Double Vision - by Shana Ogren Lourey

 

2013 and 2012 Columns

 

December, 2013      I Will

 

I love an excuse to get better.  Isn’t that what a New Year’s resolution is for?As you prepare to enter the year of 2014, do you plan to succeed in new ways?  Will you accomplish your plan?

 

November, 2013      Mandatory National Service?     

 

What makes you an American?  What makes you a good American?  Do you rise somehow for your country of citizenship, through a type of fight or through some sort of compromise?

 

October, 2013         Bless This Natural Medicine

 

Another baby prepares to join me in life this month.  The end of this pregnancy is hard.  My stomach is about to burst and it takes a large effort to make the smallest movements.  I still vomit from continued morning sickness about three times a week, and my back is sore from carrying this child.  Yet I'll take it, perhaps time and time again.

 

September, 2013     I'll Miss Those McNuggets

 

Walking into the bank the other day, I greeted the woman working there and asked how her day was going.  "New paperwork," she mused. "More policies to know and follow."  She held up a piece of long paper with a diagram and many useless looking instructions on it.  I sighed in response, "I hate paperwork.  It seems to get in the way of work."

 

August, 2013          One Cultural Souvenir  

 

When I lived in a village in Malawi, Africa from 2007-2009, I was intrigued by the mysterious and prominent secret society there named the gule wamkulu.  Translated from the Malawian language of Chichewa, this literally means the big dance. But it is more than a dance.

 

July, 2013               The Other Day

 

A current movie called The Purge imagines a future America that holds an annual evening of punishment-free anarchy.  Citizens have the ability to commit crimes that day with pardon.

 

June, 2013               Growth Continues Locally

 

After serving in the Peace Corps from 2007-2009 in Malawi, Africa, I did not leave with hopeful thoughts about my two years of contributed service.  In part, that's because I left the country suddenly and unconsciously from the result of a severe accident.  There was no goodbye or establishment of a long-term plan for the work that I had started. But also, it is because I have always been awake to the reality of one individual's limited ability to change another individual.

 

May, 2013               Sir, Thanks for the Inspiration   

 

Last month, my husband and baby son and I rode through the McDonald's drive-in as we headed home late at night. We placed a nice order, and it ended up being delicious.  We ordered a four piece Chicken McNuggets, small soda, a double Quarter Pounder with cheese meal, and a medium fry and small mocha coffee.  These are each special items to me now. As we drove up to pay, the cashier told us that the car in front of us had already paid for our order.  "Huh?"  I asked.  "Are you serious?"  The woman smiled and told us yes, it was covered.

 

April, 2013               A New Normal

 

When I joined the Peace Corps in 2007, I knew that my two years of service in Malawi, Africa would change me.  I imagined many possible changes.  Maybe I would finally become substantially thinner — from some strenuous life of building . . . huts or something.  Certainly I would become smarter — from a combination of real exposure to different parts of the world and a lack of electricity that would clearly make me read more books.

 

March, 2013             An Unanswered Letter

 

Do you communicate with god?  I thank, yet also curse and blame god, all the time.  Some people use prayer, or song, or a book in order to connect with god.  I use my own version of a spiritual post office.  It is home-aide, as the most important objects usually are.

 

February, 2013         The Right to Learn   

 

Can you remember that moment when you first discovered a new concept or idea?  How did it make you feel?  Where did your realization take you?

 

January, 2013           Hard to Shake

 

Everyone was worried when I moved to Malawi, Africa for my two-year Peace Corps service.  "It's AFRICA!" said a friend of mine.  "You better watch out."  Let me be more specific than she was – to her, Africa meant AIDS.  And this article will in no way try to disprove that impression.  That impression is correct.  There is a reason that the average life expectancy in Malawi, Africa is 37.  One in seven Malawians is HIV positive.

 

December, 2012       Mad Lib of the Month: The Tower of Babel    

 

Do languages tear us apart or connect us together?  English, Spanish, French, African Bantu languages, Hebrew, sign language . . . what a world!  Communicating with others is important to me, and hence it is necessary to learn many languages.  If you can't understand each other, how can you become friends?  

 

November, 2012       Today was a Good Day

 

What is the point of each day?  Are there professional and personal goals to accomplish?  Perhaps you keep weekly physical, economical, or spiritual goals.  Do you complete them?  How do you feel once you do?

 

October, 2012          Choose Your Weapon    

 

In the news today, there is a story with the headline "Cat has Realistic Chance of Becoming Mayor" for Halifax, Canada.  I didn't need to read the article, because the title said it all.  Hmm…the idea of a cat on the ballot for political office.  I like it. Here's why.

 

September, 2012      Absence Makes the Nose Grow Fonder

 

What are the five best smells in the world?  Why do they smell so good?  Is it because of the fond memories that the scents provoke for us? Sometimes it's hard to appreciate a thing before it's gone.  That is the bright side of loss – its constant reminder of how good something you had might have been.

 

August, 2012           Revise

 

What would you do today if you knew you would not fail? Run a mile, write a brain injury book, work again since becoming brain injured, cook new dishes, have more children? Then do it!

 

July, 2012                You Can Do It

 

Imagine your team.  Who is it? The team can be as large or as small as you want.  Your team is the group of people that root you on as you progress through life.

 

June, 2012               Homemade Theology

 

There are many different forms of religions practiced in Malawi, Africa.  While living in a remote village there from 2007-2009 I had a goal — to attend a different place of worship each month.  Going to churches and mosques there introduced me to the individual weekly routines of my neighbors.

 

May, 2012               Mad Libs: You and Your Community

 

Mad Libs: You and Your Community

 

 

April, 2012                Lost and Found   

 

Grandpa Buddy collected junk.  I would take these walks around the neighborhood with him in San Luis Obispo, and Buddy would silently pick up random items — a rusty screwdriver, a comb, a bent nail — from the street or the sidewalk and deposit them into his pocket.

 

March, 2012             Letter to Myself

 

Last year I stumbled upon a collection of letters that I had stored in a closet at my father's house.  I found them just in time – they were letters that I had instructed my Arroyo Grande high school juniors to write to themselves in the English class I taught.  I told the students that I would keep the letters private and sealed, and deliver them the letters in five years, in the year 2011

 

February, 2012         The Mire

 

How can a brain lose faith?  Is there a cranial lobe that guides our spirituality? There must be.  And in an accident I lost it. The seizure was bad.  The coma sucked.  The daily headaches broke me and required daily Vicodin.  But the worst result of getting a traumatic brain injury?

 

January, 2012          A New Story    

 

What lies ahead?  Is the path we are traveling on already written, or can we write it ourselves before or while we are walking it? If you believe in making New Year's resolutions, then you must have some faith in the power of your free will.  You have control (at least some) over the future.     

 

 

 

 

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