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Buddhist Views

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Teatime
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of personal philosophies.

What makes people behave as they do? Which belief systems ground and motivate? Which stifle and constrict? How do people work their way through life, either hastened or hindered by what they believe?

Here’s an interesting modern example of this phenomenon and shows the clash between two modern world views in stark relief:

From the BBC: Surrogate Mother Vows to Care for Down’s Syndrome Baby

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Help for Alzheimer’s Patients

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Teatime
Caregivers, especially those of Alzheimer’s patients, face special hurdles.

Here’s an interesting story in the New York Times about an innovative nursing home in Arizona, Beatitudes, that implements some unique treatment protocols based on new research related to the benefit of addressing the EMOTIONAL needs of the Alzheimer’s patient. This includes treatment protocols that soothe the soul: unlimited chocolate (better than Xanax!), baby dolls, and kindness.

They’ve also addressed some of the physical threats facing Alzheimer’s patients with some very unique solutions:

And Beatitudes installed a rectangle of black carpet in front of the dementia unit’s fourth-floor elevators because residents appear to interpret it as a cliff or hole, no longer darting into elevators and wandering away.

“They’ll walk right along the edge but don’t want to step in the black,” said Ms. Alonzo, who finds it less unsettling than methods some facilities use, bracelets that trigger alarms when residents exit. “People with dementia have visual-spatial problems. We’ve actually had some people so wary of it that when we have to get them on the elevator to take them somewhere, we put down a white towel or something to cover it up.”

The article is well worth your time; check it out here.
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Originally published elsewhere, 1/1/2011
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1 in 3 Americans “Near Poor”

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Teatime
This is shocking at first, then, not so much when you think about friends, neighbors, and others in your circle.

Times are, indeed, hard.

Here’s an article about the reality of living paycheck to paycheck and just what that means, demographically, for the United States of America. Census data tell the tale.

“Nuff said. I’ll let you read it for yourself here at the New York Times.

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Update 11/20/11: Just came across a related article at CBS News.

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(originally published elsewhere 11/19/11)