Let's proclaim this National Stress Reduction Week. Try as we may to avoid it, in our techno-driven culture we are still essentially and completely biological beings, linked inextricably with natural cycles of moon, sun, heat, cold, and time. Our bodies and minds, not that they are separate, are on a circadian rhythm (as in "circle), and squirt out all the right things from the right glands at the right time partly because the natural light cycle has told them to. When we're healthy, it's partly because our well nourished bodies are in sync with the sun. So what happens in a very, very, very busy society when everyone loses an hour? Keep in mind, this includes millions of people who "don't have time" for even 10 minutes of yoga, 20 minutes of meditation, 45 minutes for slowly and consciously eating a meal, 5 minutes of focused breathing or aerobics, or a variety of other stress-reducing, health enhancing daily activities which only take a few minutes. Hundreds of millions of such people just lost a WHOLE HOUR over last weekend. I say, let's not expect too much of them or ourselves for a few days. When my children were young, I noticed that they were grumpy, irritable, and somewhat disoriented in the days following the onset of day-light-savings-time. Their little bodies were just getting used to having the gentle dawn finally lighting up the morning sky as they struggled out of bed to get ready for school.....and then all of a sudden it was dark again in the morning get-ready hour. I felt the same way. Sure it was great to be lighter in the afternoon, but what about this still dark morning? In addition, we really lose that hour. Of course, we don't lose an hour of time, but in the rhythm of our day, in what is expected of us, and in what we expect from ourselves, we are thrown off synchronization with both our habits and with the natural light cycle. This is a true stressor of a biological nature. It takes some time to adjust. As such, I suggest that in the future, we declare the week after the beginning of Daylight Saving Time as "Time Change Stress Reduction Week". We can use this as a late winter excuse to be more patient with ourselves, our children, our students, our employees, our bosses, and everyone else we know. We can take an extra nap, get that massage we've been tempted by for ages, or make time for an extra yoga class. We can eat particularly well, eschewing some of the more drug-like foods: the sugar, caffeine, or chemical laden foods that can be particularly tempting when we're tired. We can procrastinate a little, knowing that we can catch up next weekend at home...and next week at work. We can assure ourselves that it's OK to do this. We can resolve to -- speaking of natural light -- spend more time outside, and know that when the strong sun rays come back, we're going to go out and make Vitamin D on a regular basis so we can avoid the many health problems now associated with widespread Vitamin D deficiency. Even if it only takes you a few days to really get back on track with the time change, I suggest taking the whole week to take particularly good care of yourself. This kind of awareness, patience and tolerance is, in the end, a good thing to practice all of the time. It re-generates us so we don't de-generate. We're all usually adjusting to something, and when it comes down to it, everybody is always putting together a thousand influences and doing the best they can at any given moment.

I rarely lose sleep over politics, but last night, after the Texas and Ohio primary results were in, I found myself tossing and turning over Hillary's "W" factor. That's Dubayou...not for woman, but for the mentor in mean spirited politics...and his genius band of Wiley and Vicious Negators, she's had over the past eight years. I know that American's have had to numb-out to go through each day spending billions of dollars on a destructive and deadly war in Iraq when we can't (read aren't) building bridges and schools or providing disease care or all the other basic human needs that aren't being taken care of in the United States of America right now. But how numb are we? Can we really stand by while Hillary Clinton tells Barack Obama with a wistful tone in her voice, as she gently takes his arm, how honored she is to be on stage debating him, at the same time she turns around and drops a canned line like "change you can zerox" or her newest dismissive barb. "I have experience and he has a speech he gave in 2002". She's done vicious, mean, nasty, catty, obnoxious things...that may be par-for-the-course in traditional politics, but haven't we been talking about changing that? The vast experience she frequently and questionably flaunts includes getting hip to the way back-stabbing, ruthless politics is the ABC's of life in Washington. Is this the kind of experience we can embrace? Do we want our first woman president to succeed because she can seamlessly emerge as one of the "Old Boys" I don't. Sure she's smart, and sure there are questions about Obama and some of his associates. There's dirt to be found on any politician who's ever made it as far as either of these two candidates. That is one reason I'm never running for president. I did inhale, and there are at least 18 other reasons. I have been told by friends who are working on the Obama campaign that they are under strict orders to "not to go negative" at any level. What a sucker huh? He won't go negative. Well good, let's smash him with innuendo. Let's do all the things we've been criticizing the Bush administration and it's hateful cronies for doing to any perceived "enemy" for years. Lets pick open every scar, every questionable judgment and make a really big deal out of them, out of context if we can. Let's appeal to fear and insecurity and repeat a thousand times that he can't protect us. As if anyone can really protect us. I'm sad that our first woman candidate for President has felt it necessary to practice "old boy" politics at its meanest and slimiest, and I'm sure I haven't "seen anything yet"; I know it will get worse. I might be accused of holding Hillary to a higher standard of niceness because she's a woman. I think I do, and that's all right because that standard of meanness is ruining the world, and it is time for a change. Let's not look back too much. Hillary certainly couldn't withstand too much scrutiny. I certainly have some unanswered questions about things I've been hearing about Obama...like what exactly was said about NAFTA, despite his explanation that what happened has been misrepresented. Nobody has a lot of experience "doing right" by American working people. It calls for acts of creative and political genius. Let's let people admit their mistakes in judgment, and hear where they are now, today in moving forward creatively to improve life for the tens of millions of Americans who deserve better as they are suffering in todays economic, social, "health care" and educational quick sand.