If you want a nap right now, the most intelligent thing you can do is to take it. — Martha Beck

For nearly two weeks I had this cold/sinus bug. Like most hardworking Americans, I spent the first few days ignoring it (“Mind over matter: I’m not sick!”), and then switched to muddling-through mode (“I’m sick, but it’s not stopping me!”), and then finally, when all else failed, I gave in and rested for a day. Actually, two. Then I muddled through to the weekend, when I could rest some more. And then for several nights I went to bed early and allowed myself to sleep until I woke, which was usually between 8 and 9 hours. 

I’d been feeling a bit guilty about how much rest I seemed to require, until I read the quote above from Martha Beck. It was part of her post, A Resting Revolution. Martha always makes me feel better. Martha, and sleep.

Illustration courtesy of wickedneuron via flickr.

From the Fairfield Ledger. Caption reads: George’s Pizza and Steakhouse waitress Danielle Soltis, left, poses with Oprah Winfrey and customer Don Hubbs late Wednesday afternoon outside the restaurant after the television personality surprised downtown Fairfield with a trip to Cafe Paradiso for a quick cup of coffee. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh it’s Oprah,’” said Soltis, “and she gave us a hug.” Soltis and her husband Tom asked Oprah for a picture, and she asked if they had a camera. Tom Soltis quickly snapped the photo with a cell phone.

So after my initial shock over Oprah practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM) in my old hometown, I looked for news coverage of the event.  It was picked up by the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune. I found a short piece in The Huffington Post, and a great article on Yahoo: Voices. But my favorite media coverage by far is the article in the hometown paper, The Fairfield Ledger.

Back when I was first began researching Maharishiville, my novel based on Fairfield, I used to get the paper mailed out of state to my home. (I even culled a couple of quirky plot points from actual riffs between “Townies” and “Roos” — short for gurus). I love the local paper. You can’t beat it for the details that provide a true sense of how news unfolds in a small town. Reading the Ledger feels like going home again. 

To read the entire article about Oprah’s visit you need an online subscription, but I will share a few paragraphs for you (as written by Ledger staff writer Diane Vance):

“My wife Linda and I were driving over to pick up The Ledger in the late afternoon,” said Ralph Messerli this morning by phone. “We saw a commotion, a bunch of people clustered on the sidewalk near George’s Pizza.” 

[Quick aside: George's Pizza is fantastic — thin crust, round but cut into squares.] 

“My wife said, ‘that looks like Oprah!’ and I said, ‘yeah, right.’ We saw a parking space and started to pull in. Police Chief Julie Harvey was standing nearby and motioned us to go ahead and pull in,” said Messerli. “Then I see a gal who looks like Oprah. It was Oprah! She was talking with Fairfield folks, shaking hands and letting people take pictures with her.”

The Messerlis stayed in their car, observing. “After she took some pictures, she walked over to our car, stuck her hand in to shake ours,” said Messerli. “We said some nice things and chatted briefly. It was pretty informal.”

Messerli said they don’t watch the Oprah show normally, but have caught a few now and then. “She’s certainly made her impact,” he said. “She’s quite a lady.”

And my favorite bit of detail was from an employee of Maharishi University of Management (M.U.M.) who told the reporter that she and her daughter got to meditate in the women’s Golden Dome with Oprah:

“It was a very sweet experience. The room seemed to be filled with more love and bliss than usual. My daughter, 19, especially enjoyed being there.” … “My daughter’s comment afterwards, ‘I got to meditate with Oprah in the dome and my sister didn’t. I’m gonna rub it in her face!’”

Outside of Iowa, I’ve come across exactly two people who know about the emergence of New Age in this old town. So imagine my surprise when I opened up the February issue of O magazine, turned to Oprah’s column on the last page and saw this (click on the photo to read the column):

Oprah not only knows about Fairfield — she’s been there!

The town and TM will be featured in an upcoming episode of her new TV show, Oprah’s Next Chapter (Sundays 9/8 central on OWN). I can’t wait. She shared a little bit about TM and Fairfield in a recent interview with Dr. Oz:

So aside from me and Oprah, do any of you know about TM and Fairfield? 

My discovery started with reading Siri Carpenter’s article “The Confidence Game” in O, The Oprah Magazine (September 2011). The piece is about improving self confidence by changing your body posture. More on that in a minute. But within that context, there was this intriguing bit about Botox:

“One study found that subjects who received Botox treatments that blocked their ability to mimic emotional expressions were subsequently poorer at recognizing others’ emotions.” [Read about the study here.]

Weird, right? Botox makes you less able to discern when someone around you is confused, happy, concerned or surprised. So you’d be less wrinkly, but less empathetic. Basically, with Botox you become pretty and shallow. Just what the world needs more of.

Maybe you’re okay with that. Maybe, you rationalize, lack of empathy is a small price to pay for beauty. But our own facial expressions provide crucial feedback to the brain not just about others, but about ourselves, as well. We usually let our minds tell our bodies how to behave, but our body movements can also tell our brains how to think. You’ve probably heard of the notion that the simple act of smiling can make you feel happy. Now, according to Carpenter’s article, research is proving that a pose or a posture actually creates a biochemical reaction in the body.

Psychologists Dana Carney, PhD, and Amy Cuddy, PhD, had their subjects spend two minutes in one of two types of seated postures: open and expansive (leaning back and spreading their arms), or tight and constricted (shoulders hunched, hands clasped). The people sitting in the “power pose” increased their levels of testosterone, the hormone linked to assertiveness and energy, while their levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, fell. The outward appearance caused an internal change. Or, as Carney put it, “It seems to be about how you present yourself to others. But it’s really about what’s going on inside you.”

Which brings me back to Botox. Using Botox, we may present a face that’s flawless, unlined. But, I started wondering, if we lose our facial expressions — smiling, grimacing, questioning — might we eventually lose the corresponding emotion (happy, sad, inquisitive), too? What if, in addition to hampering our ability to read others’ emotions, Botox also lessens our ability to feel our own? Turns out, this has already been proven.

Yikes. The irony is hard to miss. What good is having no wrinkles if you can’t feel good about it?

I hurt it sleeping. Yes, sleeping. I just woke up and it hurt. Really bad. Like can’t-move-my-arm-beyond-a 15-degree-angle bad. And it’s remained this way for three days. I slept on my arm wrong and now my chiropractor thinks I have bursitis. (Cue the old Jewish accent: “Oy vey, my bursitis is acting up.”)

Side note: I’m thinking of starting a new blog called “You Know You’re Getting Old When…” It’ll be akin to Jeff Foxworthy’s “You Might Be a Redneck,” only not as funny because I’m not a redneck and it’s always more fun to laugh at someone else. But if you’re not getting old then you’ll find it hysterical.

As writers, we struggle with dumping in too much backstory up front, which drags a story down. I’ve always understood this in theory, but I still had a tendency to think, “But the reader needs to know this!” Tim shared one sentence that frees me up:

The reader will assemble the logic in linear order — no matter what order we share it in.

Think of the movie Memento, where the entire story is told backward. As viewers we were able to hold on to various pieces of information and drop them in linear order as we figured things out. In the meantime, we were glued to our seats. Which is exactly the point (and power) of delaying backstory.

Move story forward, move backstory back.

Here’s Tim’s recipe for backstory success:

Take three paragraphs of backstory and cut it into tiny pieces. Drop those pieces into dependent clauses sprinkled throughout the manuscript. “He slid into his loafers — the same pair he wore the day she left him.” We now know a bit of backstory: he’s been dumped. But we don’t know why. Or when. To find out, we’ll need to read on.

Tim suggests keeping a notebook when you read, and jot down when (on what page) authors drop in these little tidbits of backstory.

http://seattlemysteryblog.typepad.com/seattle_mystery/2011/06/cant-shake-the-devils-hand-and-say-youre-only-kidding.html

The blog comments continue the intriguing conversation.  One, in particular, sums up my feelings on the subject: “This is a painful and necessary dialogue. As an author, I’m riveted and ambivalent.”

When West Deer technical writer makes a career move, it’s a real page turner -

By Tamara Simpson Girardi, FOR THE VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Monday, March 21, 2011

After attending the 2009 Pennwriters Conference, author Julie Long decided she should get more involved in the organization. But she didn’t realized how involved she’d get — that she’d be planning this year’s conference, which will be held in May.

Read more…