Music Therapy for ADHD: Benefits of Classical Music

Music and ADHD Mind

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Steve Jobs delivered a commencement speech to Stanford University students on June 12, 2005.  My father gave me a copy of it around the time I graduated from college.  I came across it again recently as I was cleaning.  I'm going to put some of it on my blog.

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.  So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.  You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.  This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

...I was lucky to find what I loved to do early in life.  Woz and I started Apple in my parents' basement when I was 20.  We worked hard, and in ten years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.  We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.  And then I got fired...What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months...I even thought about running away from the Valley.  But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did.  The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit.  I had been rejected, but I was still in love.  And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that ever could have happened to me.  The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything...You've got to find what you love.  And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.  Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.  And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.  If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.  Don't settle.  As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.  And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.  So keep looking until you find it.  Don't settle.

...When I was 17, I read a quote that was something like, "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"  And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.  Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.  Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  You are already naked.  There is no reason not to follow your heart.

...Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.  Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking.  Don't let the noise of other people's opinions drown out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you want to become.

...On the back cover of their (The Whole Earth Catalog) final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.  Beneath it were the words, "Stay Hungry. Stay foolish."  And I have always wished that for myself.

Moby, Jill Scott & Blue Man Group Perform "Natural Blues" at the Grammy's

I was thinking of this performance the other day.  To be honest, it's a bit of an over-the-top assault to the senses.  However, it's still kinda awesome.  Decided to share it here.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24zfi_moby-jill-scott-blue-man-group-natu_music

Om Mani Padme Hum

A few years ago I finally found the time to read The Lost Horizon by James Hilton.  My interest in this book grew slowly over time.  At first I heard it was where the place "Shangri-La" comes from.  Then I heard it was the first book to ever be published as a paperback.  Then I heard interesting things about the writer.  It was a slow road towards finally reading it.

And as I was reading it, I came across a Tibetan prayer that Hilton included in it without explaining much about it: om mani padme hum.   It was weird and I decided to investigate it.  I came across this website and decided to share it as a token that sometimes reading a book is the catalyst for coming across other interesting knowledge that you weren't expecting to find.  I love when that happens :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_mani_padme_hum 

A Musician Tries to Write a Book ~ the duldrums

The Original 1982 ~ by Lori Carson


Don't have much to say about this book.  It's not great but it has its positive qualities.  The writing is not great.  However, if the premise of the story interests you, you should try it. 

If you had an abortion twenty or so years ago, what would it be like to imagine a life in which you hadn't made that decision?  What if you could fill all that time that's passed in between with details from a life that never began?  That's what this book attempts.

I found this book had a few gems in it - whether it was a curiously written sentence, an interesting name, or an interesting thought here and there.  However, often it fails as a book - sort of because the writer is used to writing in the abstract, in songs.   She fails at the longer distance race that is novel writing.  That makes a difference as a reader because it is noticeable, distracting, and tiresome.  But,  for my part having read it, I try to remember the things I did enjoy about it.  And I had never read a book by a musician before.  Or one that so paralleled real life (the songwriter speaks of songs she wrote, put the lyrics in the text, and it turned out that the music really existed and I could listen to the song).  That was a really weird extra-book life that I've never known a book to have before.  It seemed cool but maybe it was just weird.

North and South ~ Elisabeth Gaskell
 I found this book only after seeing the BBC film adaptation.  I hadn't read a British Victorian-Era novel in a while, and was glad to return to that period.  As with other books from that place and time, this book is concerned with social issues especially as a result of the changes that came as a result of industrialization. 

Margaret Hale, the heroine, is an interesting if at times difficult to believe in character.  She is almost too perfect.  She escapes becoming a woman submerged in brainless/unrewarding activities of going to balls, reflecting only the interests of those around you without having any of your own, marrying the most affluent man you can find, etc. in spite of having grown up amongst such society/female role models.  Somehow, her temperament keeps her impervious to these influences even though she moved in with her aunt/cousin as a young girl.  

When the novel begins, she moves back to her mother/father who are suffering financially from the father's decision to give up his living as a pastor.  This change in environment/comfort level (her aunt is living well in London as is wealthy, while her parents need to live frugally) also doesn't seem difficult for her.  I found this particularly difficult to believe simply because it's a drastic change.  Margaret is very concerned for her parents' well-being and perhaps this distracts her, but it cannot be easy to go from no worries to many worries and how you are going to be able to live.  She comments on the change, but in a way it seems to escape her.  

In spite of this question of believability, Margaret seems to be a very strong character.  She faces making decisions even in the face of difficult emotions (which both her parents fail to do) and is very helpful in securing a new place for her parents to live.  She holds herself to high standards of behavior and morality, and is very intelligent.  I enjoyed this book because even though these are good qualities to have, Margaret does have them to the extreme.  She is a harsh judge of others and of herself, she has a temper, and often fails to bite her tongue even if it were better for her to keep her opinions to herself.  In a way, she's too much of a good thing.  Moderation & balance is something she struggles to attain and it's interesting to watch her try.

Much of this unfolds through life experiences and what they teach her.  Some of it is illustrated through her relationship with one man, Mr. Thornton.  He seems to represent her haste to bias/drawing conclusions very quickly, her dislike of unfamiliar things, and her struggle to allow for qualities similar to her own revealing themselves in another person.  Their relationships consistently forces her to work on these short comings of hers.  When she doesn't approach it like that she simply assumes the worst about Mr. Thornton's character.  

This interesting dynamic plays out between them as he falls in love with her, but she is unwilling to see any good in his character.  He has to learn moderation in his own right as she brings out intense emotions for him that he doesn't regulate naturally as he has never felt them before.  

I thought it was an interesting story, with interesting characters, and it presented some social philosophy about allowing economic need to dictate our behavior at any cost.  Much of the novel is about seeing two extremes and learning to find one's way to a middle path, as evidenced in the title.   A good read.   

 
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

I am also writing this long after finishing the book - so my memory is a little hazy.

The only thing I have to add is about the contrast/similarities between President Snow and President Coin.  For most of the book Katniss fights for President Coin and against Snow.  However, she realizes that Coin allowed Prim to die in order to make a political move against Snow.  Katniss realizes they are both murderers and will do whatever is necessary for political survival.  Essentially, there is no difference between them.

In the adult world, things are rarely black and white morally speaking (or really in any terms).  That is often terrifying and confusing when trying to decide how to act as an adult.  Katniss experiences that in this book.

Easy reads - glad I read them.

 

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

I waited so long to write on this book that I don't recall my thoughts very well.  I remember that I felt this trilogy probably could have been only two books.  This second title and the third, Mockingjay, seemed to stretched out in order to make two books and the reading became a little more tiresome.

These novels were quick and easy to read like much of young adult fiction.  The narrator, Katniss, doesn't withhold much from the reader and that makes it easy to enter her story.  The drama of the districts, her fight with President Snow, and her second competition in the hunger games is interesting albeit increasingly less believable.  In The Hunger Games, it was easy to read on because the notion of putting children in such a horrific situation was something you wanted to witness as Collins created it.  I also thought it was relevant social commentary for the time we live in.  However, in this book Collins creates a larger political role for Katniss - and this only grows bigger into the next book.  Katniss has a fighter's mentality - she fights Snow as she had fought off starving as a younger child.  From that perspective it's an interesting story as she continues to fight but on a very different battleground that she doesn't understand as well.  Fighting Snow is complicated, fighting off hunger was a hard and scary fight but one she knew how to wage.

Second to this central story of Katniss is her relationship with Peeta.  On one level this relationship, along with Katniss and Gale's, is very manufactured.  Gale seems to represent Katniss' fighting attitude while Peeta seems to speak to something softer about herself she never had the chance to explore.  These relationships are like externalizing those competing interests in herself.  However, I still found Peeta/Katniss' narrative an interesting one.  They shared a moment as youngsters when he gave her food because she was starving, but the hunger games hijacked that relationship and made it an unreal one created only for the media to consume.   Then within that crazy situation Katniss has to sort out how she feels about him and herself.

For me that was the most interesting aspect of these books.

Last year both my grandfather and uncle passed away.  Over the past nine years I've been trying to donate blood, occasionally, to the American Red Cross.  I first got the idea in high school when I saw an advertisement on television asking for people to donate to the national blood supply.  But it took me a while to get around to doing it.

When I donated just before the new year, I read some materials in the office saying that the national blood supply is dwindling a lot at present.  It seems to do that every year during the winter but according to the paper it seemed worse now than usual.  The paper also mentioned that donations are the only source of "material" for the national blood supply so, like a non-profit organization, it is totally dependent on the participation of the public for support.  Whenever someone gets cancer and needs transfusions, or has a traumatic accident and needs for there to be blood available upon admittance to the emergency room - these are the times when the national blood supply is called upon.  If I were in either situation I know I would appreciate the blood being there.

It is an odd experience to donate your blood.  Watching it leave your body, feeling the heat of it through the plastic tube.  Hearing the nurse tell you all the precautions you must take during the blood-letting, afterwards, and all the warnings she gives you about what might happen as a result of your offering.  It seems like a lot to do for a total stranger and this time I was wondering why I was doing it and more scared than previously that I might faint or something worse while on the table. I wondered more why I was doing this - it seemed more dangerous.  Previously, I had done it out of some sense of doing right or participating in something that I viewed as important.  But I didn't really realize how much it could put me at risk or how valuable what I was offering really was.

After I donated, I tried to stay as long as possible thinking I didn't want to just drive away in case something happened while I was behind the wheel of my car.  I ate a lot of food and drank a lot of fluids and just kind of communed with my own body.  I could see some people giving "double platelets" which is some kind of more complicated procedure which takes more time and apparently takes more "material" out of the body.  The people doing that were sitting watching television programs, drinking fluids and lying under warm blankets.   These people appeared to be taking an even bigger risk.  I overheard that one woman was doing this in memory of her mother who had recently died of cancer.  I thought about donating in memory of my grandfather/uncle and decided to do so.

STOP!!!

Something helpful I found on the Mindfulness for ADHD facebook page recently.  Though it's probably good advice for anyone.
 
STOP reminder can help us to do a short mindfulness practice in the midst of daily activities:
S=Stop
T=Take a breath (or two)
O=Observe (what am I doing at this moment? What thoughts, feelings or body sensations am I noticing right now, at this present moment?)
P=Proceed (Continue with increased awareness. Ask yourself: Do I need to change anything? ex. relax shoulders a bit; switch attention from a distraction to an intended task etc).

I recently began working at my public library.  One of the chores of a library is managing the current status between the amount of materials in your collection and the amount of space in the building.  Interestingly, it seems there are a higher number of authors out there with last names beginning in "A" and "B."  Almost every section that is catalogued alphabetically has a pile up in that part of the alphabet.  Recently, it was our local children's librarian who had a turn dealing with this pile-up.  And she posted this hilarious clip on our staff intranet to vent her frustrations.  I'm now sharing it on my blog because it had me smiling for two days straight. 

2015 In Books - Riding the Wave

2015 Reading List...whatever happens, happens.

1. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
2. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
3. Ruby by Cynthia Bond
4. Cascade by Maryanne O'Hara
5. The Original 1982 by Lori Carson
6. tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
7. All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn
8. Grendel by John Gardner
9. Bohemian Gospel by Dana Carpenter 
10. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
11. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
12. Little Birds by Anais Nin
13. Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
14. A Letter to a Child Never Born by Orianna Falacci

 

2015 Statement of Purpose:

I'm excited for another year of the reading challenge.  The last two years I really was only just getting back into reading with my own interests in mind again.  This upcoming year I'm not going to set myself up with a reading list that I chop away at as I did in the last two challenges.  Rather, my only goal is to reach the "trying" level of fifteen books.  My other goal is to read a little of many different topics (I'm going for financial reading, a biography or two, a title on religion and philosophy, a book concerning one of my hobbies, a history book, a sci-fi title, a Jane Austen title, a tasteful romance, a mystery or two, a couple of books about ADHD, self-help, a book concerning astronomy, begin reading Dante, and A Tree Grows In Brooklyn).  I've focused so much on fiction in the past and after working at a library I'm acquiring more of an appreciation for the very wide world of non-fiction books.  

I started last year expanding this blog beyond reading challenge reviews.  I would like to do more of that next year as well.  Blogging is something I never really understood - it seems to have its own culture of people who like to publish their every thought, people who appear to want to be writers/journalists but can't make a career of it, or who just participate in the blogging culture and so spend way too much time on the internet.  I don't prefer to read news on a computer screen - I usually try to stay up to date by watching BBC news or reading an occasional newspaper.  Recently, I've become someone who gets news from the newsfeed on facebook which I am trying to stop doing.  I don't tend to like to read other people's opinions of anything unless they know a bit about what they're talking about.  And so, I don't have any reasons to blog.  

I've decided to treat this blog as a review of books and as a chronicle of interesting things I've found, made, or done over the course of next year.  Kind of like an edited version of a private journal appropriate for public perusal.  I doubt anyone will read any of it - but it's ok if they do.  

 
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
These books took me a little by surprise.  I stay away from popular literature that is made into films pretty much as a rule.  I've never read Harry Potter for instance, and I will not be reading any Veronica Roth books.  I saw the Hunger Games movie a couple of times and went to see Catching Fire - and it was after seeing that film that I thought reading these books might be a worthwhile experience.  The relationship between the two lead characters, Katniss and Peeta, seemed interesting.  

Apparently, these books are somewhat based on the Greek myth of Theseus who saves children who are being sacrificed to a monster living in a labrynth.  So are the children of Panem meant to be sacrificial lambs in the Hunger Games.  

Also, as a rule, I am reluctant to read young adult literature for any meaningful philosophical thought/social commentary.  It's not that I'm being snobby, some young adult fiction I've read has been great at presenting the realities of coming of age as well as some ways of thinking that help make sense of life's difficulties (I'm thinking of books like A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, The Giver, Great Expectations, Greek and Roman myths among others).  The Hunger Games is not a book I would turn to or recommend as a good coming of age story nor do I think of it as a unique look at our society.  The world of Panem as Suzanne Collins has made it obviously raises the question - how did this world turn out like this?  Why does this society sacrifice its children in such a grandiose spectacle?  Is the author trying to say something about where our culture is headed?  

As tempting as these questions are while reading this book - I think it wise to avoid thinking of them too much.  I think Panem is probably just another fictional world created by an author who wishes to be able to construct an entirely different universe (as with Hogwart's or Narnia) - just because this serves the author's purposes doesn't mean this parallel world has much to teach us about our own.  

Instead I think the best of this book is Katniss and her story.  Second to that is Peeta and the difficulties he experiences trying to become a part of Katniss' life.  Katniss is a strong, young female character.  From the first page she is the dominant figure in her family which includes only a mother and a younger sister.  Her mother is bereft with grief after the loss of her husband and so is of no help in doing what is necessary to keep them all alive.  Katniss hunts for their food, barters at the market for goods that they need, cooks meals, and cares for the family animals that help keep them alive.  Her strength is something I always enjoyed in characters I read of as a youth.  It's encouraging to have an example of a younger person who is capable of doing many things and gives you a look into what being an adult is like.  Sometimes your own life doesn't require that you carry that much responsibility but it is important that you begin to understand what responsibility is.  Katniss is a good example of that type of character.  

Given all that is demanded of her - Katniss is not a very sensitive person mostly towards herself and her own needs.  She is more interested in taking care of those she loves and what it is going to take in order to accomplish that.  Peeta approaches her as if both things are important.  He supports how she does whatever is necessary to care for her family, but he wants to know if she has more than that to offer.  His purpose is oblique through much of the novel.  They work together but it's not clear if they will end up having to fight one another so they are very impersonal towards one another.  Katniss seems alright with this because she is a distant person and the circumstances dictate it.  Peeta seems to obey the rules of the games, but unlike Katniss he has some hidden purpose that for most of this novel is unrevealed.  

Finally, though I think Katniss is the most interesting reason to read this trilogy, this book does illustrate one social issue well: the effect of pointing a camera at something.  The people of this book have serious problems - starvation, dictatorship, fear, violence, and lack of opportunity.  As in our world, we don't effectively turn cameras on what matters and thereby make them the most powerful tools they could be.  Rather, we turn the cameras away from our worst blemishes and towards gratification of our fantasies.  Panem and the Hunger Games are a horror-show version of this very real and familiar aspect of our own society.  I suppose this would be an understandable situation - feeding fantasy is not necessarily a bad thing.  But it has gotten out of control in our society I think as it did in Panem. 

I would recommend this book to someone looking for a fast read, who likes books with young protagonists, and has an interest in science-fiction/fantasy books.  

Folk Database: Marwnad yr Ehedydd (The Death of the Lark)

Folk Database: Marwnad yr Ehedydd (The Death of the Lark):

Mi glywais fod yr 'hedydd,

Wedi marw ar y mynydd;

Pe gwyddwn i mai gwir y geiriau,

Awn a gyrr o wŷr ac arfau,

I gyrchu corff yr 'hedydd adre.

Mi glywais fod yr hebog

Eto'n fynych uwch y fawnog,

A bod ei galon a'i adenydd

Wrth fynd heibio i gorff yr 'hedydd

Yn curo'n llwfr fel calon llofrudd.

Mi a glywais fod cornchwiglan

Yn ei ddychryn i ffwrdd o'r siglan

Ac na chaiff, er dianc rhagddi,

Wedi rhusio o dan y drysni,

Ond aderyn y bawn i'w boeni.

I heard that the Lark,

Has died on the mountain;

If I knew these words were true,

I would go with a group of men and arms,

To fetch the Lark's body home.

I heard that the hawk

Still frequent above the peat bog,

Has his heart and his wings aflutter

Ready to go after the body of the Lark

Beating cowardly like a murderer's heart.

I heard that a loud horn

Can frighten him from the bog

And he won't get the body, but run away,

Hidden away beneath the thicket

But such a bird I would bring to suffer pain.