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Family Menu:
Individual Growth, Relationship, & happiness factors
that can Make, or Break, the Whole Thing
See the separate "Home" link to the right
Personal Growth, Inspiration, & Motivation
For All the things you do in your Life,
your motivation, your inspiration, and your mind set,
are the Most influential determining factors
for your happiness and success,
And ... for those you love!
Caroline Myss, Ph.D.
Our Families, Our Children
Education Related:
A GREAT many Useful links at "Knowledgehound.com"
US Department of Health & Human Services "Home Page"
US Dept of Health & Human Services "Families & Children Related"
TobaccoFreeKids.org
IgniteGeneration.org
Working to get "Big Tobacco" OUT of Politics, and
OUT of the "BUSINESS" of Continuing to Hook our Children
on their horribly Murderous ... Dirty ... and
Home & Forest Fire producing "product."
EVERY Day,... an average of 1200 Americans
DIE horrible Deaths from their Use of
Tobacco.
Do you think ALL the farmers who GROW it ...
and ALL the people in the corporations who MANUFACTURE it ...
and ALL the stock holders who SUPPORT it ...
and ALL the owners and managers of STORES who SELL it ...
and ALL the Addicted Smokers who blissfully suck DEATH into their lungs ...
and use the beauty of our country sides and cities ...
as their personal Ash trays ...
and ALL the members of the UNITED STATES CONGRESS ...
who Continue to Allow this insanity and slow agonizing murder
Year after Year after Year ...
actually CARE?
If we see you smoking,
we will assume you are on Fire,
and take appropriate action!
Don't let another child pick up the habit.
How to Quit Smoking
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PBS Reading Rockets Young Reader Program
Many helpful links!
Great Math Help Site ... for Students and Teachers!
Various Calculators
Encyclopedia.com
RefDesk.com
US Government Science Portal
Aeronautics Classroom Activities
NASA Paper Airplane Designs
Science Toys
Tell someone you love about theNASA Kids Club
They collect virtual trading cards, trade them online,
have their own e-mail account,
and participate in great learning activities
for extra club points.
Scientific American Website
NASA Educational Links
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive!!
NPR Science Friday
Dr. Science
Why Files
Newest Communication Technologies
for Families & Business
TRAC
founded in 1983, is a non-profit membership organization
based in Washington, DC that promotes the interests of
residential telecommunications customers.
TRAC staff researches telecommunications issues and publishes
rate comparisons to help consumers make informed decisions
regarding their long distance and local phone service options.
TRAC can be found on the web at
TRAC.org
USA National Do Not Call List
The Stuff Men Like
A Woman's Place
... is anywhere she wants.
USA Health Information and
Referral Center for Women
Home Entertainment & Recreation
Dim the lights please Hal.
US Local Theater Information
Movielink for the "Freedom to Download"![]()
Vacations, Travel & Accessories
Pets or Pests?
Oh, I see you have a Rhinoceros !
Bill Cosby
Pet Related Resources - Newsletters
Behavior Modification tools & techniques.
Pet Food Plans
Veterinarian Plans
Animal Welfare Sites
The Humane Society of the United States
Pet Savers Foundation
The Following links are to a Wonderful Pet related website, beautifully created
and maintained by Pawprints & Purrs, Inc. at www.sniksnak.com
Cat Information
The benefits of Spay/Neutering
Cat Health Care
The Facts About Declawing
Feline First Aid
Pawprints & Purrs ~ a catlopedia
Plants that are/aren't toxic to pets
OTHER PET RELATED LINKS
CATS - a guide, with Franny Syufy
Find low cost spay/neuter near you
Soft Paws-a declaw alternative
Rescuers.com
California's Directory of Animal Rescue Groups and Shelters
Rent with pets
Hotels that take pets
Ensuring Happy Relationships
or healing injured ones ...
PROBLEMS in Communication = PROBLEMS in the Relationship
But when those problems get beyond the point where we simply can't
understand them anymore, What do we Do about it?
Every so often our civilization discovers new break-throughs that allow us to be Free from the gross errors of past "accepted ways" simply because we didn't previously understand something Basic about life, about human beings and the motivational factors of the way we behave, or the universe for that matter! Some easily recalled examples are Galileo and "the Church," The Crusades, The Spanish Inquisition, The Salem Witch Trials, and the Vietnam WAR, just to name a few. In each of these great wrongs perpetrated by authority figures of the time, the result has been great pain and suffering simply because we didn't Know enough to realize we were Wrong! Of course, that process of finding greater understanding, and Better ways, hopefully still lives Today!
For those of you in other countries, hopefully your statistics are better, however...
A Century ago, the recorded divorce rate in America was 6%.
Fifty years ago, the recorded U.S. divorce rate was 14%.
At the beginning of this New Century, the divorce rate in America is very close to 60%!
Dr. Phillip McGraw, ( Dr. Phil )
From a past segment on the Oprah show concerning the destructive
pain of misunderstanding leading both to, and from, affairs.
We've CERTAINLY made Progress over this last hundred years, Haven't we?
After all, Large Change Does have its little Consequences now, doesn't it.
While it's true that certain more radical groups might consider that statistic a vast improvement toward their polemic viewpoint, that resultant opinion is simply another severe response to the same original problem, the huge gap in understanding the inner motives and resulting perplexing behaviors of the "opposite" sex.
Does there seem to be a trend here? If we can assume without overly complicated statistical analysis, that this is Not just some temporarily painful social aberration, then there must be certain factors at the base of this problem.
Let's Consider just One of the Prime ones!
The "prime directive" of legal systems is to Punish, Not to heal!
With Them, Everything has always got to be a Battle,
with a Winner And a Loser!
It's what they Understand! It's what they DO.
It's a part of their Basic mentality!
And, it's what Pays their bills.
The Legal profession has Highly Paid extravagantly spending lobbyists, just like other highly funded Big businesses, who do their very Best to influence our legislators into passing newer and newer Laws each year that simply ensures more business for them! Of course in cases like large scale corporate greed that seriously injures whole segments of our society just to allow certain corporate officers and their share holders to enrich themselves, or cases protecting us from drunken drivers or mass murderers, that's Certainly a Good thing! However in the case of family law, what has that same punishment mentality actually Done for, or possibly to our society?
So just what Are our goals, both as a society, and as families today
regarding this simply generally accepted lawyers office business as usual
divorce processing mill cash cow anyway? And just How many additional lives and relationships of extended family and friends are destroyed for Decades, or for added generations upon Generations, by that same adversarial punishment mentality?
Are there Problems in marriages? Of COURSE there are!
Can those problems get totally out of hand when we fail
to understand why being what we Think of as logical, simply doesn't Work anymore?
Of COURSE they can!
On the One hand, our society says "There's Something Wrong here with this multiplying pain of the current divorce rate!" But on the Other hand, the Enforcement arm of that same society says, "Don't blame Us! It's not Our fault! How Could it be when we get so Handsomely PAID to Rip each and Every One of those families apart 'legally,' doing this Public Service we do!"
However, is having our families encouraged to be RIPPED apart by our own "legal" system, often times Completely destroying in the process, extremely fragile family financial structures, which were Usually one of the main Causes of the problems in the first place, simply as an inconsequential side effect of the way things Are today, really a Logical solution to these already painful Enough issues, just because the "lawyers" have a "Complicated and Expensive formula" for such things?
Or Might that actually be a
simplistic and Painfully Ignorant and/or greedy formula ...
at the emotional and financial expense of, at the very minimum,
tens of thousands of families, everywhere.
In Today's world, our various state legislators, whom We elect, have created and allowed a Family Law Punishment structure which is a result of the same "legal mind set" which has created our prison system!
Family Law, as it Currently exists, Does NOTHING, and CARES Nothing, about Healing the pain of the gender based, and current economy based, misunderstandings and stresses which are at the Bottom of So many painful break-ups, which then in turn, Often times give Additional pain to multiple generations of caring and deeply injured family members. Family Law, as it Currently exists ... ONLY adds MORE pain of the disastrous emotional variety, and THEN Bills the "family" for the Expenses of TWO lawyers for the "privilege" of Doing so ... money which could and Should have gone to the Positive values of REPAIRING sensitive family relationships, and Enhancing understanding and HEALING ... rather than the Additional pain Plus the Massive ... both Financial and Emotional expense ... to the Entire Family, of Divorce.
The "legal" profession is very practiced at washing their hands of any blame and staying very "clean," just as other so-called authority figures of the past have been able to do when they've assisted in doing great harm. Over time, they've managed to convince society that their remedy is the Only game in town!
As long as it's legal, what More can our society and "The Law" possibly ask?
I Wonder ?
Take a look in ANY phone book, and examine just HOW many advertisements there are for the Destructive Lawyer provided Divorce "services" ... and THEN ... COMPARE that number with how many advertisements there are for Competent Constructive Family Counselors! One other indicator of just Where we've actually placed our priorities can be found in just how long a Waiting list there is to make an appointment with Any Lawyer, as compared to how long it takes to even FIND a Family or mental health Counselor who is even Taking new cases today!
WHERE are our Priorities these days? Is this "society" Really what we ALL wanted to grow up in when we were all idealistic children in grade school thinking about the exciting futures and the world we were Dreaming of building and experiencing?
Our Legislators HAVE the "power" to Seriously turn this pain around ... by seeing To it that our society is given the "Chance" to actually HELP marriages stay Together, rather than simply Bow Down to the "legal mind set" of the Divorce Attorney legal club which does Nothing but create More pain for multiple generations. We have GIVEN our legislators the POWER to encourage our institutions of Higher learning to focus on training a great many MORE Professionals in the Healing mind set, rather than the Punishment for Profit mind set as seen in all Too many "legal offices" ...
if ONLY they will DO it!
If Only ...
the couple had been Fortunate enough
to FIND the "Right" kind of help!
Not being Catholic myself, I don't necessarily stop everything I'm doing when the Pope speaks, but that certainly doesn't mean he hasn't anything important to say from time to time! A few years ago, the previous Pope came out with an open call to all attorneys pleading with them to Stop making their business profits at the massive expense of Families everywhere!
Whether you are Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu, Fundamentalist Christian, Or even atheist, the request the Pope made to those "attorneys" is just as morally valid as if it had come from the mouth of any other source of "wisdom" on this planet!
Of course the fault isn't completely that of the legal profession! They're just the exorbitantly paid family executioners. The originating problems naturally occur within the marriage itself, with the level of communication and understanding husbands and wives have
of, and with each other!
Let's use this analogy. When we've stumbled or even been tripped, injuring a wrist or an elbow in the process, and are in great pain, do we ask our family doctor to help the pain go away by helping it to heal with all the current expertise he or she has , and then do our very best to LEARN whatever it Takes so we don't stumble again, or do we ask that doctor to schedule the operating room for an amputation just below the shoulder, with all the associated highly skilled specialists from surgeons, anesthesiologists, laboratories, and 38 other hospital expenses that are sure to be itemized in great Detail when the back breaking Bill comes, all Perfectly Legal, done by "professionals." Don't be Ridiculous, you say! Well, of course, the Medical Profession doesn't usually Do that, but certain Other professions don't seem to play by the same set of societal morals, ethics, and wisdom, that the medical profession at least attempts to.
A family already going through that pain of facing what turns out to be trying to do things logically, only to discover far down the road that they've been using two different interpretations of what the word logic really means all along, shouldn't be pushed by a well meaning, yet terribly flawed concept, to be forced into yet another no win scenario by a lawyer designed fight, necessitating by that very Same design, the hiring of not One, but TWO different attorneys, just so they can "help" each and every family in pain, and in need of wisdom and healing, be ripped to shreds instead, all in the name of " helping."
What's needed here is a complete restructuring of the whole concept of what it actually Means in this society to help families in often times both economic and emotional pain!
And, oh yes ... by All Means, let's keep encouraging American corporations to Keep outsourcing jobs to overseas countries, all in the name of "profit" (?) ... and a New World Order!
Thousands of years ago, civilized society pleasured itself by forcing a defenseless few into a large arena with No escape, and then they let in the lions. In today's 21st Century, society doesn't really get the optimum constructive results by encouraging couples and families into yet another mandated adversarial arena where the only response from the legal mind set is that of saying, "Come to us! We have the cure! Bring on the Lions!"
What would happen if law schools and their graduate attorneys, were simply to redirect their own businesses slightly to refocus on prosecuting or defending the proverbial evil doers and drawing up wills and real estate transactions instead? Would this mean there might have to be some little societal re adjustment in the population of lawyers in our society? And if so, would that necessarily be a Bad thing? Possibly an unknown percentage of them might even wish to retrain in the field of marriage counseling instead of legal counseling, to balance the larger societal equation a bit more constructively, and simply Never have to worry about those train loads and warehouses full of nice and Legal crates of paperwork ever again! Would this possibly mean that there might be significantly Fewer broken families than whatever the outrageously painful percentage is today?
But then there's that whole issue of mind set again, isn't there!
Marriage Hospital and Divorce Resource Center
Judy Parejko has done a kind and compassionately caring
job for anyone who could use a source of sanity that can shine
a much brighter light on the additional pain which is so often
cruelly perpetuated by our so-called "family" legal system,
which even today, only benefits and perpetuates the "system"
and those who work In it, and in an all too large percentage
of cases, destroys everything else. Just how Rich do "Family"
lawyers need to Be anyway, at our expense, and that of the
security of the entire families they profess to serve,
especially when there is a much better way?
In most cases, the problem originates, and then Snowballs
from a painfully huge lack of understanding of our own
gender based behavioral differences.
Cure That, and there would never have to Be a Need to discuss the
Destructively simplistic formulas of "family" law in most cases!
But what about the marriage and family counselors we've already Had
for many Decades now? Of course a very large percentage of them have done
enormous Good! However, just like the new discoveries we've made in medicine, agriculture, space travel, computing, and clearing those massive traffic jams from our freeways (well, four out of five isn't bad), there's also been break-throughs in understanding men and women, and husbands and wives too!
There are extremely valid yet very difficult reasons why husbands and wives trap themselves into these corners of strong misunderstandings and resulting stress, which can only be healed by competent and compassionate counselors who are there to help, as opposed to destroying. The main complication with that remedy in the past is that just like all of humanity's many other specialties, even marriage counselors and other mental health professionals have varying schools of thought about the most effective remedies. There are Freudian based, behavioral based, cognitive based, medically based, and solely religiously based counselors, among others, who only tend to see any married couple before them as examples for treatment of whatever specialty they happen to support. Just as with humanity's other areas of knowledge, human relationship healing specialties are still in a process of transition and evolution.
There Are new discoveries, and new ways of helping ... All the time!
And it's about Time we Found those discoveries!
Understanding that we DON'T understand:
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
The Books and the Video Seminars
You've no doubt Heard about it, and possibly even read
or heard some of the other media formats about it But ...
have you actually taken the TIME together to Really Understand it
... from each Other's personal points of view?
Would you Like to understand what neither gender understands Today?
Would you Like to either enrich or possibly save your Marriage
and the happiness of your Children, if not for now,
then for sometime in the future?
For much Less than the cost of a Great Dinner at a good restaurant,
a good Show, a Really nice Hotel room with a bottle of chilled champagne,
a fragrant bouquet of roses, and in the candlelight, a flavorful dish of ripe red
strawberries, together with a can of whipped cream on the side, the vast majority of
those Mars Venus barriers that have escalated beyond all Reason, can simply vanish,
to be replaced with the smiles, hugs, kisses, and the forgiveness that so easily
comes with understanding, plus a few giggles thrown in just for fun,
just like the ones you can once again recall from years past.
And All that's needed is that Next level of Understanding & Wisdom
you just didn't quite have before!
Take it from one who knows...
Learn It! And Teach it to your Children at the appropriate time!
Our Society is Intelligent enough to finally Cure this Problem ... or in the very Least, a Very large part of it ...
if ONLY our "law makers" will Shift their Focus from Allowing "lawyers" to
Feast on the emotional pain Every family member feels ...
and instead do a LOT MORE to encourage a much GREATER number of
Helpful family therapists in this So called "civilization" of ours!
Separation of Church and State can certainly be a Good thing ...
but Only as Long as the State hasn't Lost it's sense of Compassion ... and Wisdom ... and REAL Justice, not just for 'one side' or the other in some Ridiculously expensive TUG-of-WAR ... to Crush a spouse, and in doing so, crush a Family ... but for both sides to continue searching ... for a true win - WIN solution, through a hopeful attempt, at opening a New, and deeper level ... of understanding.
Didn't the "State" ... used to be ... "us?"
Visit the
Mars - Venus Web site !Other Resources:
RELATIONSHIP & Self Improvement Related Sources
Smart Marriages.com
Marriage Worksheet from Oprah & Dr. Phil
Forgiveness and Letting Go
Divorce Stopper
More Resources coming soon ...
And IF you've done EVERYTHING; spell that EVERYTHING ... possible
to SAVE your Marriage and your Family, but it's Simply Out of your Hands,
FIRST of all, Ease your mind by Discovering a Great many of the Reasons in
"Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus"
and When the grief is Somewhat bearable again, try ...
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Christian Connection
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