Thought for Today: Chemicals Wreaking Hormonal Havoc

06 Sunday Aug 2023

Posted by in Health Issues, Nature and the Environment

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Front Cover: Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race by Shanna H. Swan, PhD with Stacey Colino
Photo Credit: Simon & Schuster, New York, USA

It’s not only that sperm counts have plummeted by 50 percent in the last forty years; it’s also that this alarming rate of decline could mean the human race will be unable to reproduce itself if the trend continues…. In animals there have been changes in mating behavior, with more reports of male turtles humping other male turtles, and female fish and frogs becoming masculinized after being exposed to certain chemicals.

How and why could this be happening? The answer is complicated. Though these interspecies anomalies may appear to be distinct and isolated incidents, the fact is that they all share several underlying causes. In particular, the ubiquity of insidiously harmful chemicals in the modern world is threatening the reproductive development and functionality of both humans and other species. The worst offenders: chemicals that interfere with our body’s natural hormones. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are playing havoc with the building blocks of sexual and reproductive development. They’re everywhere in our modern world—and they’re inside our bodies, which is problematic on many levels.

Excerpt from Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race by Shanna H. Swan, PhD with Stacey Colino, Simon & Schuster, New York, USA, 2020 (Chapter One: Reproductive Shock, pp. 7 & 9).

Shanna H. Swan, PhD, is an award-winning scientist based at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York, and one of the world’s leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologists.

Stacey Colino is an award-winning writer specializing in health and environmental issues. Her work has appeared in such magazines as Newsweek, Time, Parade, National Geographic, and Good Housekeeping.

The Writer’s Life: Writing About Uncomfortable Subjects

30 Sunday Jul 2023

Posted by in Guyana, The Writer's Life

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Natasha Houston and her mother at home in Zeelgult. In 2013, Houston’s husband killed their two children, slashed her arm and hand, then died, apparently by suicide.
Photo Credit: KPBS (Williams Rawlins for NPR)

As I shared in my May 23rd post on getting my creative mojo back, I have resumed work on my writing project about women of agency. Revision of the completed draft of Part One, set in Guyana, is steadily moving forward. I struggled with Chapter Two: The Violence of Men.

When I first presented this chapter to my writers’ critique group in August 2019, I discovered that it was an uncomfortable subject for the male members of our group. I could see the rage in the eyes of my writing friend seated directly across from me on the other side of the table.

“I’m not a violent man,” he told me, struggling to restrain his anger. “I defended my mother against our psychotic father… I protected her.”

Taken aback, I said: “I’m speaking in general terms.”

Another male member of our group was more measured with his response: “Rough content, but so is life.”

Guyana’s First National Survey on Gender-Based Violence, launched in November 2019, revealed that more than half (55%) of all women experienced at least one form of violence. More than one in ten had experienced physical and/or sexual violence from a male partner in the previous 12 months. One in every two women in Guyana has or will experience Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in their lifetime. Moreover, one in five (20%) women has experienced non-partner sexual abuse in their lifetime; thirteen percent (13%) experienced this abuse before the age of 18.

We live in a world still dominated by the heterosexual male. All men are not violent. All women are not nurturers. I’m considering changing the Chapter heading to “Violence as Humanity’s Default System.” What do you think?

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“Broken Strings” – Poem by American Poet Mark Tulin

16 Sunday Jul 2023

Posted by in Poetry, United States

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American Poet Mark Tulin
Photo Credit: Amazon Author Page


My Poetry Corner July 2023 features the poem “Broken Strings” from the poetry collection Awkward Grace: Poems (USA, 2019) by Mark Tulin, a poet, humorist, and short-story writer. The following excerpts of poems are all sourced from this collection.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he attended the Pennsylvania State University where he studied psychotherapy, specializing in family and sex therapy. In 2012, after practicing for over thirty years as a marriage and family therapist, he moved to Santa Barbara, Southern California. Today, he lives with his second wife, Alice, in Long Beach.

An only child, Tulin began writing poems as a teenager to cope with asthma and a dysfunctional family. His father, a fruit store owner, was charming, sociable, and rational. His mother was an independent-minded schizophrenic who “talked to herself and rarely filtered her words.” Because of his mother, he studied psychology and became a psychotherapist. “If I couldn’t fix my parents, I might be able to heal a family of strangers,” says Tulin in his author bio on Medium.

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Reflections on Serenity

09 Sunday Jul 2023

Posted by in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, Human Behavior

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Potential Record High Temperatures Across the South & Southeast – United States – June 2023
Source Map: Fox Weather

This is the third in my series of reflections on the “c-o-s-m-o-s remedy” proposed in opposition to the “ideology of e-s-c-a-p-e” by Jem Bendell in Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos (UK/USA 2021).

#1: Reflections on Compassion
#2: Reflections on Openness

In contrast to the habit of Control in e-s-c-a-p-e ideology, which involves thinking ‘I will try to impose on you and everything, including myself, so I feel safer,’ Bendell proposes that Serenity involves the feeling that ‘I appreciate the dignity of you, myself and all life, however disturbing situations might seem’ (p.146).

Serenity is defined as the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled. A look at the day’s headlines suggest that we are more generally inclined to feel the very opposite: fear, dread, anguish, and anxiety. Desperate for control over our lives, we often place our faith in powerful men to save us from drowning. In America, we pass laws to restrict the rights of others for control over their bodies.

Since childhood, fear has been a constant companion. Such is the nature of domestic violence. All I could control was fear itself. In high school, I learned the “Serenity Prayer” asking God for the wisdom to know the difference between things I could and could not change, and the courage to change what was within my power to change. I did what I could to improve communication between my parents, with no observable change.

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California – The Final Days of Spring

02 Sunday Jul 2023

Posted by in United States

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African ‘Lily of the Nile’ – Rosaliene’s Garden – Los Angeles – California – June 17, 2023

After an unusually wet and frigid winter, I was relieved that most of my plants had survived the deluge. A few, like the potted lime tree and croton bush, gained new life. Spring struggled to come into its own, remaining cooler than normal. The plants that flower in the spring are featured below. The captioned photo of the purple African ‘Lily of the Nile’ was the last plant to flower and is still in bloom.

The drought took a toll on the Amaryllis lilies, as shown in the photos below. This is the first spring that the stems only produced two flowers instead of four.

Amaryllis – Spring 2014
Amaryllis – Spring 2023

The yellow Calandivia succulent plant added much needed color to the garden plot in front of my apartment. I’ve had this plant for several years now and, despite the drought, it continues to bless my spring days with much needed joy. The adjacent plant pot with purple Graptoveria Debbie also added a touch of color with their star-shaped yellow mini-flowers.

Yellow Calandivia Succulent Plant – Spring 2023
Purple Graptoveria Debbie – Spring 2023

My favorite succulent rosettes, like the two plants below, all flowered this year. They have a strong not-so-pleasant scent that attracts the stray bees that visit my corner of the garden.

Aeonium ‘Kiwi’ – Spring 2023
Aeonium ‘Kiwi’ – Spring 2023

My indoor garden got a great boost this Mother’s Day with five new plants from my sons. So far, none of them have died. I keep them on top of the sideboard cupboard below my living room window where they enjoy the morning sunlight. As you will note in the photo, three of them are on the window ledge.

Temperatures are expected to rise this weekend. I’m brazing myself for the summer heat ahead. To my American readers, a Happy Independence Day!

Rosaliene’s Indoor Garden – Los Angeles – California – Spring 2023

“For Your Hypocrisy With a Kiss” by Brazilian Poet Eli Macuxi

18 Sunday Jun 2023

Posted by in Brazil, Poetry

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Brazilian Poet Eli Macuxi
Photo Credit: Blog Elimacuxi, Pure Poetry

My Poetry Corner June 2023 features the poem “For Your Hypocrisy With a Kiss” (Pra Sua Hipocrisia Com Um Beijo) by Brazilian poet, photographer, historian, and teacher Elisangela Martins, who self-identifies as Eli Macuxi or Elimacuxi. She teaches History and Art Criticism in the Visual Arts Course at the Federal University of Roraima with special interest in feminism and gender identity/orientation. As a historian and photographer, she has partnered with the Association of Transvestites and Transexuals of Roraima in fighting for human rights.

Born in 1973 in the City of São Paulo, she grew up in a favela on the periphery where, for the first ten years of her life, she faced hunger and begged on the streets. Her semi-illiterate father, from the Northeastern State of Ceará, taught her to read and write. With a childhood fascination for verse and encouraged by a teacher, she began writing poetry in fifth grade. At fifteen, she dreamed of having her work read and studied by others:

“But the desire was totally blunted by the pessimistic awareness of reality,” confides the poet on her blog. “I was a skinny teenager, without luck of getting a job, studying at night school on the periphery, ‘daughter of a drunkie,’ with lots of younger siblings. To be a writer? Poet? It was laughable.”

In 1990, as a seventeen-year-old night school student and receptionist at a pharmacy during the day, she married a much older man. Giving birth to triplets soon after did not bode well for their marriage. Before the triplet’s second birthday, her husband had had enough and left them. A divorcee and back home with her parents, she worked for two years at several part-time jobs before securing a steady job as a waitress at a high-end restaurant. 

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Reflections on Openness

11 Sunday Jun 2023

Posted by in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, Human Behavior

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New York City blanketed in smoke from Canadian wildfires – USA – June 7, 2023

This is the second in my series of reflections on the “c-o-s-m-o-s remedy” proposed in opposition to the “ideology of e-s-c-a-p-e” by Jem Bendell in Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos (UK/USA 2021).

#1: Reflections on Compassion

In contrast to the habit of Surety or Certainty in e-s-c-a-p-e ideology, which involves thinking ‘I will define you and everything in my experience so that I feel calmer,’ Bendell proposes that Openness wishes ‘I will keep returning to be curious about as much as I can, however unnerving’ (p.146).

What is the openness that Bendell refers to?

According to Psychology Today: “Openness to experience, or simply openness, is a basic personality trait denoting receptivity to new ideas and new experiences. It is one of the five core personality dimensions that drive behavior—known as the five-factor model of personality, or the Big 5. People with high levels of openness are more likely to seek out a variety of experiences, be comfortable with the unfamiliar, and pay attention to their inner feelings more than those who are less open to novelty. They tend to exhibit high levels of curiosity and often enjoy being surprised. People with low levels of openness prefer familiar routines, people, and ideas; they can be perceived as closed-minded.”

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Thought for Today: Climate Change Displacement in America

04 Sunday Jun 2023

Posted by in Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, Recommended Reading

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Front Cover: The Great Displacement: Climate Change and The Next American Migration by Jake Bittle
Photo Credit: Simon & Schuster (USA, 2023)

At the most fundamental level, displacement begins when climate change makes it either too risky or too expensive for people to stay somewhere. The disasters discussed in this book bear little resemblance to each other on the surface, but they all exert pressure on governments and private markets, whether through the financial costs of rebuilding or the strain of allocating scarce resources. As this pressure builds, it starts to push people around, changing where they can live or where they want to live. Sometimes this looks like the government paying residents of flood-prone areas to leave their homes; sometimes it looks like fire victims getting priced out of an unaffordable state; other times it looks like fishermen going broke as the wetlands around them erode. It may seem reductive to think about a planetary crisis in terms of financial risk rather than human lives, but that is how most people in this country will experience it—through the loss of their most valuable assets, or the elimination of their job, or a shift in where they can afford to live.

Excerpt from The Great Displacement: Climate Change and The Next American Migration by Jake Bittle, Simon & Schuster, New York, USA, 2023 (Introduction, p. xvii).

Note: The title of the book is an oblique reference to the Great Migration in American history (1920s to 1970s) when more than six million Black people left the South and moved to northern cities like New York and Chicago, fleeing an economic and humanitarian crisis.

JAKE BITTLE, a journalist based in Brooklyn, New York, is a staff writer at Grist, where he covers climate impacts and adaptation. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s Magazine, and a number of other publications.

The Writer’s Life: Is my creative writing mojo back?

28 Sunday May 2023

Posted by in The Writer's Life

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Auction of African Slaves on Arrival in the Dutch Colony of Novo Zeelandia, later known as Essequibo – Undated
Photo Credit: Images Guyana Blogspot

On Monday, May 22nd, I revisited Chapter One of my two-year-long neglected work in progress. As I revised the chapter, the familiar thrill of creating images with words surprised me. Once again, I was eager to engage with the creative process. I woke up in the mornings with ideas for improving or adding to the text. What a joy!

Since last working on this chapter in January 2020, I found it easier to “kill [my] darlings”—words, phrases, sentences, and even entire paragraphs. While maintaining the purpose of setting the stage of the world in which the featured women fought for agency in their lives, I found it challenging to cut and tighten critical historical information. Although the players in our own time have changed somewhat, women and minority groups are still fighting the same battles.

To establish the author as a participant-observer in the lives of these women, the narrative also contains autobiographical information. The author, like all the players on the stage, shares their legacy of severed ancestral roots.

Regardless of the efforts of some among us to rewrite or erase America’s brutal history, the legacies of slavery and colonialism continue to impact our lives at home and worldwide.

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“Horror, Too, Has a Heartbeat” – Poem by Caribbean American Poet Lauren K Alleyne

21 Sunday May 2023

Posted by in Poetry

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Caribbean American Poet Lauren K Alleyne
Source: Poet’s Official Website (Photo by Erica Cavanagh)

My Poetry Corner May 2023 features the poem “Horror, Too, Has a Heartbeat” from the poetry collection Honeyfish by Lauren K. Alleyne, first published by Peepal Tree Press (UK, 2019). Born in the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, the poet arrived in the USA at eighteen years old after receiving a scholarship from St. Francis College in New York City, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English. She also earned a Masters Degree in English and Creative Writing from Iowa State University (2002) and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Poetry from Cornell University (2006).

In 2022, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia recognized Alleyne with an Outstanding Faculty Award for her work at James Madison University, where she serves as a professor of English and executive director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center. She currently resides in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Honeyfish, her second collection of poetry, won the 2018 New Issues Press Green Rose Prize sponsored by Western Michigan University. In the first of three untitled sections of the collection, the poet-persona bears witness to the relentless horror of white oppression and murder of black bodies: Aaron Campbell (Oregon, 2010), Trayvon Martin (Florida, 2012), Tamir Rice (Ohio, 2014), Sandra Bland (Texas, 2015), Charleston mass shootings (South Carolina, 2015), and Charlottesville white supremacist protest (Virginia, 2017). In contrast to such violence, the elegies and poems of remembrance hold no malice. Instead, we experience the tender and painful images of the innocent lost.

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