A Distinctive Style Fall Issue with Jackie Evancho

FALL 2012

soNG BIrD

JACKIe eVANCHo

STORIES of

CHANGE

sINGs soNGs From tHe sILVersCreeN

FALL 2012 ECO FASHION TRENDS

A MIRACLE CURE

Paul Englishby

FAstest mAN IN tHe worLD

TONY vOLPENTEST’S

STORY BreAsts

DeFINe A womAN

STACY SHELTON

ARRANGED MARRIAGE

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GLENN CLOSE LOVINg ALBERT NOBBS

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EMMY AwARD wINNER

FOR CANCER

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How well do you know Planet Earth? the most beautiful places on earth! this video showcases never before seen landscape of Planet earth. A compliation of the most remarkable scenes from BBC’s Planet earth.

By: RoBeRt Revol

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highs and chronicles the n a m y tt re P Tristan e + Gold,” whos r a ed C “ on urney s lows of her jo s and ceiling ll a w r a d ce e both th title refers to her covered from re e sh e er h w in the home her e spun from sh d ol g e th break-up and arted tells us: “I st e h S s. g n so e situation in th deep and ce that was so la p a om fr writing it nything back, a d ol h ’t n id Id honest, where c is what musi is h ‘T , ke li s a Iw felt so good. hat is e to release w bl a g in be is about— anyou.’ Whenever y of e d si in trapped myself, pain, I’d tell e m d se u ca thing e record.’ ” ‘Save it for th

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Click for Video

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made with environmental mindfulness and compassion

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Milu

AUTUMN/FALL 2012–2013 A Distinctive style . com

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Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption—a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit.

Jackman plays ex-prisoner Jean Valjean, hunted for decades by the ruthless policeman Javert (Crowe) after he breaks parole. When Valjean agrees to care for factory worker Fantine's (Hathaway) young daughter, Cosette, their lives change forever.

F I G H T. D R E A M . H O P E . L O V E .

In December 2012, the world's longest-running musical brings its power to the big screen in Tom Hooper's sweeping and spectacular interpretation of Victor Hugo's epic tale. With international superstars and beloved songs—including “I Dreamed a Dream,” “Bring Him Home,” “One Day More” and “On My Own”— Les Misérables, the show of shows, is now reborn as the cinematic musical experience of a lifetime.

THE MUSICAL pHENOMENON C H R I S T M A S DAY

CLICK TO SEE pREVIEw

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Designed to educate, inform, inspire, enlighten, entertain

Expanding knowledge, sharing possibilities, protecting our environment, showcasing the worlds of art, music and culture

at a cross roads Read our

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fall 2012 This month marks our 5-year, 20th issue anniversary since the inception of the magazine and we are as passionate, devoted and committed as the day we set out on this journey.

We are so proud of the accomplishments we've made through the years and wish to thank our dedicated readers, our faithful supporters and our enthusiastic followers for your committed support.

A Distinctive Style (ADS) is a free publication, with no subscription required, even though we don't generate any direct income. It has been a manifestation of love, long hours and unwavering commitment, solelyfunded by a committed few.

If you look at the masthead of any publication of equal size and calibre, you'll see a list of over fifty people that contribute to the production of a magazine’s single issue. There are editors, designers, marketing and advertising directors, web developers, social media managers, membership directors, photographers, writers, journalists, researchers, etc. Now take a look at the masthead of ADS. What do you see?

A committed few.

Read our back story on page 80.

ADS has come to a crossroads, a time that we hoped would never come.

We are asking our readers, supporters and followers for a contribution.

Your much needed support will go to pay for the operational expenses involved in bringing each issue to life every quarter. Expenses such as hosting and maintenance of the magazine, research and development, allowing us to stay on the leading edge of technology, operating expenses, web site development, distribution, acquiring advertisers and marketing.

We are enthusiastic about gathering the momentum needed to be solely supported through sponsorships and advertisers and can do so with your support. Our commitment to you, our eco-conscious, art loving, socially aware audience, is to continue producing the same high quality articles, stories and interviews that ADS is known for.

By celebrating life, embracing change and expressing your artistic freedom, you have allowed the greatness of others to shine though.

Your spirit, unity and service, has helped make the world a better place!

Click here to make a contribution and show your support.

Thank you!

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Won’t Back Down Documentary

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Bill Cosby “American Children”

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Leonardo DiCaprio “We need to Speak

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FALL 2012 CONTENTS

for Animals that can’t Speak for Themselves” 41

Mikaela Jones “Shine Your Light”

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Loren Lukens “What is Art”

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Prop 37 “We have the Right to Know”

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Fall Fashion

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Editor’s Picks

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Arranged Marriage Gone Wrong

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Lizzie Velasque “Stop Staring and Start Learning”

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Texting and Driving Campaign

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Natalie Bejarano “Searching for Acceptance”

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The Gerson Miracle

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Cancer the Forbidden Cures

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House of Joyful Noise Blog

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For the Greater Good Documentary

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Vaccines, A Medical Fraud

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Monsanto Destroys Life

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Genetic Roulette Documentary

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Forks Over Knives Documentary

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NFL Ellis Lankster Tackles Stuttering

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Honoring Firefighters

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Kyle Minogue

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Visiting with Kings at the End of the World

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Psychopaths, Joe Brewer and You

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JACKIE EVANCHO

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GlENN ClOsE

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HOWARD stRAUs

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BIll COsBy

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AlIsON sUDOl

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tONy VOlpENtEst

tRIstAN pREttymAN

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pAUl ENGlIsHBy

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stACy D. sHEltON

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Gyllenhaal and Davis portray determined mothers who will stop at nothing to transform their children’s failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy and a system mired in traditional thinking, they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children www.facebook.com/wontBackDown

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BAsed on ACtuAl events

We must put the needs of students first.

After all, it's their needs that matter most. ~Bill Cosby, Board Member StudentsFirst.org

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've seen the statistics on where American students rank in the world. I've heard the stories of children being sent off to schools that are nothing more than dropout factories, and our youth end up back out on the street uneducated and unprepared for life.

I refuse to sit back and watch this happen.

That's why I'm joining the board of StudentsFirst and will be working alongside you and StudentsFirst members across the nation to put children's needs first.

I've long been an advocate for public schools and educational programs that have focused on the developmental needs of children. In fact, in 1976 I earned a doctorate in education — and my passion for education didn't end when I received my diploma. I've been arguing that we need to make a greater commitment to education ever since. The people involved in educating our kids need to provide all students with the great education they deserve.

You can see how working with StudentsFirst is the perfect place for me today. Help me encourage others to join our team by sharing this image with your friends on Facebook now: www.studentsfirst.org/share-cosby-on-facebook

I once said— and it is often quoted — that I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. We must be singular in our focus right now. We must put the needs of students first. After all, it's their needs that matter most. When every child in America is getting a world-class education, we will know success. We've all got to get involved and make it happen.

Thank you for being an integral part of this organization and thanks for having me.

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Trees are thelungsof the world.They breathe for the planet. ~Konstantin Dimopoulos

By John Lightle

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isitors to Vancouver’s Biennale celebration experienced unrest as they noticed trees near the park turning blue.

Guests along Seattle’s abandoned Burke-Gilman railroad trail witnessed nearly the same condition. New Zealand’s picturesque Brick Bay regard the same disorder leaving an entire scientific community with no reasonable explanation to the phenomena. Answering to the blueing effect found in three separate biospheres, Australian artist/sculptor Konstantin Dimopoulos announced the identification in a cause for concern.

“What happens to a forest in one country affects other countries. Trees are the lungs of the world. They breathe for the planet,” Konstantin said addressing his latest multinational effort.

Konstantin’s Blue Trees project, using biodegradable pigment as opposed to paint, colors trees pushing environmental concern beyond a passive notion into conscientious activism.

Community officials and event coordinators siding on Konstantin’s behalf contract the sculptor to display his work in highly-visible, high traffic areas. From there, Konstantin establishes a portable studio, blending his pigment and water mixture, saturating tree trunks and low-lying branches. The contrasting salient blue hue against verdant green leaves creates a stunning visual image. Deciduous trees exhibiting autumn foliage appear strikingly formidable as the two colors blend against an urban background.

While visitors to park projects adjust to the contrast in aesthetics, the use of color saturation awakens a response in viewers. The contrast, as well as the personal statement, suggest a strong participation in our planet. “Urban communities need to look at the big picture. Every time healthy mature trees are removed, an entire ecosystem that depends on each tree is destroyed,” Konstantin said.

The Vancouver Biennale, an artistic event displaying works in

public spaces, first showcased Konstantin’s prolific performance to 15,000 visitors in the 2011 spectacular. “The Vancouver Biennale contacted me originally to create the Blue Trees which was seen by the King County Public Arts Program 4Culture,” Konstantin recalled. The following year, Seattle followed suit dressing the dormant Burke-Gilman rail line parkway garnering the assistance of volunteers. Participants along Westlake Park transformed 16 Honey Locust trees to an aquamarine blue and planted 40 Jacquemontii Birch trees of the same color along the Burke-Gilman trail.

Near Matakana, New Zealand, the enduring Brick Bay Sculpture Trail combined the works of 63 artist along a two kilometer path. In the ambitiously landscaped boardwalk setting snaking through the Rodney District north of Auckland, Konstantin’s effort in coloring the multi-branched Manuka trees comes with one primary thrust for impact.

The rapid deforestation of the planet takes an area the size of Denmark annually. The Blue Tree project elicits a response.

“We suggest that where possible, people plant trees around their homes. Often, small saplings are given away by local councils, government nurseries, or environmental organizations,” Konstantin described.

As communities become adjusted to the blossoming blue trees, three American cities are slated for a forest makeover.

Sacramento, Houston, and into Florida, Konstantin plunges his tools and his cause to areas ripe for introduction. With the aid of civic leaders and a team of volunteers, the artist opens planetary preservation to an entire new audience. “We are the caretakers of our planet during our lifetime. Nature is what we depend on for our own survival and that of generations to come,” Konstantin said.

Guided by the hand of an activism sculptor, Konstantin opens an awareness that allows us to see the trees... and the forest. www.KONDIMOpOULOS.COM

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pHOTOgRApHER KARINA LIDIA

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2012 EMMY AWARD WINNER

Paul Englishby

By emily Zhang

age Eight: a political thriller about a long-serving M15 officer who quits his job to investigate a mystery file, which threatens its stability. Directed by David Hare, this drama stars Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes. Of course, let’s not forget about its composer: Paul Englishby.

After Paul Englishby scored the 2009 Academy Awardnominated drama, An Education, this project marks his first high profile feature project. He received his first Emmy in the Outstanding Main Title Theme Music category for his theme in this thriller, winning a Creative Art Emmy Award. This Award is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards for film, the Grammy Awards for music or the Tony Award for theatre.

His interest in music began at a young age. “When I was about 11, I wrote a piece dangerously close to the slow movement of a Beethoven symphony (without any of the genius) that I was listening over and over to. I wrote pieces for musical friends, the school band, choir, whoever I could get to play it,” he explains, “At 13 I joined the Lancashire county Big Band, which started a love of jazz, and I would do arrangements for them, something I continue to do for my own Big Band.”

Now holding the position of Associate Arts for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Englishby describes the benefits of the job. “You have a small say in company policy and some benefits like opening night tickets, as well as being listed alongside some incredible and legendary actors, directors and designers, but there is no compulsion to do a certain number of shows a year,” he states, “I have a wonderful time there and write for an average of two shows a year, which works perfectly with my other commitments.”

But this doesn’t stop him from finding inspiration. “I'm so lucky to have written for movies, theatre, concert hall, dance works, big band... all manner of situations. I absolutely love mixing things up like that, and always facing a fresh challenge,” Englishby elaborates.

Programming music on a computer just doesn’t provide the thrill that composing gives. He declares, “I love a job where I can write straight to manuscript paper, and the first time we

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hear it is when the musicians play it. That is a complete thrill.”

Putting pen to paper definitely provides a certain novelty to composing that laboring in front of the computer might not.

It’s not all fun and games though. He manages a number of projects that might make another person dizzy with stress. But according to Englishby, it’s never really been a problem. “I'm a pretty good time manager, and I think generally musicians who have come up through the classical system are disciplined in the sense that they've always had to put the daily practice in from an early age,” he continues, “I started on the piano at the age of eight, and there is no way around getting the grades, and then at Music College, one is expected to hit deadlines with compositions, so you come out of all that with a lot of self discipline.” Of course, he doesn’t forget to give credit to his brilliant assistant who helps him with the technical aspect of his agenda.

According to Englishby, his inspiration for his music doesn’t have an extremely definitive source every time. “I think each job I do inspires me in the next, whether it be a need to do something completely different, or develop things I've stumbled across,” he admits.

But then again, maybe it does. Englishby explains, “My son Artie, who is 6, plays the drums and is now at the stage where we can jam together. My daughter Flair, who's 2, generally adds a random bass line at the bottom of the piano which bears no resemblance to what we are playing...that's a lot of fun.”

Amidst working hard and having fun though, there’s definitely still time for planning for the future and imagining his “blue-sky” version of the perfect life. “I love my musical life, and pray that I'm lucky enough to keep going, doing all the things I do. There are artists I would love to work with, of course, and I'd love to do a family animated film in the Pixar vein, as now I have small kids, I watch a lot of, and I love the colourful, dynamic music in them,” he claims excitedly.

It’s definitely a bonus to know that a very talented composer might very well be working for Pixar in the future. But then again, Paul Englishby is very welcome in a lot of places. People are definitely looking forward to his next composition.

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Stories of Change

the sundance film festival www.SUNDANCE.ORg/STORIESOFCHANgE/FILMS/

Stories of Change is multi-year partnership between the Skoll Foundation and Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program. Jeff Skoll, founder of the Skoll Foundation, and Stories of Change filmmakers discuss fusing social entrepreneurship with documentary film and Sundance Institute in an effort to promote global awareness and stimulate change.

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the revolutionary optimists www.REVOLUTIONARYOpTIMISTS.ORg

Amlan Ganguly empowers children to become activists and educators, with powerful results. The Revolutionary Optimists follows him as he attempts to replicate his work in the brick fields outside the city, where children live and work in unimaginable conditions. Now, pushing at the limits of optimism, Amlan is attempting to take his work into the brickfields outside Calcutta, where they spend their days making and carrying bricks using methods unchanged by centuries.

CLICK TO VIEw VIDEO

easy like water www.REVOLUTIONARYOpTIMISTS.ORg

Easy Like Water is a feature documentary about floating schools, solar power, and the fate of the earth. In Bangladesh, solar-powered floating schools are turning the front lines of climate change into a community of learning. As the water steals the land, one man’s vision is re-casting the rising rivers as channels of communication, and transforming peoples lives.

rafea: solar mama

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www.BAREFOOTCOLLEgE.ORg

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Rafea is a Bedouin woman who lives with her four daughters in one of Jordan’s poorest desert villages on the Iraqi border. She is given a chance to travel to India to attend the Barefoot College, where illiterate grandmothers from around the world are trained in 6 months to be solar engineers. If Rafea succeeds, she will be able to electrify her village, train more engineers, and provide for her daughters.

Even when she returns as the first female solar engineer in the country, her real challenge will have just begun. Will she find support for her new venture? Will she be able to inspire the other women in the village to join her and change their lives?

And most importantly, will she be able to re-wire the traditional minds of the Bedouin community that stands in her way?

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Kevin Iris creates tree sculptures from aluminum wire

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A self-proclaimed “treenut” Kevin Iris has been making incredibly detailed tree sculptures from aluminum wire for the last 23 years. His works vary in shape and size, as he’s trying to inspire different emotions with each one, but the most remarkable thing that’s common to all of them is that they are made only out of twisted wire. He uses no glue, coatings or any other substances. He simply takes tens of feet of aluminum wire and twists them into a variety of shapes.

As a kid, he became obsessed with growing small bonsai trees and over time he amassed a collection of more than 20 trees. Shaping bonsai trees involves learning how to properly “train” the branches to grow in a certain fashion. More often than not, this happens by using stiff wires that are wrapped around the trees’ branches to slowly guide them.

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Song Bird Jackie Evancho

By Emily Zhang

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hink: this girl is a 12-year-old professional soprano. A Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native. She was first discovered on America’s Got Talent at age 10 and has recently made several television appearances to celebrate the release of her third album. Who comes to mind?

Jackie Evancho.

Her recently released album, Songs from the Silver Screen, is her newest collection for Columbia/Syco Records and offers her melodic interpretations of music from iconic movies.

In her first two full-length albums, Dream With Me and Heavenly Christmas, Jackie explored musical classics from arias to holiday standards. For this album, she collaborated with Grammy-winning producer/ engineer Humberto Gatica, who worked closely with superstars like Michael Bublé, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey.

Just this past summer, PBS asked Jackie to make a second Great Performance Special. The event, called “Jackie Evancho: Music of the Movies,” featured many of the songs from the new album, including “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific, “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” from The Lion King and the aforementioned ‘The Music of the Night.’

Her interest in music began at a young age. “I’ve always had a talent for singing; my inspiration stemmed from seeing “Phantom of the Opera” when I was 7years-old, and it made me want to become a singer. The Music of the Night is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and I’ve always wanted to perform it in public,” Jackie revealed, “My enjoyment of the

Phantom score is one of the things that gave us the idea to focus an entire album of songs that stayed in our minds for a CLICK FOR pREVIEw long time after the movies were over.”

Jackie is mature for the age of fun. The film shot in Canada, and I had but12, although being a celebrity might terflies every time we headed there because entitle her to some dramatic moments.

I couldn’t wait to act. My main thing is “I’ve been touring more and we often stop always going to be singing, but I hope to for autographs and pictures, and that’s become an actress-singer.” exciting for me! I’m close to my family and Even if she’s a professional singer, don’t they’ve always been there for me and think just think Jackie’s life is all work and no of me as a normal person. It’s nice to have play! When she’s not singing, she’s swimpeople who support me that way,” Jackie ming, jumping on the trampoline, and admits, “My parents, brother and sister whenever her siblings are fighting, she’s keep me so grounded and don’t let me sure to be the root cause. “Whenever my have diva moments!” sibs and I fight, I’m usually the one who Having worked with Barbra Streisand, starts it...They fight back, oh yeah!” she Sarah Brightman, Tony Bennett among laughs. Turns out even professional singers others, Jackie disclosed that she loved have to have some rowdy fun every once working with Smokey Robinson. in a while.

Singing hasn’t just let Jackie meet lots of With her already serious personality of new people though. She’s also had the singing, one might think that Jackie chance to travel all around the world. But already gets enough of the professional out of all the places she’s been to, she world. But get this: she’s also Ambassador divulges that her favorite place so far has for the Mission: Humane program, which been Japan. She has visited there twice shows kids how they can help animals. and plans to go again very soon. Relishing The young superstar is bringing the in the cleanliness and the local attitude, message of animal protection to her fans she finds appeal in the culture and the through her Web site, where Mission: overall beauty of the location.

Humane is featured. With the release of her Besides singing, Jackie has other talents new album, sure to be a chart-topper, that as well. Acting as the daughter of Robert means thousands of visitors will visit her Redford in “The Company You Keep,” to site and learn how they can make the release in 2013, she reveals her happiness world safer and happier for animals. at the future prospects, “Acting in a movie is something I never expected to come to “Songs From the Silver Screen” can be purme. It was such an honor to work with chased on Jackie Evancho’s Web site: Robert Redford, because he’s so kind and www.jackieevancho.com A Distinctive style . com

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A Plea from Leo Today I'm writing to ask you to take action for elephants.

In just the past year alone, more than 3,000 elephants have been killed for their ivory and there is no sign that it is letting up.

We cannot continue decimating elephants and other species for products nobody needs.

We must come together to reduce demand for ivory in China and other countries, and to protect elephants where they live. And we must ensure that the future for elephants is more secure.

That's why educating our children from the youngest ages about elephants and conservation is so important. As global ambassador for IFAW's Animal Action education program, I'm proud that together we've educated more than five-million young people around the world to take action to protect animals.

We've moblized more than 50,000 students over the past year to sign pledges, create art, and write letters to help IFAW protect elephants. And to date, more than 280,000 people have joined IFAW's Elephant March on social media.

And IFAW has put those actions to work. Earlier this year, IFAW staff members around the world handed over thousands of signatures to government officials in a coordinated and public display of support for elephant protection. That's the kind of action that can't be ignored — that's the kind of action that will help save elephants.

Now I'm asking you to join our efforts to save elephants now: • Children are the key to a better future for animals. We need to educate younger generations about what actions they can take to help protect animals. Visit IFAW's Animal Action web page today and learn about the many ways that young people can join the herd and help support our critical efforts.

• If you haven't already, please join IFAW's Elephant March. Together we can continue building a wave of support for protecting elephants from deadly poaching and illegal ivory trade.

I know you believe as I do, that we need to speak up for elephants and other animals that can't speak for themselves. And you and I also know that we need more than just words - we need action.

Please act today to help us teach the next generation about animal protection and to help end the illegal ivory trade.

Thanks for your support and commitment to helping save elephants.

Leonardo DiCaprio IFAW HONORARY BOARD MEMBER www.Facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio | Twitter @leodicaprio | www.ifaw.org

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We need to speak up for elephants and other animals that can't speak for themselves ~ Leonardo DiCaprio A Distinctive style . com

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CREATINg ANIMALS FROM THRIFT STORE pLASTICS

pHOTO CREDIT: Act4.co

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I TRANSMIT A MESSAgE OF HOpE THROUgH MY SCULpTURES

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Is it possible to have a successful career and a happy family life at the same time?

By Dr. Claudia Welch, DOM

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he last year or so has produced a few editorials and blogs about choice, success and how we spend our time. They struck a chord with us and went viral. And they may help us be healthier and happier, even on our deathbeds.

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s Why Women Still Can’t Have It All from the July/August 2012 Atlantic Magazine became the most widely read piece in the Atlantic website’s history. It was a thoughtful exploration of the difficulties that remain for women who “want it all.”

Slaughter suggested that women are not both able to have a successful career and a happy family at the same time—and won’t be—until our social structure changes.

Even if we are not able to have it all, most of us—women or men—spend an awful lot of time trying to get it—something New York Times’ Tim Kreider pointed out in The ‘Busy’ Trap on the June 30, 2012. This also went viral, widened the net to include men, and spawned missives like “Stop the Glorification of Busy,” which began to infest the pages of Facebook. Kreider pointed out how enthusiastically busy we all are, and how this M.O. is applauded, even revered in our culture. He makes the old-fashioned point that time may possibly be more important than money and that having it may be as essential to wellbeing as things like Vitamin D. When reading Slaughter’s piece, I am struck by her interpretation of “all.” “All” seems to mean “successful career” plus a family—presumably a happy one. But Kreider’s piece suggests that family and career may really not be everything.

What about physical fitness? Spiritual welfare? What about play? And, if we can’t even expect to enjoy both a career and family, then what is the hope for success in these other areas?

In modern day society, and particularly in the United States, we like to think that, if we just work long and hard enough we can have everything, whatever “everything” means to each of us. In Eastern medicine we see that sometimes that is not the case. We have limited energy and resources and the more we devote to one pursuit, the less we have for others. Sometimes,

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the harder we work for one, the more damage we do to the others. If I work 40-60 hours a week on my career, will I really have time to cook healthy food for myself? Devote a little time to nourishing my spirit? Exercise a little? Throw in a family and the chances of personal health dwindle and the possibility of success in all areas drops below the horizon.

Why would these editorials go viral unless they resonate with something in us as a culture? If we are indeed longing for more time and space to nourish our spiritual and physical health, why don’t we just slow down?

I think it is fear. We are afraid that, should we slow down and live the lives we want to be living, that everything will fall apart.

And maybe it will. I certainly couldn’t promise that it won’t.

But what I can say is that I’ve never seen it happen. Not to myself, my patients, students, friends, colleagues. Not to anybody I know. On the contrary, when people take steps to slow down their lives and enjoy them more, their lives tend to improve.

Ironically, it does not take courage to stay on the treadmill. It takes courage to step off the treadmill and live the life we want to be living.

Why should we?

Because if we don’t, we always have a nagging suspicion that we are living the wrong life. This creates a backdrop of tension on the stage of our lives. This stimulates increased production of stress hormones, which then irrigate and tax our organs and tissues. This chronic imbalance increases our chances of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, auto immune disorders, digestive disorders, reproductive disorders and just about anything else that can go wrong.

When health suffers, we have less of what it takes to go after anything, let alone “everything.” We have to prioritize our desires.

We might consider what will be most fulfilling in the end.

Bronnie Ware is the author of The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. What began as a blog, flew around the world and Internet, and grew into a book. Here are the top two regrets:

It does not take courage to stay on the treadmill.

It takes courage to step off the treadmill and live the life we want to be living.

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

Choose Wisely, Grasshopper. This Is Your Life We’re Talking About.

The Choices We Make And Why They Affect Our Health.

pHOTOgRApHER TREY RADCLIFF

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me 2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

If we slow down and make more conscious choices about where to spend our emotional, physical and financial resources, we may more fully enjoy our lives, our health, and our final scene on this stage.

Dr. Claudia Welch is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, an Ayurvedic practitioner and educator, and the author of “Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life: Achieving Optimal Health and Wellness Through Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine and Western Science.” Dr. Welch lectures internationally on Oriental and Ayurvedic medicines and Women's Health. She has served on the teaching faculty of The Ayurvedic Institute, Kripalu School of Ayurveda, Southwest Acupuncture College, and Acupractice Seminars.

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isabelle grace jewelry has an extensive collection of beautiful, handcrafted pieces that are made out of recycled silver. The Soar necklaces are a beautiful token to inspire you to live out your dreams!

20% of proceeds from this collection goes to the GirlTalk (www.desiretoinspire.org) organization, a student-to-student mentoring program designed to help girls navigate difficult issues, contribute to their community and build readership skills.

isabelle grace jewelry gives back with The Survivor Necklace, a necklace that honors the amazing women that have suffered breast cancer. The beautiful necklace features a hand cut tag made with recycled silver that is inscribed on the front with our motto "Survivor" and "because I am" on the back. The hammered silver finish symbolizes what a women goes through when she has had breast cancer, and is also symbolic of her resilience to overcome.

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25% of the proceeds are donated to www.Breastcancer.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information and community to those touched by this disease.

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SHINE YOUR LIgHT

A HEALING OF THE HEART

By Mikaela Jones

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hen my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer twenty years ago, I moved back to our hometown to be with him. We were told he had six months, maybe a year at best if we were lucky. I was only twenty-five years old, and like many at that age, I thought I had life all figured out due to my library of spiritual and self-help books. I hoped that if he embraced some of the wisdom therein, he would heal. We hadn’t been close, so I was also secretly hoping we might have the chance to heal our relationship.

I gave myself the mission to share everything from my library that I thought might possibly cure him of his cancer. I dogeared pages and pages from various books, and read them to him while we were eating a meal or trying to relax between doctor appointments. He was always polite and would smile and say, “Maybe.”

I didn’t stop with my own personal library. I researched alternative healing methods, and suggested various herbs and supplements, some of which he bought because I saw them on his kitchen counter. The zenith of my attempt to ‘remedy the situation’ was setting up an appointment (along with the help of his wife), with a Russian energy healer who happened to be in town.

My father lay on the hospital bed in the living room while we all stood around him sending him healing energy through our hands, as per the direction of the famous Russian. When the healer left, I looked at my dad with his now bald head and his sunken cheeks, and he smiled and said, “Maybe.” But behind his smile, I saw the truth. He didn’t believe in any of it, and he was merely trying to please us.

Our New BookTrailer describes your “True Self and the adventure you have courageously undertaken.” With the beautiful art of Stefan Senna displayed in the background, the video describes The Little Book of Light: 111 Ways to Bring Light Into Your Life. Written by Mikaela Jones and Released by Red Wheel/Weiser 2012

CLICK TO VIEw TRAILER

www.MIKAELAJONES.COM

I was only able to really be present for him, which in retrospect I’m guessing is what he would have preferred, during his final weeks. Simply being there and fully present, giving him a hand to hold, helping him from the bed to the bathroom and offering up a smile and a hug to let him know I was there and that I loved him.

What we have to remember when our loved ones are facing a serious health challenge, whether it be cancer or anything else, is that everybody deals with illness and death in their own way. Rather than imposing our own ideas about how to best face the challenge, we need to honor where others are, and let them tell us how they would like to be helped. It is their life after all. We need to trust and honor that their Soul has the best plan for them, and that may include passing on at that time.

It certainly doesn’t mean we can’t offer ideas if they are open to alternative treatments. Many people, including myself, have been healed of disease and bodily trauma from treatment outside of the western medical model. However, when we are simply present with another, and allow them to feel whatever they are feeling without trying to change or fix anything, a sacred space of connection opens that leads to a healing… even if it is only a healing of the heart.

Mikaela Jones is an Author, Intuitive Life Coach and Inspirational Speaker. Her latest book, “The Little Book of Light: 111 Ways to Bring Light Into Your Life,” was just released by Red Wheel/Weiser in a padded hardcover and is now available everywhere books are sold.

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Porcelain pottery for functional use on the table or aesthetic use on the wall

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Loren Lukens What Art Is… What Is Art… My love affair with clay began in the early 1970’s as an undergraduate art student at a small Midwest liberal arts college.

Counterculture influences and my farm boy background combined to make a career in pottery an appealing synthesis of practicality, art, and craft husbandry. Beth Kirchhoff, my wife is a musician (pianist, accompanist, chorus master).

We enjoy comparing the similarities of our chosen careers.

The respect, understanding and interpretation of traditional forms (pottery or music) are clear priorities for each of us.

The beginnings of pottery go hand in hand with the beginnings of humankind.

Of contemporary crafts, only basket making is as fundamental. The shapes of pottery are the shapes of the human body, and are named such: lip, foot, shoulder. They are shapes we know very well on a level beneath our consciousness.

My forms are extensions of traditional pottery with contemporary variations. They are strong, sleek and sculptural with a bold painterly surface and rich glaze treatment. The pieces have a dynamic impact when viewed from a distance as well as an intensity of detail up close. Form and Function drew me to pottery, but painting has been an increasingly important part of my work. My best pots resolve the difficulty of painting in three dimensions, while maintaining the integrity of the form.

My intent is to produce works of art for everyday living. It functions practically, as tableware for company and everyday use, or aesthetically, hung on the wall or as a stand-alone art piece.

www.BRACEpOINTpOTTERY.COM A Distinctive style . com

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pHOTO BY LAURA LEE RICHARD pHOTOgRApHY

The Video es do MonsanTo You noT WanT To see!

The most important issue to ever effect our food supply will be voted on in November. As Goes California, So Goes the Nation.

LEAR n M O R E AbO uT T HE bALLOT AT In IT IAT IVE w w w. c AR IGH T TO kn O w. O R G

Vote YES ON 37 Because We Have The Right To Know What's In Our Food

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Getting Close with Glenn AT THE MODERn ScHOOL OF FILM

By Rachel Sokol

o some, legendary actress Glenn Close is best known for her role in the 1987 thriller, Fatal Attraction. But as her eclectic theatre-to-film-to-television career track record has proven, the Oscar and Tony-nominated actress is more--much more--than the lovestruck woman she played in that classic film.

Close, dressed casually in jeans and a loose-fitting black top, recently sat down for a Q&A in Manhattan with Robert Milazzo, founder of The Modern School of Film, to discuss her role in the film Albert Nobbs. Earlier this year, Close was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Albert, but lost to her dear friend Meryl Streep.

The heart-wrenching movie didn’t break box-office records, and Close admits “reviews were mixed.” Regardless, Close is proud of her work in Albert Nobbs, which she described as “a labor of love.”

The audience watched Albert Nobbs before Close answered questions, first talking about Damages, a show about a sharp-tongued litigator named Patty Hewes that recently wrapped its successful run on FX Networks. (Close joked to the audience, “I always asked the writers, ‘What is my backstory? Why am I so mean?’”)

“At this point in my career, I don’t want to be spending time with people who aren’t inspiring, with scripts that don’t present challenges,” said Close, about what attracted her to the role of Patty Hewes. Although that simple statement may seem closed-off, Close answered it honestly, while remaining humble and personable.

She adds that when the television drama had a negative stigma in Hollywood, “I used to tell agents, ‘Excuse me, the English do it; they have TV dramas, so why can’t we?’”

“In the 90’s, all we had was ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame’ for drama. Then came TV’s ‘Golden Age,’ such as HBO’s “The Sopranos,’” she adds. “What we achieved with Damages was a seamless, wonderful art form. The film industry was snobbish towards television, but that’s basically disappeared.”

When asked about the cinematic role that ‘put her on the map’,--Fatal Attraction, of course--Close admitted, “I had a feeling it would be something special.”

Before watching Albert Nobbs, Milazzo encouraged viewers to pay close attention the the movie’s dramatic

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pHOTOgRApHER ORIEL pE'ER

Legendary actress Glenn Close speaks with Robert Milazzo about her career and Oscar-nominated role in "Albert Nobbs."

but beautiful close-ups. “This wide-angle concept started in 1950s westerns,” he explained. “If an actor’s face is accentuated, even their facial creases, and the background is blurry, it’s a wide-angle lens.”

Close’s portrayal of Nobbs is so realistic, it’s easy to forgot a woman is playing the title role of a woman-disguised-as-a-man hotel butler in late 19th century Ireland.

Albert Nobbs began as an Off-Broadway play in 1982, with Close in the lead role. Close bought the film rights “to the integral story” and it took 14 years to bring the play to the big screen. “I thought with the right script, it would make for a mature, interesting, unforgettable film,” says Close, who “brought it to every indie film company” before Lion’s Gate studio grabbed the screenplay and Rodrigo Garcia agreed to direct after the initial director left the project.

The movie filmed in Dublin in 2010 and Close had a say in casting. (Close’s Nobbs co-star Janet McTeer was also nominated for an Oscar. She caught Close’s eye as a potential co-star when Close saw McTeer in a Broadway show and liked “that she was so tall!”)

There were times Close wanted to give up on the movie, worried it wouldn’t make it to the big screen--it happily did, albeit a limited budget, and filmed in 32 days, with ten days of rehearsal. “I thought, ‘Am I beating a dead horse? Am I delusional? No.’” Close’s loose inspiration for Albert Nobb’s subtle body and facial mannerism was silent actor Charlie Chaplin; Close calls both Chaplin and Nobbs “clownish, with an unknowing wit.”

For the role, Close wore very little makeup and prosthetics on

her ears and nose.

According to Close, the biggest difference between the play version of Nobbs and the movie version is that in the movie, Nobbs explains why she is disguised as a man; it’s not as detailed in the play. “I had to get into her head as a frame of reference; create the realities of her life,” says Close, of the movie Nobbs. “She (Nobbs) did it to survive. She was fine, she was surviving, she wasn’t in that horrible place outside. In that time, to manage on your own if you were female, you were either a prostitute or a maid.”

Since Albert Nobbs is somewhat of an oddball that’s hard to read, Close said the “most difficult thing was trying to figure out how much expression to show on my face! First, (I gave Albert) a furrowed brow and that felt wrong.”

Fans of the film root for Albert Nobbs, despite her quirks and quiet demeanor. “Albert just wants to do her job and be as good as she can. Things happen when she meets Hubert (a painter, played by McTeer). She realizes she’s been so alone.

Albert wants companionship and safety,” says Close warmly of her beloved role. “She was shut-off for so long, she’s an innocent and comes from a place of purity—and that’s why we love her.”

Albert Nobbs is currently available on Blue Ray and DVD. Glenn Close recently voiced “The Giant” in the Central Park-based production of Into The Woods, and hinted she’s planning to return to the New York stage soon.

For more information about The Modern School of Film visit themodernschooloffilm.com.

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HAppY is a feature-length documentary that leads viewers on a journey across 5 continents in search of the keys to happiness. The film addresses many of the fundamental issues we face in today’s society: how do we balance the allure of money, fame and social status with our needs for strong relationships, health and personal fulfillment?

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Through remarkable human stories and cuttingedge science, HAppY leads us toward a deeper understanding of why and how we can pursue more fulfilling, healthier and happier lives.

pHOTOgRApHER TREY RADCLIFF A Distinctive style . com

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Green is the “new black;” it’s the color of change; it is the color of responsible livin

By Teresa Louise Johnson

E

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and no doubt are successfully fulfilling their destiny.

Beautiful Aria Handmade choices in particular are the Necklace Sandal Wood with varied seeds in various sizes; imagine tossing those over wrapped scarves layered over soft sweaters and fitted pants—perfect. They have their own version of scarves made from acrylic and alpaca fur and bracelets done in gorgeous hues, some made from palm tree bark and some from nuts and berries. Some are made from recycled paper, with newspaper and comic designs. There is something for every woman and for every outfit, even dragonflies made from recycled yarn and palm tree bark. These are a must-see with their whimsical dragonflies floating here and there on braided necklace and woven flowers in greens and oranges. www.ARIAHANDMADE .COM

very season, designers surprise me with their creativity.

Eco-designer Lara Miller’s commitment to eco-design goes from sustainable materials (low-impact dyes and organic cotton, hemp, vegan ahimsa peace silk, organic wool, linen, lyocell, flax and soy fibers, hand-loomed bamboo, and recycled organic cotton) right down to her use of scrap material from past designs to develop new collections is notable in itself. However, it’s her use of multifunctional pieces that draws my attention to her collections. To take eco-fashion a step further than most by offering versatile “flip” collections is not only a sign of Miller’s brilliance but it makes the price tag of eco-design easier to stomach.

Lara Miller’s Fall/Winter collection is an array of delectable colors and layering pieces. It has a slouchy, cozy but sophisticated gypsy feel to it. Most pieces are multifunctional. The Emilie Dress is a personal favorite with its loose drape and open sides. It’s youthful but sexy without being over-the-top. It is also shown worn modestly with a cardigan for more coverage. The versatile Simone cape/dress/ skirt is prettiest as a cape (both sides on shoulders creates a lovely look). As a fan of the comfort and utility of leggings, I appreciate Miller’s Hannah Ribbed Leggings; they are fast becoming a staple for most of us come fall for wear under dresses and sweaters.

The Flora Slip Skirt with its color blocking sits beautifully when worn as a skirt, modestly reaching to the calves, but works as a frock with a mod feel to it when worn as a dress. The Stevie Dress has a similar feel to it but it has much impact when paired with the Spencer Flip Cardigan. To keep warm this season, we could learn much from Lara Miller’s ease with layering pieces most of us wouldn’t think to put together. Putting together a sweater over a sweater with a dress and leggings and a scarf doesn’t seem odd at all in Miller’s hands; it seems cozy and effortless. It flows with color and texture and makes being blanketed in fashion seem oh-so desirable.

To complement the layer upon layer of Lara Miller’s pieces, designer Nestor Pineda’s Aria Handmade is a handcrafted jewelry line I am delighted to have stumbled upon. They are made using recycled materials from the U.S. and natural materials from the Amazon Rain Forest. The genius of the collections is the use of unexpected objects like acai berries or farmer’s market melon seeds and orange peels. They are made to be conversation pieces

www.LARAMILLER.NET

Lara Miller, Aria Handmade & Tara St James

www.STUDY-NY.COM

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To top off a jewelry collection, recycled metal rings with stones set inside are a twist on traditional rings. The aluminum or black wire winds around the stone to create a modern piece that speaks volumes about our world and the natural world and what designers are doing to make a difference in it.

Tara St James, Owner and Head Designer of Study NY, a sustainable clothing design company.

She’s active in many organizations and even heads up a project called Study Hall, in which interns design and produce their own mini-collections before selling them under her direction.

She works with local artisans in India to create limited-run handwoven textiles. Study’s 2011/12 fall collection had a boyish charm to it with masculine prints and a menswear feel but with feminine aspects, like a cut out back or loose wrap-style jacket or a closefitting skirt.

A cozy sweater cascades over clothing like a blanket or poncho.

A sweater with embellished shoulders skims the body, pretty over a maxi skirt. An impressive piece of the collection is a dress in earthy tones with a belted waist and flowing skirt that has just the right amount of poof and nearly hits the tops of the shoes before simply floating there. Several pieces are shown individually but they are put into practice and layered over one another in

several photos; this jacket over this dress or over this top and tapered leg pants or cropped pants.

The Study 2011/12 collection for fall is earthy, with a shot of red or blue or orange here and there or a crisp white to set off the browns and grays. The focus is more on drapery, texture and utility than color. It is made to provide warmth, modesty and ease of movement, just as the spring 2011 collection spoke of cool and loose comfort and versatility with multi-functional pieces. We look forward to seeing more current designs from this line.

Fall/Winter dressing calls for falling into a comforting warmth and cozy softness to balance out the chill in the air. Eco-collections accomplish both edgy design and functionality while offering multi-functional pieces. Most importantly, eco-designers are mindful, committing to sustainable fabrics and practices.

Green is the “new black;” it is the color of change; it is the color of responsible living.

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E D I T O R

Dr.’s REMEDY®

P I C K S

Enriched Nail Polish Made with organic ingredients, vitamins, wheat protein, tea tree oil, lavender, and garlic bulb extract, Dr.’s REMEDY® 100% Paraben free, vegan nail polish.

Not only is Dr.'s REMEDY® better for you, it comes in a rainbow of today's most fashionable colors.

Enhanced with naturally occurring anti-fungal ingredients and vitamins to promote healthier nails.

Appealing to women with discolored nails, pregnant women, or parents looking for safer alternatives for their children.

Allergen friendly for those sensitive to chemicals in commercial nail polish. Enriched means a stronger, healthier looking nail, which is appealing to everyone.

INFUSED wITH NATURAL ELEMENTS

w w w.R EM EDYNAI LS.C O M

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Modern-Twist Bandz

Made of hand silk-screened silicone, the new BANDZ come in a variety of colors that are trendy and stylish, making the perfect casual, everyday accessory. Bandz—A healthier planet for tomorrow. A portion of all sales from the Modern-twist BANDZ directly impact non-profits with the mission of supporting local fresh food sources, sustainable agriculture, and nutrition education.

The Warrior Collection FROM MALA www.MODERN-TwIST.COM

Beautiful and intricately handmade pieces inspired by the elements of turquoise waters and lava stones found in Bali, Indonesia. The collection encompasses the brilliant gemstones of turquoise and lava mixed with the organic beauty of the rudraksha bead, harmonizing fashion with Karma. The opulent color of the turquoise stone symbolizes strength, protection, and promotes love; while the bold incorporation of lava is believed to provide both strength and clarity. Joined together in the collection, the wearer feels empowered and ready to take on the challenges that we face in everyday life.

This season, MALA blends fashion with a deeper meaning as it awakens the beautiful warrior of the wearer, transcending a message of harmony through the blending of organic and inspirational elements. www.MALAIMpORTS.CA

Collagen Repair with Apple Stem Cells Ewww>LITETHERApEUTICS.COM

ELITE PLATINuM CRèME

BY ELITE THERAPEuTICS Fruit-derived stem cell technology with penta-peptides, natural Vitamin E and Hyaluronic Acid Crosspolymer provide collagen and elastin sythensis along with DNA repair in the anti-aging product, Elite Platinum Crème from Elite Therapeutics. Elite Platinum Crème addresses the multiple signs of aging at the cellular level - where the most damage is done - and the most gratifying results can be attained. All-natural apple stem cells are clinically proven to reduce size, depth and intensity of wrinkles. This “nature plus science elixir” infused with youth mimicking proteins, literally promotes skin immunity, while also helping to preserve the healthy look and vitality of skin. Paraben-free, Hormone-free, Phthalate-free, Cruelty-free and Fragrance-free.

honey Love Beauty Mask MILD ENOuGH FOR SENSITIvE SKIN

Vermont Soap has been making natural and organic personal care products since 1992.

Honey Love Beauty Mask is a balance of just three organic ingredients: organic honey, organic vegetable glycerin and organic lavender oil. Honey Love Beauty Mask is certified organic, and it contains no preservatives or artificial colors or fragrances. It is also glutenfree. It is available for purchase online at www.vermontsoap.com, at health food stores and in discriminating venues everywhere.

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Handmade Pottery From Robert Siegel There is something special about handcrafting an object. The satisfaction that comes from creating something from start-tofinish and connecting with the process, which is an idea that is mostly lost in this time of mass production.

Drawing inspiration from the traditions of the past that encouraged originality, simplicity of form, use of local materials, and the visibility of the handmade elements, I create functional and decorative porcelain objects that are both simple and beautiful.

As a designer-craftsman, the clean lines of my pieces are deliberate. Through my work I aim to create an aesthetic that is based on utility, harmony and exposed structures to bring about a contemporary take on everyday objects.

Each of my limited-edition pieces is individually handthrown and hand-stamped in my downtown Los Angeles, California studio. Meticulously crafted and durable. By offering my work for use in your home, I am able to share my values of simplicity and integrity for living with you. I am thankful for this opportunity and hope that Robert Siegel Handmade™ will bring you years of enjoyment. w w w. R S H A N D M A D E . C O M A Distinctive style . com

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CHRIS HAMILTON pHOTOgRApHY

SpORTS ILLUSTRATED

ATHLETE OF

THE YEAR

Fastest Man in the World: The Tony Volpentest Story, is about a much-loved Sports Illustrated Athlete of the Year, who takes us step by step through each of his Olympian wins, and shows us how to acquire the mindset of champion and apply it to our own lives.

Tony Volpentest is a four-time Paralympic Gold Medalist and five-time World Champion sprinter (he carried the Olympic flame at the 1996 Olympics). But it is not the medals or records that make him admirable so much as the grit and determination that got him to the starting line.

Volpentest has won numerous honors, including the United States Olympic Committee Athlete of the Year. He's been featured on CNN and served as the National Spokesman for Shriner's Hospitals. He is a 2012 nominee for the Olympic Hall of Fame. Ross Perot does the Foreword for this inspirational book. www.TONYVOLpENTEST.COM

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Tell us about, “Fastest Man in the World, the Tony Volpentest story.”

A: It’s a story about my journey, where the reader is with me, stride for stride, from childhood, through all of my trials and tribulations, and ultimately to my successes. I really believe that my story is relevant to all ages and diversifications.

Why did you start running? Did you have an "aha" moment when you knew that you could compete for Paralympic gold... and ultimately win?

A: I always considered myself to be athletic, even as a child I was very active. As I transitioned from a private grad school into a very large public high school, I had a hard time meeting people. Although I have always been very confident and selfassured, track allowed me to get involved and meet new people. My "aha" moment came to me as a senior in high school when my times were within half a second of current world records.

You have been quoted as saying that visualization is the key to helping you through whatever obstacle stands in your way... would you explain?

A: This started for me before it was popular for athletes to incorporate visualization into their training routine. I had been visualizing everything since before I can remember. I always see myself doing something in my mind before actually doing it and I see hands and feet as that is what I have observed in others my whole life. I believe this constant exercise has been a huge part of my success.

Talk to us about your childhood... bullying has been in the news so much lately was that your experience in school or as an adult?

A: Fortunately I have not been exposed to too much bullying in my life. But I was taught at a very young age, by my parents that when one person bullied another it was typically to make themself feel better. Indicating that there was a deficiency somewhere in their life. So the few times that this did happen to me, I took the opportunity to ask the bully what I could do to help them feel better about themself. Using this approach seemed to work very well for me.

You are part of a big family, and as one of 6 children did your parents treat you differently from your siblings?

A: An important lesson my parents taught me as a child was to fight for what I wanted. If my brother Art, for example, was playing with Legos and I wanted to join in my mom and dad would not tell Art to let me play, but rather they told me to get in and fight for what I wanted.

Tell us about the foundation you are working on.

A: I have recently launched the Helping Others Live Determined foundation with the intention to provide education, coaching, grants and prosthetics to amputees who strive to challenge their disabilities but lack the resources to pursue their dreams.

What's next for Tony Volpentest?

A: I have recently had a new set of “blades” made and have been working out very hard over the last year. I intend to get back on the track in some capacity, possibly leading me back to competition. It is too early yet to say how that will turn out but regardless my focus will remain on spreading my message and being the person who is in the right place at the right time for others who are pursuing their dreams, as so many others have been in the past for me. This effort will flow through my foundation.

What's the best piece of advice you can give our readers about achieving and living your dreams?

A: There is greatness in all of us if we are willing to look past our own perceived limitations! But most importantly "If you can dream it, you can achieve it."

CHRIS HAMILTON pHOTOgRApHY

What motivated you to train for the 1992 Paralympic Games— Who inspired you and what gave you the determination to set that goal…and then accomplish it?

A: My times during my senior year of high school were very close to the existing world records, so I knew if I dedicated myself to a full year of training after high school I had a real shot at doing something amazing. I have always been inspired by those who may not have the God given natural talent but who work harder than those who do because they possess a passion that can’t be taught. I talk about a couple of my childhood hero’s in my book, “Fastest Man in the World, The Tony Volpentest Story.”

future should I require any assistance in pursuing my dreams. As the ‘96 Paralympic games in Atlanta, Georgia approached I did just that and Mr. Perot was excited to offer his assistance so that I could defend my Paralympic titles on American soil. I am so honored to have had Mr. Perot present in Olympic stadium as I not only defended my Paralympic title and won gold, but also lowered my own world record in the 100 meter dash. To this day Mr. Perot has remained very close and continues to inspire and motivate me. In fact he even wrote the forward for my book.

How did you meet presidential candidate Ross Perot and how do you credit him with the part he has played in your life?

A: I met Mr. Perot at the University of Washington after a United We Stand rally, where he shared with me a story regarding a Persian Gulf War veteran who had been inspired by my story after Mr. Perot saw it on an episode of 48 hours. Mr. Perot outfitted this soldier with the same technology that I competed on in Barcelona, Spain. Soon after receiving his new leg this veteran was able to pursue his dream of becoming a police officer. It was during this event at the UW where Mr. Perot asked me to call on him in the A Distinctive style . com

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VIR GIn REcORDS RELEASES “PInES,” A nEw ALbuM bY

A FINE FRENZY 58 A Distinctive style . com

ALISON SUDOL PINES, Alison Sudol's third full-length as A Fine Frenzy, is a fable about a pining tree who is given the unheard-of chance (for a conifer) to make a life of her own choosing. Drawing inspiration from the redwood forests and dramatic landscapes of Northern California and Washington's Cascade Mountains, the thirteen new original songs survey a sonic landscape as vast and deep as the woods, their namesake.

Sudol crafted PINES in response to our accelerating pace of life in the 21st century. "Sometimes I feel like the world has been strapped onto the back of a giant rocket and it's hurtling us into the unknown at a pace we're not entirely equipped to deal with. All kinds of things are falling off, good and bad.

It's a crazy, exciting, terrifying time- so much is changing, and fast. Yet some of the most wonderful things in the world are slow- rivers and seasons and turning leaves and growing older with the ones you love. I wanted to create an environment where a person could retreat to, somewhere vivid and real where their minds and hearts could wander freely. I wanted it to be a place you could go to feel, like a quiet spot in a forest or the sea on a cloudy day."

The adventure of PINES is further realized in a companion book and short film. The animated film PINES, (produced by TakePart, the digital division and Social Action network of Participant Media, whose mission is to create entertainment that inspires and compels social change) integrates hand-cut sets, puppets, stop motion, physical effects, and layered glass to augment the depth and texture of the film. The book is a collaboration with illustrator Jen Lobo, whose aesthetic Sudol chose for her blend of “scientific precision and whimsical beauty.”

The ecological consciousness evident throughout PINES has been an integral part of Alison Sudol's life since she was a little girl in Seattle, Washington. She serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and performed at the 2011 Environmental Media Awards, subsequently joining their Young Hollywood Board, which supports school gardens in urban areas through funding and celebrity mentoring.

As one of the first artists on Twitter, Sudol takes her responsibilities seriously, encouraging her 1.7 million followers to be more socially active within their own communities on and off line. A recent collaboration with Nokia at this year’s SXSW resulted in Sudol and her followers contributing to the planting of over 5,000 trees after an extreme drought in the area decimated their forests and urban tree population.

"I had been running to keep up with a world which I could not catch for so long, trying to find somewhere to belong, …somewhere along the way, I got lost. And then one day, I just couldn't run anymore. I didn't know where to go.

It was only when I stopped that I found what I was looking for- or at least, I found how to find it. During that time, I was writing the story of PINES… I had to write it as a story- stories allow you to take a step back and actually look at what you're seeing, not just how you feel about it. They give you perspective. That perspective allowed me to see life in a different way, as an adventure; the record, the book and the film are my maps.”

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Matchmaker, Matchmaker,

MAKE ME A MATCH

Despite the threat of shame to her family name she chose to reject the future that had been arranged for her.

By Marlene Caroselli

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he lilting lyrics from Fiddler on the Roof offer one view of arranged marriages—a happy union of two young people by a villager whose job it is to introduce the soon-toblissful bride and groom to one another. Such cultural arrangements differ from forced marriages, in which parents decide on a partner for their child with virtually no input from the young person involved. If that person refuses to submit to parental pressure, there is often a penalty to pay.

Surinder Kaur is an Indian woman with first-hand knowledge of arranged marriages. She recalls, “As early as age 10, I remember seeing my father put a gold bar—about an inch wide and ten inches long—into a safe box. My mother explained it was for my sisters’ and my own wedding dowry one day. Typically, families of the bride begin saving for dowry when the children are still young.”

When the time came, Kaur’s family arranged a suitable match for her. Typically parents choose someone of the same caste and of the same social status. “My match was a little different,” Kaur confides. “My husband was someone to whom I was introduced at a relative’s wedding. After that, my parents and the family elders met with his family, and arrangements were made. It is customary,” she explains, “for the bride to leave her parents’ home to live with her in-laws. In our culture, we are taught from an early age that the in-laws are our ‘real’ parents.”

Kaur describes her wedding ceremony: “Our was a Sikh ceremony held in a Gurudwara (Gateway to God) Temple. Men and women gather in one hall in the temple but are seated separately. Everyone must cover their head with a veil or, turban and remove footwear. The couple sits at the front of the congregation before the ‘altar.’ The Granthi (or priest) reads from the Guru Granth Sahib (the Sikh Holy book). At intervals the couple is made to stand and pray, and then walk seven times around the altar.

“The bride’s brothers (or male first cousins),” she explains, “surround the altar to guide their sister around the altar as she trails about three feet behind the groom, holding onto a drape hanging from his shoulder. A traditional Sikh wedding will last about five hours. The celebrations leading up to the actual day of the wedding begin about two weeks before. These ceremonies include cooking for the wedding, dancing, singing, and celebrating separately (men and women at different gatherings). A few days before the wedding, the Henna ceremony is held. Henna is

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painted on the bride’s hands and feet and on the bride’s ‘maids.’”

As exotic and exquisite as the wedding arrangements were, the beauty did not continue through the marriage. Kaur managed to free herself from the relationship after three years.

She reveals, “To suffer abuse at the hands of a spouse is one thing, but at the hands of your in-laws, the ones who you were taught are your ‘real’ parents, is much deeper, much worse. I just remember asking myself, ‘Are you going to put up with this for the rest of your life?’ The answer I got back was NO! Not if I live even one day of freedom.”

The abuse began after only six months. Kaur confides, “My in-laws would demand that I ask their permission to do simple things like...visiting parents, going to the shops, calling my family. Every move was controlled, and my husband wouldn’t stand up for me. He began seeing other women and I was expected to keep quiet and accept his behavior because ‘that’s what men do.’ I was told, by many family members (including my own) that leaving him would basically make me worthless as a woman. A second-class person. Divorced and with a child...a female child at that…is basically social suicide as far as the Indian social status goes. I was told that my action to get away or to initiate a divorce would bring shame on my family name.”

The threat of shaming her family was very real for Kaur. “If you are raised in a culture where honor is everything, the family name could be ruined by the action of just one person.” She shares the results of a recent Reuters study that found Indian women are the most stressed people on the planet.

Kaur believes the negatives associated with arranged marriages are the result of a patriarchal society that views women as burdensome objects of use. “When they are no longer useful,” she reflects, “they are discarded like trash.” Despite the threat of shame to her family name, Kaur chose to reject the future that had been arranged for her. “I didn’t want history to repeat itself in my daughter’s life,” she tells us. Kaur now resides in the United States. She has remarried and happily reports she and her husband have given her daughter a sibling with whom to share her life.

Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson viewed marriage from a positive perspective when he claimed they “Are made in Heaven.”

Marriage ceremonies may be made in Heaven, but clearly some marriages quickly descend into Hell, no matter where they are made.

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Maybe you should stop staring and start learning ~ Lizzie velasquez www.aboutlizzie.com

“

I think the biggest things I have to deal with is people constantly staring at me as soon as I walk into a room. Recently, it’s been a lot of adults I’ve been having to deal with, who slowly walk in front of me and turn their heads, and look me up and down. So the stares are what I’m really dealing with in public right now. Instead of just sitting by and watching these people judge me, I’m starting to want to go up to these people and introduce myself, or give them my card and say, ‘Maybe you should stop staring and start learning.’

”

Lizzie Velasquez, a 23-year-old, whose positive outlook despite having a rare condition has made her a sought-after motivational speaker. She hopes her book, Be Beautiful, Be You, will inspire young adults who struggle with self-image and self-esteem.

The book offers readers a close-up look into Lizzie’s journey to find beauty within and shares her message of staying true to oneself.

Lizzie’s undiagnosed syndrome prevents her body from storing fat and building muscle. This syndrome, which is known to affect only two others worldwide, has made her life a study in contradictions. She eats whatever she wants, yet

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cannot move a weigh scale past 60 or so pounds. In a time when many people change their appearance in order to feel accepted, she has accepted herself with extraordinarily positive self-esteem. Her attitude, not her syndrome, is contagious.

The book shares advice on being unique, how to make and keep good friends, dealing with bullying and negativity, the art of personal meditation, talking to God in your own words, and setting realistic goals. Woven throughout are Lizzie’s personal experiences, as well as those shared by readers of her first book, Lizzie Beautiful. The book’s core theme, to love yourself as the gift of God you are, will resonate with anyone who struggles with self-esteem.

The Sandpaper Effect of Bullying

By Marlene Caroselli, Ed.D.

hris Colfer, best-selling author, Golden Globe winner and a two-time Emmy nominee. Actress Emma Watson.

Vampire heartthrob Robert Pattinson. Fashion model Cindy Crawford. Shock-jock Howard Stern. Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock. Pop star Miley Cyrus. Former president, Bill Clinton.

Golfing great Tiger Woods. Prince Harry Windsor. Olympic athlete Michael Phelps.

What do these luminaries, and countless others, have in common? As you might have guessed from the title of this piece, they were all bullied as children. In fact, Colfer encourages a metaphorical tool for easing the pain: “When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless.” The ‘polish’ to which he refers is evident as well in the words of country music's sweetheart, Taylor Swift. “If you're horrible to me, I'm going to write a song about it, and you won't like it. That's how I operate.”

The problem, of course, is that before a bullied child ends up "polished," or before a bullied child writes a pop-charted song, there are endless days of pain. Pain sometimes so unbearable that—like Tyler Clementi or Phoebe Prince—the bullied young person takes his or her own life. And, not every child achieves levels of success that enable ‘living well as the best revenge.’

The recently released film Bully explored the effects of bullying on the victims of this widespread form of violence. The film takes viewers into classrooms, workplaces, and living rooms to show the wide range of victims being mocked, harmed, and excluded. Justin Bieber's "Born To Be Somebody" plays throughout the documentary. The musical choice is not surprising: Bieber himself was bullied as a youngster. Race, income level, looks, and intelligence—the list of reasons (and non-reasons) why people are bullied is long and disturbing.

Even reality star Kelly Osborne endured taunts from other children. It didn't matter that her father was rich and famous.

The rhyme she heard over and over again referred to her weight:

C

THE END OF BULLYINg BEgINS wITH YOU! "'Kelly Smelly with the Big Belly Whose Dad's on the Telly."

Most bullies and their victims are school children and most bullying takes place in schools. Tom Weber of Minnesota Public Radio, investigated schools as part of a six-month investigation into bullying. In a blog post he notes that bullying policies are important, but never as important as what is actually happening inside school walls. Despite the lip service given to anti-bullying, what matters most is the culture— ideally a culture that has zero tolerance for bullying.

Julie Hertzog, director of PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center discusses the different behaviors that occur in a bullying-tolerant culture. “Bullying behaviors can be complex and varied," she notes. "It’s not only the stereotypical overt behavior of fighting, hitting or name calling. Bullying can also be covert— gossiping or leaving someone out on purpose. Whether it’s in the school yard or in a text, bullying is behavior that hurts or harms another person physically or emotionally and is intentional—done with deliberation." PACER designated October as National Bullying Prevention Month. The effort is designed to unite communities across the country to raise awareness of bullying prevention through various activities.

Hertzog believes behaviors and cultures themselves can be changed. “We can all work together," she affirms, "to change a culture that accepts bullying. Silence is not an acceptable response to bullying, and that’s what National Bullying Prevention Month is all about. People who are bullied need to know they are not alone. Our website, www/PACER.org/Bullying, has resources that parents, educators, students and communities can use to prevent bullying in their own communities. Elementaryage students can learn on our website designed just for them: www.KidsAgainstBullying.org, and teens can learn more and join the cause at www.TeensAgainstBullying.org.”

Perhaps the most hopeful of all words about bullying are these seven from PACER: "The end of bullying begins with you."

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ITCAN WAIT. AT&T's Txtng & Drivng Campaign Urges You That 'It Can Wait.

This documentary featuring families affected by texting while behind the wheel is being distributed to educators, government officials, safety organizations and public as part of a educational awareness campaign.

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Instead of judging us, why not listen?

Written by a 16-year-old who is searching for acceptance

By Natalie Bejarano

T

he world is different than it was. As generations pass, and grow up—we find a rush of new ideas, hopes, views and issues in our society. Things that were once taboos are all over the Internet and media, providing a frame of education for today’s youth.

However, it is proven that these discoveries are harming our society, providing extensive knowledge and shifts in ideals and morals. When we are in school—our family very often become our friends, and as we struggle with acceptance and understanding, critical boundaries and guidance disappear.

Some teenagers feel more pressure than others to succeed because our nation thrives on business and awareness. We want to know that we can make a difference, though sometimes, we understand that this is not possible.

You see it everywhere—schools are pushing their students to excel and succeed. Scholarships are awarded to individuals with the highest GPA or SAT scores—colleges look for applicants with a wide-range of skills on their resume—sometimes the requirements add unnecessary stress to those of us who would like a chance to change the direction of our future.

Our beliefs often alter as a result of different influences—and sometimes, we feel unstable in our growth process. Our teenage years are full of confusion, denial, and an endless search for answers.

We’re learning who we are, as we search for “self.” Some of us get lost along the way and fall into the negative aspects of society like under-aged drinking and drug use.

The media is responsible for endorsing many things ranging from low-self esteem to drug use and violence. Though we cannot control what the media says and does, it still has a great impact on how we view ourselves.

We see new coping mechanisms for stress that are relieved

through alcohol usage, eating disorders and drug use whether we consciously know this or not.

The hardest thing about living in the world when you are 16—may be the same problems we encounter before or later on in our teen years. Self acceptance, loving ourselves and understanding who we truly are often create a basis for our development and struggles.

One of the hardest struggles as a teenager—is facing the comments from our elders. For instance, we all know that our parents want the best for us and care about our well-being. But what I find upsetting is the saying ‘you don’t know anything about life—your stress is nothing compared to the stress we as parents are under.’

Well let’s pause for a moment here. Of course this statement is partially true, but we want you to know that being a teenager is difficult and stressful too.

We are often left in a state of confusion, which makes us want to strike out and head down the wrong path. This comes from not having guidance. We get frustrated, not wanting to ask for help because we feel “strong enough” to handle things on our own, and don’t want to add to our families stress.

However, many teenagers feel like their parents don’t see that they are doing the best they can to grow up and find their place in society and ultimately in the world.

In general teenagers feel that their opinions and emotions are not being heard, and that they don’t matter. When we do try to communicate we’re told, “It’s just a phase—it’s just a feeling—you’ll be okay.”

Teenagers don’t want to be judged, so we tend to keep everything inside. Our emotions and opinions are valuable, and we believe this needs to be addressed.

Instead of judging us, why not just listen?

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Breasts are what define a woman.

Losing them was losing a huge part of my identity. ~ Stacy D. Shelton

By Rita Cook

S

tacy D. Shelton tells us something that is surprising “The number of women getting breast cancer is increasing, especially in younger women,” she says. “This is no longer a disease that we can forget about until we are in our 50s. A 12year-old girl was diagnosed in California two years ago. I believe we will find a cure for cancer in my lifetime, but it can only come with funding.”

Shelton is a two-time survivor, and an award-winning author of a book about her journeys through cancer. Her book, “Me, the Crazy Woman and Breast Cancer” has also led to her to be a keynote speaker for the Indiana South Shore Conference for Coaches vs. Cancer speaking about the life lessons that remain after battling cancer.

She says she decided to write the book as part of a metamorphosis, which came in the form of what she ended up dubbing “Crazy Woman.”

“From the moment of my diagnosis, I had this inner voice that tried to control everything that was happening,” she says. “The problem was, it wasn’t a good inner voice – it was sometimes very destructive. Being a former journalist, the only way I could process this voice and all the other information I was being slammed with, was to write about it.”

She also said there were so many times that her health care slipped through the cracks too.

“There are many so many different doctors involved with a breast cancer diagnosis and my guess is that most of them thought that certain information had already been given to me by another doctor,” she explains. “However, that wasn’t always true. I had to find a lot of things out the hard way and I after I began writing just to help myself, it became clear the things I was learning could help others. That is when my journaling turned into a manuscript.”

One of her most memorable journeys when she had cancer came when she says she had to make a difficult decision whether or not to have a bi-lateral mastectomy. Because she had cancer twice within a six-month time period, and because it was more aggressive the second time, the odds of her getting it again in her lifetime was about 80 percent.

“My head knew I needed to have it done, but my psyche could

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not grasp the idea. Breasts are what most define a woman as a woman to the outside world. Losing them was losing a huge part of my identity,” she says. “I was also terrified that my husband would not be attracted to me anymore. Although he assured me that wouldn’t be the case, the crazy woman who came to live in my head after my diagnosis, would not let me believe it. It was the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my life.”

Shelton says these days when she speaks to family members and friends of someone with a life-threatening illness, she explains to them that the person that they have always known and loved, no longer exists. Therefore, they must understand that they will have to forge a new relationship with that person.

“I am three years past my last reconstructive procedure and I am just beginning to feel comfortable in my own skin again,” she says. “For someone who has had to face their own mortality, there is no norm.

There is no place to be comfortable or at peace. Imagine being thrown into a dark forest in the middle of the night and told to find your way out. Cancer patients are being asked to navigate a situation in which they have no control, no knowledge and usually have no one with whom they can truly relate.

And if they can’t make it through this almost impossible situation, they pay with their life. The brain really isn’t equipped to handle it and it semi-shuts down. After coming out of my own fog, I can see that the shutting down was a protection mechanism.”

In fact, Shelton explains that a patient’s personality may completely change since they have not found a way to be “normal” because nothing is normal anymore, but there still are life lessons. She says her daughter was 14 years old at the time of her first diagnosis and although she was not afraid of dying, she was terrified of leaving her daughter alone in the world to fend for herself.

“At one point during my journey, when I thought the cancer may have spread, that fear became almost paralyzing. I was convinced that she couldn’t make it without me and leaving her would be catastrophic. But, with the help of my counselor, I was able to walk myself through my death and look at my daughter’s life without me in it.”

Candidly, Shelton emphasizes that she wants to be perfectly clear that not everyone’s journey through cancer will be the same.

“No one can really know you until they have walked through your hell,” she says. “When I was finally able to let go of the fear, only then was I able to hear the still, small, voice inside me. That voice is there for a reason. When we can silence the outside world and tune into it, it can give us the guidance that we cannot find anywhere else. I believe that guidance is never wrong. I sometimes get asked by cancer patients what they should do and that is a question I will only answer with what I learned. You and only you have the right answer.”

She says she also learned that nothing is insurmountable if it is taken a piece at a time.

“Having cancer changed me profoundly. I had been a very angry person most of my life. I had to ask myself if that is who I really wanted to be when I left this earth. I had to make a conscious decision to stop the behavior and change it to who I knew I really was.”

Dr. Deborah Rhodes, the director of the Mayo Clinic’s Executive Health Program, has developed a new diagnostic tool that can find three times more tumors in dense breast tissue than the mammogram can. This technology, which is called a Gamma Camera, uses gamma rays to see through breast tissue.

In a TED talk, she demonstrates this remarkable new machine and shows two images of the same breast, one taken by traditional mammography and one taken with the Gamma Camera. There is one faint tumor seen in the mammography image, but the gamma image shows this faint tumor much more clearly and it shows another tumor that mammography couldn’t pick up.

In another image, the mammogram shows one tumor but the gamma image picked up three, two of which were so small that they would fall into the 90% cure rate. A third set of images shows no tumor in the mammography image but the Gamma Camera clearly picks up a tumor. In fact, in a study of one thousand women with dense breast tissue, mammograms found 25% of the tumors but the Gamma Camera found 83!

Other benefits are that it takes only four images while the mammography takes 1000 and it won’t require specialized training like radiology to read it.

Considering there is a shortage of radiologist who read mammograms, and because dense breast tissue can sometimes be almost impossible to read, making radiologists the most sued physicians because they miss tumors, this technology can obviously mean the difference between life and death.

She says there are a few other things that can be done too.

“First the FDA needs to allow greater flexibility in trial treatments for end of life patients. If there is a medication that

is showing promise and someone with a Stage IV cancer is willing to try it, then they should be allowed. End of life patients know the risks associated with cancer drugs. Many have said to me that even if it didn’t work for them, maybe it would allow scientists to gain enough knowledge to help someone else.

These patients are facing the end of their life and they have nothing to lose. If the drug works, they get a new lease on life.

If it doesn’t, there is the possibility that someone else gains. It is a great sacrifice but it’s something many people are willing to make for the good of themselves and for others.”

“Secondly, insurance companies need to be made to cover experimental treatments. First and foremost, it is the right thing to do. Profits make their decisions and it shouldn’t be that way.

I believe that experimental regimens could very well lead them to greater profits. If any of these drugs lead to cure, it could ultimately save them billions of dollars in future cancer care.”

These days Shelton is no longer a journalist, but works with health care professionals in an effort to improve the field in regard to cancer patients.

“It is something I do because I feel called to do so,” she concludes. “I was fortunate to be able to work with administrators of a new cancer center, here in my home state, to help with literature for cancer patients and their families. I am hoping to start a program with cancer hospitals to teach the Do’s and Don’ts section of my book to friends, family and loved ones of cancer patients in order to give them a roadmap for how to better understand their loved one, allowing them to aid in the healing process by foreseeing the physical and emotional needs throughout their journey.”

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The Gerson Miracle ANatural Cure for Cancer Max Gerson was a German physician who developed the Gerson Therapy, an alternative dietary therapy, which has been proven to cure cancer and most chronic, degenerative diseases. The Gerson Therapy is based on the belief that disease is caused by the accumulation of unspecified toxins, and attempts to treat the disease by having patients consume a vegetarian diet including hourly glasses of organic juice and various dietary supplements.

Gerson's daughter, Charlotte Gerson, continued to promote the therapy, founding the "Gerson Institute" in 1977.

By Emily Zhang

H

oward Straus, grandson of Max Gerson and son of Charlotte Gerson, first began using his grandfather’s Gerson Therapy to cure his hereditary enema: thalassemia. His mother founded the Gerson Institute, and he had always been involved in some manner. That was how he discovered that natural treatment could cure cancer.

At the age of 23, he was engaged to be married, but three months before the wedding, his fiancée came down with her third occurrence of skin cancer. She started the Gerson Therapy.

Straus explains how successful the treatment was: “We both went on the therapy and all my little health problems started to go away. I lost 50 unwanted pounds, my adult acne cleared up and my hair started growing back. This was 23 years ago— look at me now, I’m almost 70 and I’m in the best health of my life, which is something that few American men can say at this age. My wife is in the best health ever and to this day is cancer free.”

The basics of Gerson Therapy consist of organic, salt free, fat free, vegan nutrition with the addition of detoxification and vitamin, mineral, and enzyme supplementation. At the clinic, three large vegan meals are provided per day with a wide variety of fresh pressed vegetable and fruit juices. All these tenants serve to restore everything the body lacks.

When asked about his opinion on the benefit of genetically modified food, Straus scoffed. “Genetically modified foods are not only useless and toxic, but they’re lethal.” He continues, “Monsanto is the most evil corporation on the planet. There are 1,000-2,000 Indian farmers per week that are committing suicide; I mean it’s just horrible. So, Monsanto is the problem, not the solution.” It turns out that companies pay big money to prevent food labeling so they can continue selling unhealthy food for a profit.

People have to look to a natural cure. “Conventional medicine is failing more and more, it’s getting more and more expensive, less and less effective, especially with chronic disease.” Straus

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notes. In fact, a study done by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center has discovered that chemotherapy, when used on a living body, actually makes it more likely that cancer will recur.

But all is not lost. Food can actually help fight cancer. “Plantbased nutrition will alkalinize your body and it’ll do it very rapidly,” Straus explains, “Meat based nutrition or animal proteinbased nutrition, any type of animal protein, milk, butter, eggs, ice cream, cheese, pork and chicken; all of those things will acidify your body. Therefore drinking milk is not going to help your osteoporosis, because it’s acidifying your body and the acidification is sucking calcium out of your bones.”

“We shouldn’t just watch the food we eat though. Beauty and cleaning products can be bad for our health too. Cosmetics and personal care products like deodorants and lipstick are absorbed into the skin and directly into the bloodstream.”

“Women that use cosmetics typically absorb about 5 lbs. of this stuff every year. Five lbs. of cosmetic chemicals and nobody regulates those chemicals, they’re carcinogenic, they’re neurotoxic and they’re mutagenic which means it causes birth defects.”

“Chlorine, a common product that can be found anywhere from drinking water to swimming pools actually has a negative effect on the body.” Straus explains, “Chlorine is very toxic. It disables the thyroid, causing hypothyroidism, which leads to low energy production; it inhibits the ability to create an inflammation when there’s an infection. ” Thus, chlorine prevents the body from healing itself. “ “Mercury in your fillings, okay mercury will leach out of your fillings for ever, in the course of 25 years, 90% of the mercury will be leached out of your teeth and into your system where it’ll circulate and cause neurological problems. It’s the worst, the most powerful, neurotoxin that there is. The FDA has resolutely, consistently and cynically refused for 30 years, despite stringent demands for requirements, requests, mandates to test mercury amalgam fillings for safety. They

Max Gerson

Howard Straus

My health insurance is organic food - Howard Straus

won’t do it. They know what they will find; that mercury is the worst neurotoxin there is.”

“Aspartame is another thing to worry about,” Straus continues, “Aspartame is now in some 6,000-food products. One of the things that you might find interesting is that 80% of the multiple sclerosis in this country is misdiagnosed aspartame poisoning. That means 4 out of 5 times someone is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and you take them off diet drinks and all aspartame containing products, it clears up.”

“Every substitute, whether it is a salt substitution or sugar substitute to fat substitute, anything else, is far more dangerous than the substance it replaces. So olestra is way worse than fat.

Aspartame is way worse than sugar. If you want to substitute safe you have to use Stevia. It’s herbal, so there’s no damage. In fact, a simple search on the web reveals that by stopping the intake of aspartame, one can lose 19 pounds on average,” Straus notes.

“If it’s not clear now that natural is the way to go, the natural removal of toxicity can allow drug users to go through painless

withdrawal in only 3 days. With the Gerson Therapy, the source of pain (toxicity) is removed through 12-hour morphine shots, successfully taking care of withdrawal without any pain.”

Finally, Straus remarks, “If a drug is not artificial, if a molecule isn’t artificial, then it can’t be patented. If it can’t be patented, then the pharmaceutical companies can’t make a gigantic profit off us so they’re not interested. So they tinker around with natural molecules until they get one that has the effect that they want and then they patent it and sell it as their patented drug. But the problem is: your body doesn’t recognize the foreign combination of molecules. So it snips the molecules into pieces and attempts to guess. This creates fragments of toxins that reside in your body that it doesn’t know how to handle. Lesson learned: don’t use artificial drugs.”

More information can be found at www.gersonmedia.com, and www.gerson.org and www.gerson.org/gerpress/gerson-basicslive-stream-fall-2012.

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Verified Success:

Sodium Bicarbonate Cures Cancer

By Emily Zhang

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assimo Mazzucco, an Italian filmmaker, is best known for producing documentary films such as The New American Century and Cancer The Forbidden Cures.

The realization that he was shooting pictures of models while people were starving to death all over the world was the turning point for Mazzucco. His transition from fashion photographer to filmmaker to documentary filming might seem random to some people, but when asked about why he made such decisions, Italian director and producer Massimo Mazzucco simply replied, “That’s life. You follow it wherever it takes you. I don’t purport to lead my life where I want it to go because that would be too presumptuous.”

His quest for understanding made him gain interest in cancer, after watching the documentary on Hoxsey, an alternative medical treatment promoted as a cure for cancer. He realized that if people, like they were supposed to, actually worked to promote the common good, as opposed to promoting their own selfish motives, there might be more hope for those with cancer today.

Learning that shark cartilage, an antiangiogenic, suffocates and stops the growth of new blood vessels and stops tumor growth, he clearly expresses his anger toward the selfish desires of those who sell pills simply as a way to earn money.

“They will not tell you that a natural product works. They will keep that hushed and they will try to replicate the same thing to then sell it to you in the form of a pill. Imagine when you find a pill against cancer that works, how much money you can make,” he stated.

Because of this belief, he thinks that natural treatment based on research through the Internet is a viable option. Mazzucco admits, “It takes a lot of courage. We are trained in a way that physiologically, the word cancer equals death, and therefore it equals terror immediately. So once you panic, you lose your capacity of rationality and you just run to the doctor. And you just trust the doctor because they would know better. Well in this particular case, they don’t know better. This is the problem.”

He believes the fault lies in the system, as the “real secret to preserve the system is built within the system.” Doctors’ immersion doesn’t allow them to come at the problem from a different angle, stifling their ability to come up with new cures, accept new theories. Thus, he deems that with informed choices, people can take their lives into their own hands.

Although Mr. Mazzucco has not really faced pressure from

institutions like the AMA, he feels their consequences not only on his life, but on the development of cures for cancer as well.

Because he is a fan of Dr. Tullio Simochini, the doctor who found that sodium bicarbonate was a cure for cancer, he has made enemies. Yet, he continues to hold this doctor’s viewpoint as true. “At first I did not believe at all that sodium bicarbonate could cure cancer,” he admitted, but continued, “Then he told me one very, very simple thing and everything changed.”

Dr. Simochini found that cancer tumors are filled with a form of fungus, candida. He discovered that when the immune system weakens, the candida takes over and begins to colonize and attack the organ, and the tumor is actually the organ’s natural defense system. Because of this, he determined that because sodium bicarbonate was fungi’s biggest enemy, it would successfully fight back cancer cells.

Mazzucco verifies its success: “I’ve interviewed at least 35, so called, terminal patients who were sent home to die by the system, the people for whom the system had nothing left. They told them basically, go home and get your things in order because you have between 2 and 3 and 6 months to live. They went to Simochini and they all lived. The first one was diagnosed in 1987 with pulmonary cancer, and he told me, ‘I had between 3 and 6 months to live.’ I did the interview with him in 2006 and that’s 19 years after he was supposed to have been dead.”

Wanting to share this information with the general public, he states, “Anybody who buys “Cancer the Forbiden Cures” or even downloads it from the Internet, I don’t care. They’re allowed to and encouraged to make copies. There’s no restriction on making copies, so make as many as you want and give them around to whoever you think that wants to digest this information.”

He believes that the states’ responsibility is to at least guarantee health and education and worth to their people,” so this system that allows the fact that “those with money can cure themselves and those without money, they can die, and who cares” ought to be looked down upon.

Mazzucco provides a few final suggestions for the people.

“Just have the courage to face the issues, don’t hide, and don’t put your head in the sand. The journey isn’t exactly relaxing and comforting, there are a few shakes here and there, which I had to go through myself, but it is rewarding and it’s worth doing it.”

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Blog

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y name is Laura Lee Richard. As a lifelong artist of various sorts, I’m the author, photographer and creative force behind our family blog, House Of Joyful Noise. While our blog was simply born as another creative outlet for me, for writing and my photography, it is also documenting my children's family life and childhood, and hopefully inspiring others by sharing our ideas, perspectives, and latest creative projects that are simply a part of our every day living.

Our family life began when I met Michael in art school. We eventually married and had four children, who are all creative in their own right. Our oldest daughter is 15, our triplets, two boys and another girl, just turned 10-years-old.

For many years following art school, I worked as a freelance illustrator and in most recent years, as a professional photographer with my own business. My husband Michael has continued in his father’s trade as a sign maker and truck letterer, with his own business. But for me, being a Mama and living this blessed family life, has proven to be one of the greatest joys I could have ever dreamed.

Our family lifestyle is simple and we thrive on the daily goal of learning, creating and striving to rely more fully on natural resources, and educating ourselves about overall health and wellness.

Acknowledging the many joys and blessings found in each new day and giving thanks to God for them, is the focus of our life. We treasure being together, and losing ourselves in our many creative outlets, together or as individuals.

When crafting for fun, home décor or handmade gifts, we try to use recycled or repurposed supplies when possible. As homeschoolers we revel in the freedom to learn in ways that make sense to us and enjoy the learning process in the journey along the way.

We love the outdoors and embrace the beauty of nature and the abundant gifts it brings us. Around our homestead, we build anything we need with our own hands, prefer to pick things up at yard sales or antique stores and enjoy refinishing older furniture to accommodate our needs and fit our more vintage, farmhouse décor taste.

Our shoes storage bench and set of shelves, all made out of old doors, is one of our favorite repurposing projects. Baking and cooking is done with as many whole and natural foods as possible, with vegetables we grow in our garden beds. What we don’t grow ourselves, we purchase from local grower’s at our farmer’s markets.

As natives of New England we appreciate the celebration that comes with four seasons and sharing our latest projects and ideas at our blog House Of Joyful Noise. www.houseooyfulnoise.com

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pHOTO BY LAURA LEE RICHARD pHOTOgRApHY A Distinctive style . com

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If You Think You Know Everything About vaccines...Think Again!

• 1 in 6 children has a learning disability or behavioral problem • 1 in 450 is diabetic • 1 in 9 children is asthmatic • 1 in 110 children suffer from autism ~ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

This award winning docmentary offers a fresh look at what’s behind the sharply polarized vaccine debate in the U.S., and offers the opportunity for a new, more rational discussion about how to create safer and more effective public health policies to help our children stay healthy.

A Distinctive style . com 78www.greatergoodmovie.org

vaccines have been based on medical fraud for over a hundred years

By PF Louis

The concept of vaccinating to immunize began in 1796, when British apothecary (pharmacist) Edward Jenner inserted cowpox pus under the skin of an eight year old boy. Jenner based his experiment on an unsubstantiated rumor that anyone who had experienced cowpox would be immune to smallpox.

Over the next couple of years, Jenner vaccinated others with cowpox to immunize them against smallpox. Without any actual proof of efficacy and safety, Jenner impressed King George III enough with a bogus immunization guarantee that he was awarded the equivalent of today's $500,000.

Thus, Jenner was the first medical professional to administer diseased matter as medication to a healthy person and receive a substantial financial award. He was also the first to constantly denounce vaccination detractors successfully. He was protecting both his ego and large public purse.

Many health professionals throughout the 19th Century knew that there had been several cases of smallpox among those with cowpox histories. Jenner's premise was flawed.

This was actually the beginning of a tradition that is carried on by today's vaccinators. Come up with a bogus solution to prevent a disease, make a bundle of cash, and shut down reasonable arguments from those who know immunization by vaccination doesn't work safely or effectively.

England's incidents of smallpox after vaccination rose steadily from five percent in the beginning to 95% by 1895.

There was even a serious epidemic around 1872, one year after smallpox vaccinations were decreed mandatory in the UK. The mortality rate among smallpox victims also shot up five fold around that time.

Despite intelligent protests with obvious facts and figures disproving efficacy, and proving harm from toxic materials and viruses contained in vaccines that endanger natural immunity, the inoculation for immunization premise has been maintained.

Protecting the industry against truth by attacking reasonable dissenters viciously has resulted in vaccine industry

revenue of $17 billion annually today. This doesn't include revenue from doctors' visits for vaccinations and resulting ill health from them.

The vaccinators' tactics of suppressing scientific data from concerned professionals has become more mafia like. Sincere medical professionals who register health concerns over vaccines are severely punished and slandered by the medical mafia owned mainstream media.

The truth about vaccines and disease outbreaks -all hidden from public view A 2012 study led by Dr. David Witt, an infectious disease specialist at the San Rafael, California Kaiser Permanente Medical Center concluded that whooping cough occurs more among vaccinated children than children not vaccinated.

In 2010, a mumps outbreak occurred among 1000 children in upper New Jersey and lower New York. Almost 80% of them had been vaccinated with the MMR (measles, mumps & rubella) vaccine.

Throughout the 1980s, official agencies reported several outbreaks of measles occurring among children who had been vaccinated in various locations including an Illinois junior high and high school, a Massachusetts high school, a region in France, and a rural area near Helisinki, Finland.

Both USA schools had well over 90% vaccinated against measles. The vaccinators claim a 90% vaccination rate among any specific population guarantees herd immunity for that population. This bogus claim serves to create more revenue while blaming non-vaccinators for endangering humanity.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that only five percent of vaccine adverse events get reported to the "voluntary" FDA's vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS), there are many serious adverse events recorded and many more that seep through the cracks to vaccine concerned internet sites.

Thank goodness for the few MDs and others who dare speak out despite the danger it potentially puts them in. It's up to us to learn from them and just say no to vaccinations. www.naturalnews.com A Distinctive style . com

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Bringing beauty, compassion and truth into the world may not be as easy as one would think. Our life paths are often challenged and compromised by presumptions of those who raise and educate us suggesting that we will fare better if we expect less of life, that we should not challenge the status quo of our day-to-day existence. That subtle cynicism works its way deep into our psyches; consequently some accept it as truth. It seems there are very few people for whom curiosity and zest for life provide enough inspiration to enable them to break out of the confines and expectations of their communities to forge new, unimagined ways to be in the world.

A Distinctive Style is the literary and visual expression of Denise Marie's journey from a small town to a life lived globally on foot as well as in the virtual realm of the Internet.

In a way, Marie grew up living in two realities. More so than many of her peers, she had an insatiable curiosity about the

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world beyond her reach. Everyone she knew was following the path of "get out of high school, get married, have kids,” but her thirst for dancing in a larger world inspired her to get in her Volkswagen and head out on an adventure.

Traveling around the country, Marie learned how to survive by taking on odd jobs before something happened that set the course of her life – she was hired to run one of the first typesetting computers designed for newspapers. There was room for creativity miles beyond limitations, and learning to run a typesetting computer led to other software knowledge.

Through the evolution of her career, she worked at a number of magazines and realized that most magazines featured few articles of substance; they seldom addressed real issues in an honest and direct manner. She saw a need; the next stage in her life's journey was beginning to unfold.

Marie envisioned an online magazine that would convey

Enjoy your journey ~denise

connect with denise marie at publisher@adistinctivestyle.com

By MaTT KRaMER

the magic, beauty, and adventure she saw in the world. She wanted a platform to showcase eco friendly products and the people who were working to improve the quality of life in places where little quality could be found.

Could she pull it off? Her expertise was in graphics and sales; she knew nothing about publishing. Following the spirit that had driven her journey, Marie dived in to the project that was to become A Distinctive Style magazine. With no editors controlling her ideas, she was free to publish what she wanted to share: the best photography, the most talented musicians, and the activists who are overcoming adversity to make tomorrow's world a better place.

Marie learned how to integrate music and video to add a unique dimension to her magazine and was getting interviews with people who were making a difference in the world: groundbreaking activists, artists, and celebrities who were

happy to share their humanitarian projects with A Distinctive Style. After a while, Marie was not only on level ground with other online publishers, she had established a unique standard of substance and beauty that stood toe to toe with magazines with larger budgets and much bigger staffs.

When you turn the virtual pages of A Distinctive Style, you might take its beauty, professional design, and pithy articles in stride, marveling at the photography, drinking in the sounds of music and being emotionally moved by a video about people communicating what it is like to be autistic ("We're More Like You than Not").

For the five years that the magazine has been gracing the Internet, it has basically been a one-woman project, a manifestation of love, long hours, and unwavering commitment to share the beauty in the world while balancing that beauty with the passionate work of humanitarians.

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MONSANTO BETRAYS HUMANITY

• Stop buying lawn

& Destroys Life

pesticide chemicals.

By Mike adams

What, exactly, makes Monsanto evil? Why is Monsanto worse than a pharmaceutical company, a pesticide company or even a weapons manufacturer?

The answer to this question is found in probing the virtue of the corporation in question. As virtuous people, we expect corporations to act with a sense of fundamental human decency.

We expect them to behave within the boundaries of respecting human life, honest business practices and reliable science. We (naively) wish that corporations would act like decent human beings.

But they don't. In their quest for profit at any cost, they violate the basic tenants of virtue. They betray humanity. They destroy life.

CORPORATE GREED OVER SERVICE TO HUMANITY

Monsanto's actions are designed to maximize its corporate profits, not to serve the people. Its entire seed-and-herbicide business model is designed to trap farmers in a system of economic dependence... to turn farmers into indentured servants who can never return to traditional farming after their soil has been destroyed with Roundup.

SECRECY OVER TRANSPARENCY

Monsanto is spending millions of dollars to try to defeat Proposition 37 in California -- a bill which would simply require GMOs to be indicated on food labels.

But Monsanto and other companies such as those that own Larabar, Silk and Kashi do not want consumers to know the truth about GMOs in the foods they buy. They're also spending huge sums of money to try to defeat Proposition 37 so that the food companies can keep GMOs a dirty little secret about the poison in your food.

Plainly stated, these companies do not want you to know what you're eating. And why? Because you're eating poison!

Monsanto does not create technology and then share wisdom with farmers; instead the company patents its GE seeds and thereby claims monopolistic ownership over them. This patent is used to punish farmers!

When Monsanto's GMO seeds blow into the fields of farmers who are trying to avoid growing GMOs, Monsanto uses its patent "rights" to sue the farmers and claim they "stole" Monsanto property!

This is an example of the kind of pure evil Monsanto engages in on a regular basis. From the top company executives to the bottom of the corporate ladder, people who work for Monsanto are engaged in promoting a sickening, unprecedented evil that's spreading across our planet like a black slimy cancer tumor.

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• Stop buying medications.

DESTRUCTION OVER ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

• Stop buying toxic

Roundup herbicide devastates perfumes, cosmetics soils, rendering them contami& personal care nated and unable to produce healthy crops using traditional (or products. organic) farming methods. Once a farm plot is destroyed with • Stop buying soda pop Roundup, that farmer is forever & aspartame! enslaved to a chemical-based farming protocol. It's unhealthy, it's a disaster to the environment, and the actual crop yields are LOWER than with organic farming, over a period of five years or more.

By encouraging farmers to spray literally millions of acres of farmland with Roundup, Monsanto is engaged in a conspiracy to destroy our agricultural heritage and turn us all into "food slaves" that must pay tribute to Monsanto.

WE REALLY NEED CHANGE: CORPORATIONS WITH VIRTUE

Something is terribly, terribly wrong with corporate behavior in America, and Monsanto is just one of thousands of corporations which demonstrate highly irresponsible, extreme, destructive behavior.

The very design of corporations is missing something: HUMANITY. Sure, corporations are great at generating profits, streamlining logistics, manufacturing, marketing and so on. But where's the humanity in all that?

It's nowhere to be found. Corporations don't care WHO they harm, WHAT they destroy.

STOP SUPPORTING EVIL

The ultimate solution, of course, is a consumer solution: Stop purchasing products from evil corporations! This means you need to stop buying non-organic corn products such as breakfast cereals, corn tortillas, and corn snack chips.

YOU help shift the world in a more positive direction by shifting your own personal purchasing habits. And that's something you can control right now, today, starting with the very next dollar you spend at the store.

BUY ORGANIC, non-GMO products wherever possible. You'll be changing the world one purchase at a time. That's a genuine, practical way to diminish the power of evil corporations starting right now.

For more information visit www.naturalnews.com

How Genetically Engineered Foods Harm You and Your Family

NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN EVIDENCE points to genetically

Monsanto’s strong arm tactics, the FDA’s fraudulent

engineered foods as a major contributor to rising disease

policies, and how the USDA ignores a growing health

rates in the US population, especially among children.

emergency are also laid bare. This sometimes shocking

Gastrointestinal disorders, allergies, inflammatory diseases,

film may change your diet, protect you and your family,

and infertility are just some of the problems implicated in

and accelerate the consumer tipping point against

humans, pets, livestock, and lab animals that eat genetically

genetically modified organisms (GMOs) already under-

modified soybeans and corn.

way. Don’t miss this film!

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America is suffering from a health epidemic—Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the country’s three leading causes of death and the medicines prescribed to remedy these and other diseases cost this country over 120 billion dollars each year. Recent research proves there is a correlation between these deadly diseases and the amount of meat, dairy and processed foods consumed.

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“providing hope is a team effort. we rely on the courage and kindness of many to showcase the talents and accomplishments of people who stutter, to inspire and to shine a spotlight on what is possible.” ~ Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation

NFL's Ellis Lankster Tackles Stuttering

N

ew York Jets cornerback Ellis Lankster vividly remembers his own difficulties with stuttering in the classroom.

“Some kids would tease me, some teachers didn’t know if they should call on me,” Lankster said. “If the teacher asked a question and it required a fast response, I wouldn’t even try to be part of the conversation even when I knew the answer. It makes you feel alone and different. No child should feel that way in school.”

Thankfully, Ellis refused to let it alter his dream of playing professional football.

At school, children who stutter often face bullying and teasing, which sometimes causes more anxiety than does the speech disorder itself. Noted speech-language pathologists Bill Murphy, suggests teachers make stuttering an open topic for discussion. One exercise a teacher can use is to discuss famous people who stutter.

“I remember Mrs. Smith, my 5th grade teacher back in Alabama,” said Lankster. “She really understood what it took to include me in the class. It made a real difference.”

The Stuttering Foundation announced that Lankster was presented with the Foundation's "Converting Awareness into Action" Award for all he has done to inspire those who stutter.

Jane Fraser, President of the Stuttering Foundation, stated, "Ellis shows his true toughness by sharing his struggles with

fluency as a child. He refused to let his stutter keep him from his dream of playing professional football, and he is committed to helping and inspiring children attain their dreams by overcoming the obstacles they face."

Stuttering, is a communication disorder that causes things such as abnormal stoppages in speech or words broken by repetition. It affects more than 68 million people worldwide and over three million in the United States alone.

For many children, stuttering can be a difficult battle to face and many children suffer from being picked on. Having a celebrity and professional football player who has lived with stuttering play such an active role in awareness is amazing.

Lankster shows children that stuttering does not mean you can't live your dream. Lankster is proof that anything is possible.

–––––––––––– Malcolm Fraser, a successful businessman who stuttered, went on to establish and endow the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation in 1947. The Stuttering Foundation provides a toll-free helpline, 800-992-9392, and free online resources on their Web site: www.StutteringHelp.org, including services, referrals and support to people who stutter and their families, as well as support for research into the causes of stuttering.

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Honoring firefighters who have made the ultimate sacrifice

C

oming from a long line of firefighters, Fire Rescue, Battalion Chief, Ronnie Russell says, “My family goes way back in public service.” His great grandfather Boyd Burris and his great grandfather’s brother Bert Burris went to work for the Dallas Fire Department around 1917. Rising through the ranks, they both became Captain’s within a couple years.

Burt ended up dying in the line of duty in 1923 while on a call at a threestory wheel factory near the Dallas Fairgrounds. A brick wall collapsed and fell on him and he died a few days later at the hospital. “I never knew either one of them, but my family and friends who knew them told me they were extremely tough men,” Russell says.

Spending a lot of time around the Dallas fire houses as a boy, while his dad was working, Russell replies when asked if he knew he would become a fire fighter someday, “I spent day and night at the fire houses. It was exciting to listen to the alarm go off and then watch the men roll out of bed and speedily pull up their gear and hurry through the door into the apparatus room. Then they would fire up the engine and pull out of the bay with the ‘ol Q2 siren whirring.”

After learning the protocol (at 10 years old), Russell says the station captain gave him the responsibility of writing the box alarms and tap outs for the daily station log record. “Most of the time, when I was not driving a tractor or a combine with my family and friends, I was trying to persuade

my mother to take me to the fire station where my dad was working. This was before I could drive,” he adds.

Other Russell family members in fire or police service include his brother Terry Russell, and his father James Donald (Snake) Russell, who made the very first ambulance call for the Dallas Fire department.

“He worked up until he passed away in 1997 at the age of 57. He had lung cancer, a very common disease among firefighters,” Russell says. “I sent out a teletype to tell all the firefighters in the Dallas Fire Department, that he was getting critical and not expected to live much longer.”

[My] Uncle Denny told us that while my dad ‘Snake’ was battling this disease, firefighters were standing in line wanting to sub for him. He told us that out of 70 firefighters that were on a list to work for him, two called and offered cash to move up the line to work in his place. We were so humbled by this, even to this day.

Russell’s grandfather, Homer Burris, was a police officer in the Dallas Police department retiring in 1972 after 22 years on the force. His uncle Denny Roy Burris was the first Chaplain for the Dallas Fire Department and recently retired after 32 years of service, “Unofficially he still is doing the job to this day,” Russell adds.

Russell began as a volunteer firefighter while in high school, and has been a full-time firefighter/EMT for 32 years and Battalion Chief for the last 12 years.

BOYD BURRIS

BURT BURRIS

JAMES DONALD (SNAKE) RUSSELL

CLICK FOR pREVIEw

Global pop icon Kylie Minogue has announced that she will release The Abbey Road Sessions in the U.S. in November 2012. The album which was recorded in London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios with Kylie’s band and a full orchestra features sixteen classic Kylie tracks, all radically reworked, spanning Kylie’s incredible 25 year career. The album features many of Kylie’s best-known hits including “I Should Be So Lucky,” “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” and “The Locomotion.”

Other highlights include fan favorite but A Distinctive style . com 88

Kylie Minogue previously unreleased “Flower,” a wonderfully poignant “Better The Devil You Know,” the ever-amazing “Confide In Me,” a sultry “On A Night Like This” and a joyous “All The Lovers.” Nick Cave also re-recorded his vocal on the famous 1996 duet “Where The Wild Roses Grow” especially for the album. Across all 16 tracks one thing becomes very clear – stripped of her high end pop production, the emotional resonance of many of Kylie’s songs has never been clearer, nor has her voice ever sounded better.

SIMON TONg pHOTOgRApHY A Distinctive style . com

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Visiting with Kings at the End of theWorld

By John Lightle

T

ime and again, cultures of the world have failed in attempt at predicting the end of the world. The Roman Hippolytus called for a demise of the planet by 500 A.D. Italian mystic and philosopher Joachim of Fiore gave us an over and under of 60 years from 1200 A.D., in his work, An Exposition of the Apocalypse. Cotton Mather, Isaac Newton, William Miller and Nostradamus all set a date-stamp on the Earth, sending unrequited fear throughout their respective eras. Surprisingly, one in seven people believe the world will end in their lifetime. With the coming of December 21, 2012, German epigrapher Nikolai Grube shed some light into the epic Mayan calendar and what it means for those apprehensive about this fateful date.

In his June 2012 publication on the Yucatan civilization, Maya: Kings of the Rain Forest, the Department of Anthropology of the Americas professor at the University of Bonn, compiled a lifetime of research into a glimpse of the ancient world. Dr. Grube’s 2008 book, Chronicles of the Maya King and Queens explores kingdom dynasties and the interpretation of glyphic; the stunning and detailed carvings used as the Mayan written language. Chronicles investigates Mayan eras where an indigenous people tamed a rain forest, developed an agrarian society and built monumental cities.

Where Kings of the Rain Forest distinguishes itself from his previous writings, Grube’s accumulated work collaborates 26 of his peers in 480-pages of visually stunning text, including maps, vibrant photography of landscapes, carvings and pottery, and guides readers through Central-American history in a documented collection of essays.

Chapters one and two introduce Habitats and Early Horizons with The Birth of States, offering readers origins of the nation along with sustainable food and drink. Here we are first introduced to cacao and tortillas, jade and obsidian; early cities and the genesis of village life. From there, Grube walks us through the city of Teotihuacan, 30 miles north of present-day Mexico City. Epitomizing Mayan city life, the 125,000 bustling inhabitants constructed multi-floored apartment complexes among an array of distinctive architecture while establishing

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itself as the zenith to the new religious epicenter.

Chapter three of the book leads readers into Mayan Achievements, with Grube’s essays on Hieroglyphs - A Gateway to History, Bark Paper Books, Solar Eclipse — Fearing the end of the World, and Astronomy and Mathematics written by Alexander W. Voss. Where Divine Kings of the Rain Forest not only takes us through the ancient world, Grube eases readers into the colonial era - the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The books final two chapters include archeological exploration and excavation projects and concludes with the resurgence in the Mayan movement today.

While December 21, marks the end of the 5125-year Mayan Long-Count calendar, fiestas across the Yucatan plan to welcome a world of guests. Believers celebrating the end of this calendar cycle, a cosmic event documented by the Mayans and not the end of the world, plan to gather along Mexico’s gulf coast awaiting the dawn of a new era. Hotel rooms are discounted and in some cases, offered at gratis. Guatemala invited musical acts U2, Elton John, Sting and Neil Young to the capital city in celebration of the event. Bolivia plans a new era by casting out coincidentally, Coca-Cola, ending the domain of capitalism in recognition of the event. Belize offers vacation packages that promises an ideal setting at the core of the Mayan calendar celebration.

December 21, does not necessarily mean the collapse of the universe as it has been promulgated by apocalyptic soothsayers.

After all, they were the ones that gave us reason to believe a world ending as recently as Y2K, then again in 2003 when the United States first invaded Iraq. One thing for sure, pinpointing a calendar conclusion for the end of the world is about as accurate as predicting the weather.

HOw wILL YOU ENTER THE FUTURE? Both the Hopis and Mayans recognize that we are approaching the end of a World Age... In both cases, however, the Hopi and Mayan elders do not prophesy that everything will come to an end. Rather, this is a time of transition from one World Age into another. The message they give concerns our making a choice of how we enter the future ahead. Our moving through with either resistance or acceptance will determine whether the transition will happen with cataclysmic changes or gradual peace and tranquility. The same theme can be found reflected in the prophecies of many other Native American visionaries from Black Elk to Sun Bear." ~ Joseph Robert Jochmans

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Psychopaths, Joe Brewerand You

By Matt Kramer

G

iven the ingenuity and optimism that propelled humanity from cave dweller status to virtual and actual moon walkers, the unrelenting consistency of war and oppression has been eternally subject to philosophical and academic study. Theories have begun to emerge that explain why a species that seems so focused on attaining heavenly utopias remains hopelessly mired in repetitious patterns of counterintuitive and deadly policies, agendas and behaviors that sabotage and destroy opportunities for global peace and justice for all.

My theory, entitled Predatory Leadership, came out of a decades long study of psychopathic personalities. While most of us don't know it, all of us experience psychopathic behavior at some point in our lives. Most psychopaths do not behave as malevolently as Hannibal Lector or the serial killers from whom his character is derived; many of them simply make life miserable for the rest of us. Some of the more intelligent wind up in the top levels of governments and corporations making life more difficult for billions of us. A premise of predatory leadership is that for centuries, psychopaths have disproportionately distorted the evolution of human civilization to the point that many of us accept war and other harmful activities as inevitably linked to human nature. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

In 1993, I became a mediator; my education included a detailed study of how human nature contributes to conflict in all of its forms. I learned to recognize and work with “difficult behaviors”, overcoming resistance to resolution and helping

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parties work out agreements with mutually acceptable terms.

Some clients were unwilling to make any adjustments in how they viewed the conflict – in their minds they were completely correct; any variation of their demands was unacceptable.

Often it was revealed that these people were the transgressors; they created the conflict but in their mind, they were the only victims; they had no concerns or empathy for the pain suffered by the real victims in the conflict. These mediations ended without resolution; I couldn’t allow the other parties to be bullied into signing agreements that were not in their best interests.

Eventually I became something of a lay expert in the behavior of psychopaths. I learned of Dr. Robert Hare, considered one of the foremost authorities in the field of psychopathy. Hare developed a checklist of twenty symptoms identified in psychopathic behavior. Four of those behaviors work together in a way that helps psychopaths prevail over others in achieving their goals. These four symptoms include a complete lack of capacity for empathy (a charming psychopath can expertly mimic empathy); a lack of conscience (inability to take responsibility for their actions); a narcissistic sense of entitlement; and a world view in which no matter what happens, they are the only victim. This plays out in domestic abuse in such statements as, “If I hurt you, it is your fault; you made me do it.”

The possibility that your sibling, neighbor or boss may be a psychopath is not a comfortable topic of conversation. Most of the research studies on psychopaths have been published for academics and do not make for easy reading. Through most

How to help your grandchildren grow up in a world without war

of the years of my study, I felt quite alone with the premise of predatory leadership. Two years ago, I began giving small public talks on the topic; audience response has been enthusiastic; they can see the correlation between the influence of psychopaths and the majority of ills that seem insolvable at this time. New books have been published letting me know that I am not alone in my assessments; researchers such as Martha Stout (The Sociopath Next Store); Marc Pilisuk (Who Benefits from Global Violence and War?), Paul Babiak and Robert Hare (Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work); Andrzej Łobaczewski (Ponerology: The Science of Evil) and Joe Brewer (How Will the 99% Deal with 70 Million Psychopaths?) had been studying and writing about this phenomenon for a number of years.

Recently I was fortunate to interview Brewer for A Distinctive Style; his article is free to read online. Brewer asks three important questions: 1. What are the evolutionary advantages for having psychopaths in the gene pool?

2. How did our ancestors keep their anti-social tendencies in check?

3. What is the positive role for psychopaths that needs to be preserved in the new economic system?

Brewer shared the work of Christopher Boehm, author of Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame which outlines his research into the study of how mankind evolved beyond the self serving drive of all animals to survive and reproduce to incorporate self sacrifice, virtue and shame

into the human experience. According to Boehm and Brewer, early psychopaths were recognized as “cheaters” in the tribal communities; they may have contributed to the hunt and other activities that expanded the community but once identified, they were also marginalized or eliminated. As tribal groups evolved into larger societies, the psychopath was no longer easily identified allowing him ample opportunity to work his way into all aspects of the evolving civilization, infiltrating organizations, building personal armies, taking over governments and religious movements, and establishing toxic rules and protocols that served him at the expense of the community.

Considering that psychopaths have been entrenching themselves into society for centuries, undoing the damage will not be a brief or easy transition. The first step is to recognize the early signs of psychopathic behavior. This will help us to make better decisions about whom we follow, elect, promote and marry. With the same belief in the power of positive activism that we see in organizations such as Amnesty International, Oxfam and thousands of other organizations working to create change around the world, we will transform our world into an ideal environment in which no child is ever denied the opportunity to achieve her or his greatest potential.

For more information, visit www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/ blog/2012/07/24/how-will-the-99-deal-with-70-million-psychopaths and www.predatoryleaders.com

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wESTMINSTER ABBEY BY SIMON TONg pHOTOgRApHY

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