One reason I became a scientist and specifically an analytical chemist is because of the role analytical chemistry has played in the environmental movement. Before methods for detecting pollution became advanced, people thought that the earth swept away pollution with some sort of Mother Nature’s magic wand. Of course, the pollution was still there, undetected by the crude tests. When I was a student, things had changed. The new methods and often sophisticated equipment created a new era of testing. The Earth would be clean again. We’d find all the pollution and get rid of it. I had such hope! Then came politics. Some politicians deny pollution as if their pocketbook depended on it. Names will not be mentioned.

One of my most despised pollutants is particulates. An Iowa politician is known for claiming that particulate pollution isn’t harmful. At first I thought he was just not informed. I sent him articles about the particulates and their dangers. He ignored them. This is why pollution hasn’t been tamed. Guys like him who don’t care about your health. So I’m here to tell you, these things are bad. They clog your lungs, they hurt your heart. They create haze.

There are two sizes, PM 10 from dust and grinding was the size associated with the dust bowl. These coarse particles can contribute to heart disease, pneumonia, and bronchitis. These particles are associated with the dust bowl, which is why I’m posting about them today. A friend has a book out about the hardships of this time. You can find it here. It’s good!

Those big particulates can kill but even worse are the small ones, PM 2.5. These come from combustion and other chemical reactions—cars, cigarettes, cooking indoors, fires, and power plants are among their creators. These cause all the problems of big particulates but they dive deeper into the lungs and are more dangerous. You can follow particulate pollution here (US) and here (world).

We all know that the Dust Bowl killed people. Let’s not repeat it. Be sure to write your elected official. There are ways to scrub and keep particulates out of the atmosphere. Shouldn’t this be law?

I’m sure you’re all wondering what will happen at the Iowa caucuses. I can’t predict. I can tell you what happens at a caucus though.

A caucus is a party discussion about what candidate should run for president. Most people who go to a caucus have put some effort into looking over the candidates and deciding if they have the organization and the message to appeal to voters. A caucus is run by volunteers who see it as a privilege and  honor to vet the candidates. When a person goes to a caucus, they need to sign a pledge of support for the party. What happens to people who go to the caucus to support the weakest candidate? I can’t say it doesn’t happen but I haven’t seen it happen and it would be fraud.

At a caucus, people separate into precincts or wards based on address. Each ward has a captain and a secretary that can be voted out by the people. Usually they aren’t though because there is a lot of paperwork that goes with reporting and verifying the results. Once everyone agrees on the captain and secretary, a representative for each candidate will give a compelling talk about why you should side with that candidate. Then the Republicans vote and the Democrats separate into groups to be counted. Each vote or person is counted. Then the number of delegates each candidate will get is determined. These delegates are to go on to a county convention and eventually some will go to the national convention. If a candidate doesn’t have enough votes or people to get a delegate, the people who supported that person can either realign with a different candidate or talk others into joining their camp. Another vote is taken. Then the results get sent to the party headquarters.

Most people leave at this point but those who stay gather resolutions about what the party should stand for. These are voted on and become the party platform. Have you ever looked at your parties’ platform? You should. So should the candidates. Here is the Iowa Democratic party platform and the Republican one.

Thank-you to author Kelly Cain for hosting me today on her site. Learn some of my secrets and check out her forthcoming title, Altered.

Source: Interview with author Catherine Haustein

Recently a friend told me, I hope your novel is selling well. I won’t read it though, I only read non-fiction.

She’s not alone. Realism is in right now and has been for nearly twenty years. I’m just coming down from a “realist” phase. I read non-fiction, I wrote non-fiction. It pays pretty well, by the way. What got me back to fiction? I considered what it could do offer as we talk about our lives, and examine problems and how they affect the human soul. Fiction, because of the what each person can bring to it, goes into depth in ways that realism can’t. It’s a good tool for times like these, because there are things that realistically, can’t be said or revealed without getting yourself into trouble.

With a few exceptions, history is written by the winners. Royal families and the wealthy have the resources to destroy evidence, poison, slander, and isolate those who stand against them. That’s why the fanciful, where those people aren’t mentioned by name, might tell a more accurate tale of history than the written record holds. Additionally, most women and people of color have been written out of western history. Someone needs to tell their stories, even if they are only stories that might have been.

Author Claire Tomlin, the biographer of my new favorite historical woman, Dora Jordan, has an important suggestion: read Charles Dickens. Put yourself back in those slums with the commoners. Regain your sense of empathy. It’s a wonderful thing. Reading fiction can develop your mind’s eye. It takes some brain work because not every detail can be shown. It’s intimate too. You have to get into the heads of others. Some might be people you’re afraid to know.

What IS can be beautiful, especially when it comes to nature. But what could be and might have been has a place too. Otherwise, we limit ourselves. This might be an odd thing for a scientist to say, but there, I’ve said it. Read a fiction book and tell yourself it might have been true. It might even be better than the truth.

“Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing.  Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species.  Though the gifts of the wildish nature come to us at birth, society’s attempt to “civilize” us into rigid roles has plundered this treasure, and muffled the deep, life-giving messages of our own souls.  Without Wild Woman, we become over-domesticated, fearful, uncreative, trapped.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women Who Run with the Wolves

A native of the Great Lakes region, Dr. Estes (quoted above) began to formulate her ideas as a child, watching her mother put on a girdle and totter to church in uncomfortable shoes. She compared this with the bold female creatures she saw in nature and found something lacking in the worldview of women she was seeing at home.

She studied psychology and myths about women to see where women were being lead from their natural instincts.

One of the myths Estes discusses in her famous book is that of Blue Beard. A young girl who has no decent father figure (her father has been sent off to a long drawn out war) becomes attracted a wealthy older man with a strange blue beard. Besides his unsettling looks, he’s had several wives who disappeared mysteriously. She downplays these omens and marries him after a whirlwind courtship. After the wedding, he tells her that she must never look into a certain room in the house. Of course, she does when he is away and finds the bodies of his other wives.

Many things went wrong for this innocent young woman who rushed into a relationship and ignored warning signs. A woman in Iowa City recently became the state’s latest murder victim after failing to heed her friend’s warnings. (See below for warning signs.)

Like the mythical young girl, real people get caught in a relationship trap and go against their natural instincts quite easily if they feel devalued. People can devalue themselves if they aren’t rich, young, skinny, and in some cultures chaste and innocent. I know a girl in Pella who was told that a romantic kiss before marriage would make one impure. As wacky as that may seem it’s only the tip of the iceberg. Innocence worship is so out of proportion in places in the world that people will devalue and then kill their daughters if they have had their honor breached. These horrible crimes which often go unprosecuted are called Honor Killings. Honor is a broadly used term here. Young women have been killed because a photo of them was seen on a man’s cell phone or a song was dedicated to them on the radio.

Innocence is so prized in Iraq these days that women don’t even dare go outside for fear of losing it and possibly even their lives. Sadly, getting rid of Saddam Huissan has made things much worse.

“Even under Saddam, women in Iraq …were widely recognized as among the most liberated in the Middle East. They held important positions in business, education and the public sector, and their rights were protected. But since the 2003 invasion, advances that took 50 years to establish are crumbling away. In much of the country, women can only now move around with a male escort. Rape is committed habitually by all the main armed groups, including those linked to the government. Women are being murdered throughout Iraq in unprecedented numbers.”

The black and white thinking that goes into worshiping innocence and keeping women at home cowering in fear is very harmful psychologically to both the victim and the perpetrator. Let’s face it; worshipping innocence in women is a recipe for disaster for society and its children. Society needs wild women. Women who have no clout in society cannot protect their children. When they are dominated by cultural norms they aren’t even as womanly as female animals. They have in fact, lost the very thing that characterizes mammal mothers, which is the instinct to protect their families.

To quote Dr. Estes “Healthy … Wolves and women are relational by nature, inquiring, possessed of great endurance and strength. They are deeply intuitive, intensely concerned with their young, their mate, and their pack… A healthy woman is much like a wolf: robust, chock-full… life-giving.”

Here in the US honor killings are rare. But women can get talked into things that make them psychologically unhealthy. They might believe that they deserve to be beaten. Some innocent women get talked into having more children than they can care for, endangering their mental health, their children and the planet. In fact, unusually large families are more likely to be abusive. On the opposite end of the spectrum, women get abortions in desperation.   Or get talked into silly things like uncomfortable fashions or not kissing (or getting to know someone) before marriage. None of this would be supported by a healthy natural instinct.

I’m not saying that for Valentine’s Day you should run around outside naked in a pack and howl at the moon to celebrate your inner wild child. However, as the holiday of love comes around, we might want to nurture those inner wild instincts by hanging out with a pack of strong friends who have virtues such as honesty, wisdom and experience.   We might even want to look for people who are nurturing, inventive, inquiring, robust and willing care for the Earth and its inhabitants. And if you encounter a black and white thinker or a Blue Beard spouting nonsense to try to tame you and trap you, follow your wolf sense and run for the hills.

15 Signs of an Abusive Relationship

1) A push for quick involvement

2) Jealousy

3) Controlling behaviors

4) Unrealistic expectations

5) Isolation

6) Blames others for problems and mistakes

7) Makes everyone else responsible

8) Hypersensitivity

9) Cruelty to animals and children

10) “Playful” use of force

11) Verbal abuse

12) Rigid sex roles

13) Sudden mood swings

14) Past battering (of you or others)

15) Threats of violence

 

http://date.lifetips.com/cat/23706/warning-signs/

 

More Tips on Bad Valentines

 

http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=157

 

help line

 

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_types_signs_causes_effects.htm

 

Iowa City victim

 

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080205/NEWS/588589763/1001/NEWS

 

Women who run with the wolves

http://www.radiancemagazine.com/issues/1994/wolves.html

 

http://homestar.org/bryannan/estes.html

 

Bluebeard

http://www.docspond.org/Articles/Bluebeardarticle.html

 

 

Healthy self-image

 

http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/how_raise_girls_healthy_selfesteem

 

Honor Killings

 

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/005893.php

 

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/019416.php

 

http://www.madre.org/articles/int/honorcrimes.html

 

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/11/16/stories/2006111604931000.htm

 

Iraq

 

http://www.stophonourkillings.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2248

 

http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/vcampaigns/amea/iraq

 

A modern day Blue Beard…or maybe just a very bad Valentine

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/26/exwellpoint-exec-accused_n_83361.html

 

Perils of black and white thinking

 

http://www.drgingerblume.com/scripts_black_white.htm

 

http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/Understanding_Depression/all_nothing.htm

 

http://www.askrealjesus.com/Q_OVERCOMEEGO/LEASTEGO/leastego5.html

 

Dominance damage

 

http://www.womansavers.com/relationship-articles.asp?a=192

 

Being dominating can cause depression in men

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=UvAZD45BMDoC&pg=PA138&lpg=PA

138&dq=dominating+men+and+depression&source=web&ots=UIh2_MPZ&sig=FlsS7REG0yupCBtYrL296iHcvXs

 

http://www.wowessays.com/dbase/af5/dtb8.shtml

 

Too many kids, abuse and not enough information

 

http://www.womansavers.com/relationship-articles.asp?a=192

 

http://samvak.tripod.com/abusefamily3.html

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=QeMwQtNEXdQC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=abuse+and+large+families&source=web&ots=r5E2iRqLKo&sig=Q-6GXjsEhmo_BXMoW5SlUdLJzoQ

 

http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=1880

 

 

Buy the book

 

http://www.wildwolfwomen.com/

“Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing.  Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species.  Though the gifts of the wildish nature come to us at birth, society’s attempt to “civilize” us into rigid roles has plundered this treasure, and muffled the deep, life-giving messages of our own souls.  Without Wild Woman, we become over-domesticated, fearful, uncreative, trapped.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women Who Run with the Wolves

 

Protect an endangered species: the Wild Woman

 

A native of the Great Lakes region, Dr. Estes (quoted above) began to formulate her ideas as a child, watching her mother put on a girdle and totter to church in uncomfortable shoes. She compared this with the bold female creatures she saw in nature and found something lacking in the worldview of women she was seeing at home.

 

She studied psychology and myths about women to see where women were being lead from their natural instincts.

 

One of the myths Estes discusses in her famous book is that of Blue Beard. A young girl who has no decent father figure (her father has been sent off to a long drawn out war) becomes attracted a wealthy older man with a strange blue beard. Besides his unsettling looks, he’s had several wives who disappeared mysteriously. She downplays these omens and marries him after a whirlwind courtship. After the wedding, he tells her that she must never look into a certain room in the house. Of course, she does when he is away and finds the bodies of his other wives.

 

Many things went wrong for this innocent young woman who rushed into a relationship and ignored warning signs. A woman in Iowa City recently became the state’s latest murder victim after failing to heed her friend’s warnings. (See below for warning signs.)

 

Like the mythical young girl, real people get caught in a relationship trap and go against their natural instincts quite easily if they feel devalued. People can devalue themselves if they aren’t rich, young, skinny, and in some cultures chaste and innocent. I know a girl in Pella who was told that a romantic kiss before marriage would make one impure. As wacky as that may seem it’s only the tip of the iceberg. Innocence worship is so out of proportion in places in the world that people will devalue and then kill their daughters if they have had their honor breached. These horrible crimes which often go unprosecuted are called Honor Killings. Honor is a broadly used term here. Young women have been killed because a photo of them was seen on a man’s cell phone or a song was dedicated to them on the radio.

 

Innocence is so prized in Iraq these days that women don’t even dare go outside for fear of losing it and possibly even their lives. Sadly, getting rid of Saddam Huissan has made things much worse.

 

“Even under Saddam, women in Iraq …were widely recognized as among the most liberated in the Middle East. They held important positions in business, education and the public sector, and their rights were protected. But since the 2003 invasion, advances that took 50 years to establish are crumbling away. In much of the country, women can only now move around with a male escort. Rape is committed habitually by all the main armed groups, including those linked to the government. Women are being murdered throughout Iraq in unprecedented numbers.”

 

 

The black and white thinking that goes into worshiping innocence and keeping women at home cowering in fear is very harmful psychologically to both the victim and the perpetrator. Let’s face it; worshipping innocence in women is a recipe for disaster for society and its children. Society needs wild women. Women who have no clout in society cannot protect their children. When they are dominated by cultural norms they aren’t even as womanly as female animals. They have in fact, lost the very thing that characterizes mammal mothers, which is the instinct to protect their families.

 

To quote Dr. Estes “Healthy … Wolves and women are relational by nature, inquiring, possessed of great endurance and strength. They are deeply intuitive, intensely concerned with their young, their mate, and their pack… A healthy woman is much like a wolf: robust, chock-full… life-giving.”

 

 

Here in the US honor killings are rare. But women can get talked into things that make them psychologically unhealthy. They might believe that they deserve to be beaten. Some innocent women get talked into having more children than they can care for, endangering their mental health, their children and the planet. In fact, unusually large families are more likely to be abusive. On the opposite end of the spectrum, women get abortions in desperation.   Or get talked into silly things like uncomfortable fashions or not kissing (or getting to know someone) before marriage. None of this would be supported by a healthy natural instinct.

Nurture those inner wild instincts by hanging out with a pack of strong friends who have virtues such as honesty, wisdom and experience.   We might even want to look for people who are nurturing, inventive, inquiring, robust and willing care for the Earth and its inhabitants. And if you encounter a black and white thinker or a Blue Beard spouting nonsense to try to tame you and trap you, follow your wolf sense and run for the hills.

15 Signs of an Abusive Relationship

 

1) A push for quick involvement

2) Jealousy

3) Controlling behaviors

4) Unrealistic expectations

5) Isolation

6) Blames others for problems and mistakes

7) Makes everyone else responsible

8) Hypersensitivity

9) Cruelty to animals and children

10) “Playful” use of force

11) Verbal abuse

12) Rigid sex roles

13) Sudden mood swings

14) Past battering (of you or others)

15) Threats of violence

 

http://date.lifetips.com/cat/23706/warning-signs/

 

More Tips on Bad Valentines

 

http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=157

 

help line

 

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_types_signs_causes_effects.htm

 

Iowa City victim

 

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080205/NEWS/588589763/1001/NEWS

 

Women who run with the wolves

http://www.radiancemagazine.com/issues/1994/wolves.html

 

http://homestar.org/bryannan/estes.html

 

Bluebeard

http://www.docspond.org/Articles/Bluebeardarticle.html

 

 

Healthy self-image

 

http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/how_raise_girls_healthy_selfesteem

 

Honor Killings

 

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/005893.php

 

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/019416.php

 

http://www.madre.org/articles/int/honorcrimes.html

 

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/11/16/stories/2006111604931000.htm

 

Iraq

 

http://www.stophonourkillings.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2248

 

http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/vcampaigns/amea/iraq

 

A modern day Blue Beard…or maybe just a very bad Valentine

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/26/exwellpoint-exec-accused_n_83361.html

 

Perils of black and white thinking

 

http://www.drgingerblume.com/scripts_black_white.htm

 

http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/Understanding_Depression/all_nothing.htm

 

http://www.askrealjesus.com/Q_OVERCOMEEGO/LEASTEGO/leastego5.html

 

Dominance damage

 

http://www.womansavers.com/relationship-articles.asp?a=192

 

Being dominating can cause depression in men

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=UvAZD45BMDoC&pg=PA138&lpg=PA

138&dq=dominating+men+and+depression&source=web&ots=UIh2_MPZ&sig=FlsS7REG0yupCBtYrL296iHcvXs

 

http://www.wowessays.com/dbase/af5/dtb8.shtml

 

Too many kids, abuse and not enough information

 

http://www.womansavers.com/relationship-articles.asp?a=192

 

http://samvak.tripod.com/abusefamily3.html

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=QeMwQtNEXdQC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=abuse+and+large+families&source=web&ots=r5E2iRqLKo&sig=Q-6GXjsEhmo_BXMoW5SlUdLJzoQ

 

http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=1880

 

 

Buy the book

 

http://www.wildwolfwomen.com/

(This was previously published in The Town Crier News, Pella, Iowa)

“I adored NATURAL ATTRACTION by Catherine Haustein from beginning to end. I read it with an enthusiasm rarely felt in my life since early puberty when sci fi, romance and western novels were an escape from what I then saw as an unbearable dull small town existence. – See more at: http://www.scifiromancequarterly.org/2015/09/reviews/#sthash.7nYhd9mA.dpuf

If MOBY DICK and PLAYING THE JACK had a love child that was educated at Harvard and had a side gig as a stand up comedian in a steampunk hipster bar it might be a little like Natural Attraction.

Here’s a review and an excerpt in Science Fiction Romance Quarterly.