The Arcane and the Obvious

Whoa, dude! Check out Reality Carnival!

This is a copy–and–paste from my email. A quick google search against snopes.com brought up no immediate red flags for inaccuracy. If it is in fact even mostly true, then it is a good reminder of where we have come from.

[snip…]

Here are some statistics from daily life in the USA in 1905:

• The average life expectancy was 47 years.


• Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.


• Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.


• A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.


• There were only 8,000 cars, and only 144 miles of paved roads.


• The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.


• Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily
  populated than California.


• With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.


• The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.


• The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour.


• The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.


• A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.


• More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home .


• Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education.


• Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."


• Sugar cost four cents a pound.


• Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.


• Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.


• Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.


• Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason.


• The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
  
  
  
  1. Pneumonia and influenza
  
  
  2. Tuberculosis
  
  
  3. Diarrhea
  
  
  4. Heart disease
  
  
  5. Stroke
  
  


• The American flag had 45 stars.


• Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.


• The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30.


• Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.


• There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.


• Two of 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write.


• Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated high school.


• Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."


• Eighteen percent of households in the U.S had at least one full-time servant or domestic.


• There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.
  

Some of the best advice I have ever received was from a cognitive therapist. He taught me that I didn't have to believe my thoughts.

This is not designed to remove myself from reality, rather it is to place myself more firmly in it.

I found out today about a something called "The Work," from a book written by Byron Katie called Loving What Is. I have not read the book, although its subject matter speaks to me. I should like to read it soon. Some of the concepts were delivered to me via email newsletter from an author I have read, one Dr. Daniel Amen.

Dr. Amen is a brain researcher. He uses PET scans to look at brain activity. He can show you what a depressed brain looks like, what an ADD brain looks like, and the what damage caused by alcoholism and drug abuse looks like. He is a proponent of talk therapy and of psychiatric medicine--in proportion to the issue and the illness.

The newsletter I received today, however, was less about medicine and more about challenging yourself with a new way of thinking.

From Dr. Amen's newsletter (and with gratitude to Byron Katie):

The Work reveals that our everyday thinking — the beliefs, concepts, judgments, or “stories” that we use to control and obscure our actual experience — never correspond to reality. All our wants, needs, and “shoulds” … all the beliefs, concepts, judgments, and “stories” that we use to shape and control our experience, are distortions of things as they actually are. We impose these thoughts upon reality, and whenever we see them as true, we suffer. The questions first show us the inaccuracy of our thinking, and then show us exactly how we cause our own suffering when we become attached to a thought. Finally there is the remarkably liberating question “Who would you be without your story?” For those who are ready to answer this question honestly, the painful inner struggle ends. This question allows us a glimpse of reality — “what is” — and a realization that “what is” is always preferable to our story about it.

And the four questions:

1. Is it true?
2. Can you absolutely know that it’s true?
3. How do you react when you believe that thought?
4. Who would you be without the thought?

I won't pretend that I am an expert on this topic, or that I am "good at" or "well-versed" in "The Work." It's abundantly clear to me that I have more "Work" to do for myself.

I do know, however, that being able to question my own thoughts has probably saved my life. I can't be more clear about how significant this is. You do have the right to question yourself. You don't have to believe the things you say to yourself.

I dare you to write down those things you hear that voice speaking to you. I know you know the one. It speaks those limitations you've adopted because others have limited you. Those reasons you tell yourself that you can't do or that you shouldn't do or that you would never be able to do. Write those thoughts down for a day. Then when you can look at them in black-and-white, you can see how poorly you treat yourself. And you can then begin to question the truth of those statements.

Simple. But not easy.

What I know for certain is that questioning myself caused me to be able to release some of the thoughts that kept me in a downward spiral. I must still guard against these traps that I set for myself, but I'm getting better at recognizing them. I still have bad days, but I rarely feel as out of control as I once did. I credit questions like these with the outcome: I'm am here today writing this.