So yesterday I took two cooking classes.
In the morning, I attended a salads class at The French Kitchen. I suck at making salads, so I needed it. There were six students present, and we made 16 or 17 different salads between us. We had a wonderful buffet lunch together, during which we ate most of them, but we were able to take home four salads and a tub of French vinaigrette. After the class, I bought a couple of loaves of The French Kitchen's wonderful baguettes, four small jars of jam, and some European butter. We had those with the salads and some other bits and pieces for dinner last night.
Yesterday afternoon, I attended a vegan cooking class (this one was a demonstation and tasting, not a hands-on class) at our local Natural Grocers. We learned how to make buckwheat galettes. These were Breton galettes, a type of pancake, not the free-form pastries that have the dough edges folded up around the sides to encase a filling. Our instructor, who is from Breton, France, brought along a traditional heavy 13" galette pan, but, as it didn't work particularly well with the induction cooktop she used, she made most of her galettes in an ordinary frying pan. One can also use a "crepe maker" griddle. Galettes are made from buckwheat (or sarrasin), a gluten-free pseudograin that is rich in protein, zinc, copper, and manganese. Buckwheat is considered a "pseudograin" or one of the ancient grains because, like quinoa, chia, and amaranth, its seeds come from broad-leaf plants, not grasses, from which come "cereal grains", such as wheat, rice, corn, and millet. We also learned to make a vegan béchamel sauce, with cashews as the primary ingredient, and a vegetable filling of mushrooms and spinach. I thought the end result was absolutely delicious! This dish will be my new comfort food.
Buckwheat Galettes with Spinach and Mushroom in a Cashew Béchamel Sauce
3 cups buckwheat flour
4 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
Sunflower oil (for cooking, apparently sunflower oil provides the best taste)
Mix ingredients; stir until smooth, allow to rest for at least 30 minutes in fridge; when ready to cook, remove from fridge and stir in about a cup of water (the batter should have the consistency of heavy cream); fry as for crepes.
Cashew Béchamel Sauce
2 cups of cashews, soaked in water
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth (or 1.5 cups broth and 1/2 cup of white wine)
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp onion granules
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of white pepper
1 tsp sea salt
Saute the onions in water/broth until softened but not caramelized; add garlic and stir for a minute or two; add all ingredients to blender and blend until very smooth.
Vegetable filling
16 oz. mushrooms of choice (the instructor used cremini mushrooms, which were very tasty)
10-16 oz. baby spinach
A little vegetable broth
Cook mushrooms on medium to high heat in a little vegetable broth for 5-8 minutes; add spinach and cook for 3 minutes; add cashew béchamel sauce and cook for 2 minutes. One can experiment with other vegetable fillings. Our instructor recommended asparagus.
Add filling to galettes and fold.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Friday, July 20, 2018
English Toffee
So last night, Paige and I attended a class at The French Kitchen Culinary Center in Colorado Springs. While many of the classes involve French cuisine, this one was an "English Toffee" class.
The toffee is very easy to make and absolutely delicious. The key seems to be to measure ingredients very precisely. I don't think I'm supposed to give away the center's recipes on a public blog, but here is a similar recipe. One can play around with it and sprinkle, for example, ground peppermint candy, toasted coconut, other types of nut, etc., over the melted chocolate.
I'm told that it would be sacrilegious to: 1) use Hershey's chocolate chips (Belgian chocolate chips are apparently better), and 2) use American butter (which I understand has less butterfat and less beta carotene than European butter; I think Irish butter will do).
Note: The final temperature for the "hard-crack stage", achieved when boiling the toffee, is given in the linked recipe as 300°F. This applies at sea level. Above sea level, the temperature needs to be dropped by 2°F for every 1,000 feet one ascends.
The toffee is very easy to make and absolutely delicious. The key seems to be to measure ingredients very precisely. I don't think I'm supposed to give away the center's recipes on a public blog, but here is a similar recipe. One can play around with it and sprinkle, for example, ground peppermint candy, toasted coconut, other types of nut, etc., over the melted chocolate.
I'm told that it would be sacrilegious to: 1) use Hershey's chocolate chips (Belgian chocolate chips are apparently better), and 2) use American butter (which I understand has less butterfat and less beta carotene than European butter; I think Irish butter will do).
Note: The final temperature for the "hard-crack stage", achieved when boiling the toffee, is given in the linked recipe as 300°F. This applies at sea level. Above sea level, the temperature needs to be dropped by 2°F for every 1,000 feet one ascends.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Weekend Sports
This has been a good weekend for sports fans.
Wimbledon concluded today with the men's final. As expected, Novak Djokovic beat unlikely finalist Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-2, 7-6. Yesterday Angelique Kerber beat Serena Williams 6-3, 6-3. Serena seemed a little sluggish and made a slew of unforced errors. Iga Swiatek of Poland won the girls' final. Cori Gauff, who turned 14 just last March and won the French Open girls' championships last May, made it to the quarter finals. In the boys' final, Chun Hsin Tseng, who also won the French Open boys' championship this year, prevailed over Jack Draper of the UK.
And then there was the World Cup. France beat Croatia 4-2. Emmanuel Macron, who was in Moscow watching the game, was ecstatic! Paige's friend, who is currently in France, said that she could hear people screaming every time the French scored. Yesterday was Bastille Day, so this has been a weekend of celebration for France.
Wimbledon concluded today with the men's final. As expected, Novak Djokovic beat unlikely finalist Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-2, 7-6. Yesterday Angelique Kerber beat Serena Williams 6-3, 6-3. Serena seemed a little sluggish and made a slew of unforced errors. Iga Swiatek of Poland won the girls' final. Cori Gauff, who turned 14 just last March and won the French Open girls' championships last May, made it to the quarter finals. In the boys' final, Chun Hsin Tseng, who also won the French Open boys' championship this year, prevailed over Jack Draper of the UK.
And then there was the World Cup. France beat Croatia 4-2. Emmanuel Macron, who was in Moscow watching the game, was ecstatic! Paige's friend, who is currently in France, said that she could hear people screaming every time the French scored. Yesterday was Bastille Day, so this has been a weekend of celebration for France.
Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover
Further to the theme of escaping from dark caves, I recently read Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. Educated is an absorbing read (I read it in one sitting) about Tara Westover's journey from growing up in a dysfunctional, Mormon, survivalist family to her eventual schism with her parents after breaking away to go to college. Tara is the youngest of seven children (birth order: Tony, Shawn, Tyler, Luke, Audrey, Richard, Tara), and her parents are Gene and Faye (those are the names she uses in the book; their real names are Val and Laree). She grows up on a farm on the slopes of Buck's Peak in Idaho.
Instead of going to school as a child, Tara helps her mother deliver babies and make herbal concoctions or works in dangerous conditions in her father's scrapyard. She doesn't get a birth certificate until she is nine, and then her family can't remember the exact day of her birth. She is expected to grow up to be a "good Mormon woman" -- to be subservient to her husband and father, to marry young, and to produce many children. The Westover family suffers a litany of gruesome accidents, most of them brought about by Gene's dismissal of reasonable safety considerations and his unswerving beliefs that "the angels" would protect his family and his wife would be able to heal their many injuries. As she reaches her teens, her older brother Shawn, in a classic case of projection, begins calling her a "whore" and a "slut" and becomes physically and emotionally abusive. Her parents trivialize the abuse. To escape Shawn, Tara decides to go to college and, with some advice from her brother Tyler, she prepares for the ACT. The first time she takes it, she scores 22. She retakes it, this time getting 28, which means she can go to Brigham Young University in Utah. From there, she wins a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and ends up getting a Masters and then a PhD from Cambridge University, and she also earns a fellowship to Harvard.
Her father, Gene, is clearly "off his chum". He holds many paranoid beliefs, such as that the government is out to get him, that schools exist to lead children away from God, that doctors are evil socialist instruments of the government (he claims that choosing between his wife's herbal medicine and modern medicine is akin to choosing between God and Satan), and that the the "Days of Abomination" are coming. He rails against "the Illuminati". He stockpiles food, weapons, and gas so that the family will be prepared to defend itself against the "End of Days" and Ruby Ridge style government attacks. He predicts that Y2K will be a time of catastrophe and is crushed to be proven wrong. He occasionally enters almost catatonic states. His self-belief is absolute. He sees his opinions as facts and believes that he speaks for God. He is extremely sexist. On one occasion, he demands that Tara help him with breakfast by saying, "You're a woman, aren't you? Well, this here is a kitchen!" Tara speculates that he might have bipolar. One of her university professors, in response to Tara's essay about "an uncle" with the disorder, thinks he perhaps has schizophrenia. He has been widely "diagnosed" on the Internet as severely narcissistic.
Shawn is disturbed, dangerous, and abusive, and his mental health is not improved by a series of major head injuries. He has a long history of violence, aggression, and degradation of women. He physically and emotionally bullies both Tara and Audrey, her older sister, while her parents look the other way. He shoves his wife, Emily, out of their mobile home in sub-zero temperatures and brutally stabs his dog, a German shepherd, to death with a small knife.
Tara's mother, Faye, appears to be a talented woman who is under the thrall of her domineering husband. Her few fledgling efforts to spread her wings and assert herself are quickly snuffed out by the force of his personality. She, too, sustains a traumatic brain injury in one of the family's depressingly frequent accidents, and, as in many of the other cases in which a family member is hurt, she doesn't get any medical help. Gene believes doctors would be unable to help her and that she is "in God's hands". In the aftermath of the accident, Faye spends a week in the basement and is very badly bruised about the head and face. She appears confused and for months cannot remember her own children's names. For weeks, she has raccoon eyes, which indicates she may have had a serious brain injury. She is never the same after the accident. She embraces magical thinking and believes in her power to heal by transmitting energy and making herbal tinctures.
Finally Audrey and Tara agree to stage an intervention to address Shawn's problems. Faye initially indicates she is on board with the plan. Then comes the gaslighting. Faye, under pressure from Gene, who claims Tara has "no proof" of Shawn's behavior, reneges. Tara's parents visit her at Harvard, intent of enforcing her submission to their views. They invite themselves to spend a week in her dorm room (Gene in the bed, Faye on an air mattress, Tara on the floor). Gene, with fanatical conviction, believes Tara is at fault and in need of forgiveness. He insists she requires a "priesthood blessing" (with Gene, of course, being the priest), meaning that he would lay hands on her head and cast out the "evil" that caused her to openly confront Shawn's issues. Tara realizes that "what my father wanted to cast from me wasn't a demon. It was me." She refuses his blessing, thus retaining her authenticity. Her parents are shocked and leave immediately, with Gene saying he can no longer be around "the devil". Tara is devastated and suffers a breakdown. As of the writing of the book, Tara has had very little contact with either parent.
Tara returns to the UK, where Shawn harasses her with terrifying death threats. Her parents remain in denial. Gene accuses her of being hysterical; her mother claims that Tara's reality is "warped". In the midst of all this, Tara gets a message from her sister, Audrey, to whom their father has explained that Shawn has been forgiven by "the Atonement of Christ". Audrey says Tara should forgive him too. She accuses Tara of giving herself over to "the realm of Satan" and of being controlled by Lucifer.
Tara returns to Idaho for her grandmother's funeral. During the service, she realizes four of her siblings, none of whom has a high school diploma, work for her parents' company. The other three, all of whom earn PhD's, have left their childhood home and established independent lives. She reflects on her struggle to break away and establish selfhood, musing, "You could call this selfhood many things. Transformation. Metamorphosis. Falsity. Betrayal. I call it an education."
Tara's memoir has caused much controversy among the friends and family of the Westovers, many of of whom resent her exposé. As a result, she has been brutally scapegoated. This onslaught has sometimes left her second-guessing her own reality testing.
The Westovers' family lawyer, Blake Atkin, issued a dismissive statement of the book, saying it should be read with a "grain of salt" and points out that three of the seven Westover siblings earned PhDs. He feels this proves that their home education was not neglected.
Two of Tara's siblings, who don't leave their names, have written negative (1-star) reviews of her book on Amazon. I have copied these below:
"Not completely false, but very little actual truth. I was there, and what I saw was was my parents, who were struggling themselves at the time to make ends meet, send there gifted daughter to College at the age of sixteen at great financial sacrifice to them. She would have us believe that she did it all herself, and that's fine, she worked hard and deserves credit. But to say that she received no help or support is total bullcrap! This family produced three Phd's, and the other siblings are all moderately successful! She has told the lies about living 'off the grid', and an abusive family, and 'survivalist family' so much that she may actually believe the crap she says; this is just sad. Our parents were not perfect. They made mistakes. All parents do. But, they did the best that they could and do not deserve all of this crap coming at them! Rather, they deserve love and gratitude."
"I was absolutely shocked and appalled when I read this book. It is full of lies and deceptions. It has very little truth and what truth it does have is blown way out of proportion. What she calls off the grid in a compound was actually house on a farm with City Water and Power. (It's inside city limits not on top of the mountain.) She portrays our dad as being anti-government anti doctors. When in reality he is just a conservative that believes in the Constitution. And because she does not believe the same way she has labeled him as such. She says that he's against doctors but half of my siblings were born in the hospital. We also were taken to the hospital for broken arms, broken legs, and hernia surgery, eye doctor appointments all were accidents not work related but swing off swing sets extra ... We went ot the dentist regularly and all that needed braces had braces. We had the choice of going to school or being homeschooled . Some of my siblings chose to go to school some of us were homeschooled. My dad believed in Freedom in his house. I could tear this book apart line upon line but to do so I'd have to rewrite the whole book. Anyone that knows this family knows this book is a complete and utter lie. There's nothing good or uplifting about this book."
These reviews include a few straw men. For example, Tara never claims in the book that she "received no help or support". In fact, she points out that her parents helped her financially while she was at BYU. She doesn't claim her home was "off the grid", although many of the reviewers mention that it was. She explains that her father wanted to be off the grid. She also states that the first four Westover children were born in the hospital, and that the kids saw a homeopathic dentist. Her father was not always opposed to doctors; he embraced that view later in life. Also, some of the hospital interventions occurred because Tara or someone outside the family took one of the family members to hospital or called an ambulance. Hence, I don't find these negative reviews credible.
Tara's brother, Tyler, gave her book a 5-star review on Amazon, but disputed some of her recollections. I think, he has since removed his review, but there is a copy here.
Tara's former boyfried, Drew, writes a very positive review (5-star) affirming Tara's version of reality. His is perhaps the sanest voice among the reviewers and describes behaviors common to most abusive families. Here it is:
"Overcoming the gaslighting
by Drew Mecham on April 8, 2018
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm the "Drew" from this book, and although Tara and I are no longer together, I've met all of the key figures in this book on many occasions. Although I don't have as intimate a knowledge of growing up in the Westover family as a sibling would, I observed first hand everything Tara describes in the third part of the book and heard many stories about earlier events, not just from Tara, but from siblings, cousins, and her parents themselves. I find the claims of factaul inaccuracy that have come up among these reviews to be strange for two reasons. First, in a post-James Frey ("A Million Little Pieces") world, publishers are incredibly careful with memoirs and "Educated" was extensively fact checked before publication. Second, no one claiming factual innacuracy can do more than make vague claims that the book is full of lies. While every Westover sibling, as well as their neighbors and friends, will have different perspectives and different memories, it is very difficult to dispute the core facts of this book. "Educated" is about abuse, and the way in which both abusers and their enablers distort reality for the victims. It's about the importance of gaining your own understanding of the world so you're not dependent on the narratives imposed on you by others. I've heard Tara's parents attack schools and univerisities, doctors and modern medicine, but more importantly, I've seen her parents work tirelessly to create a world where Shawn's abuse was minimized or denied outright. I've seen them try to create a world where Tara was insane or possessed in order to protect a violent and unstable brother. I was with her in Cambridge when Shawn was calling with death threats, then saw her mother completely trivialize the experience. For Tara's parents, allegiance to the family is paramount, and allegiance to the family requires you to accept her father's view of the world, where violence is acceptable and asking for change is a crime."
Gene and Faye (in reality, Val and LaRee) Westover have become quite wealthy and prominent through their business, Butterfly Expressions, which deals in alternative medicine. Whether or not Tara should have exposed her already visible family to public scrutiny and criticism is not my place to judge. It is easy to find out that "Shawn"'s real name is Travis and to learn the names of his children, who will no doubt eventually read about their father in Tara's book (I suspect that they won't learn much new). Perhaps Tara's exposure will provide some protection to his wife and children. Tara's parents and Shawn all appear to victims of mental illness, traumatic brain injury, or both. Is it fair to publicize the tribulations of vulnerable and damaged people, even if they have hurt you? Again, it is not my place to judge the author's choices, but I certainly understand how frustrated she must feel by her family's denials and belittlement.
Clearly, Tara felt some sort of need to counter her voicelessness through the written word. Her father's narcissism and the strait-jacket of fundamentalist religious expectations could have crippled and permanently infantilized her. In the book, she says, "My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs." She has a strong, lyrical, educated voice, and her book has allowed it to be heard. I think her narrative is very honest, and it is not her version of reality that I question.
This meme has been floating around the Internet, but I have not seen it attributed to anyone. It refers to the narcissist's tendency to gaslight and shift blame, and I think it describes what Tara's parents did to her:
The Hymn of the Narcissist
That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did ...
You deserved it.
Instead of going to school as a child, Tara helps her mother deliver babies and make herbal concoctions or works in dangerous conditions in her father's scrapyard. She doesn't get a birth certificate until she is nine, and then her family can't remember the exact day of her birth. She is expected to grow up to be a "good Mormon woman" -- to be subservient to her husband and father, to marry young, and to produce many children. The Westover family suffers a litany of gruesome accidents, most of them brought about by Gene's dismissal of reasonable safety considerations and his unswerving beliefs that "the angels" would protect his family and his wife would be able to heal their many injuries. As she reaches her teens, her older brother Shawn, in a classic case of projection, begins calling her a "whore" and a "slut" and becomes physically and emotionally abusive. Her parents trivialize the abuse. To escape Shawn, Tara decides to go to college and, with some advice from her brother Tyler, she prepares for the ACT. The first time she takes it, she scores 22. She retakes it, this time getting 28, which means she can go to Brigham Young University in Utah. From there, she wins a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and ends up getting a Masters and then a PhD from Cambridge University, and she also earns a fellowship to Harvard.
Her father, Gene, is clearly "off his chum". He holds many paranoid beliefs, such as that the government is out to get him, that schools exist to lead children away from God, that doctors are evil socialist instruments of the government (he claims that choosing between his wife's herbal medicine and modern medicine is akin to choosing between God and Satan), and that the the "Days of Abomination" are coming. He rails against "the Illuminati". He stockpiles food, weapons, and gas so that the family will be prepared to defend itself against the "End of Days" and Ruby Ridge style government attacks. He predicts that Y2K will be a time of catastrophe and is crushed to be proven wrong. He occasionally enters almost catatonic states. His self-belief is absolute. He sees his opinions as facts and believes that he speaks for God. He is extremely sexist. On one occasion, he demands that Tara help him with breakfast by saying, "You're a woman, aren't you? Well, this here is a kitchen!" Tara speculates that he might have bipolar. One of her university professors, in response to Tara's essay about "an uncle" with the disorder, thinks he perhaps has schizophrenia. He has been widely "diagnosed" on the Internet as severely narcissistic.
Shawn is disturbed, dangerous, and abusive, and his mental health is not improved by a series of major head injuries. He has a long history of violence, aggression, and degradation of women. He physically and emotionally bullies both Tara and Audrey, her older sister, while her parents look the other way. He shoves his wife, Emily, out of their mobile home in sub-zero temperatures and brutally stabs his dog, a German shepherd, to death with a small knife.
Tara's mother, Faye, appears to be a talented woman who is under the thrall of her domineering husband. Her few fledgling efforts to spread her wings and assert herself are quickly snuffed out by the force of his personality. She, too, sustains a traumatic brain injury in one of the family's depressingly frequent accidents, and, as in many of the other cases in which a family member is hurt, she doesn't get any medical help. Gene believes doctors would be unable to help her and that she is "in God's hands". In the aftermath of the accident, Faye spends a week in the basement and is very badly bruised about the head and face. She appears confused and for months cannot remember her own children's names. For weeks, she has raccoon eyes, which indicates she may have had a serious brain injury. She is never the same after the accident. She embraces magical thinking and believes in her power to heal by transmitting energy and making herbal tinctures.
Finally Audrey and Tara agree to stage an intervention to address Shawn's problems. Faye initially indicates she is on board with the plan. Then comes the gaslighting. Faye, under pressure from Gene, who claims Tara has "no proof" of Shawn's behavior, reneges. Tara's parents visit her at Harvard, intent of enforcing her submission to their views. They invite themselves to spend a week in her dorm room (Gene in the bed, Faye on an air mattress, Tara on the floor). Gene, with fanatical conviction, believes Tara is at fault and in need of forgiveness. He insists she requires a "priesthood blessing" (with Gene, of course, being the priest), meaning that he would lay hands on her head and cast out the "evil" that caused her to openly confront Shawn's issues. Tara realizes that "what my father wanted to cast from me wasn't a demon. It was me." She refuses his blessing, thus retaining her authenticity. Her parents are shocked and leave immediately, with Gene saying he can no longer be around "the devil". Tara is devastated and suffers a breakdown. As of the writing of the book, Tara has had very little contact with either parent.
Tara returns to the UK, where Shawn harasses her with terrifying death threats. Her parents remain in denial. Gene accuses her of being hysterical; her mother claims that Tara's reality is "warped". In the midst of all this, Tara gets a message from her sister, Audrey, to whom their father has explained that Shawn has been forgiven by "the Atonement of Christ". Audrey says Tara should forgive him too. She accuses Tara of giving herself over to "the realm of Satan" and of being controlled by Lucifer.
Tara returns to Idaho for her grandmother's funeral. During the service, she realizes four of her siblings, none of whom has a high school diploma, work for her parents' company. The other three, all of whom earn PhD's, have left their childhood home and established independent lives. She reflects on her struggle to break away and establish selfhood, musing, "You could call this selfhood many things. Transformation. Metamorphosis. Falsity. Betrayal. I call it an education."
Tara's memoir has caused much controversy among the friends and family of the Westovers, many of of whom resent her exposé. As a result, she has been brutally scapegoated. This onslaught has sometimes left her second-guessing her own reality testing.
The Westovers' family lawyer, Blake Atkin, issued a dismissive statement of the book, saying it should be read with a "grain of salt" and points out that three of the seven Westover siblings earned PhDs. He feels this proves that their home education was not neglected.
Two of Tara's siblings, who don't leave their names, have written negative (1-star) reviews of her book on Amazon. I have copied these below:
"Not completely false, but very little actual truth. I was there, and what I saw was was my parents, who were struggling themselves at the time to make ends meet, send there gifted daughter to College at the age of sixteen at great financial sacrifice to them. She would have us believe that she did it all herself, and that's fine, she worked hard and deserves credit. But to say that she received no help or support is total bullcrap! This family produced three Phd's, and the other siblings are all moderately successful! She has told the lies about living 'off the grid', and an abusive family, and 'survivalist family' so much that she may actually believe the crap she says; this is just sad. Our parents were not perfect. They made mistakes. All parents do. But, they did the best that they could and do not deserve all of this crap coming at them! Rather, they deserve love and gratitude."
"I was absolutely shocked and appalled when I read this book. It is full of lies and deceptions. It has very little truth and what truth it does have is blown way out of proportion. What she calls off the grid in a compound was actually house on a farm with City Water and Power. (It's inside city limits not on top of the mountain.) She portrays our dad as being anti-government anti doctors. When in reality he is just a conservative that believes in the Constitution. And because she does not believe the same way she has labeled him as such. She says that he's against doctors but half of my siblings were born in the hospital. We also were taken to the hospital for broken arms, broken legs, and hernia surgery, eye doctor appointments all were accidents not work related but swing off swing sets extra ... We went ot the dentist regularly and all that needed braces had braces. We had the choice of going to school or being homeschooled . Some of my siblings chose to go to school some of us were homeschooled. My dad believed in Freedom in his house. I could tear this book apart line upon line but to do so I'd have to rewrite the whole book. Anyone that knows this family knows this book is a complete and utter lie. There's nothing good or uplifting about this book."
These reviews include a few straw men. For example, Tara never claims in the book that she "received no help or support". In fact, she points out that her parents helped her financially while she was at BYU. She doesn't claim her home was "off the grid", although many of the reviewers mention that it was. She explains that her father wanted to be off the grid. She also states that the first four Westover children were born in the hospital, and that the kids saw a homeopathic dentist. Her father was not always opposed to doctors; he embraced that view later in life. Also, some of the hospital interventions occurred because Tara or someone outside the family took one of the family members to hospital or called an ambulance. Hence, I don't find these negative reviews credible.
Tara's brother, Tyler, gave her book a 5-star review on Amazon, but disputed some of her recollections. I think, he has since removed his review, but there is a copy here.
Tara's former boyfried, Drew, writes a very positive review (5-star) affirming Tara's version of reality. His is perhaps the sanest voice among the reviewers and describes behaviors common to most abusive families. Here it is:
"Overcoming the gaslighting
by Drew Mecham on April 8, 2018
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm the "Drew" from this book, and although Tara and I are no longer together, I've met all of the key figures in this book on many occasions. Although I don't have as intimate a knowledge of growing up in the Westover family as a sibling would, I observed first hand everything Tara describes in the third part of the book and heard many stories about earlier events, not just from Tara, but from siblings, cousins, and her parents themselves. I find the claims of factaul inaccuracy that have come up among these reviews to be strange for two reasons. First, in a post-James Frey ("A Million Little Pieces") world, publishers are incredibly careful with memoirs and "Educated" was extensively fact checked before publication. Second, no one claiming factual innacuracy can do more than make vague claims that the book is full of lies. While every Westover sibling, as well as their neighbors and friends, will have different perspectives and different memories, it is very difficult to dispute the core facts of this book. "Educated" is about abuse, and the way in which both abusers and their enablers distort reality for the victims. It's about the importance of gaining your own understanding of the world so you're not dependent on the narratives imposed on you by others. I've heard Tara's parents attack schools and univerisities, doctors and modern medicine, but more importantly, I've seen her parents work tirelessly to create a world where Shawn's abuse was minimized or denied outright. I've seen them try to create a world where Tara was insane or possessed in order to protect a violent and unstable brother. I was with her in Cambridge when Shawn was calling with death threats, then saw her mother completely trivialize the experience. For Tara's parents, allegiance to the family is paramount, and allegiance to the family requires you to accept her father's view of the world, where violence is acceptable and asking for change is a crime."
Gene and Faye (in reality, Val and LaRee) Westover have become quite wealthy and prominent through their business, Butterfly Expressions, which deals in alternative medicine. Whether or not Tara should have exposed her already visible family to public scrutiny and criticism is not my place to judge. It is easy to find out that "Shawn"'s real name is Travis and to learn the names of his children, who will no doubt eventually read about their father in Tara's book (I suspect that they won't learn much new). Perhaps Tara's exposure will provide some protection to his wife and children. Tara's parents and Shawn all appear to victims of mental illness, traumatic brain injury, or both. Is it fair to publicize the tribulations of vulnerable and damaged people, even if they have hurt you? Again, it is not my place to judge the author's choices, but I certainly understand how frustrated she must feel by her family's denials and belittlement.
Clearly, Tara felt some sort of need to counter her voicelessness through the written word. Her father's narcissism and the strait-jacket of fundamentalist religious expectations could have crippled and permanently infantilized her. In the book, she says, "My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs." She has a strong, lyrical, educated voice, and her book has allowed it to be heard. I think her narrative is very honest, and it is not her version of reality that I question.
This meme has been floating around the Internet, but I have not seen it attributed to anyone. It refers to the narcissist's tendency to gaslight and shift blame, and I think it describes what Tara's parents did to her:
The Hymn of the Narcissist
That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did ...
You deserved it.
Monday, July 9, 2018
The Boys in the Cave
So of all the many things in the world one could worry about, I've been fixating much of my emotional energy on the Thai soccer team that has been trapped in the Tham Luang caves in Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai is the northernmost province of Thailand and abuts Myanmar and Laos.
There's is such a sweet, sad, and extraordinary story that merges a Tom Sawyer-style adventure, Buddhist spirituality, truly heroic sacrifice, cutting edge science, triumph, tragedy, and family drama. Eleven boys, aged 11 to 16, and their soccer coach, "Ekk", decided to go caving to celebrate the birthday of one of the boys. In retrospect, it was an unwise decision, especially with the monsoon season approaching, but how could the caves not appeal to those kids? When I was a child, those caves would have had all the allure of a phantasmagorical mystery.
As we know, the caves flooded, and the team retreated deeper and deeper into the labyrnthine passages. They eventually found themselves on a ledge four kilometers from the cave entrance, and there they waited for between nine and ten days until two intrepid British divers, John Volanthen and Richard Stanton, an Internet engineer and a firefighter, found them. The two British divers mapped a dark and difficult six-hour journey, upstream through rushing waters, to the area where the team was trapped.
Over 100 elite divers, most of them volunteers, helped with the search and resuce mission. Buddhist monks set up a shrine and kept a constant prayer vigil at the cave entrance. Workers tried to drain the caves and mounted strenuous searches for alternative entry points to the chamber. Elon Musk came up with several ingenious ideas and went as far as having a mini-submarine built to rescue the trapped boys (it doesn't look as though it'll be needed, but I gather that it's ready to go). The local and international efforts to help have been quite uplifting. The rescue has galvanized the world.
Sadly, one diver, Saman Gunan, a 38-year-old former Thai navy SEAL, died on Friday, July 6. He apparently passed out, ostensibly having run out of air, in one of the narrow underwater passages. After his death, Thai officials were very hesitant to dive the team out. They feared that the boys, most of whom can't swim, might panic, which could potentially be fatal.
I've seen a relatively experienced diver panic. On our honeymoon in the Maldives, Craig and I set out on a boat with a group to do a "drift dive" -- we would go down 20 or 30 feet and then drift with a fast-moving current along the side of a reef. The boat would follow the current and pick us up a couple of hours later. We were accompanied by a British man, who was a little put out to be diving with mere beginners like us. He'd dived some of the world's best dive spots, such as the Red Sea and the Caribbean. He had the most expensive equipment, including a full drysuit (as opposed to a mere wetsuit). So we arrived at our dive site, submerged, and were immediately enthralled by the reef life as we were whisked off by the current. Then hysterical shrieking shattered the peace. Our Brit was hanging onto a rock like a limpet and screaming bloody murder. Our dive instructor was trying to pry his hands loose so she could take him back to the boat, but he clung on frantically. I think the speed of the current scared him. She waved us off, and we continued on our own. Thankfully the boat was able to locate us when we eventually surfaced, and our dive instructor was able to get our Brit back to the boat safely.
Anyhow, eight members of the soccer team have been successfully "dived out" of the cave, four at a time, in the past 48 hours or so. Four boys and their 25-year-old coach, "Ekk", remain. Ekk was initially particularly malnourished as he insisted on giving all available food to the 12 boys with him. He lost his entire family to disease when he was just 10 years old, and he entered a Buddhist monastery at 12 and remained there for 10 years, before leaving to take care of his grandmother. He taught the boys to meditate while in the cave, and that seems to have kept them calm.
It appears that the rescued boys were given full-face masks and taken out as a group by ten divers. Each boy was hugged beneath the body of a rescue diver, as the other rescuers provided support. They seem to have made the dangerous journey far more quickly and safely than was expected. Apparently, the most dangerous part of the cave, a tunnel that was only 70cm wide, was drilled and widened, which must have eased the ordeal a little.
The rescue is now on hold for another 10 to 20 hours as teams replenish the decreased oxygen in the caverns and replace used air tanks and gear along the route. Five people remain stranded, but are being provided with food and medical care. They must be chomping at the bit to be freed. I hope to wake up tomorrow and hear good news of their release!
Update on July 10: Hooray!!! The last four boys and their coach have been rescued from the cave! There has been something incredibly endearing about the attitudes displayed by all those involved with the rescue. The parents of the boys, far from expressing anger toward the coach, did everything they could to reassure him that they did not blame him. One even went so far as to call him "my dear Ekk". The rescue teams seemed calm, purposeful, and determined. The trapped boys appeared cheerful, amazingly serene, and appreciative. Perhaps their Buddhist spirituality helped them cope with the ordeal. Apparently being calm and pleasant and showing respect and self-control are central aspects of Thai culture, drawn in part from Theraveda Buddhism. Thais value sanuk, an ethos of light-heartedness, playfulness, and fun. During songkran, the celebration of the Thai New Year from April 13 to April 15, the entire country indulges in ... a water fight! Everyone gets water guns and sprays everyone else. The Thai culture seems respectful, non-confrontational, and joyful. There is a Thai Buddhist Temple in Peyton, CO, and a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temple in Denver. I would love to attend a service at either one.
Update on July22: As expected, given that an anesthesiologist, Richard Harris, was the last person out of the cave, it appears that the boys and their coach were sedated for the evacuation. While there have been conflicting reports of the drug they were given (Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-O-Cha said they were given an "anti-anxiety medication"), it seems they were given Ketamine. Photos and videos of the boys during the rescue suggest they were fast asleep. Ketamine seems like a useful tool for the future.
There's is such a sweet, sad, and extraordinary story that merges a Tom Sawyer-style adventure, Buddhist spirituality, truly heroic sacrifice, cutting edge science, triumph, tragedy, and family drama. Eleven boys, aged 11 to 16, and their soccer coach, "Ekk", decided to go caving to celebrate the birthday of one of the boys. In retrospect, it was an unwise decision, especially with the monsoon season approaching, but how could the caves not appeal to those kids? When I was a child, those caves would have had all the allure of a phantasmagorical mystery.
As we know, the caves flooded, and the team retreated deeper and deeper into the labyrnthine passages. They eventually found themselves on a ledge four kilometers from the cave entrance, and there they waited for between nine and ten days until two intrepid British divers, John Volanthen and Richard Stanton, an Internet engineer and a firefighter, found them. The two British divers mapped a dark and difficult six-hour journey, upstream through rushing waters, to the area where the team was trapped.
Over 100 elite divers, most of them volunteers, helped with the search and resuce mission. Buddhist monks set up a shrine and kept a constant prayer vigil at the cave entrance. Workers tried to drain the caves and mounted strenuous searches for alternative entry points to the chamber. Elon Musk came up with several ingenious ideas and went as far as having a mini-submarine built to rescue the trapped boys (it doesn't look as though it'll be needed, but I gather that it's ready to go). The local and international efforts to help have been quite uplifting. The rescue has galvanized the world.
Sadly, one diver, Saman Gunan, a 38-year-old former Thai navy SEAL, died on Friday, July 6. He apparently passed out, ostensibly having run out of air, in one of the narrow underwater passages. After his death, Thai officials were very hesitant to dive the team out. They feared that the boys, most of whom can't swim, might panic, which could potentially be fatal.
I've seen a relatively experienced diver panic. On our honeymoon in the Maldives, Craig and I set out on a boat with a group to do a "drift dive" -- we would go down 20 or 30 feet and then drift with a fast-moving current along the side of a reef. The boat would follow the current and pick us up a couple of hours later. We were accompanied by a British man, who was a little put out to be diving with mere beginners like us. He'd dived some of the world's best dive spots, such as the Red Sea and the Caribbean. He had the most expensive equipment, including a full drysuit (as opposed to a mere wetsuit). So we arrived at our dive site, submerged, and were immediately enthralled by the reef life as we were whisked off by the current. Then hysterical shrieking shattered the peace. Our Brit was hanging onto a rock like a limpet and screaming bloody murder. Our dive instructor was trying to pry his hands loose so she could take him back to the boat, but he clung on frantically. I think the speed of the current scared him. She waved us off, and we continued on our own. Thankfully the boat was able to locate us when we eventually surfaced, and our dive instructor was able to get our Brit back to the boat safely.
Anyhow, eight members of the soccer team have been successfully "dived out" of the cave, four at a time, in the past 48 hours or so. Four boys and their 25-year-old coach, "Ekk", remain. Ekk was initially particularly malnourished as he insisted on giving all available food to the 12 boys with him. He lost his entire family to disease when he was just 10 years old, and he entered a Buddhist monastery at 12 and remained there for 10 years, before leaving to take care of his grandmother. He taught the boys to meditate while in the cave, and that seems to have kept them calm.
It appears that the rescued boys were given full-face masks and taken out as a group by ten divers. Each boy was hugged beneath the body of a rescue diver, as the other rescuers provided support. They seem to have made the dangerous journey far more quickly and safely than was expected. Apparently, the most dangerous part of the cave, a tunnel that was only 70cm wide, was drilled and widened, which must have eased the ordeal a little.
The rescue is now on hold for another 10 to 20 hours as teams replenish the decreased oxygen in the caverns and replace used air tanks and gear along the route. Five people remain stranded, but are being provided with food and medical care. They must be chomping at the bit to be freed. I hope to wake up tomorrow and hear good news of their release!
Update on July 10: Hooray!!! The last four boys and their coach have been rescued from the cave! There has been something incredibly endearing about the attitudes displayed by all those involved with the rescue. The parents of the boys, far from expressing anger toward the coach, did everything they could to reassure him that they did not blame him. One even went so far as to call him "my dear Ekk". The rescue teams seemed calm, purposeful, and determined. The trapped boys appeared cheerful, amazingly serene, and appreciative. Perhaps their Buddhist spirituality helped them cope with the ordeal. Apparently being calm and pleasant and showing respect and self-control are central aspects of Thai culture, drawn in part from Theraveda Buddhism. Thais value sanuk, an ethos of light-heartedness, playfulness, and fun. During songkran, the celebration of the Thai New Year from April 13 to April 15, the entire country indulges in ... a water fight! Everyone gets water guns and sprays everyone else. The Thai culture seems respectful, non-confrontational, and joyful. There is a Thai Buddhist Temple in Peyton, CO, and a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temple in Denver. I would love to attend a service at either one.
Update on July22: As expected, given that an anesthesiologist, Richard Harris, was the last person out of the cave, it appears that the boys and their coach were sedated for the evacuation. While there have been conflicting reports of the drug they were given (Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-O-Cha said they were given an "anti-anxiety medication"), it seems they were given Ketamine. Photos and videos of the boys during the rescue suggest they were fast asleep. Ketamine seems like a useful tool for the future.
Monday, July 2, 2018
Of Unsatisfactory Nations and Unsung Places
It's discouraging, at the moment, to be a liberal in the US. With Hillary Clinton getting almost three million more votes than Trump and Senate Democratic candidates getting 23 million more votes than Republican candidates, we are a marginalized majority, playing second fiddle to an increasingly radicalized, reactionary, monumentally propagandized, and frequently racist minority. The triumph of the minority has much to do with voter suppression and gerrymandering.
The Supreme Court recently declined to address, in time for the 2018 midterms, a case of extremely partisan gerrymandering in North Carolina, where in 2016 Republican congressional candidates won 53% of the statewide vote but 77% of congressional districts. The legislator responsible for drawing the map, Rep. David Lewis, was quite open about his self-serving intentions. As he put it, "I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country." And now it is very likely that this cabal of unfairly elected politicians, who clearly do not represent the will of the majority, will install a hard right Supreme Court judge, who will continue to promote an inequitable system for decades to come.
Canada has been looking increasingly attractive lately. Trudeau, even more so when compared with Trump, appears to be the thoroughly decent and ethical leader of a thoroughly decent and ethical nation. Canada wins over the US on immigration, climate change, women's rights, universal health care, education, gun safety, and fair trade. Canada is, according to the World Happiness Report 2018, the seventh happiest nation in the world, after Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The US ranks 18th. The parts of Canada that I have visited -- Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, and parts of British Columbia, including Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler, and Victoria -- are beautiful, interesting, and enriching places. British Columbia is spectacularly gorgeous! I fell in love with Victoria, which appears to have everything, from cream teas to hundreds of breathtaking beaches to incredible scenery to nearby lakes and mountains to the kind of weather I like.
As Craig pointed out this morning, white fascism is a global problem and hardly unique to the US. He sent me an article about racial discrimination in, of all places, Denmark, where "ghetto children" are required to attend assimilation training in "Danish values". Every country has its own problems.
I think my family would be happy in Canada. And, yet, we are very fortunate and advantaged here. I'm not sure my children would necessarily be happier or have better opportunities there. This is in part due to the fact that we are relatively privileged Americans. We have a lovely, spacious home in a beautiful area, outstanding health insurance, and wonderful opportunities for our children. I recently had the opportunity to examine four Canadian universities/colleges, to spend at least a night in a dorm at each, and to sample their dining hall food. Nice as each was, I think my kids have better standards of living at their colleges here. I'm not sure that a Canadian university education would be quite as individualized or rigorous as that my children are receiving here. Paige has been taught one-on-one for harp, voice, and piano, and is being individually tutored, with a little class tailored entirely to her interests, over the summer in preparation for her honors thesis. Her classes have all been tiny. She is taking a geology class this summer at a local community college. She's using the same textbook that students at elite schools use, the class comprises about 20 students, the instructor is outstanding and engaging, and, being in Colorado, she's having amazing field trips and options for geological exploration. As much as she's learning in the classroom, I think she's learning far more outside of it. Daniel has been showered with attention by his teaching staff and has been offered unusually good research opportunities. His education has been challenging, broad, and thorough. He's in an honors society and has attended weekly physics lectures, intended for graduate students, throughout his time at the School of Mines. Laura has also been given a great deal of individual attention and enjoys small classes sizes. She has been able to find work and volunteering opportunities suited to her nurturing nature while studying at community college. She is considering transferring into either CSU Fort Collins or UCCS to study dietetics. Both would be a lot of fun for her. UCCS is becoming increasingly appealing to out-of-state students because of its location. It's star is in the ascendant, particularly in the areas of health sciences, engineering, and music. The new residence halls and student town homes are unusually comfortable and well-appointed. Emma has the good fortune of being about to head out to Grinnell, where I feel she will have the best of everything, from science labs to athletic facilities to an outstanding and highly individualized education.
Perhaps more importantly, as my kids point out, we should stay here and try to change things, rather than running away. As they say, progress is like the stock market -- lots of ups and downs, but the general trend is up. Emma has already been instrumental in going to Washington D.C. and lobbying for climate change legislation. There is certainly much we could do to be agents of change and much to appreciate here.
Yesterday, Craig and I went for a little hike near our house. The air was clean, the surrounding terrain beautiful, and, on the way home, we stopped off at our country club for drinks and snacks. We sat out on a terrace with beautiful views of the Front Range and soaked in the glory of our surroundings. We have a lovely home in a beautiful setting. There is much we would miss if we moved.
Our little part of "flyover country" is very pleasant. According to a 2018 US News & World Report, Colorado Springs, just to the south of us, is the second best place to live in the US, and Denver is third. I'm not sure how accurate this list is, given that Des Moines, Iowa, ranks fourth. However, also according to US News & World Report, Iowa is the best state to live in in the Union, based on metrics that include health care, the economy, education, opportunity, crime, infrastructure, fiscal stability, and quality of life. Some of the happiest cities in the US are in Colorado. Boulder is supposedly #1, followed by Fort Collins at #4, and Colorado Springs at #18. According to a 2016 Business Insider Report, Colorado also contains some of the healthiest cities in the nation, with Boulder at #1, Fort Collins at #5, Denver at #8, and Lakewood at #16. According to a Forbes report, Colorado Springs is the fifth most-educated city in the US. On top of all that, Colorado has recently transitioned from red to purple to, at least, light blue.
While the political situation is certainly not ideal, we have good lives, the kids have fabulous opportunities, and we have the power and freedom to, per Ghandi, "be the change we want to see in the world". Canada would certainly be an attractive option, but we could do worse than staying where we are. I have far more faith in my children's generation than in my own. Perhaps they will be the ones to restore decency and sanity to this country. It could happen sooner than expected.
The Supreme Court recently declined to address, in time for the 2018 midterms, a case of extremely partisan gerrymandering in North Carolina, where in 2016 Republican congressional candidates won 53% of the statewide vote but 77% of congressional districts. The legislator responsible for drawing the map, Rep. David Lewis, was quite open about his self-serving intentions. As he put it, "I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country." And now it is very likely that this cabal of unfairly elected politicians, who clearly do not represent the will of the majority, will install a hard right Supreme Court judge, who will continue to promote an inequitable system for decades to come.
Canada has been looking increasingly attractive lately. Trudeau, even more so when compared with Trump, appears to be the thoroughly decent and ethical leader of a thoroughly decent and ethical nation. Canada wins over the US on immigration, climate change, women's rights, universal health care, education, gun safety, and fair trade. Canada is, according to the World Happiness Report 2018, the seventh happiest nation in the world, after Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The US ranks 18th. The parts of Canada that I have visited -- Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, and parts of British Columbia, including Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler, and Victoria -- are beautiful, interesting, and enriching places. British Columbia is spectacularly gorgeous! I fell in love with Victoria, which appears to have everything, from cream teas to hundreds of breathtaking beaches to incredible scenery to nearby lakes and mountains to the kind of weather I like.
As Craig pointed out this morning, white fascism is a global problem and hardly unique to the US. He sent me an article about racial discrimination in, of all places, Denmark, where "ghetto children" are required to attend assimilation training in "Danish values". Every country has its own problems.
I think my family would be happy in Canada. And, yet, we are very fortunate and advantaged here. I'm not sure my children would necessarily be happier or have better opportunities there. This is in part due to the fact that we are relatively privileged Americans. We have a lovely, spacious home in a beautiful area, outstanding health insurance, and wonderful opportunities for our children. I recently had the opportunity to examine four Canadian universities/colleges, to spend at least a night in a dorm at each, and to sample their dining hall food. Nice as each was, I think my kids have better standards of living at their colleges here. I'm not sure that a Canadian university education would be quite as individualized or rigorous as that my children are receiving here. Paige has been taught one-on-one for harp, voice, and piano, and is being individually tutored, with a little class tailored entirely to her interests, over the summer in preparation for her honors thesis. Her classes have all been tiny. She is taking a geology class this summer at a local community college. She's using the same textbook that students at elite schools use, the class comprises about 20 students, the instructor is outstanding and engaging, and, being in Colorado, she's having amazing field trips and options for geological exploration. As much as she's learning in the classroom, I think she's learning far more outside of it. Daniel has been showered with attention by his teaching staff and has been offered unusually good research opportunities. His education has been challenging, broad, and thorough. He's in an honors society and has attended weekly physics lectures, intended for graduate students, throughout his time at the School of Mines. Laura has also been given a great deal of individual attention and enjoys small classes sizes. She has been able to find work and volunteering opportunities suited to her nurturing nature while studying at community college. She is considering transferring into either CSU Fort Collins or UCCS to study dietetics. Both would be a lot of fun for her. UCCS is becoming increasingly appealing to out-of-state students because of its location. It's star is in the ascendant, particularly in the areas of health sciences, engineering, and music. The new residence halls and student town homes are unusually comfortable and well-appointed. Emma has the good fortune of being about to head out to Grinnell, where I feel she will have the best of everything, from science labs to athletic facilities to an outstanding and highly individualized education.
Perhaps more importantly, as my kids point out, we should stay here and try to change things, rather than running away. As they say, progress is like the stock market -- lots of ups and downs, but the general trend is up. Emma has already been instrumental in going to Washington D.C. and lobbying for climate change legislation. There is certainly much we could do to be agents of change and much to appreciate here.
Yesterday, Craig and I went for a little hike near our house. The air was clean, the surrounding terrain beautiful, and, on the way home, we stopped off at our country club for drinks and snacks. We sat out on a terrace with beautiful views of the Front Range and soaked in the glory of our surroundings. We have a lovely home in a beautiful setting. There is much we would miss if we moved.
Our little part of "flyover country" is very pleasant. According to a 2018 US News & World Report, Colorado Springs, just to the south of us, is the second best place to live in the US, and Denver is third. I'm not sure how accurate this list is, given that Des Moines, Iowa, ranks fourth. However, also according to US News & World Report, Iowa is the best state to live in in the Union, based on metrics that include health care, the economy, education, opportunity, crime, infrastructure, fiscal stability, and quality of life. Some of the happiest cities in the US are in Colorado. Boulder is supposedly #1, followed by Fort Collins at #4, and Colorado Springs at #18. According to a 2016 Business Insider Report, Colorado also contains some of the healthiest cities in the nation, with Boulder at #1, Fort Collins at #5, Denver at #8, and Lakewood at #16. According to a Forbes report, Colorado Springs is the fifth most-educated city in the US. On top of all that, Colorado has recently transitioned from red to purple to, at least, light blue.
While the political situation is certainly not ideal, we have good lives, the kids have fabulous opportunities, and we have the power and freedom to, per Ghandi, "be the change we want to see in the world". Canada would certainly be an attractive option, but we could do worse than staying where we are. I have far more faith in my children's generation than in my own. Perhaps they will be the ones to restore decency and sanity to this country. It could happen sooner than expected.
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