Interesting piece, Tony. And, by the way, "Happy New Year" all. I've been reading, but not posting for a little while. The article reminded me of an address given by Parker J. Palmer several years ago on leadership. I've tried to excerpt the key points, which means that this post is too long and perhaps a bit disjointed. Still I think there's some connections between Palmer's "shadows" and the "dark" tone of the Gehry article. Palmer sets his course this way: I'll give you a quick definition of a leader: a leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to project on other people his or her shadow, or his or her light. A leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to create the conditions under which other people must live and move and have their being m conditions that can either be as illuminating as heaven or as shadowy as hell. A leader is a person who must take special responsibility for what's going on inside him or her self, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good. I want to look at the shadow side of leadership. In the literature on leadership there are so many pamphlets and books which seem to be about "the power of positive thinking." I am afraid that they may feed a common delusion among leaders that their efforts are always well-intended, their power always benign. I suggest that the challenge is to examine our consciousness for those ways in which we project more shadow than light. I'm not talking simply about the heads of nation states, i'm talking, for example, about a classroom teacher who has the power to create conditions under which young people must spend half of their waking hours, day in and day out, five days a week. Have you ever walked into a classroom in which the leader is projecting light? Have you ever walked into a classroom in which the leader is projecting a huge and ominous shadow? That's the question, that's the choice. --"Leading From Within", Parker J. Palmer. That same choice, I would say, is made by architects, landscape designers, nursing home attendants, lawyers, janitors, and taxi drivers. I'm not sure I like the parenting imageI don't think it is necessary to infantalize your client in order to lead the process. But then, "parents" are the archetypical leaders. Any time an "expert" is dealing with a client there is a leadership dynamic at work. And, according to Palmer, that would mean that the shadows within a particular leader are also at work. Palmer suggests that there are many shadows within us, and then focuses on 5 of them: 1. Insecurity-- identity determined by function rather than innate value of one's life: " I go around the country talking to people in higher education, and wherever I go I ask students, 'When was the last time that you were asked to relate your life story to the things you are studying?' They say, 'What? Our life story doesn't count here.' The whole deal in higher education is to replace your 'little' life story with the 'big' story. The whole deal in an expert-dominated, technocratic form of education is to devalue those little parochial stories on behalf of the 'true' one. Reflected in that strategy I see a kind of leadership which is so insecure about its own identity that it has to deprive other people of theirs. "I've talked with some nurses and doctors who say, "Think of what we do to patients in a hospital. Talk about depriving people of identity so that leaders can have more for themselves!" This kind of organizational culture comes out of a profound insecurity on the part of people in power." 2. The perception that the universe is essentially hostile to human interests and that life is fundamentally a battleground: "As I listen to everyday discourse, it is amazing to me how many battle images I hear as people go about the work of leadership. We talk about tactics and strategy, about using our "big guns," about "do or die," about wins and losses. The imagery here suggests that if we fail to be fiercely competitive, we're going to lose, because the basic structure of the universe is a vast combat. The tragedy of that inner shadow, that unexamined inner fear, is that it helps create situations where people actually have to live that way. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy." 3. Functional atheism--the belief that it all depends on me: "Functional atheism is an unconscious belief that leads to workaholic behavior, to burn-out, to stressed and strained and broken relationships, to unhealthy priorities. Functional atheism is the unexamined conviction within us that if anything decent is going to happen here, I am the one who needs to make it happen. Functional atheism is the reason why the average group (according to studies) can tolerate only 15 seconds of silence; people believe that if they are not making noise, nothing is happening! Functional atheism is an inner shadow of leaders that leads to dysfunctional behavior on every level of our lives." 4. Fear--many forms but Palmer singles out one as particularly damaging for leaders: "I think a lot of leaders become leaders because they have a life-long devotion to eliminating all remnants of chaos from the world. They're trying to order and organize things so thoroughly that the nasty stuff will never bubble up around us (such nasty stuff as dissent, innovation, challenge, change.) "ÂWhat we forget from our spiritual tradition is that God created out of chaos. Chaos is the pre-condition to creativity, and any organization (or any individual) that doesn't have an arena for creative chaos is already half dead. When a leader is so fearful of chaos as not to be able to protect and nurture that arena for other people, there is deep trouble." 5. Denial of death: "We live in a culture that just does not want to talk about things dying. You see this all the time in our institutional life. You see leaders all over the place demanding that they themselves, and the people who work for them, artificially maintain things that aren't alive any longer and maybe never have been. Projects and programs that should have been laid down ten years ago are still on the life-support system even though they've been in a coma for decades." Wellspring p.s. My dog, Winna, never barks.

Hee, hee. It's still almost certainly not the fault of the writers and/or recipe developers; they were probably not there at the photo shoot. (The text & illustrations for a magazine are created by quite separate departments.) The photographer, probably working with a food stylist and maybe an art director, would have had instructions for what kind of photos to take (in a book this is called an "art manuscript"; I don't know if it has the same name in popular magazines but it'll be the same idea). The fault is that the author or production editor who wrote the instructions wasn't clear enough. There's no excuse. But I do have some sympathy; I used to write art manuscripts for educational texts, explaining to an artist or photographer what an illustration should be like, and it's AMAZINGLY hard to think of everything to describe the perfectly clear idea in your head. And amazing the number of things you have to think of to tell the artist NOT to do (like, in an illustration for a French text, not to have any English signs in the background). I teach a course for beginning editors; I think I have to get my hands on that issue. Everyone knows about typographical errors, but that is a great example of the kinds of other problems that can arise from poor process in publishing! Zabby

I wouldn't do the cortisone because of all of the negative side effects with steroids, if it can be avoided. MSM hasn't been clinically proven to help, but many people swear by it. My Ana has terrible rear leg deformities, and I gave her adequan. She didn't improve until the 6th shot, and only a little bit. Of course she had her problem for 4 years before I started the shots. Maybe adequan does better if started immediately. My vet told me that if it didn't help after the first series that it wouldn't be worth continuing, so Ana isn't on it any more. NSAIDs such as deramax, rimadyl, piroxicam, and others all have similar side effects in some dogs such as GI upset, gastric ulceration (rare but life threatening problem), and possible kidney damage. However monitoring for these problems with bloodwork prior to starting and on a regular basis afterwards may help see a potential problem before it gets serious. My own K'Ehleyr is on rimadyl and has been for year due to back problems. I get her labwork done every 6 months and she has been fine. Another medication which is not an anti-inflammatory but is a pain reducer is Tramadol. It is a synthetic opioid and is not associated with any negative side effects except for sedation. This usually wears off after a couple of weeks of being on the medication. It works really well with an NSAID. Tramadol has a very wide margin of safety, so the dose can be increased without risk except for sedation. K'Ehleyr is on this along with the other meds. Some other things that may help are Duralactin, which is a milk protein concentrate that has anti-inflammatory effects. I have Ana and K'Ehleyr both on it and it does seem to help them both. There are no known negative side effects with this supplement. Omega 3 fatty acids such as salmon oil are associated with decreased joint pain in people. My girls are on salmon oil daily too. Other treatments that may be beneficial are acupuncture, swimming, and physical therapy if these are available in your area. The absolute most important thing for your dog is losing weight. Every single moment that she is on her feet and overweight, she is putting increased stress on her knee. She will feel a whole lot better, and reduce the risk of tearing the other ACL, if she loses weight. Surgery can be really expensive. You may want to try looking around at different vets for the surgery though. The hospital where I am applying does the ACL surgery for a heck of a lot less money than the vet school or specialty hospital where many patients are referred. They find this hospital and are happy that they can do that for their dog. Hope this helps a bit. Good luck with your dog.

Hi Everyone! Thanks all for your concern. I'm not sure what to post, except, I'm quite certain it's MUCH better. He hasn't shown any aggression towards my son in several weeks. He didn't show any aggression towards my daughter either for about 3 weeks but then just recently, he snapped at her. We do take him running. He runs several miles a few times a day. We all run at different times during the day, so he goes on 2-3 runs per day. I take him at around 6a.m., at least one of my kids takes him after school and/or plays fetch with him and then my husband takes him in the evening. He gets PLENTY of exercise. I run the least, which is about 3-4 miles in the morning and on occasion 5 or more miles. I also took him to the vet. The vet is concerned, so he has a dog trainer that is planning to come by. I also contacted the local dog training school, who has not yet returned my phone call or email. BUT, my dog is doing better. I just don't have the heart to take him back to the shelter. He came from a shelter near by, which I believe is VERY good and everyone cares about the animals. They told me he won't get along with other dogs but were sure he would get along well with people. And by all accounts, he did until we brought him home. Remember, we visited him a few times at the shelter and he as great. I am sure that if we take him back,he will be euthanized and that idea is just too heartbreaking. My dog has some very loving qualities and such great charm.