Alternative Approaches

What’s In a Number?

By Christine Hall on August 7, 2008

As I usually do on my birthday, when I turned 57 on May 27th I figured out my "life lesson" number for the upcoming year. This is the number that gives me a clue as to what will be my major lesson to learn during the upcoming year, until my next birthday. This year, my lesson number is a six, which corresponds to The Lovers card in the Tarot, which I thought was great. The Lovers is Gemini, and since I’m a Gemini this would be a pie year. All I’d have to do is to just learn to be myself – and I’ve already had 57 years experience doing that.

Unfortunately, that conclusion turned out to be a case of wishful Magickal thinking. You see, nowhere in the volumes that have been written on the Tarot does it say that The Lovers means "being yourself" if you’re a Gemini. Not a word. But there’s been a lot written on how The Lovers deals with "choices."

Multitasking Virus in Our Classrooms

By Josh Waitzkin on May 22, 2008

A few weeks ago, I returned to the classroom of Dennis Dalton, the most important college professor of my life. From the back of an amphitheater
seating several hundred students, I realized how much things had evolved at Columbia and Barnard. The lecture hall was now equipped with a wireless sound system, webcams, video projectors, wireless internet. Students were using computers to record the lecture and to take notes. Heads were buried in screens, the tap tap of hundreds of keyboards like rain on the roof.

Article Continues After Illustration

Josh Waitzkin’s latest book, The Art of Learning.

Should Living Paycheck To Paycheck Be A Crime Punishable By Death In Floodwater?

By Lisa Earle McCloud on September 14, 2005

“It’s their own fault, really. Why didn’t those people just evacuate when they had the chance?” I overheard one woman saying to another in the line at the grocery store. I shielded my face with a box of frozen waffles and pretended to read the National Enquirer while I eavesdropped some more.

Bush, Cheney and the Energy Tsars

By Christine Hall on November 9, 2004

In a way, the tragic events of 9/11 played right into the Administration’s hand.

Although Bush’s presidency was only in its seventh month, he was something of a lame duck when the twin towers fell. He had no clear mandate from the American people. In November, he’d lost the popular vote, and had only garnered enough electoral votes to claim victory by convincing the Supreme Court to accept the results of a questionable Florida election and vote count. The majority of American voters had not voted for him, and a sizable number thought he’d stolen the presidency.

The Ghost of Elections Past

By Christine Hall on November 9, 2004

Los Angeles, summer of ’72: a crowd of anti-establishment types gathered outside of the Wilshire Boulevard offices of CREEP, the Committee to Re-Elect the President, to hear Jane Fonda speak on the upcoming election. Mainly, this was pretty much a garden variety event for that era; “Nixon sucks,” “end the war now,” and “legalize pot” were the agenda of the day. The crowd was polite, but not overly enthusiastic.