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Holding hands is healthy
Today’s Family News
November 22, 2006
Whether it’s a man and a woman wanting to show they are a couple, a child seeking a parent’s comfort and protection, or an older person in need of support and balance, researchers are discovering that holding hands is a good way to build better relationships. And as the New York Times reported, it can even boost our immune system.
“Based on what we’ve seen, when we get more physical intimacy we get better relationships, whether a mother and an infant or a couple,” Dr. Tiffany Field, director of Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine, told the Times.
“We found that holding the hand of really anyone . . . [makes] your brain work a little less hard in coping,” said Dr. James Coan, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Virginia.
“With spouse hand-holding, you also stop looking for other signs of danger and you start feeling more secure,” Coan said. “If you’re in a really strong relationship, you may be protected against pain and stress hormones that may have a damaging effect on your immune system.”
Our Desi, the family hero, waited in line in the wee hours of morning to be the 10th in line to get the new Wii Nintendo game console. And he bought me the new Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. Merry Christmas!
So we are right in the middle of moving for the first of December and trying to vie for time on the Wii.
I love this thing. The graphics aren’t as good as our computer games. I mean, MYST URU was beautiful and so life-like. This is more cartoon-ish. For that reason I understand those who have chosen other gaming options. For us this makes sense because we have two growing boys and don’t want them sitting in front of a video game working out their thumbs. The Wii controlers (the Wiimote and the nunchuk) work with buttons and motion. When you play baseball, you swing the controller to bat and you do a throwing motion to pitch. In boxing, with one in each hand, you punch, jab.. and can even dodge a punch based on how you move. As well, the controllers have added sound that actually sounds and feels, thanks to good bass and a “rumble” sensation in the remote, as though you’ve just hit the ball. On Legend of Zelda the controllers feel as though you are riding a horse. All I can say is- it’s not just a disappointing gimmick. It really works- and well!
It’s so surprising. And I’m also impressed with how Nintendo priced their new toy. It’s the cheapest thing out.
Here are a few more reasons I like this thing so far: Read the rest of this entry »
Congratulations!! One of my best friends from University has, I think, just had her first baby. (Unless she was being induced next week.)
She was the maid of honour in my wedding. And all I can say is- if you knew the things she knows about me you would see me very differently.
PS- If you haven’t had the baby yet, just remember when she’s born to say “Bathe her and bring her to me”…
I try to be open-minded and every now and then I need to rethink and reevaluate.
So here is where I am presently:
I don’t understand how the Conservative/Liberal line got drawn on how we define our social values.
I wish the Conservatives didn’t focus all of their moral energy on two issues. Abortion and homosexuality. How come nothing else matters but these two things. If we are going to start attacking every sinner who does something you wish they didn’t than be consistent. Don’t just pick on two groups. If all the money we spend on legislating and fighting these two issues could be put into education and support programs for pregnant girls and we gave the gays a break (what, like you’re the picture of godly perfection!) than maybe there would be true and honest changes made in our culture and in our world. Changes that matter. Changes that spring out of love for each other.
What drives me CRAZY about the Liberals is how they are always trying to come up with more rules for us to live by. Honestly, if I want drive around without my seat-belt and risk my own life and the happiness of my family- well that really sucks- but what business is it of yours. It effects no one outside of the sphere of the individual. Calgary is legislating propping your feet up on public benches… I’m more “live and let live.” I raise my kids to be aware of how their decisions effect people around them. It is important that when we live in community we are kind. But to legally regulate it takes the gesture out of the hands of the people. It’s like legislating my husband to say I LOVE YOU every day. It just wouldn’t be the same. It actually robs us of more community than it gives. When someone puts us out- people can think to themselves “Someone needs to make a law against that” or we can think to ourselves “I need to remember not to do that now that I know how annoying it is” or “hey, I’m sure I do things that bug others.” Sometimes giving each other the freedom to enter into our space just the way they are creates more community than forcing someone to change to suit our own sensibilities. Can you understand that?? And the same party that wants to give the freedom of choosing to kill your baby (esp partial birth abortions) is the same party that wants to make sure you don’t leave shoe-prints on the bench. I hate all of the rules. It makes me want to break them just out of spite. Out of protest of national/continental/global stupidity.
And now money:
The conservatives give too many tax breaks to the wrong people. I don’t believe that making the top 5 % really, really rich helps the bottom 30% more easily afford some fresh veggies for the dinner table as some would try to argue. All it does is create a greater market for third homes and fifth cars. And that kind of selfish shortsightedness is way more immoral than any of the other moral issues anyone wants to discuss.
The Liberals, in their effort to help the poor, think its a great idea to, what else- ADD TO THE BUREAUCRACY . Hey, let’s create another government post that we can slip my best buddy’s nephew’s brother in who is going to be in charge of… Forget about it! It’s a joke. Again, just like with the other guys. You’ve got a wrong 5% of the population getting rich and even better for them, they get to hand pick who comprise the 5%. But in the end, it is just another highly ineffectual system that doesn’t help nearly as many people as it seems to on paper. And in Canada this mindset of employing too many government officials and creating too many silly laws for them to look over has been the norm for so long that even when the Conservatives are in power they do the same darn thing. Not as much- but honestly, Canada needs to lose a few pounds of fat.
Why can’t government focus more on supporting those private organizations who are already in the thick of helping our poor and disenfranchised. You know, the organizations filled with people who are there because they would rather be doing this than anything else. Because they have so identified themselves with the needs that this is what they have devoted their lives to. They do it out of love and actually compassion. Let’s give these people more resources and tax breaks. Let’s let them fill the need as they see it needs to be filled and give them some room to do that. They should be overseen a bit to make sure that we aren’t funding a sham but other than that- let those who are in the thick of it do what they think they need to do. If it’s not working than a competing organization will come along and do it better and the truth will be revealed. We don’t need to legislate it. Just oversee it. Couldn’t we just do that. Let the help spring out of community- not a distant law written in some impersonal and very far away book probably written in quill ink.
Where is that party?
Supriya didn’t like my other picture. She said my chin was too pointy.
The difficulty is in the cropping. For a picture to fit on the side it has to be very narrowly cropped. And if it’s not cropped enough than people using Internet Explorer see a distorted image.
I had been toying with this one below but after cropping it you could no longer see Desi- or anything other than my teeth, really.
I think I’ll rest here with this image for now.
Know how I know??
I’m sippin’ on EGGNOG!
I’ll break it down. A little Appleton Rum, some Frangelico, some milk, a few cubes of ice and some EGGNOG!!!
And to top it all off, when I look outside- I see white.
Jeremy has made life fun with a post that he admits was a bit cruel in which he makes fun of a Young Earth Creationist who got himself in trouble.
I’m just still not sure where to draw the line between what more than likely happened in some form or another and what is just an illustrative story. So maybe there isn’t even a hell, and maybe we don’t actually go to heaven the minute we die- who knows. It’s all academic. And I don’t think God is as busy drawing the lines between you and me that we are.
For now, I’m still a creationist. Not necessarily a Young Earth Creationist, though. True science is as much God’s fingerprint into our world as is the Bible. And while I think a lot of Evolution science is just lies there are things that are difficult to contest. And my faith isn’t in dogma.
Above all of that though is character. As much fun as it is to read comments build on Jeremy’s post I think the language we use against each other is sometimes too shameful. And I think that matters way more to God than whether we believe a guy named Adam and a girl named Eve were created from dirt in God’s metaphoric hands.
All of the comments were mostly kind on Jeremy’s blog but sometimes things sound mean or insulting. And If you are mean or post a comment soaked with an “I’m an intellectual- unlike you” attitude than you sully our great God who somehow made your naughty typing fingers much more than the case you are argueing.
This is my place to vent. So that I can be of a kind character to others. (Except my poor husband who gets to hear me vent about other things and then pat my head and laugh at me.)
