You utopian types really need to wake up! A media monopoly threatens the fabric of democracy. Consolidation of wealth by a handful of multinational corporations threatens our very lives. Social Security is bankrupt. Population growth and environmental devastation are out of control. The polar ice caps are melting and the oceans are rising. Fetuses have rights but poor folks can drown. The Pentagon is planning to fight new wars over dwindling reserves of oil and drinking water.
Meanwhile, the only people that seem to care are crazy fundamentalists and panicked lunatics who initiate random acts of terror. The rest of us are too preoccupied just trying to get by. We'll shop at Wal-Mart to save a nickel, even if it means the destruction of the middle-class.

Where is the moral outrage? Should we all just party until the next earthquake or dirty bomb? Move to the country and plant corn? Buy a shotgun? Join a secret society? Pray for the Rapture or little green men to save us?

We've entered a new Dark Age and most people haven't gotten the memo yet! Tune in—then tune out!

Martin Russell
Berkeley

The way we see it, you can yield to cynicism or continue to fight the good fight. People who try can make a difference, even if they're in the minority. Consider that the American Revolution was won by a relatively small number of activists, perhaps 5% of the population of the colonies. With the fate of the planet at stake, surely you want to stay in the game!

Enjoyable Adjectives

Please include my name on your informative, enjoyable, thought-provoking magazine subscription list!

Patricia Bentley
San Francisco

Sure! Subscriptions by mail are free to Northern California residents. You can also read the entire current issue of OPEN EXCHANGE and access archived editorial features at www.openexchange.org.

Full Circle: There & Back Again

I am so excited that I am listing my practice for the first time in OPEN EXCHANGE! It is really magical how my journey has come full circle. About five years ago I leafed through an OPEN EXCHANGE MAGAZINE just to find out what was available in alternative healing careers. I was in a rehabilitation program due to repetitive stress injury from my work as a programmer analyst. I needed to retrain and was looking for a more heart-centered occupation.

Hypnotherapy somehow appealed to me because I had enjoyed my few experiences with it. There wasn't much logical thinking behind my choice, I admit. I was using my heart to guide me. I checked out several schools and chose Hypnosis Clearing House in Lafayette. (Find this longtime OPEN EXCHANGE lister in our Schools category--Ed.)
Did I know I was going to have the best time of my life learning? Certainly not. I was a type-A overachieving student who had graduated cum-laude from UC Irvine in Information and Computer Science; this was totally new ground for me. I instantly became engrossed in the program and felt like a kid in a candy store. I didn't know learning could be that much fun and enlightening. I mean, "stuff" came out of my fingers and head! (I called it "stuff" before I knew it was energy leaving my body during the whole training.) Can you imagine buzzing and prickling sensations of invisible waves leaving your body? Without really trying, I had started down the path of my true calling. Using my newly learned techniques I healed the pain in my arms. I now believe that the RSI on both of my arms was my soul's way of getting me out of a profession that was not aligned with my life work and into one where I was born to do.

After graduation and internship, I started a small practice in Montclair. I now have my own office called the Metta Center. I teach various self-healing workshops regularly and hold group healing work as well as private sessions.

I am now ready to take my practice to a wider audience. I am deepening my commitment to Spirit and to fulfilling my own life work. So, here I am, listing my own energy therapy practice in OPEN EXCHANGE where it all began five amazing years ago. Isn't it wonderful how things go full circle?

Christine Metawati

Thank you for sharing your story! What a nice 31st Anniversary present!