Author: Telluwriter TIO

Shrink Rap: Sex and Marriage

(editor's note: Quiet offseason in Telluride? Let's shake things a bit with Dr. Susannah Smith's next installment of Shrink Rap: Sex and Marriage.)

by Dr. Susannah Smith

Most comedy routines eventually target marriage and sex. The joke usually goes like this: if you want a good sexual relationship, don’t get married. The bare naked truth is we all know married couples who complain they never have sex, and one partner who wants more sex than the other. So, what’s going on?
The human sexual response is a complex one, especially when love and intimacy enters the equation. Erica Jong wrote that, for many, including the heroine of Fear of Flying, it is easier to have sex with someone we barely know than with our own mate. The sexual response requires a degree of abandon and emotional freedom that familiarity often belies: with our mates, unresolved emotional issues build walls.

Women in particular have been raised to believe having sex when feeling distant from their spouses puts them in the position of being untrue to themselves, compromised, or forced. Women (not always – sometimes it is the male in a relationship) believe that they must be communicating and emotionally close for sexual intimacy to feel appropriate and good.

26 April, 2009 / 0 Comments

Razz-a-ma-tazz: Saving the world one tub at a time

by Art Goodtimes

(a more-or-less monthly on-line column for TIO)

The International Herald Tribune/New York Times took a swipe at Telluride March 25th, with Bernstein’s “True Environmentalist, or Mountains of Vanity?” calling out “hot tub environmentalists” for driving the town’s finances into the ancient glacial rockbottom of today’s Valley Floor – the pristine gateway to a postcard box canyon, draped with wisps of waterfalls and backdropped by the snowy alpine peaks of the San Juans.

Hokay, you caught me. I live in the vicinity of Telluride. Claim it as county seat. I contributed to the Campaign to Save the Valley Floor. Save the Gunnison Sage Grouse. Save the Preble’s Mouse.

I’m a tree-hugger, media-mugger, and all-around Ned Ludd monkeywrench enviro of the greenest persuasion. But I’ve learned to tame my wild inner self.

12 April, 2009 / 0 Comments

TNCC: making a difference (continued)

Since its founding in 2007, The New Community Coalition has emphasized energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy.

TNCC's Green Fund (2007): Collects donations/funds for local projects, including a 1900 watt solar array on the High/Middle School installed by local solar providers, funded by donations and a $15000 carbon offset payment from the Mountain Village. An educational component includes a remote readout to monitor power output and hands-on renewable energy kits for the students.

Partnerships: Governor's Energy Office (GEO), San Miguel Power Association (SMPA), EnCana, and the Colorado chapter of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) have worked with TNCC to provide rebates for homes and businesses to install solar photovoltaic and hot water systems, and to make energy-efficient home improvements.

10 April, 2009 / 0 Comments

Welcome spring with lamb dish

by Dr. Susanna Hoffman

SPRING LAMB STEW WITH ARTICHOKES, DILL, AND A MYSTERY INGREDIENT

The arrival of spring is signaled by the corresponding arrival of a divine culinary treasure, lamb. The meadows in which the lambs graze also offer up the first herb of the year, delicate, feathery dill as gardens nearby produce their first baby artichoke globes on bladed plants. Combined together the three make an exhilarating stew, in which tender bites of young lamb seem to frolic in the broth made impudent with the artichokes and dill. Such young ingredients can sometimes result in a thinish stew, but a fourth mystery ingredient solves the problem by adding a robust, but hidden richness: anchovies. The anchovies completely dissolve in the cooking, no sign of them appears to put off any anchovy naysayer, yet their hidden presence deepens the stew until guests will ask how you came up with such a sumptuous concoction. It’s up to you whether you reveal the secret or not. The same idea works for a poultry stew as well. A toss of olives in the mix provides an extra salty sparkle.

05 April, 2009 / 0 Comments

RSVP preached resilience in the face of change to Riley and the Pols

(Part of "Telluride Inside...and Out's" ongoing support of The New Community Coalition and related change agents, such as the Regional Sustainability Visioning Project, is to keep the post-meeting dialogue going. County commissioner/poet Art Goodtimes writes "Razz-a-ma-tazz: a more-or-less monthly on-line column for TIO."
Below he comments on the March 18 RSVP meeting.)

by Art Goodtimes

Myles Rademan -- with his future planner’s bag of tricks & treats, funny New Yorker cartoons and retro-Crested Butte memorabilia snaps -- played hotshot scattergun foil to JoDee Powers' focus on drum empowerments and deep insights, touching mind and body. Two good speakers, both motivational and funny. And they played to a room full of local government leaders and the CEO of the ski company, all wrestling with RSVP’s paradoxical message – “Many things will have to change for the town to stay the same.” Hearing about resilience and the entrepreneurial spirit, not mere sustainability and the status quo.

“Don’t believe everything you believe,” suggested Radical Man, quoting a culling slide show wisdom from diverse sources (mostly men) – Loudon Wainright, Tom Friedman, Henry Ford. “Familiarity breeds invisibility.”

03 April, 2009 / 0 Comments

Telluride’s The New Community Coalition: making a difference

by Kris Holstrom

(Editor's note: Tellurider/director/coordinator Kris Holstrom and The New Community Coaltion (TNCC), the change-agent charged with the greening of the Telluride region, are doing more than talking. TNCC is walking its talk, making a difference, only the changes it is affecting are not flashy and often get lost in the many meetings required to sort out details.

To set the record straight, this is the first in a series of posts to explain what the TNCC has accomplished to date. We begin from the ground up, starting with our kids interested in protecting their legacy.)

TNCC helped start the YES Club in the Telluride High School. That's Youth Empowering Sustainability. The YES Club projects have included: recycle your school supplies - a year end effort that resulted in the recycling of over 500 pounds of paper, 120 3 ring binder notebooks, and countless other school supplies. Usable supplies were saved and distributed to students at the start of the school year - saving money and diverting waste!

28 March, 2009 / 0 Comments

Shrink Rap: Hypnosis

by Dr. Susannah Smith

Hypnosis is a natural, normal state of consciousness, characterized by the focus of attention on one concept to the exclusion of others. We experience hypnotic states all the time: when we are reading a book and don't hear someone who is calling our name; when we drive to work and are lost in thought, not really focusing on each turn and location; when we are listening to an "entrancing" story; or when we are in the mystical state drifting on and off into sleep.

I took my first course in hypnosis because I was fascinated. I did not think anyone could snap their fingers and make me bark like a dog! What I discovered was a profoundly helpful understanding of hypnosis in general, and what we clinicians call "therapeutic hypnosis." For most purposes, a light trance state produces the beneficial results we are seeking. For those who want to experience the deep states of hypnosis, practice is required. We can learn to put ourselves into a hypnotic state and to choose our areas of focus.

Why would anyone want to practice hypnosis? The benefits are infinite. Athletes use hypnosis to focus on the game and to exclude the anxiety of the crowd and noise. We cleanse ourselves when we go into hypnotic states, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. We can teach ourselves how to use hypnotic states to help overcome phobias and anxiety attacks. In a deep trance state, surgery without anesthesia can be performed.

24 February, 2009 / 0 Comments

Comfort food for Valentine’s Day

by Dr. Susanna Hoffman

Dr. Susanna Hoffman returns to Telluride Inside... and Out, with her Chicken Pot Pie in Filo Crust with Onions, Nutmeg, and Saffron ("The Olive and the Caper," Workman Press)

There hardly exists a nation where the mere mention of chicken pie fails to evoke homage and hunger. Greece is no exception, especially in the chill days of winter. The chicken pie of Greece, though, doesn’t arrive sunk in a deep pot and crusted on top (France) or crusted both under and over (America), both entailing the troublesome necessity of making, chilling, and rolling pie dough. Rather its dense stuffing lies between sheets of easy to use, pre-made, and available in the frozen food section: golden, crunchy filo. Inside the stewed chicken is infused with saffron and mixed with a wealth of amber-hued sauteed onions. On top of that, a dash of nutmeg combines with dill and lemon to open up all the flavors.

14 February, 2009 / 0 Comments

Shrink Rap

by Dr. Susannah Smith

Our Bond with Animals

"The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men."
- Emile Zola (1840-1902)

"Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened"
-Anatole France (1844-1924)

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."
-Will Rogers, 1897-1935

As young psychology students, we were taught not to "anthropomorphize," meaning that we should NEVER attribute human characteristics to animals. Animals were not people. The general consensus was (is) that humans are the "superior" species, and certainly the only ones who have a soul. And yet I was a child who talked with all animals, and who felt pain when an ant died. I knew "they" were wrong, as a student and now.

When my mother was dying and quit eating, the doctors wanted give her food through tubes. When I suggested that I thought this was cruel – that all animals stop eating when preparing to die and that fasting reduced pain – only one doctor had the courage to agree. He furtively told me that most people would tar and feather him for calling a person an animal.