doll and her neighbor who lives in a big house with an attic and a three-car garage sees the American Girl doll and wants one too. These girls take their American Girl dolls to school and every girl with a big house and lots of storage space wants one too. Then a girl from North Carolina takes her American Girl doll to visit a cousin in Texas who has a ranch with acres and acres of storage space. She orders one too. The Texas girl takes her American Girl doll to New York where a girl with lots and lots of warehouse storage containers buys an American Girl doll too.        

            Soon everyone wants an American Girl doll including mothers who really wish they were little girls again instead of a workingwomen who spend all day correcting mistakes made by their male bosses with IQs lower than room temperature who make twice as much money as they do. If you are a working mom playing with an American Girl doll is much better than going home to mow the grass, trim the hedges, balance the check the book, take your daughter to ballet lessons, and sit through your son’s T-ball game that lasts 6 hours and 23 minutes until being called on account of lightening. After that you cook dinner, do you kids’ homework, read a bedtime story out loud (three times), kneel for bedtime prayers, give hugs and kisses all around, and don’t forget to leave the hall light on and crack the door a little wider. Then you clean the house, feed the parakeet, and take the dog for a walk.

            Finally, you get to put down your cell phone which you have been talking on continuously since you walked out the office door, and you head for the computer where you read group emails warning about people who will drug you and steal your kidneys. In your email, you find a request for people to decorate a table at Central Baptist and a message asking how much to spend on a group gift for Mary. Another email mentions that “because of the hectic schedules we face during the next two months with people moving, new committee demands, and of course, the holiday season, it seems it might be best to postpone our Alert Citizen project until January.” If you are lucky, you will get a slide show about Vacation Day. You can always count on finding 53 new recipe messages in your email. Then you discover email instructions on voting for the city ordinance forbidding cooking on Saturday night that is enforced by the police who put yellow tape around your kitchen if you try to cook. And you always get useful public announcements in your email such as the one from the Mental Health Association with instructions on how to get in touch with them:

             “If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly; if you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you; if you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want, stay on the line so we can trace your call; if you are depressed it doesn't matter which number you press, nothing will make you happy anyway; if you have short-term memory loss, press 9—if you have short-term memory loss, press 9—if you have short-term memory loss, press 9; if you have low self-esteem, please hang up our operators are too busy to talk with you; if you are menopausal, put the gun down, hang up, turn on the fan, lie down and cry. It won’t last forever.”

            After reading 586 emails, you compose witty replies to answer all your messages, not forgetting to forward 376 of the emails to your group lists. When you go to bed you dream of American Girl dolls.

            Grandmothers know deep in their hearts that cuddling an American Girl doll is better than playing bridge with boring people who talk about their sore knees, and the size of their kidney stone, and how no one will operate on their back that hurts more than sitting in a nest of fire ants because the doctors say that their spine makes a pretzel look straight, and how their grandson is so handsome that he has waited tables on Hollywood Boulevard for eight years expecting an audition soon, and how fifty-five church friends went on a charter bus trip to Nova Scotia that was a lot of fun except Betty got lost and was picked-up by the police when they found her wondering the wrong way down the middle of a one-way street and how Al spoiled their fun at lunch everyday by yelling, “Let’s eat at Hooters. Let’s eat at Hooters” and how Sharon embarrassed all of them by asking if anyone had some extra Viagra that she could give to Richard.

            You can see why all grown women like the American Girl dolls. But not men. They sit home in big chairs, drinking beer and eating pizza while watching the Dallas Cowboys on television because the Cowboys can win, and saying bad things about the local college football coach because his team can’t win.

            The America Girl catalogues go to homes where people have more things than they can find storage for. The little girls can’t wait to get American girl doll catalogues that are expensive not even counting postage, but are worth it because they have slick pages, color pictures, and stories about each doll. 

            When the little girls get their American Girl catalogues, they stop playing with their other toys. When the mother finds a discarded toy in the washing machine or the shower or maybe in the oven, she calls to the daddy, “Father please come and put this toy in the attic.” And at half time, the father puts it in the attic behind last year’s Christmas tree ornaments and no one ever thinks of the toy again or even misses it.

            As soon as the little girls have looked through the American Girl catalogue, they call their grandparents because they know that their parents are too busy putting things away to listen about American Girl dolls. If the grandfather answers the phone they talk real sweet to him but not very long and then they ask to speak to their grandmother who they call Mimi or Gigi or Nana or Nan-Nan or something else only little girls call Grandmothers and they say:

            “Mimi, guess what the American Girl Doll Catalog came today. Did you get yours? Oh good! Aren’t all the dolls just beautiful? I like Felicity the best. Please, please grandmother can you give me Felicity for Christmas? Actually, I was thinking that because Christmas is so far away that maybe you could give me Felicity for my birthday on December 19. Would you please?

            But grandmother, let me think. Thanksgiving is coming even sooner. Maybe you could give me the doll for Thanksgiving Day instead of the footballs grandfather gives to girls when he should give them to boys only.

            I would have so much to be thankful for if I had the American Girl doll for Thanksgiving. Mimi you are the best grandmother in the whole wide world especially when we play with the American Girl doll together.

            You know what Mimi? I’ve been thinking again. Because Thanksgiving is about Turkeys and Pilgrims and Indians, maybe you could also give me the Indian doll, Kaya. Look on pages 44 and 45. Isn’t she just adorable? And look. See the food Kaya eats. We could get that too. And then we could learn all about what Indians eat everyday and for thanksgiving too. Kaya’s food only costs $20.

            Kaya will need a bedroll. See it at the bottom of the page. It only costs $24. And look, look. Oh, I’m, so excited. Aren’t you excited too Mimi. Just think of the fun we could have together. See her Tepee, and Kaya’s Mare—Steps High, and her saddle, and look Steps High has a foal called Sparks Flying. It only costs $38. Oh, this is exciting. Kaya has a dog, Tatlo. And Tatlo has his own gear. I could read all those books at the bottom of page 44 and really learn about Kaya and other Indians. Wouldn’t that be great? We could read them together, Mimi. I love you so much, Mimi.

            Mimi, I’ve been thinking. You know what? Felicity could ride in her Colonial Carriage to visit Kaya. And look two dolls can fit inside the carriage and Felicity can take Kaya for a ride and Kaya and Felicity could spend the night in Kaya’s tent. Look at Felicity’s holiday outfit. She could visit Kaya in that outfit and she could show it to her. And Kaya can show Felicity her Indian dress and maybe they will decide to change clothes and fool everybody who they are. And Felicity can ride Steps High. Oh, Mimi, we will have so much fun playing with them.”

            And what do you think the grandmother says? Of course, the grandmother says, “Yes dear. I will send it to you as soon as I can order it for you.”

            All grandmothers who have credit cards, don’t think about the bill that totals $998 not including taxes and shipping. They don’t think about spoiling little girls or closets and attics full of toys. And they don’t think about the father who has to get an unsecured loan to build a bigger house just to store all the things grandmothers with credit cards give to their granddaughters. This is called free enterprise. Aren’t we thankful?

Sailing

Sets sail the little vessel of my mind.

                                              Dante

Zoloft, Depakote and Seroquel in the Treatment of PTSD

Posttraumatic stress disorder can affect anyone who has experienced a harrowing event. Natural disasters, wars, and traumatic life experiences—physical or sexual abuse and accidents—can result in emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dysfunction.

PREVALENCE OF PTSD

• Lifetime prevalence in the general adult population = 7.8%
• Women (10.4%) are twice as likely as men (5%) to have PTSD
• About 30% of Vietnam War veterans; 10% Gulf War veterans; 11% of Afghanistan war veterans; and 15-20% of Iraq War veterans have PTSD.

DIAGNOSIS OF PTSD

The diagnosis of PTSD is made when alarming, distressing, and painful experiences produce the following symptoms:

• Nightmares, intrusive thoughts, or flashbacks regarding the event
• An attempt to avoid situations that produce memories of the event
• A constant state of vigilance, watchfulness, or startle reactions
• Emotional numbness, social isolation, or detachment from events and activities.

COEXISTING ILLNESSES

• PTSD can increase the potential for panic disorder, OCD, phobias, generalized anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse.
• Likewise, personality disorders, substance abuse, and other primary psychiatric illnesses can increase susceptibility to PTSD.

BRAIN DYSFUNCTION SECONDARY TO TRAUMATIC STRESS

• The hyperactivation of the amygdala increases emotional distress.
• Hyperactivation of the hippocampus increases the memory of the event.
• An increase of norepinephrine in the locus coeruleus causes hypervigilance and engenders startle reactions.
• An excessive release of the excitatory neurotransmitter, glutamate, increases irritability and anxiety.
• A decrease of the calming neurotransmitter, GABA, reduces CNS inhibition.
• A deficiency of serotonin increases suicidal impulses and aggressiveness.

TREATMENT

• Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) often produce positive results.
• Because of dosing flexibility and low side effect profile, Zoloft (sertraline) in doses ranging from 50-200 mg may be the medication of choice.
• Benzodiazepines, because of the abuse potential and lack of efficacy, are contraindicated in PTSD
• Antipsychotics (e.g. Seroquel) may be necessary in patients with severe PTSD symptoms. These medications are especially helpful for flashbacks and traumatic dreams.
• Mood stabilizers (e.g. Depakote) are helpful for irritability and angry outbursts associated with PTSD
• Cognitive behavior therapy may help relieve secondary symptoms—anger, social withdrawal, bitterness, or resentment—but often fails to alleviate primary symptoms such as startle reactions, nightmares, and flashbacks. 

Drug Treatment for Depression and Anxiety Begins with Understanding Neurotransmitters

As a resident trudging five miles in the snow to and from Duke University Medical Center (uphill both ways), I was taught one neuron, one neurotransmitter; one neurotransmitter, one medication. Later as an instructor at Duke, I taught Charlie Nemeroff, MD, PhD (then a resident, now the premier neurobiologist in the country) how to walk in snow, or at least how to make walking in snow sound interesting.

Now Charles has taught all of us that chemical neurotransmission sometimes requires more than one neurotransmitter for each neuron. He divides chemical neurotransmission, the foundation of psychopharmacology, into three dimensions:

1. Space: Anatomically, the brain consists of an estimated 100 billion neurons (telephone wires) with over 100 trillion axons (cables) and 100 trillion synapses (plugs). Electrical impulses travel down the wires and cables to the plugs. These plugs manufacture biochemical signals that travel to biochemical receptor sites of other neurons. Chemical messeges sent by one neuron to another can also transmit to sites distant from the initial synapse by diffusion (similar to transmission with cellular telephones). Thus, the brain consists of a collection of wires and cables simmering in a sophisticated “neurotransmitter soup.”

2. Time:  Some neurotransmitter impulses travel from one neuron to another in milliseconds while some signals cause biochemical cascades that last for days. Speed of transmission depends on the neurotransmitter. Pioneer neurobiologists identified half a dozen neurotransmitters. Scientists have now recognized several dozen neurotransmitters ranging from the slow-onset, long-acting neuropeptides to the fast acting amino acids such as glutamate (that universally stimulates almost any neuron) and GABA (that universally inhibits almost any neuron). Based on the amount of genetic material in neurons, several hundred neurotransmitters—some slow, others fast—may be identified upon completion of the Human Genome Project.

3.  Function:  Chemical neurotransmission alters the function of target neurons, creating cellular action and biological effects. Neurotransmission also regulates genetic expression. Experiences, education, physiological adaptations, disease, drugs, psychotherapy, and medications enhance or alter our genetic traits or tendencies through neurotransmission. Thus, genetics modify neurotransmission and neurotransmission modify genes.

The neuron and its synapses are changeable and malleable. Synaptic connections, formed at a furious rate between birth and age 6, are eliminated and restructured during pubescence and adolescence, allowing two-thirds of the synapses present in childhood to survive into adulthood. Neurodevelopmental experiences and genetic programming determine which connections are kept and which are destroyed. Thinking and learning provoke the release of neurotropic factors, which promote synaptic connections. Brain activity stimulates synaptic transmission.

 CNS drugs replicate or mimic the actions of the brain itself. For example, the brain makes its own morphine (beta endorphin) and its own marijuana (anandamide). The brain has its own benzodiazepine receptor sites. Elavil and Prozac were being used as antidepressants before neurobiologists discovered the serotonin transporter site. God had His own pharmacopoeia before we had ours.

Because many neurons have more than one neurotransmitter, God also uses a certain “polypharmacy” of His own. Advanced clinical psychopharmacology consists of developing a rationale for specific multiple drug use based on dual transmission factors. Using drugs with multiple mechanisms or multiple drugs in combination will be the therapeutic rule rather than the exception—and that’s an idea that will turn your walk in the snow into a high-speed ski lift ride.

 

Learn How to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies to Experience Gratitude

When lost in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for chocolate-chip cookies. And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a kind and loving gesture, or an encouraging word, or a soothing embrace. We are comforted by memories of grandmothers and aprons, soft snow falling and warm fireplaces, summer rain and swimming pools, soft-spoken secrets and sweet, stolen kisses, reading out loud, kneeling to pray, and warm blankets. These pleasures remind us that only what we’ve done for love’s reward will pave the road through time.

Thankful for the American Girl Doll

If your family has so many things that you can’t put them in a big house all at once but have to store some of the things in the attic, or the basement, or the garage, or even in the shed way back behind the main house, you probably have heard of American Girl dolls.

            These dolls cost a lot of money, because a girl who has a house with lots of storage space buys an American Girl doll and her neighbor who lives in a big house with an attic and a three-car garage sees the American Girl doll and wants one too. These girls take their American Girl dolls to school and every girl with a big house and lots of storage space wants one too. Then a girl from North Carolina takes her American Girl doll to visit a cousin in Texas who has a ranch with acres and acres of storage space. She orders one too. The Texas girl takes her American Girl doll to New York where a girl with lots and lots of warehouse storage containers buys an American Girl doll too.           

            Soon everyone wants an American Girl doll including mothers who really wish they were little girls again instead of a workingwomen who spend all day correcting mistakes made by their male bosses with IQs lower than room temperature who make twice as much money as they do. If you are a working mom playing with an American Girl doll is much better than going home to mow the grass, trim the hedges, balance the check the book, take your daughter to ballet lessons, and sit through your son’s T-ball game that lasts 6 hours and 23 minutes until being called on account of lightening. After that you cook dinner, do you kids’ homework, read a bedtime story out loud (three times), kneel for bedtime prayers, give hugs and kisses all around, and don’t forget to leave the hall light on and crack the door a little wider. Then you clean the house, feed the parakeet, and take the dog for a walk.

            Finally, you get to put down your cell phone which you have been talking on continuously since you walked out the office door, and you head for the computer where you read group emails warning about people who will drug you and steal your kidneys. In your email, you find a request for people to decorate a table at Central Baptist and a message asking how much to spend on a group gift for Mary. Another email mentions that “because of the hectic schedules we face during the next two months with people moving, new committee demands, and of course, the holiday season, it seems it might be best to postpone our Alert Citizen project until January.” If you are lucky, you will get a slide show about Vacation Day. You can always count on finding 53 new recipe messages in your email. Then you discover email instructions on voting for the city ordinance forbidding cooking on Saturday night that is enforced by the police who put yellow tape around your kitchen if you try to cook. And you always get useful public announcements in your email such as the one from the Mental Health Association with instructions on how to get in touch with them:

             “If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly; if you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you; if you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want, stay on the line so we can trace your call; if you are depressed it doesn't matter which number you press, nothing will make you happy anyway; if you have short-term memory loss, press 9—if you have short-term memory loss, press 9—if you have short-term memory loss, press 9; if you have low self-esteem, please hang up our operators are too busy to talk with you; if you are menopausal, put the gun down, hang up, turn on the fan, lie down and cry. It won’t last forever.”

            After reading 586 emails, you compose witty replies to answer all your messages, not forgetting to forward 376 of the emails to your group lists. When you go to bed you dream of American Girl dolls.

            Grandmothers know deep in their hearts that cuddling an American Girl doll is better than playing bridge with boring people who talk about their sore knees, and the size of their kidney stone, and how no one will operate on their back that hurts more than sitting in a nest of fire ants because the doctors say that their spine makes a pretzel look straight, and how their grandson is so handsome that he has waited tables on Hollywood Boulevard for eight years expecting an audition soon, and how fifty-five church friends went on a charter bus trip to Nova Scotia that was a lot of fun except Betty got lost and was picked-up by the police when they found her wondering the wrong way down the middle of a one-way street and how Al spoiled their fun at lunch everyday by yelling, “Let’s eat at Hooters. Let’s eat at Hooters” and how Sharon embarrassed all of them by asking if anyone had some extra Viagra that she could give to Richard.

            You can see why all grown women like the American Girl dolls. But not men. They sit home in big chairs, drinking beer and eating pizza while watching the Dallas Cowboys on television because the Cowboys can win, and saying bad things about the local college football coach because his team can’t win.

            The America Girl catalogues go to homes where people have more things than they can find storage for. The little girls can’t wait to get American girl doll catalogues that are expensive not even counting postage, but are worth it because they have slick pages, color pictures, and stories about each doll.           

            When the little girls get their American Girl catalogues, they stop playing with their other toys. When the mother finds a discarded toy in the washing machine or the shower or maybe in the oven, she calls to the daddy, “Father please come and put this toy in the attic.” And at half time, the father puts it in the attic behind last year’s Christmas tree ornaments and no one ever thinks of the toy again or even misses it.

            As soon as the little girls have looked through the American Girl catalogue, they call their grandparents because they know that their parents are too busy putting things away to listen about American Girl dolls. If the grandfather answers the phone they talk real sweet to him but not very long and then they ask to speak to their grandmother who they call Mimi or Gigi or Nana or Nan-Nan or something else only little girls call Grandmothers and they say:

            “Mimi, guess what the American Girl Doll Catalog came today. Did you get yours? Oh good! Aren’t all the dolls just beautiful? I like Felicity the best. Please, please grandmother can you give me Felicity for Christmas? Actually, I was thinking that because Christmas is so far away that maybe you could give me Felicity for my birthday on December 19. Would you please?

            But grandmother, let me think. Thanksgiving is coming even sooner. Maybe you could give me the doll for Thanksgiving Day instead of the footballs grandfather gives to girls when he should give them to boys only.

            I would have so much to be thankful for if I had the American Girl doll for Thanksgiving. Mimi you are the best grandmother in the whole wide world especially when we play with the American Girl doll together.

            You know what Mimi? I’ve been thinking again. Because Thanksgiving is about Turkeys and Pilgrims and Indians, maybe you could also give me the Indian doll, Kaya. Look on pages 44 and 45. Isn’t she just adorable? And look. See the food Kaya eats. We could get that too. And then we could learn all about what Indians eat everyday and for thanksgiving too. Kaya’s food only costs $20.

            Kaya will need a bedroll. See it at the bottom of the page. It only costs $24. And look, look. Oh, I’m, so excited. Aren’t you excited too Mimi. Just think of the fun we could have together. See her Tepee, and Kaya’s Mare—Steps High, and her saddle, and look Steps High has a foal called Sparks Flying. It only costs $38. Oh, this is exciting. Kaya has a dog, Tatlo. And Tatlo has his own gear. I could read all those books at the bottom of page 44 and really learn about Kaya and other Indians. Wouldn’t that be great? We could read them together, Mimi. I love you so much, Mimi.

            Mimi, I’ve been thinking. You know what? Felicity could ride in her Colonial Carriage to visit Kaya. And look two dolls can fit inside the carriage and Felicity can take Kaya for a ride and Kaya and Felicity could spend the night in Kaya’s tent. Look at Felicity’s holiday outfit. She could visit Kaya in that outfit and she could show it to her. And Kaya can show Felicity her Indian dress and maybe they will decide to change clothes and fool everybody who they are. And Felicity can ride Steps High. Oh, Mimi, we will have so much fun playing with them.”

            And what do you think the grandmother says? Of course, the grandmother says, “Yes dear. I will send it to you as soon as I can order it for you.”

            All grandmothers who have credit cards, don’t think about the bill that totals $998 not including taxes and shipping. They don’t think about spoiling little girls or closets and attics full of toys. And they don’t think about the father who has to get an unsecured loan to build a bigger house just to store all the things grandmothers with credit cards give to their granddaughters. This is called free enterprise. Aren’t we thankful?

Advice for Parents: Improving Relationships and Preventing a Violent Society

We feel helpless in a sea of social turmoil where a single life raft offers little expectation for smooth sailing. A harmonious bulwark of social, cultural, and spiritual safeguards prove the safest harbor from violent storms. A safe culture would provide:

1. Children raised by two parents.
2. A society that discourages a sense of entitlement.
3. A recognition of uniqueness that is unassociated with strength, beauty, and wealth.
4. A spiritual foundation that offers love, joy, peace, kindness, and generosity.
5. A culture that encourages and offers a work opportunity for each adult to provide sustenance for themselves and their families
6. A society that recognizes that some people are more talented than others, and, at the same time, a society that appreciates the less talented as much as the gifted.
7. Cultivation of empathy and respect for others

Christian Hymn Books Can Help You Live Longer: Relationships and ViolenceReal World Violence

            On Aug. 1, 1966, Charles Whitman opened fire from the 28th-floor observation deck of the University of Texas’ landmark 307-foot tower. Sixteen died and another 31 were wounded before police killed Whitman about 90 minutes later. A friend of mine was walking on the main square south of the tower when the shooting started. He retreated behind a near-by building. He saw a couple of people fall but he couldn’t get to them because bullets were raining all around. Some of the students who could safely retreat went to their dorms, retrieved their rifles and started shooting back. Another friend was also in the area. She vividly recalled seeing several students with guns firing back at Whitman. Both of my friends and the police gave credit to the rife-ready students for saving lives and helping distract Whitman until the Texas Rangers and local police arrived to end the ordeal.

            Paul Ji, who had a romantic attachment to a woman member of Emporia’s Calvary Baptist Church, entered the church from a seldom-used side door and walked to the back of the sanctuary shortly after the Sunday service began. Ji slipped a clip of ammunition into his 9 mm semi-automatic. Ji began firing, killing Tom DeWeese and wounding several others until he had used the 15 bullets in his clip. He was attempting to install another clip when Jerry Waddell rose from his pew to subdue him. Ji fled out of the church, with Waddell running after him. Rick Grossenbacher joined in the pursuit. Waddell was carrying a hymnal he had been singing from just before the shooting started. Waddell threw his hymnal, hitting Ji in the head stunning him. Waddell caught up to the shooter, grabbed him around the neck, and slung him to the pavement. Grossenbacher jumped on the pile. Richard Goza, not far behind, grabbed the gun that Ji still held in his hand. Later Police Lt. Larry Adams said in a Gazette article, “Waddell [and the others] probably saved a bunch of lives today. If they hadn’t made a move, that guy would have re-loaded and continued to kill innocent people.”

PEACEMAKERS FIGHT AGAINST MALEVOLENCE

            Senseless violence can occur in the most unlikely places: a Baptist Church in Emporia Kansas, a Luby’s cafeteria, a high school, a university campus.  Only an ostrich believes “It can’t happen here.” All of us would do well to plan a response for violent attacks. A stunned, passive response is the natural consequence to an unexpected sudden attack. Experimental studies, however, show that passivity usually fails. A forceful response to vicious attack offers our best hope. When one person responds assertively to violence, the passive among us will be moved to positive action. Several may die, but dozens will live because one person sacrificed health and life to save others.

            One more thing: Experiments have shown that if a person is being attacked, the crowd gathering to watch generally does nothing even if the victim cries for help. If, however, the victim looks directly in the eye of one of the bystanders, that passive individual will move from a trace state and help the victim. Others will quickly follow.

THE TITANIC STRUGGLE

            All of us are locked in a titanic struggle between the forces of good and evil. The battleground of this struggle is the individual human soul. As C. S. Lewis wrote, “There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counter claimed by Satan.”

            Most of us ask, “Why is there evil in the world?” A better question would be, “Why is there good in the world?” Scientists tell us that entropy—decay and decline—is the natural law of physics. Interpolation indicates that goodness would deteriorate into evil. But good prevails because spiritual love is a stronger force than hate.

            Malice can discourage us, but it can never defeat us when, with God’s help, we stand firm against the spiritual forces of evil. The peacemaker, rather than allowing dangerous situations to develop, faces them and conquers them. When we take a stand against evil, we are doing a God-like work.