I have never liked to be referred to as a case so I am not particularly fond of the term case manager, but trying to change common terminology only leads to more confusion and we already have enough of that in the mental health field. There are many ways to deliver case management services and they go by an assortment of names. Some of the names are intensive case management, supportive case management, assertive community treatment teams, broker/advocacy case management, wraparound case management, and clinical case management. Clinical case management is a model where the case manager is also the person’s primary therapist. Trying to define all the others would be futile because they mean slightly different things depending on where they are being put into practice and the resources available to the system implementing the model. They are also put together in varying ways in different systems across this country. The point is I cannot say supportive case management and everyone understand the word in the same way. The simple truth is we have an array of case management concepts implemented across this country working to varying degrees.

I want to suggest a team approach for those of us with a severe and persistent mental illness based on the idea that we are bio-psycho-social-spiritual beings.

Bio: The team needs a primary care physician, a nurse, and a psychiatrist.

Psycho: The team needs a psychologist preferably with a doctoral degree.

Social: The team needs social workers, rehab specialists, peers, and an advocate/broker case manager.

Spiritual: The team needs a pastor, minister, chaplain or some way to get to the spiritual care of their choosing.

This may sound grandiose, but preventive care and ongoing excellent care is less costly in the long run than poor care and hospitalizations.

We can do better and the truth is we have the moral obligation to do so.

I have never liked to be referred to as a case so I am not particularly fond of the term case manager, but trying to change common terminology only leads to more confusion and we already have enough of that in the mental health field. There are many ways to deliver case management services and they go by an assortment of names. Some of the names are intensive case management, supportive case management, assertive community treatment teams, broker/advocacy case management, wraparound case management, and clinical case management. Clinical case management is a model where the case manager is also the person’s primary therapist. Trying to define all the others would be futile because they mean slightly different things depending on where they are being put into practice and the resources available to the system implementing the model. They are also put together in varying ways in different systems across this country. The point is I cannot say supportive case management and everyone understand the word in the same way. The simple truth is we have an array of case management concepts implemented across this country working to varying degrees.

I want to suggest a team approach for those of us with a severe and persistent mental illness based on the idea that we are bio-psycho-social-spiritual beings.

Bio: The team needs a primary care physician, a nurse, and a psychiatrist.

Psycho: The team needs a psychologist preferably with a doctoral degree.

Social: The team needs social workers, rehab specialists, peers, and an advocate/broker case manager.

Spiritual: The team needs a pastor, minister, chaplain or some way to get to the spiritual care of their choosing.

This may sound grandiose, but preventive care and ongoing excellent care is less costly in the long run than poor care and hospitalizations.

We can do better and the truth is we have the moral obligation to do so.

I have known mental health advocates who seem to think they are not doing their job if they are not finding something wrong the staff are doing or have done at a state mental hospital. It is a good thing to make the care received by folks who are locked away as first rate as we can. Most of them are not there voluntarily. Since we are forcing them to be there claiming it is our right as a state to do so, we certainly owe them our very best psychiatric care under the safest conditions we can possibly provide.

The key some folks seem to be missing is that the people working in state hospitals are humans with all the same emotions and baggage the rest of us carry around. Which means in very plain and basic terms if I want to be treated like a human when I am a patient in a state mental hospital then I had better hope the staff there are being treated fairly by their superiors, critics, the media, and the public. The better they are treated the more likely I am to be treated well. If you care about the patients, you will care just as much about the staff.

Recently, the staff at Broughton (the state hospital in Morganton, NC) was vindicated by a judge who said a previous investigation had not been accurate or fair. Will the public remember that or all the bad press?

We must at some point learn to respect each other enough to see one another as fully human. Staff, patient, family members, the public, media, and government all have a role to play in this endeavor. As long as we can look pass, each other without seeing the humanity of the other we will remain in the darkness. The light only shines when we open our eyes and see the person next to us as they really are. Fully human no matter how flawed.

I am just now getting back to somewhat of a normal routine after going to the National Alliance on Mental Illness Convention in Orlando. I had not spoken at or even attended one since the early 90’s. I went because Dr. Gunnar Christiansen asked me to come speak at the FaithNet Special Interest Workshop on Saturday morning of the convention.

Giving the speech is not the hard part. I have been preaching since I was 12 years old on the mission field with my parents in Zimbabwe, Africa. However, the crowds are a different matter. I don’t care how big the audience is, but the crowds of people before and after are a problem.

Someone asked why do I write so much about myself? Because I am the only person I know well enough to say much about and the only one, I have permission to say personal things about. By sharing my personal thoughts and feelings, I hope in some small way to provide a window into the inside of those of us with a serious mental illness or who have been sexually abused or both.

The stigma of mental illness and of being a victim of childhood sexual abuse has left me with little of what a psychologist would call a self. My anxiety level sharply increases in a crowd. During the speech I am fine because I control the entire conversation and I know I am at least OK at giving a speech, but before it and after it I am at the mercy of the same stigma that has haunted me all my life.

At the convention, Patty worked the FaithNet booth where they were kind enough to allow us to sell our books for Novastar Opportunities for the Mentally Ill, Inc. I was not there other than to say hi to Patty a couple of times.

I enjoyed meeting folks I knew and making new friends. I finally got to meet Gunnar and his wife Susan that as I said was the reason I went. I also got to spend time with a graduate of Yale Divinity School, Rev. Bob Dell, who had studied under H. Richard Niebuhr. I also got to meet the founder of Mental Health Ministries, Susan Gregg-Schroeder, who I have exchanged many emails with.

Sunday morning I was headed to the FaithNet Interfaith Worship Service when all of a sudden I saw a person surrounded by security guards. I lost it. I did make it on to the service with the help of Patty and Cassy (my great niece). The service was led by the Rev. Willie Israel pastor of the Rolling Hills Moravian Church in Longwood, Florida. Her message along with the music calmed me back down.

A tie back to the last convention I attended was meeting Dr. Brenda W. LaVar again. We had presented together at that convention. A woman so much alive she is contagious. If she were preaching at a church that had died, she could bring them alive and have them shouting and singing like an old time camp meeting of long ago.

Zimbabwe is in the news more than ever now. Before when I would tell someone I grew up on a mission station in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), they would ask me where it was. Now more people have heard of it because of the election mess, but more troubling than the election mess is that people are starving to death. This is from the AP.

“Bread has disappeared from stores. Previously, a loaf in a supermarket cost 2 billion Zimbabwe dollars (20 U.S. cents at the official exchange rate), or 15 billion Zimbabwe dollars ($1.50 U.S.) on the black market. A shopper lucky enough to find milk will spend 3 billion dollars (30 U.S. cents) for about 1 pint. A tray of 30 eggs, also scarce, can bought in a store for 45 billion dollars ($4.50 U.S.).Butter is hard to find, but 17 1/2 ounces of margarine will cost 25 billion dollars ($2.50 U.S.) and a pack of 10 cookies costs 19 billion dollars ($1.90 U.S.).

Robert Rotberg, director of Harvard's Kennedy School program on Intrastate Conflict, said that while sanctions and boycotts may not convince Mugabe to loosen his grip on power, they are sure to sway public opinion and possibly change the minds of top military leaders.

Without his security apparatus and their intimidation tactics, Mugabe's power "could vanish overnight," said Rotberg, who wrote a column in the Boston Globe on Wednesday comparing the current situation in Zimbabwe to Idi Amin's Uganda.

Rotberg said neighboring countries could "effectively bottle Mugabe up" by banning Zimbabwean aircraft from flying over their airspace and curtailing electricity deliveries to the landlocked country. The U.N., African Union and Southern African Development Community could then push him aside to take over during a transitional period until they can ensure a free and fair election.

"Tightening the noose will make the people around Mugabe realize that this ship is really sinking, and they should get off," he said. “

N.T. Wright in his book Simply Christian writes “There are two sorts of traveler. The first sets off in the general direction of the destination and is quite happy to figure things out on the way, to read the signposts, ask directions, and muddle through. The second wants to know in advance what the road will be like.”

The recovery journey is not an easy road to travel and one must be much more willing to be like the first sort of traveler. You may know the destination, but you will not be able to predict all the pitfalls and side trips. To learn to Dream Again and make the recovery journey takes courage and strength. Remember that when someone is talking down to you or asking you to settle for less. Reach high where God waits with open arms for all of us.

You can reach me directly at edcooper@projectdreamagain.com

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NEXT JOURNAL COMING WEDNESDAY June 25, 2008

Dream Again Journal Online

June 4, 2008 EDITION

The next DAJ ONLINE will not come out until June 25^th. I will be speaking at the national convention of the National Alliance on Mental Illness on Saturday the 14^th of June during the FaithNet Special Interest Workshop which runs from 9:45 am – 12:00 noon. Patty and I are also making a vacation trip out of going down to Orlando from Glen Alpine, NC along with business stops coming and going.

There is an interesting question arising in the philosophy surrounding the brain sciences. Will the more we learn about the brain mean we can believe less in free will? The more they find out about my bipolar illness the better it is for me, but if I try to use it to excuse all my bad behaviors then I am the loser. I believe that neuroscience has made my life easier, but I don’t believe it will ever define me totally. Why? Because beyond my brain I believe is my mind which is more than mere brain and beyond that my eternal soul. You say well Ed you certainly have taken a leap of faith there. My reply is we both did when we believed the neuroscience neither of us understands. We operate on faith every day. If my belief in an eternal soul is merely a delusion then please don’t try and “fix” me. Leave me in my delusional state. Let me face this world each day with my faith and my science. I have a better chance of making it this way. Chat with you again on the 25^th.

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I have never done this before on the blog or the DAJ Online, but I am asking those of you who believe in the power of prayer to pray for a friend’s son who is in intensive care in Winston-Salem, NC suffering from a head injury. The last report I had he still had not regained consciousness. Thank you in advance for your prayers and concern.

I have a friend who has created another world which is rather complex. He named it Goosville. One of the meanings of goo is excessive sentimentality. He has spent a lot of time alone and in that world over the years. One of the things I like about the world he has created is that the animals there speak the same language as humans. That would certainly be helpful with my wife’s two cats. The most important thing about this world is he does not seem to think he controls all the people or animals in it. Now if I created a world everyone in it would do as I wanted them to. I think we could all learn from my friend’s created world into which he retreats when our collective world either ignores him or he can no longer deal with it. He is not the puppeteer even in his own created world.

Recently a letter Albert Einstein wrote to a philosopher sold at an auction for $404,000.00. It was a letter about his views of God and the Bible among other things. He called the Bible “pretty childish” and said the problem of God “is too vast for our limited minds.”

At times it seems like I am moving slowly towards 60 and at others it seems like I am speeding towards it. All I am sure of is that this November I have to stay far away from my older sister because she does crazy things to people on their 60^th birthdays. Have I learned anything about this problem of God in these 60 years?

Maybe a couple of things.

First, I agree that God “is too vast for our limited minds”, but the story does not end there because I believe we have souls and that it is thru faith not logic that we learn to know our Creator.

Secondly, like my friend in the world he created, I think our Creator is not a puppeteer which means Einstein and all before him and you and all after you have the free will to decide for yourselves what you believe about the Creator.

Even those of us with mental illnesses have the need and right to be in community with folks who hold the same beliefs and opinions we do. When I started my research in 1988 on faith communities and folks with mental illnesses and their families, I was advised not to discuss religion with people with mental illness because it might encourage their delusional system.

I loved an article I found in The New York Times the other day. It says I may not simply be getting forgetful as my brain grows older, but wiser.

“Some brains do deteriorate with age. Alzheimer’s disease, for example, strikes 13 percent of Americans 65 and older. But for most aging adults, the authors say, much of what occurs is a gradually widening focus of attention that makes it more difficult to latch onto just one fact, like a name or a telephone number. Although that can be frustrating, it is often useful.”

“It may be that distractibility is not, in fact, a bad thing,” said Shelley H. Carson, a psychology researcher at Harvard whose work was cited in the book. “It may increase the amount of information available to the conscious mind.”

But the best part is yet to come.

“Jacqui Smith, a professor of psychology and research professor at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, who was not involved in the current research, said there was a word for what results when the mind is able to assimilate data and put it in its proper place — wisdom.

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In the United States, the Triple Crown consists of the:

Kentucky Derby, run over 1.25 miles (2.01 km) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky;

Preakness Stakes, run over 1.1875 miles (1.91 km) at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland;

Belmont Stakes, run over 1.50 miles (2.41 km) at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.

The Triple Crown starts with The Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday of May. The Preakness follows two weeks later. The Belmont Stakes is three weeks after The Preakness in early June. In the U.S., the term "Triple Crown" is the usual reference for these three horse races unless another sport is specified.

In 1930, Gallant Fox won all three important races, and sportswriter Charles Hatton brought the phrase "Triple Crown" into the American lexicon. In the more-than-125-year history of the U.S. events, only 11 horses have ever won the U.S. Triple Crown; none since 1978.

To a person like me born on the edge of horse country near Lexington, KY these races are important. I grew up either wanting to play basketball for the University of Kentucky or riding a thoroughbred in the Kentucky Derby. I was too big to be a jockey and too short to be a basketball player for Adolf Rupp the then famous coach at UK.

My life took another road. We went to Zimbabwe as missionaries and then in 1967 I entered the US Army. I was trained as a medic and mostly worked in an orthopedic ward in El Paso, Texas. After that I held over 50 different jobs before forming N.O.M.I. Inc. (know me) in 1989.

Am I am thoroughbred or simply a workhorse? Maybe I am not even a very good workhorse. The point to all this is that the road to recovery takes a long term view not a short term one. You will face defeats, but they must be viewed as fire fights or small battles. Not the war.

The Gospels have a long term view as they talk about life after death, but they also have a short term view as they tell about Jesus healing the sick and feeding the hungry. In 1988 before N.O.M.I. Inc. was formed in 1989 I formed Christian Friends of the Mentally Ill which is still a division of N.O.M.I. Inc. I still believe that churches have a vital role to play in the recovery process by providing some of the natural supports so necessary for us to make the journey down the recovery road.

However, just because I am a Christian does not mean that I see no value in other spiritual paths. After last week’s DAJ Online a friend of mine sent me a very uplifting email. She follows a different path, but her email was powerful medicine to my soul.

By RICK EANES
Published: May 18, 2008

T.S. Eliot told us in “The Waste Land” that April is the cruelest month, and he may have been right. But for the mentally ill, the cruelest month of the year is May — National Mental Health month.
I realize that I should strike into a paean about how the mentally ill are not treated fairly by society, or that in the United States, there are more than 20 million mentally ill people, or in Virginia, 20 percent of all households are affected by mental illness.
But we are more than the shabbily dressed, smelly man that mumbles to himself as he waits in line. For any parent, the aforementioned scenario is frightening. Nevertheless, there are more than 100,000 of us in Virginia. We cannot all be in grocery store lines. We cannot all be in jail. We cannot all be on a prayer list.
So maybe, just maybe, it is time to look and see us for what we are.
We are better than you are. None save the mentally ill will understand that statement, but I will explain. A great myth in mental health is that we long to be as you are. There could not be greater folly. Every day we must be more than you are. To rise from the bed is no great task for most. Nonetheless, the mentally ill know that there are days, months and possibly even years where the clarion call to rise and shine goes unanswered. We freely take medications that have side effects ranging from a dry mouth to sexual side effects to tremors that are not reversible. We may fly into rages and frighten people.
Still, how different are we from others?
You may know that many of the mentally ill have a drug problem, superimposed over mental illness. I know firsthand, for you learn early in an abusive life that alcohol provides a release. Even though you are sometimes gut-wrenchingly sick, you know it is a palliative of great value, for it aids you as you strive to cope.
Many of the mentally ill were, such as myself, made through verbal and physical abuse. Still others have impairments of thought through accident, through drug use, through fetal alcohol syndrome and, yes, some are just born mentally ill.
Consider yourself, consider your children, consider your relatives and make them one of us. They need services but they have no money or little money. The experts have told them what they need, but they can’t afford the help.
I say that May is the cruelest month for the mentally ill, for much will be said and written. This information is designed to satisfy those that are not mentally ill. More than likely, statistics will be brought forth and they will read we had this much last year and now we have only that much.
The governor recently signed mental health legislation. This means that it will be easy for someone to be committed, but the person cannot as easily discharge himself from a hospital as before.
A great truth concerning this legislation is that none has, to date, addressed what happens if a person with a weapon is willing to sacrifice his or her life. If that’s the case, then there is nothing able to protect a single soul.
Certainly, the Virginia Tech massacre caused people to cry out and demand that something be done. We do not have a voice, but something has been done, and we have been ignored. Our cries are silent, for they are inward.
Imagine, for a moment, that you are in a large hole. The hole is really a chasm so large, in fact, that you have no hope of ever climbing out. As all would do, you cry out for help. When that does not work, you scream at the top of your lungs. None has heard either cry. You now are desperate; you have no energy, no will to even give the occasional shout. Inwardly you scream and inwardly you imagine rescue. It is inwardly you will live out the last moments of being alive.
This is the mentally ill — needing help but having been turned down too many times. All our anger and demands for action take place inside. We have come to appreciate that we are the next highway expansion or the next raise given by the state to its employees.
The month of May more than half gone and the state’s only offer of help is a program that governs commitment procedures and the voluntary discharge of a patient from a psychiatric institute — and purports to increase campus safety.
May is the cruelest month, for many times the mentally ill have been told to buy bread and wait and someone would come and help them. Time passes, the birds eat the bread and, like any dressed-up, stood-up person, they waited. For some time, they believed a new day had come. It has not — and 20 percent of Virginia suffers.
Our goal is that you see us and hear us when you pass by the chasm. We, too, wish to become, in a world of equality, one of the more equal. In the Bible, Job cries out into the blackened void, where now is my hope? It is the same question hundreds of thousands of us will ask during the merry month of May — our cruelest 31 days of the year.
Eanes lives in Danville

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Ed:

Just a few thoughts on your most recent blog that I just received in my email.

I had a great friend who was a vet that committed suicide in the VA hospital in Asheville. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was coming out of a psychotic depression. Unfortunately a staff member gave her belt back to her and she went to the bathroom and hung herself.

Talk about guilt! I knew that she would eventually succeed....and I knew (looking back) that she was slowly but surely telling everyone goodbye in her own way. She and I lived together....she gave me my one and only dog---Rascal. She said that he was to give me company and comfort while she was hospitalized.

She was a wonderful person.....when she was on her medication. As you and I both know (I know about this one) if one doesn't take their psych medicines....then they suffer needlessly incredible symptoms of their disease.

I really do miss her! About 3 weeks ago, I found myself at her gravesite---don't normally visit but the anniversary of her death was coming up....and then 2 weeks later I attempted suicide by overdosing on my Klonopin. However, there were other factors that were there also!

Do I regret what I did? Every moment, every day of the life that I have been given to live I will regret it. Did I learn something from it, definitely....and still learning from it! Will I do it again....well, not right now. I can't promise anyone that it will never happen again cause one never knows what kind of extreme stress one can be under (and I was there!).

Thanks for writing your blog and being kind enough to send it to me. Congratulations on your being invited to speak at a convention.

Susan (This is not her real name, but the one chosen by her when I asked permission to publish her letter here.)

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I have been afforded the honor of being invited to speak at the FaithNet Special Interest Workshop on Saturday, June 14^th at 9:45 am at the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s Annual Convention in Orlando, FL. I am looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.

12,000 veterans a year attempt suicide while under the care of the Veterans Affairs Department. This piece of information was revealed in an e-mail written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA’s Mental Health Director. He started his memo with, “Shh!”. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calf accused the agency of criminal negligence in the handling of the data. Is the word criminal related to crime? Does that mean someone did something wrong? Will someone be prosecuted?

Since I am one of those veterans getting mental health services from the VA and have been since 1969, I have lost vets I knew who just didn’t attempt, but who completed the act while under the care of the VA. They have committed suicide while locked on the same psychiatric unit I was.

What are the numbers for our state hospitals across this country? Our private psych hospitals? Our community mental health centers? Our drug treatment programs?

How many folks actually complete the act while under the care of some system or mental health professional? I have not seen that number. Have you?

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded $14.8 million to five sites around the country to replicate the PIER program's approach as part of the Early Detection and Intervention for the Prevention of Psychosis Program (EDIPPP). PIER also serves as the foundation's National Program Office for EDIPPP.

McFarlane [psychiatrist leading the Pier program] told Psychiatric News that preliminary data indicate that the rate of acute schizophrenia per population has dropped within the PIER catchments area compared with the rest of Maine. Though those data remain to be confirmed, staff at PIER who are familiar with the long-term nature of schizophrenia express a genuine awe at the results they see at the clinic.

"I have worked in mental health at the other end of the spectrum with adults who have had schizophrenia and bipolar disorder for years," said Nelma Mason, R.N., a nurse at the clinic. "And I have worked with so many people who are one hospitalization away from never leaving the hospital again. How could you not be excited about being part of a program that might prevent that?"

Thomas Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute on Mental Health, who has visited the PIER clinic, said it represents a new direction in the treatment of schizophrenia.

"We have largely defined schizophrenia as psychotic illness, meaning when someone has a psychotic break," he told Psychiatric News in an interview. "That's a bit like defining coronary artery disease by having a heart attack. It's a late stage in the disease.

"What we have been thinking about is how to get people much earlier in the disease," Insel said. "If you think about schizophrenia in stages, stage 1 is early development and genetic risk; stage 2 is when people begin to develop very early, subtle symptoms such as social withdrawal and cognitive problems.”

"Stage 3 is a psychotic break, and stage 4 is when a person becomes chronically ill and disabled. Most of what we do in 2008 is focused on stage 4. And it is no wonder we have not much to show for it.

"At PIER they are really going after stage 2 and identifying people who may be at genetic risk and exhibiting very early behavioral symptoms," Insel told Psychiatric News. "So they are going down this very interesting path to see if we can have a bigger impact on the disease by identifying and treating people much earlier."

[from Psychiatric News]

The UK annexed Southern Rhodesia from the [British] South Africa Company in 1923. A 1961 constitution was formulated that favored whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally declared its independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and demanded more complete voting rights for the black African majority in the country (then called Rhodesia). UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence (as Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation's first prime minister, has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated the country's political system since independence.

My family went there in the late summer of 1960 as missionaries.

Zimbabwe is now in the middle of an election mess bigger than we had here in this country in 2000.

The hope for the future rests with the people of Zimbabwe. That may sound like an obvious statement to you, but if you look at how we have treated Africa it really isn’t. Missionaries did not just take them the Gospel. They wanted the African people to adopt the American culture as well.

I would like to point out one of the rays of hope which was highlighted at the General Conference 2008 of The Untied Methodist Church.

“Delegates were told that while Zimbabwe has an inflation rate of 200,000 percent – the highest in the world – the university, with a few challenges, continues to operate and fulfill its mission of educating its 1,400 students from 24 African countries.”
"The political situation has not affected the university. Your investment is secure," Tagwira said. "Both government and opposition politicians have great admiration for what Africa University has achieved. We remain open and following our normal calendar. We thank God for his divine favor," he said.

Earlier in the conference, delegates voted to increase theological education on the continent and to make the country of Malawi a missionary conference. Congolese Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo, chancellor of Africa University and chairman of its board of directors, thanked the General Conference for its support of funding education on the continent but cautioned that the effort "should not be at the expense of Africa University."
Ntambo assured the conference that "Africa University does not take away anything from The United Methodist Church or Africa. It only adds to the growth and strength of the entire church." [from umc.org]
My father was an educator/minister/missionary. Give the people the tools to help themselves. The same message I have been writing about here for months about us. Don’t just label us help us learn something useful that we have chosen.

My wife and I recently made a trip to Eastern Kentucky. The mountains of Eastern Kentucky don’t look like the mountains of Western North Carolina or the foothills of WNC where we live. Eastern Kentucky is coal country and Kentucky is the third leading coal producing state in the country. It also has the highest rate of prescription narcotic abuse in the United States. It averages one drug-related death per day. Is there a relationship? Not directly to coal, but to the conditions the coal economy has produced. Our response to the problems of Appalachia, Africa, those in poverty, the disabled and those of us with a mental illness seems too much alike. We offer our solutions rather than asking how we can help. If only we believed more in the people we were trying to reach out to and less in our own wisdom, then we might find the real truth that God implanted more wisdom in the least of us than the greatest of us could ever figure out how to use.

You can reach me directly at edcooper@projectdreamagain.com

www.mentalhealthministries.net

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www.mentalhealthchaplain.org

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www.faithnet.nami.org

www.ffcmh.org

According to findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences outdoor activities is on the decline while people spend more time online or in front of the TV. For example fishing peaked in 1981 and by 2005 had dropped 25%. Visits to U.S. national parks are down 23% from their high point in 1987. Why does any of this matter? I could give you reasons like if you aren’t out in nature you will not be as interested in the conservation of it. However, let me see if this one finds it way into your inner being. Have you ever been feeling low and heard a bird singing and the sound lifted your spirit? Nature can nurture your very soul. Merriam-Webster Online defines nurture as “the sum of the environmental factors influencing the behavior and traits expressed by an organism.”

Mark Penn has written a book titled Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes in which he argues that it is the little things that shape the big things of the future. I want to share just a couple of things from the book. (1)The top 1% of American pets live better than 99% of the world’s human population. (2) 54% of black 12^th graders said religion played a very important role in their lives, compared to only about 27% of white students, and their church attendance correlates with lower drug and alcohol abuse, later sexual activity, and altruistic attitudes. [Seems if they make it to the 12^th grade their religion played a major role] (3) Ten times more men regularly visit Internet pornography sites than regularly watch baseball.

Reinhold Niebuhr was one of the seminal religious thinkers of the 20th Century. As a theologian, ethicist, and pastor, he worked to make the Christian faith comprehensible to and responsible for the modern world. The legacy of Reinhold Niebuhr, along with his brother, H. Richard Niebuhr, is a socially engaged tradition of thoughtful Christian activism, and a realistic and sober recognition of the limits and possibilities of human aspirations.

Niebuhr began his career as the pastor of a German Reformed congregation in Detroit, but very quickly grew to national prominence as a writer and speaker on the issues of his time -- war, poverty, racism, and social inequality. He stood for a progressive Christianity that believed in making a positive difference in the world.

As his theology matured, he came to argue that the human capacity for evil could not be easily overcome by simple appeals to the love of God and neighbor. In rejecting those versions of the Social Gospel movement that seemed to be too reliant on a naively optimistic assessment of human nature, he began to develop his own approach, which came to be known as "Christian Realism." This realism stood in contrast both to the idealism of Christian pacifists and socialists who believed that social change could be brought about by pure moral suasion, and the cynicism of the more Machiavellian brand of realism, that believed that politics was a realm of power not subject to moral critique. Niebuhr sought a middle way between these two positions, recognizing politics as the realm of the struggle for power, but affirming the need for principle to underlie and uphold the human conscience in that struggle.

We need some of his realism today. We can’t afford more talk or study groups. We need action based on realism. What is really going on with real people in their daily lives? To learn to Dream Again and begin the recovery journey takes looking realistically in the mirror not rhetoric from Raleigh.

You can reach me directly at edcooper@projectdreamagain.com

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