breakfast table talk - Bettina Network's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘breakfast table talk’

Food and Pharma Connected?

Sunday, June 1st, 2014

We had another one of those breakfasts and we are all still reeling, having put different backgrounds, experience, education, parts of the world together we came up with a startling conclusion:

The discussion centered around Bettina Network’s attempt to keep Bettina Homes as organic as possible – in cleaning, food, and everything else. We don’t succeed 100%, but it is a constant effort and we think we do a pretty good job – considering all the outside negative influences that press in on us to go in a different direction.

One person brought up the chemicals – especially Potassium Nitrate – in most of the foods being processed and wanted to know more about it. Another person piped up with the fact that Potassium Nitrate, when he was a boy, was called ‘Salt Peter’ and some private schools used it in the food to keep the young men toned down a bit sexually. Well, that wasn’t new. It was something we all had heard from time to time and we all knew the affect “Salt Peter’ has on the body.

Another came up with the connection between the processed food industry and big pharma. The processed food industry was putting ‘salt peter’ into our food supply to give the foods they process a longer shelf life. In the meantime, that was dumbing down and destroying the sexual performance ability of many – especially males – since that is what salt peter is supposed to do.

Enter Big Pharma with their development of the block buster drug for men called ‘Viagra” and other names. Each company which produces it has its own name.

What a pass through. The food industry creates the dysfunction – big pharma develops and sells the drug to address the dysfunction. No wonder so much money is going out of the pocket of the middle class into the pockets of both the food industry and the pharmaceutical companies.

Our question was – what else has such a symbiotic relationship? Was this a deliberate collaboration or accidental? Some didn’t believe in accidents like this? Others weren’t so sure! Others felt we needed to step back and take a look to see how we could expose this early on before fortunes were made, peoples health negatively affected for profit, etc.

There wasn’t enough time over breakfast to solve the problem, but we certainly left with something to think about!

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, food shopping, health, Making Connections
Posted in Bettina Homes, Breakfast Table Talk, Food Shopping, Guest comments, Health, Making Connections | Comments Off on Food and Pharma Connected?

Sterling and Company

Monday, May 5th, 2014

We should not be amazed when such things happen, but we always claim to be no matter how often we have to act outraged – as though this was an unusual happening for us in these United States.

We are especially outraged if this happens in the north – most particularly if it happens in those ‘race free’ zones called New England and/or California. This kind of thing is only expected if it happens in the deep South. But it seems to me this happens much more often in these ‘race free’ zones.

I’m sure you would expect that there would be a fairly heated discussion over breakfast in one or more of the Bettina Homes. And not to disappoint here is a bit of a summary of a couple breakfasts merged into one blog.

The consensus was the outrage that was felt over the NAACP’s singling out Sterling for a second Lifetime Achievement Award. We thought those awards were given to those who worked to eliminate racism, not to those who worked to make sure it was intensified and the old Jim Crow culture maintained. We must have been mistaken because clearly the NAACP is doing its best to award those who have done a great deal to keep separate and unequal alive and well and functioning in this society. Maybe it is afraid its mandate will leave and the organization will have to dismantle itself if society acts otherwise and we move into a space where minorities and women are free and equal.

Most folks at breakfast were upset that this happened at all. Most blamed the entire NAACP organization not just the Los Angeles group because the National Office could have stepped in and done something to bring sanity back to the LA chapter before the award business went as far as it did, but that national office did nothing until all of this news broke and all were totally embarrassed.

It was interesting that one man took the blame for the entire NAACP organization and stepped down. However, that did not satisfy those in these Bettina Breakfast conversations. Its like a large corporation having its CEO step down for something that permeated the institutional structure and for which many have blame. We think these kind of actions have permeated the entire structure of the NAACP and more than this one man stepping down needs to be done to make things right.

The conflicts and contradictions in this event were clearly outlined and sometimes, during breakfast, caused a bit of hilarity, because clearly without a good sense of humor we would all be insane over such events.

Sterling, being Jewish and clearly of an age where the holocaust would not be foreign to him was one of the conflicts and contradiitons outlined and talked about. Having a young woman who described Sterling as being a “father figure” to her – with the young woman being part African American and part Latina was another very tragic conflict and contradiciton. The Clippers being an organization supported by thousands even after the United States Department of Justice stepped in; even after one of their own sued because of the ‘plantation’ environment of the Clippers and on and on and on, makes a very strong statement about the lack of sincerity towards the elimination of racism and sexism within the U. S. Society by its own citizens. Does being a sports team allow such to fester for so long a period of time complete with awards from Civil Rights organizations to justify and cover-up the muck of the racism and the sexism being so blatantly and publicly practiced?

This was not new to anyone, and Sterling’s attitudes were widely known and had been addressed by several of our organizations, yet nothing was done about it and all of the many organizational structures in place which should have ferreted this out long before the sore ruptured and the pus poured out on society did nothing – the MEDIA? – the COURT SYSTEM? – the CIVIL RIGHTS groups? – the JOHN AND JANE Q public who knew about all of this but still bought tickets to Clipper Games? – the CLIPPER MANAGEMENT TEAM? – THE TEAMS THEY PLAYED …………….and many more.

Since this was brought through our Court System and still was given the go ahead to continue on the path of this extreme racism and sexism it calls into question what we like to parade out as an oft touted structure praised as the keystone of our country’s greatness the “Rule of Law”.

Our Conclusions!!! The United States is very comfortable with people like Sterling. Its just that we don’t want them ‘outed’ because then we have to react in a way which violates our history and brings up for the whole world to see, a reminder of from whence we try to tell people we have come and are no more. Our public story is that we have moved away from slavery of Africans, we have moved away from the Jim Crow society which once thrived in the United States, we have moved away from taking away from minorities their rights supposedly guaranteed to them by the U. S. Constitution and other laws,we have moved away from discriminating against women.

But have we really or have we simply changed the way we discriminate – changed how our racism and sexism is expressed – changed how the oppression we dump on the minorities and women in our midst is acted out – and most of all (the biggy), changed how we engage in denial of everything so we can continue the practice.

We really aren’t that put out as long as we can continue the actions; as long as we can continue being a racist, sexist society.

How does sexism fit into this scenario? What is more symbolic of the pain experienced by and the convoluted ways we have of inflicting sexism than the experience of the young woman – Black and Latina – who sees someone with the views and practices of Sterling – as a father figure. What more pain could one internalize and survive! How twisted does one’s life have to be to find that not only acceptable, but feel that is a great way to live and a great role model of fatherhood! This whole business is sick and what it says about all of us is not pretty.

However, it did make great breakfast conversation. And, as one woman said, at one breakfast – ‘what a relief to be able to talk about something like this without worrying about ‘political correctness.’ She felt freed up and was going to take back with her an independence of acting and thinking in the areas of sexism and racism with which she would approach the subject. Mostly, her experience was a validation of herself as a fully thinking and properly acting human being who was not going to be intimidated in her views on the subjects and would express them more clearly and act on her thoughts and beliefs. We hope that is a good thing!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: breakfast table talk, Making Connections, Racism, Sexism, Sterling
Posted in Bettina's Box of Shame, Bettina's Hall of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, Sterling | Comments Off on Sterling and Company

An Intensely Religious Week

Thursday, April 17th, 2014

Intensely Religious – how do we turn that into – gloriously Spiritual! I hope it is not the intensely religious who have brought about so much bigotry in the world and the gloriously Spiritual who have given us so much freedom! Maybe my values are a bit screwed.

It is one of those years when the religious celebrations around Spring are shared in close date proximity by several Religious faiths. That doesn’t always happen. After the winter we had and after the destructive forces hitting at the economy and the terrorists hitting at all of us it is no surprise that this Spring season finds some of our religions practically intertwined date-wise.

Within all of this hectic ceremonial time – and there is now a lot of ceremony going on all over the place – with its requirement of watching our diets; scheduling around many religious services – there came that still small voice in the form of guests in one of the Bettina Homes. It was such a reprieve and a taking back to what we are all about and what is really important that we found ourselves being really grateful for the reminder.

A family came from England to America to witness to the life of a friend, and isn’t that what it is all about. To take time from very busy lives; to spend money traveling to another country for just a few days to say by your physical presence that this person mattered. He was important to us and our lives and we want to just stand with a group of his friends to give witness to his life. In that small act – which today isn’t so small when you consider that most of us would be worried that our lives would fall apart if we took time out to do such a thing and we could better spend the money on something for our family – these guests and friends, by their presence and the reason for their visit, gave me reassurances about the goodness of humans who can still sometimes come through with what is most important in life in still, small ways.

I am now ready for these Spring Religious Holidays. I can get through all of the trappings because I know there are people who still care and get it right. I am human and sometimes frail and one day I won’t be here anymore. Will anyone witness to my life? Did I reach out and live so that someone will stop and in the silence give thanks that I lived?

We are fast becoming a society where we don’t and won’t take that time away from the hectic busyness in which we constantly involve ourselves to keep from becoming conscious of the fact that we are slowly and sometimes at a faster pace marching to our own deaths. We go to great lengths to cover-up that fact so we are not conscious of our limits as humans. We walk across and away from those who have no home; those who are not so successful; those who are not interested in getting caught up in that busy, busy cycle of life. We can’t after all be around those who would remind us of our own humanness.

I give thanks today for the family that took just a couple days to acknowledge the importance of the life of another human being.

Ed Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina's Hall of Fame, breakfast table talk, growing old, Guest Comments, Making Connections, Spiritual Reflection, Who are the Bettina Families
Posted in An editorial just because, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina's Hall of Fame, Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Making Connections, Spiritual Reflection, Who are the Bettina Families | Comments Off on An Intensely Religious Week

Class in America

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

We run into this ‘issue’ so often in a covert way we thought we would make it overt and write under the title of “Class” to try to help all of us distinguish between quirks, ways of being, personality…..and class. This will be a serial because we think too much of ‘class’ information can give us indigestion – a little at a time is better.

First let’s make a difference between ‘class’ and ‘elegance’. Elegance is an aesthetic and way of living that crosses all classes, races, ethnicities, financial standing, whether we are male or female, etc.

Class is a definite way of being because of our family, finances, history, country of origin and more AND has a very long history in this world.

Don’t take any of this personally. It is being laid out generally so we and our children can either read it and weep; read it and have a hilarious good time in the process; or take it seriously and self-evaluate – how do we make decisions about the concrete world around us and our way of being in it – spending money, making vocation choices, clothes choices, what we eat, where we go….based on choices other than class. It is no accident that there are crowded spots in the world where we all try to move in and exquisite spots that no one even thinks about visiting or living.

Bettina Network, inc. puts an emphasis on ‘elegance’ – class be damned! But we have had a few questions, comments and great breakfast conversations around this issue, so lets clarify all of this:

Estate Sales are a great place to observe and understand class. They are phenomenal educational tool. Want to understand class better? Go to as many estate sales as you can. Look around the houses. See how the family lives. Understand their taste in furnishings, etc. That tells all – as far as Class goes. You can look around a fairly poverty stricken home and understand quickly that poverty is first generation or long standing. Either the generation prior to the one that has fallen on hard times was from an upper class or the current generation is one of the fallen warriors.

Particularly, it becomes clear if the family is of substantial means. Class screams at you when you enter the front door. For starters lets look at what we will call Third Class English-style class. The house is full of new – expensive – and generally bad taste furnishings. Very little is ‘real’ – wood-like items are not really wood, glass-like is not really glass and on and on. All of the things that the current marketing and advertising people have been selling as “upper class” are present and shows a Wannabe Family or one that is what we used to call Nouveau – very Nouveau.

Many things will be missing – particularly items from the previous generation. This Nouveau/Wannabe generation has sold all of the furnishings, clothes, trappings from their family – as those family members died – and they generally looked down their noses at the items left to them by a generation or more of family. Just about everything in the house will be NEW – VERY EXPENSIVE – in fact, outrageously so – and any antiques will be reproductions, probably from Korea or China.

You won’t find pictures of past generations of family – those were thrown out. You won’t find files of papers with information about past generations, which cultural and other historians would love to get their hands on – those have also been tossed as worthless. The value in this house is on the artifacts and preferably from the top stores in pristine condition.

That is generally, a group of people who came from a lower class family and have lots of shame about their beginnings. Wipe the slate clean and maybe no one will notice or even talk or ask about their family, their childhood, their upbringing, their values. – all of which are copied and adopted from the marketing/advertising media as great style/design that you need to be that person in the pictures.

This group is trying hard to climb that ladder – or several ladders at the same time. Consequently, they have no time or patience for those on the bottom – who might, actually, in many cases be above them class-wise.

Those homes are generally filthy. They look pristine upon entering, but they are mostly the ones which support the huge industrial complex of products which make you sick over a long period of time because of the off-gases from the cleaning products used, and the chemical ingredients in the other products used.

We should add, that what we are describing is the English class system, not the French. That is a whole other story for another article. Let’s call this Third Class English as our discussion progresses on Class. And lets expand this class discussion from America to American plus the rest of the world.

Chime in with an e-mail, if you dare.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk, Class in America, estate sale, furniture
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Class in America and the World, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Health, politics | Comments Off on Class in America

A Beautiful Meditation and Song

Thursday, March 13th, 2014

For a rare treat, click on the following YouTube recording.

http://I Then Shall Live)

Sometimes you hear a beautiful song with words which bring your life to a standstill and it fills you with beauty, strengthens your faith, and makes your day richer. This hymn created that for several of us. We shared it back and forth and then decided to share it with you.

Sit in a quiet space and listen carefully the first time you hear it. It is a prayer, meditation and the photography is breathtaking in how it matches the words.

As you listen to this you will find the events and actions and thoughts you engage in over the day change.

This Hymn with words by Gloria Gaither and music by Sibelius (Finlandia) is that rare musical match which takes place between people separated by a generation living very different lives, but coming together to create a soul stirring event.

If you would like to buy the video you can do so by going to the website www.gaither.com

May it reach into your soul and affect the way you live the rest of your life.

Once the video finishes you will have to click your ‘back’ button to come back to Bettina Network’s Blog. We would like to do better, but technologically we are not there yet.

To get the full effect of the video, when the youtube comes up, at the bottom right of the picture you will find symbols. Click on the one which looks like a square with spaces on the sides enclosed at the corners. It gives you a full screen of the video and it is awesome.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Guest comments and talents, Making Connections, Poetry, Spiritual Reflection, Thought for the Day
Posted in Guest comments and talents, Making Connections, Poetry, Spiritual Reflection, Thought for the Day | Comments Off on A Beautiful Meditation and Song

Bettina Network, inc NEWS

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

Bettina Network, inc. NEWS is a new addition to the Bettina Network Blog. Appearing periodically, without timetable predictability, this is a way for you to keep up with all that we do – where you will find a Bettina person, event – some definitions and redefinitions of who we are and what we are doing – updates on past events, activities, and more.

MOST RECENTLY – we infiltrated Harvard Business School Women’s Conference “Let’s Go!”

One of our leaders was the second woman to be accepted into and attend one of Harvard Business School’s Executive Programs and the conference was a part of celebrating fifty years of women at Harvard Business School.

It was a great event with over 1,000 women and a very few very brave men who just couldn’t stay away. We met one man from Milwaukee, Wisconsin holding up his sex and his company. His company sounds as though they are doing much to help this world become a more equal place. We say “sounds as though” because long years of experience tells us not to give kudos for such without much investigation and that we have not done – thus a comment without man or company names.

It was a kind of shock to see the way of the world in large, fairly new companies which are there because of the advent of the internet. Their representatives talked about “teams”, “mentors”, “sponsors”. In large multi-national companies with world wide exposure through their life on the internet this, apparently, is needed to keep you, as one of their employees, from getting lost and becoming one of the minions instead of one of the management and on-your-way-up-people.

We tweeted, re-tweeted, favorited and more. It was great fun and much learning. Although the food wasn’t great. Not one organic anything from dinner the evening before for the conference speakers and panelists, through breakfast, lunch and by dinner the next evening we declined what was offered and went hunting for organic goats milk yogurt and kefir to make that food pass quickly through the system.

Yes, we did have a presence on a panel on hospitality and technology spreading the Bettina Gospel, during which we met some very impressive and very accomplished women from whom we hope to hear more. We have started to think on how to get them involved with Bettina Network, inc. – Interns, Partners, Consultants? If you have ideas, please let us know!

WE ARE GETTING FEEDBACK FROM YOU on the recent beginnings of sending out passwords and memberships in Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

Mostly, your questions have been about the password allowing you access to Bettina’s Menu of Events and how much basic influence this gives you. It is wonderful getting the suggestions. We hope you will ADD EVENTS and use the Menu when you are looking for ELEGANT, GRACIOUS, WELL ORGANIZED EVENTS WITH SUBSTANTIAL Bettina-style content in which to take part.

We have had many requests for passwords from people who want to be a part of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community and how to sign up! We are sorry to have to tell you, but there is no ‘sign up’ page on our web site or anyplace else for that to happen. To become a member you have to use the services of Bettina Network, inc. and the people at the point where you use Bettina Network’s services must recommend you for membership. Act ugly and no amount of money spent will get you that password.

BETTINA HOMES

We have been in conversation over this for a long time. This Newspage announces that homes which belong to Bettina Network, inc. and those joining in the future are and will be Bettina Homes. Bed and Breakfast is quite inadequate to describe one of the services we offer. Bed & breakfast has become a term overused, misused, describing everything from a hostel to a five star hotel room and the name carries nothing to begin to describe what you can expect in terms of quality or anything else.

We acknowledge the history of from whence we have come, but moving through the present into the future, Bettina Homes is the creation from that history by Bettina Network, inc.

For us to be able to be more specific and so you will know the basic quality you can expect from just hearing the terms, we have adopted and will use Bettina Homes to describe the places, services offered, etc. We do stand out and it is time for the name of one of the very particular services we offer to reflect that stand-outness.

The necessary legal trappings to insure that only homes in the Bettina Network, inc. can carry that name -can call themselves a Bettina Home – have been applied for. While we do not go after people who use our blogs, even though we put a copyright on them, we will go after people who try to call themselves “Bettina Homes” because we do not want to see created the kind of confusion around Bettina Homes which exists today around bed & breakfast or Inns, or Guest Houses, or etc. When you make a reservation to stay in a Bettina Home we want to insure that you have a good basic idea as to what you can expect. All of our homes are not exact replicas of one another and they vary and will continue to vary by location, kind of services offered, physical architectural look of the place, price, etc. There are basics which they all share which is why we take one and not another home into Bettina Network, inc. and that quality is what we want you all to know and be able to expect.

So – until the next time we meet in Bettina Network, inc. NEWS, — keep safe, stay human and be responsible for yourself and others.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk
Posted in Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network NEWS, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Making Connections | Comments Off on Bettina Network, inc NEWS

Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community

Tuesday, January 28th, 2014

We sent out a holiday greeting to those who are members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community. The greeting included a password at the very bottom which allows our members to access Bettina’s Menu of Events. If you have used the services of Bettina Network, inc. and have not received your “Happy Holiday” greeting with its password unique to you, please let us know. Some of the emails sent out have gone astray or wound up in “spam” mail even though we have never sent out spam mail. All of our emails go to those who have used the Bettina Network or have requested to be on our email list. We do not send out emails to the world, but that has not stopped our emails from being sent to the spam pile by the various server companies.

What is Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community and how does one become a member?

It is and they are a group of people who have used Bettina Network, inc. in the past and who Bettina Network, inc. thinks would be fantastic as givers and receivers of the information, ideas, lifestyle, elegance, graciousness which pervades the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community and who would benefit from coming together to have first and sometimes the exclusive use of the different and interesting services being added to Bettina Network, inc. As members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community they have a password which will allow them deeper and more extensive access into the Bettina Network, inc. web site as well as other always increasing benefits of membership.

There are no costs to the members of being associated with this community. Members have complete privacy since Bettina Network, inc. does not share any of its membership or other information with anyone – neither commercial, private, non-profit nor other organizational structures, groups or individuals. Membership in Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community comes exclusively from the fact that its members are brilliant, elegant, want to stay close to their human roots and so chose to use the services of Bettina Network, inc. For that vote of confidence, we have chosen to include them in Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community!!

It is a way for us to move along and expand from Bettina Network’s Blog, which is attracting many readers and to which members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community may make contributions; to Bettina’s Menu of Events; to the next great service offered by Bettina Network to members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

As we move along, and with a little help from our friends and members as to what they would like to see and the direction in which they would like to see us develop, you will see other offerings to those who are members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

Bettina Network’s Blog will continue as usual. Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by those who follow us. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. We are working on a way for you to be able to add your blog to Bettina Network’s Blog directly, but in the meantime send us your additions and they will appear in the Blog.

In our marketing materials, in our writings, as well as in actual Bettina Homes, you find a Lifestyle which reflects choices we have made as to how we will develop this concept. That is the direction in which we will continue – especially by being careful and thoughtful about the earth on which we live; being careful from birth to death to not leave a trail that could poison or trip up another life; being a giving and caring group; being elegant and gracious in all that we do; being a diverse group ignoring those cultural and racial and religious and economic and all the other ‘differences’ which have traditionally separated us; being careful not to tread on another persons lifestyle, belief system or other choices they may make different from our own; reaching back-down-up-around to help those who need a way to live a more gentle and comfortable life; passing our ideas and actions around for all to see-hear and benefit from.

There are no meetings, elections, membership dues, institutional structures etc. which go along with this Community. This is a way to inquire about living elegantly – to travel efficiently and graciously – to gain ideas about designing your home with many small additions which make life easier and more beautiful – to learn about people from Bettina Network, inc.’s perspective – to continue those interesting breakfast conversations which took place at the Bettina Homes in which you stayed – to grow spiritually and to understand other people, their lifestyles and choices – to open ourselves to people we would not meet otherwise – to be able to go into depth with others as to the why’s and how of their lifestyle choices – and so much more.

Bettina’s Menu of Events, which has been around for quite a few years has been expanded to give access to people in Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community. With the password you received with your”Happy Holidays” message you are able to search the Bettina Network database for events happening in a particular place, over dates of interest to you. You can also search by category – i.e. early music concerts, organ concerts, plays, symphony concerts, art exhibits, and more. All events have been entered into the database because we feel they reflect that ‘Bettina Lifestyle.”

With the password members of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community received, they are able to enter events into Bettina’s Menu of Events which they would like others in this Lifestyle Community to know about and to patronize.

So much goes on around us that we would like to make sure does not get lost. Ideas, events, places to visit, design possibilities, human interest, people doing things we all want to know about and more including points of view not generally reported by the public media. You will be participants in all of it – it will be your choice as to when and how.

Likewise with what you have to share – use Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community to bounce your ideas around -= look for people of like minds – share books you are reading whose ideas need to be more widely spread around – stay in a Bettina Home to see how someone else lives and moves and has their being. You set your agenda and influence ours as members of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community.

This is a brief explanation in just a few paragraphs of what has been brewing within the Network for several years. We have had an informal community of people who have traveled Bettina Network, inc. They have called for advice – have shared their lives with us – we have married, buried, celebrated life with many of them – have discussed everything you could think of – ideas have been flowing like pure water from an unadulterated stream. We are just formalizing the process so more of you can share what is happening.

Please don’t hesitate to send us your feedback – your ideas as to where you would like to see us go – what form some of this could take – and currently, especially, use your password to enter the events you know about which are places to go you want others to know about. It will take time for the Menu to cover the globe, but as events are coming from members of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community they are high in quality, many are not otherwise known by the general public and their geographical locations are varied.

If you received a “Happy Holidays” message – your password is at the bottom of the greeting. Keep it in a safe place and use it frequently. It is good for one year from the date you received it. If you have not received a “Happy Holidays” message with its password at the bottom of the email let us know and we will respond to you.

What is in the future? We are currently working on two additions and one expansion to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community –

……….1) Estate Sales, Moving Sales, House sales managed by Bettina Network, inc. to which members of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community will have first entrance. We have been involved with such sales for many decades and we have been changing what, who and how these will be handled by Bettina Network, inc. and how Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community can be involved with first preference in everything

– and –

……….2) Bettina Network Foundation – a pending 501(c)3 corporation.

……….3) We continue to look for Bettina Homes to join Bettina Network, inc. as host families. We are always looking for people who want to share their homes with serendipitous travelers who are thoroughly checked out by Bettina’s.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Network Information, breakfast table talk, Making Connections
Posted in Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Press Release from Bettina Network, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community

UBUNTU – I Am Because You Are

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

“I am not a saint – unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” – Mandela.

…………………………………….If only that described all of us!

The world is pouring out its grief, celebration, joy, gratitude, love for the life of Nelson Mandela.

………………………………………………………..Which has to make you think and ask – why?

What makes a human being rise to such a level that we are all grateful for his life on earth and come out to celebrate such an exceptional human being. Is it because so few such people have lived on this earth, especially when put in the context of the totality of those who have lived?

While most are celebrating such a great man – in Bettina homes we are asking why so few have risen to this height? Why so many human beings have been so absorbed with the mundanities of life that keep us busy and distracted so we can keep ourselves unaware of our irrevocable march towards death? Is it the self-absorption which some of our huge egos demand for their self-gratification? Is it the inconsistencies in values which we carry that keep us from living out our beliefs because we might get hurt – might miss a meal – might not accumulate as much wealth as possible? Or is it our contradictory ways of thinking and acting which we develop in our striving to create the structures which we think protect us and keep us secure, but which really oppress us?

How long, O Lord, do we have to wait for the many to live life the way Mandela lived his? Why does he have to be special? Why in our own small parts of the world we insist on living anti-ubuntu lives? Haven’t we experienced enough of the misery, poverty, pain, horrors that this causes? How long will we surround ourselves with “our own kind”? How long will we live blinded by the fact that we are all included in “our own kind.”

Whatever hurts me hurts thee! Whatever joys I experience grow exponentially when I share them with thee! My freedom totally depends upon your freedom.

One can hear why Mandela was great by just listening to the speeches honoring him. Some were clear, unobstructed by play acting, playing to the audience, playing to their own egos, unable to give a great speech honestly honoring Mandela’s life because they have allowed their minds to be clouded by their refusal to accept and act on their own values and take responsibility for their lives. Some were almost unintelligible and said more negatives about the person giving the speech than positives about the man the speech was supposed to be honoring. True Freedom eliminates that and you could tell whose lives were on track and whose were confused and muddled from listening to those speeches!

Mandela’s memorial services today gave us a stark opportunity to see and hear the differences as men and women gave their speeches of remembrance and the crowd reacted. Some people don’t have images, reflections, pretenses, – they have a rock solid faith, clear and authentic lives they are living and it is reflected in their very being, the words they use, their demeanor around others – especially their ability to be themselves when greeting strangers. Some people first promote their image and then everything else – lets not even begin to be who we really are, that must not show until we know the person better.

Why do so many of us want, protect and pass on to our children, as great gifts, the bondage in which we live? Why do we give up a beautiful life well lived for an existence that others have told us we must sacrifice ourselves to maintain? Why are we enslaved to sexual stereotypes – racial stereotypes – national stereotypes – religious stereotypes? We live out of them. We live for them and to promote them hoping that in exchange we will be able to live physically comfortable although seriously compromised lives.

FREEDOM will come to this earth when we celebrate lives like Mandela’s many times each day instead of once in a lifetime.

We set up ‘sins’ that we must stay away from and/or avoid the perception of our being involved with because that might handicap our future. We don’t set up, teach, preach, live authentic lives. The sins we set up and announce from our own mountain seem meant to deflect us and allow a few to claim perfection in their life’s story. Those are very far from the real sins of our lives – the inability to live authentically, the refusal to feel empathy for those on the street with no shelter from the cold, hunger, dangers of the street. Our refusal to stand on our own professed faith and most especially to give no room to others to stand on theirs – this seems to be the biggest sin of our creation. These are the commandments by which we live and demand that others of “our kind” also live. Our need to act to keep from feeling threatened by those we don’t understand; those in whom we see what we don’t like in ourselves – those we scape goat, and see reflected in our own mirror – we act against and break our own mirror.

As we look around at others it hurts the soul to see in them the rejection, mean spirit, and refusal to live truly free lives. After all, what does it matter in the end? We all die – and what a horrible death to leave this earth with unrequited dreams, longing, loves because you were trying for things that die with you for which there is no resurrection or redemption and which did nothing to make your life great. Worse, to die without ever having had dreams, great loves and without having left behind a legacy which helped change this earth for the better.

Isn’t it sad that we choose the fleeting fame and what we call ‘security’ instead of choosing to be about the business of living fully and making sure we are there to help others do the same?

There is no such thing in life as ‘security’, but we are willing to sacrifice much to attain the mirage.

Ecclesiastes comes to mind often – ‘vanity of vanities………’

Oh for a world full of people like Nelson Mandel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Not only was Nelson Mandela clear as to who he was and whose he was, but he was a man who never met a stranger. He could reduce you to your real self in front of him in seconds or make it extremely difficult for you to maintain the pretense and image built up over years of living someone else’s imaginary life projected onto your own.

We pray that we all can move away from and cast out the garbage that collects as we live our lives striving for security; putting forth an image of someone we would like to be and who we would like those meeting us to think we are; cast out the values we collect to cover our insecurities and fears; cast out the mean spirit we take on because we need to feel better than other human beings who we describe and see clearly as those less than us helping us to be better than they are.

We pray that we have no more such outpourings as are happening this week for Nelson Mandela. Not because we don’t appreciate and value his life and work, but because we will be living in a world where there are so many like him that his life and how he lived it becomes normal and is common all around us. What a world that would be and what a wonderful place to live, love, work, and just be!

UBUNTU! A future and a word taken into the world’s vocabulary as one of its own no matter what the language. A word that describes – how we live – who we are!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: African American history, Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Making Connections, Nelson Mandela, politics, Ubuntu
Posted in African American history, Bettina's Hall of Fame, Breakfast Table Talk, Historical Support, Making Connections, Memorials, Nelson Mandela, politics, Ubuntu | Comments Off on UBUNTU – I Am Because You Are

A Thanksgiving Gift

Wednesday, November 27th, 2013

We thought carefully over all the breakfast conversations lately and the one that seemed to be ideal for Thanksgiving was the one about how important it was to sterilize your forks, knives, etc. – especially since we all cook and eat with great gusto on this Thursday –

That has been a growing conversation and it is becoming louder when we all assume the utensils which we use to eat -most, -if not all of our meals, must be sterilized if we are not to come down with diseases from the germs, bacteria, viruses they carry from one person to another.

This particular breakfast conversation had a different twist. Lacking interest at several breakfasts about the great issues of the day and our opinions of them we asked why is the din growing so loud about sterilizing eating utensils? Could it have something to do with the metal, alloys, other materials, being used to make these utensils? Is something being covered up which is important for us to know? After all, our ancestors used utensils for eating and cooking for generations without sterilizing them so why the fuss now?

What was pointed out to all of us was the anti-bacterial properties of some utensils and the lack of such with others; the mythology of the marketing and advertising being pushed out to us with its half-truths, hidden information, unpublished research which could damage what is being advertised, etc.; and the changes that have taken place and foisted on a very ignorant public for the benefit of the manufacturers, inventors, retailers and more.

For many generations silver was used for pots for cooking and for knives, forks, spoons, etc. There was no need to sterilize because silver has anti-bacterial properties.

Today, we use stainless steel, aluminum and other metal, other alloys and plastics for eating utensils and for cooking. That has totally changed how we have to clean and store these utensils after use.

Since we were not paying attention to our grandparents wisdom, most of that good and simple home keeping information has been lost. Add to that this past generation which has been so busy with other things they succumbed to the marketing and advertising mythology being spread around for the benefit of the processors and inventors of these new and different things Those simpler tried and true methods of the past are being lost at a fiercely aggressive rate.

This little bit of wisdom is given to you this Thanksgiving in the hope that you will cherish it, use it and pass it down to your children. Please move away from the technology for a minute. Please step away from all the ads and marketing thrown at you for your use to incorporate in your and your family’s lifestyle and please, please pay attention!!!!! Just a few seconds of your time!!!!!

After all, isn’t that how Martha Stewart became so famous so quickly? She was passing on to us things we were never taught. She was passing along the basics of living in a reasonably cultured society and we were all eyes and ears. Our parents were too busy trying to cope with a very fast changing society. They raised their children as best they could in places where historical role models were taken down and new ones put up to benefit the manufacturers of really questionable items. Our eating utensils are just one group that has suffered from this newness of information. Information – sometimes really questionable in what it says and purposely leaves out – with ads created in song, dance and sex – to get you to buy. Reject that and look for information which passes along truthful nuggets of how to best live a long and healthy life making choices to promote that lifestyle. How do you develop an antenna to tell the difference? Cultivate discernment – a powerful ally throughout your life as it changes and you grow in knowledge with expanding wisdom.

Check out your kitchen. Are the knives, forks and spoons therein silver or some other strange material, previously unknown and which should be banned for eating utensils because they can be dangerous to your health? If so, replace them immediately with silver plate or sterling silver place settings – serving utensils – and more.

Are your pots aluminum? Or perhaps an unknown and untested alloy – and we mean untested over generations of family use? If they are, step away from the stove and seriously consider replacing them. Aluminum became popular as quickly as it did because we were accustomed to silver pots and aluminum looked like silver, but cost much less. Now there are rumors it may play a part in the Alzheimers epidemic and we discover it is used in everything from pots to deodorant and no one really knows its longterm affect on your body. You put aside money for other things – think of your health and start putting aside money for silver pots, forks, knives, spoons, and more.

Estate sales have wonderful forks, knives, spoons and other service pieces at prices much less than the prices for new stainless and other fancy looking eating utensils – at very reasonable prices. Sometimes you can even get a set of sterling in a silver box or in a piece of furniture designed to hold such lined with silver felt to keep them tarnish free for a very long time. They are worth the investment.

You don’t have to sterilize silver because it has anti-bacterial properties which are much better at killing the germs and bacteria and other such things which get on our utensils. Other materials might still have problems even after sterilization.

Go the way which has been tried and true for our ancestors, we feel you won’t regret the extra effort. In fact, your health will improve and you will certainly then send blessings our way.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and keep tuned in to breakfast at Bettina Homes to continue the conversation.

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Tags: anti-bacterial kitchen utensils, breakfast table talk, estate sale, health, silver utensils, Thanksgiving gift, Thanksgiving Greeting
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Health, Historical Support, Holiday Greeting, Housekeeping, Preserving Family History and Stories, Shopping | Comments Off on A Thanksgiving Gift

Republicanism BC and AD – oops, AT*

Wednesday, October 16th, 2013

*BC = Boehner Cruz; AT = After Tea Party

The singing reported in the Tea Party’s caucus reminded me of the Titanic – remember? As they went down, those who could not or did not leave the ship went down singing Amazing Grace. Isn’t that what happened last night? It was a suicidal atmosphere with everyone being made to drink the Kool Aid with the pseudo religious environment to encourage those who were losing faith. I guess from the songs being sung there must have been only Conservative Evengelical Christians in the room. Somehow, we couldn’t see Jews, Muslims, Atheists or Episcopalians grooving and responding to what was described.

Many things about this have caused some really great breakfast conversations. If you can call anything in the immediate time before your own financial demise ‘great.’

So much is so hokey: (Kind of the theme of one of our breakfast conversations)

1) The Speaker of the House – Boehner – could have avoided all of this by putting the issue on the floor of the House and it would have passed – but it would have passed with bipartisan support and they refused to even consider that possibility. Is all of this really about keeping Republicans Republican and refusing to allow any kind of bipartisan action, discussion, votes, etc.?

They seem to be looking in the mirror and calling Obama out on what they see there. And someone accused them of racism. How can that be when the reflection they see in the mirror is that of a Black man?

Some sub-topics “My grandfather told me to look away when people start talking the way the Tea Party folks are talking” – such as the comments about their trying to ‘save’ the United States from fiscal ruin because we soon won’t be able to pay our debts. And what do they do about this? Put the United States in a position of a credit default which would raise interest rates on everything and make the cost of carrying the debt we have unbelievably heavy – and a burden shared by every citizen of these United States. How exactly does their stance help?

They bash Obama for not being “bipartisan’, but not being bipartisan is not allowing a vote to come to the floor of the House because it might be passed with a bipartisan vote and that can’t be allowed.

2) Cruz – the now leading contender from the Tea Party for President of these United States in the next election. Talk about disasters and a man either on an unusually high dose of testosterone or whose body produces way too much testosterone for him to be allowed to do anything except knit, crochet, sew, sit quietly listening to lovely soothing music, etc.. If he gets elected, the folks around the breakfast table – including one Republican – decided they would pack their bags, update their Visas and leave until the U. S. comes to its senses.

3) What was ominous was the comparison of what the U. S. is going through with parallels to what Germany went through with the rise of the Nazi Party. It sent chills down your spine to even know there was someone who saw this as a parallel.

4) What was really upsetting was the comment that one person made about his interpretation of what he was seeing being played out. He didn’t agree with the woman who saw the beginnings of Nazi American in all of this, he assumed that Boehner has a huge problem with alcohol and Cruz looks as though he was using that knowledge and pushing Boehner to the wall – go along with us or your alcoholism is exposed to the world. And the media was only talking about how Boehner was acting the way he was because he was concerned about losing his Speakership- have they missed something big or is this like JFK’s womanizing – lets not talk about the obvious it isn’t nice.

And here in our corner of the world was one small group wrestling with the fact that our Congress is acting like Alcoholics, their enablers or have we missed something important!

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Tags: Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, economic downturn, Economics, Financial Disaster, Government Shutdown, John Boehner, politics, Senator Cruz
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Historical Support, Making Connections, politics | Comments Off on Republicanism BC and AD – oops, AT*

Going to the Toilet

Sunday, October 6th, 2013

What a horrible title for a blog! We have postponed writing this blog for a couple weeks, but it has been such a great find and the topic of several breakfasts so with fear and trepidation – here goes!!!!!!

We discovered – would you believe across the breakfast table – one of the reasons we think our ‘cultured’ cousins have such a problem with things like colon cancer, bladder problems, etc. It was an off-hand remark by a guest which, of course, we could not let go of and kept her talking about for quite some time (after everyone had finished eating, of course).

The off-handed comment was about how difficult it is to travel in America and in some European countries because of the problems it generates with the simplest things like going to the bathroom. We asked why – especially since we felt we had a really up to date bathroom complete with a toilet seat which could also act like a bidet, close by itself, work via remote control and provide heat or no-heat as the user desired. That comment was totally deflating and one of the few times I became defensive. All the money we spend in those bathrooms and someone has a problem, not just a problem -a complaint?

As it turns out, all that money spent was spent in vain. I had a problem that those of us growing older have and it can be embarrassing – and that is, not being able to control the escape of air from the body at the most horrible times. Nothing like letting people know you are gross without even trying, especially if that escaping air comes with a bit of noise.

That conversation has changed all of that. It took about a week, but after that time frame I have no more problems with air escaping.

We, in the ‘cultured’ part of the world, go to the toilet in a very comfortable way which helps to disintegrate our bodies instead of shaping them up and its getting worse. You can now sit on the heated toilet seat and have a spray of water wash your bottom when you finish. I thought that was the ultimate luxury, but wow have I ever changed my mind.

Have you ever thought of squatting instead of sitting on a toilet seat? It is cleaner, quicker and strengthens the muscles which need strengthening to keep your colon, bladder, legs, stomach and balance in good shape. I used to feel sorry for those third world people who had to squat to go to the bathroom. I didn’t know how they survived such a throw back to primitive times. Well, I feel sorry no more! I can go anyplace, do anything and not be embarrassed by that escaping air – it just doesn’t happen anymore. My legs are firmer, my stomach tighter and even my balance is better. It took a couple weeks to make this a habit and to stop complaining because of how difficult it was to form this new habit at my age, but form it I have and a few others have come along for the journey. We had to form a small support group – a telephone call when we were about to quit for a pep talk.

Today, there are no complaints, we are all healthier for this new way of using the toilet and a bonus – we can use any toilet anyplace and not worry about catching anything the former user of the toilet may have left behind.

Try it! But you have to give it a good try of at least 14 days before you decide. It takes that long for the good results to show up and you will be surprised at how many good results there will be.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: bed & breakfast, bladder information, breakfast table talk, colon upkeep, going to the toilet, growing old, health, Making Connections, no bladder infections, preventing colon cancer
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Guest comments, Guest comments and talents, Health | Comments Off on Going to the Toilet

Giordano Bruno – A Talk by Alan Powers

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

Alan explores the life, writings and legacies of Giordano Bruno. Powers has an addendum to his book on early efforts to map the moon. He calls Bruno “The Man Galileo Plagiarized and having written 26 books Bruno lost a University post to a man who had written a small pamphlet – you have to see the video to know who was this person who had the influence to get such a job on such a small academic amount of publishings.

Bruno is also the man who claimed there were billions of stars in the inhabitable part of the universe. He didn’t fare too well with the inquisition, but is still important today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCaC-VexYoY&feature=youtu.be

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Tags: Alan Powers, breakfast table talk, Giordano Bruno, Making Connections
Posted in Alan Powers, Breakfast Table Talk, Giordano Bruno, Guest comments, Guest comments and talents | Comments Off on Giordano Bruno – A Talk by Alan Powers

WOW! What an article!

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013

Thanks for your article on the Government shutdown.

I am a Democrat who is constantly mystified by the workings of this political campaign business.

As a regular traveller to Cambridge, I stay fairly often in your home. It is quite the place for good conversation. What I appreciate about this article is that I haven’t missed what is being discussed at your breakfast table about the shutdown.

It seems to me that the Republicans chose to shutdown the government on the day Obamacare went into affect to mute the peoples response and knowledge about Obamacare.

That isn’t possible because every person in this country who benefits from Obamacare will be at the polls voting for whoever Barack Obama designates as the person he wants to succeed him.

I hope that will be Hillary Clinton. I was very young when Hillary was trying to get a health care bill passed as the wife of the President. All I remember about that was my parents being upset because after her effort failed, our health care insurance bill went from $250/month to way up there – I don’t know exactly, but I remember the conversations about how we were paying two to three times what we used to pay before her efforts. What my parents didn’t realize was she had the cat bird seat and could see what was coming down the road and she tried to prevent it by getting health insurance passed which would keep middle-class America from having such a huge increase in their health insurance. If they had realized that, I am sure they would have been more active in supporting her efforts. Nothing was done about that until Obama was elected.

My wish is that politicians would be honest – clear – and not only believe in something, but run on their beliefs and attempt to implement those beliefs if they are elected. How many of us wish our politicians were of good character.

I also hope that those politicians who want to act find either Broadway Theatre, the Movies or Television in which to exercise their talents and stop using the American public as their audience when what they really want is to be a part of the fictional dramas we all watch in the evenings on television or weekends in the theatre. I am so tired of bad actors and actresses running for office and sometimes actually being elected. Worse than the bad actors and actresses are those with few ethics, morals and bad character – who seem to proliferate with too many such people concentrated in our group of politicians and political wannabes.

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Tags: Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Government Shutdown, Hillary Clinton, Obamacare, Political, Politicians
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Making Connections, politics | Comments Off on WOW! What an article!

Live by the Rule of Law – OR –

Wednesday, July 31st, 2013

Live by the Rule of Love!

As a host family in the Bettina Network I’ve met all kinds of people, had thousands of conversations around the breakfast table and sometimes have great evenings with complete strangers in front of my wood burning fireplace. Conversations which changed my life and have often made me reflect on the condition of my soul. That is one of the hazards of having a Bettina Lifestyle House – or whatever we are called these days.

None of these breakfast conversations have made me reflect so much as the conversation about the “Rule of Law” to which we hold as a country.

What is amazing about that is we also claim to be a “Christian” country. – not to ignore my non-Christrian brothers and sisters, but it is who we claim to be and the reason today for the great political divide in this country. We have almost become the country of the ‘saved’ and the ‘damned’.

The Rule of Law has never struck me as hard as it did listening to all the comments on the various cases which have caught the media’s attention of late – Zimmerman, Martin, Bradley Manning, and on and on.

In this country where the Rule of Law is supreme – Martin was killed, Zimmerman was exonerated and freed, Bradley Manning was tortured, tried and convicted and on and on we go, closer and closer to the depths of hell.

When the decision goes against the just and is clearly not justice, we revert to much talk about how we are a nation under the “Rule of Law” . We tell ourselves to remember that and continue to live under this Rule of Law- even though it is not always perfect – and we must accept that or our entire system will be destroyed and undermined. We threaten those who weaken with talk about the unwashed many who will run amuck and rob, kill, rape, and commit general mayhem if we don’t respect our Rule of Law. Without it, we claim, we will all be at risk of being harmed. We are told it is not perfect, but it has created a great nation – the greatest nation on earth and without this Rule of Law, we are told, we will be overrun with mad people running around doing all kinds of unspeakable things with no controls and nothing to stop them.

But Martin was killed and his killer was exonerated under our Rule of Law —— wasn’t that mayhem out of control? Maybe we deserve to be a nation under the “Rule of Law’ because we can abdicate responsibility, reason, sanity, but mostly we can abdicate love – that which demands the most of us.

Christianity claims to be ruled by a God of Love. Christianity claims that the God we worship is Love, but Christians don’t want that concept to enter into their considerations when making and changing the institutional structures under which they will live. As a country, we refuse to live under the “Rule of Love”. It is a great mythical and theoretical concept to talk about, but not to live under. It has nothing to do with our reality. But still Christianity claims that Jesus came to bring in a regime which eliminates the “Rule of Law” and takes it to its next step. As a nation and as Christians, we hold up the “New” Testament which is all about moving away from the law into the gospel and the gospel is about love not law. In fact, one could almost say Christianity denigrates the Rule of Law. It is not an eye for an eye…………….it is better than that! By your fruit………….

I called a friend of mine, also a host family in the Bettina Network, who has these breakfast conversations with strangers about the most intimate things – to try to talk through what has been and is troubling me. She talked about how the Zimmerman/Martin case exposed the hypocrisy of the “Rule of Law”, but that just didn’t do it for me. It didn’t go far enough.

Since religion is at the core of all politics I would like to ask our editor to throw open the blog to writings about religion. Why are you who you are spiritually? Why do you need to convert others? Why do you refuse to convert others because you are one of the chosen few and don’t want those others to join? Why do you live under a rule of law when your religion dictates that you live under a rule of love? How can you claim to believe one thing and live another? How can you define God to be who you need God to be and ignore the reality of God and God’s kingdom breaking in all over this world of ours? Why are you running around trying to patch up those holes where God’s kingdom is breaking in so the structure you, your friends and your family helped create won’t fall apart and will remain in tact in this process?

I heard a young person constantly bragging about her family. They had a Radcliff degree – she had a degree from a college just as prestigious – and went to a private grammar schools considered to be one of the New England Establishment’s schools that the ‘elite’ attend – and her mother supposedly came from a prestigious, wealthy community in New York. It was very painful to listen to her put up this smoke screen because she and they have done nothing with all that background except live in pain and want and tragedy. This young person has the God-given talent of a beautiful voice, which she trashes on a regular basis and when given the opportunity to use and develop that talent trashes the opportunity as well as the voice. What is that about? Raise those issues to her and she will trash you! How does that happen?

Sin, in Christianity, is defined as the absence of God. God is defined as Love! Sin is the absence of Love! Isn’t that how all of this happens? It is such a huge responsibility and such a huge burden to live under the rule of law. Yet not only do we live under this rule, but we raise our children to do just that.

It is such a treasure and joy to live under the rule of love. What a place this country would be if we could move on – out of the shadow of the laws which have enslaved us for so many years into the light of love which has freed us. That kind of freedom seems to be what we are most afraid to embrace – and so we live our lives in such a small, carefully defined place with those better than we are and those less than we are carefully defined and kept in their places by this Rule of Law. We give up everything we have, including our lives to maintain those carefully crafted laws of oppression.

We set forth a body of laws which maintained Jim Crow as legal and the law of the land and we forced our citizens to live under that law – preserved and reinforced by the Supreme Court of these United States and today we glorify that same Court without calling it into question and demanding acknowledgment for its wrongs.

We maintain that Rule of Law because it maintains the status quo – the oppression, the poverty, the homelessness, the suffering of all the people who live under those laws. That Rule of Law maintains the status quo of the wealthy, the powerful, the dictators of high-brow culture, whether right or wrong – and we consider ourselves the greatest nation on earth because we live under this Rule of Law. We call it the greatest ever created.

The loneliest place to be in this society – all over the world – is in that place of a child without a group; a half-breed who does not belong to one group or the other. We ostracize such a person – trash them – try to hide them – scapegoat them for the sins of the rest of society. We elected one as President of these United States and the anger, hostility, horribleness thrown at him is beyond and beneath all of us, yet some of the seemingly nicest people do it and hide behind their political designation as their claimed reason. This half-breed president strikes terror in the hearts of those who most cherish the rule of law. Is that what is wrong with that young person with the beautiful voice? She lives with a mother who holds up her “Yankee” history as great, while her children look on as half-breeds and incorporate into their souls their brokenness and inadequacy because they are not such a great and glorious part of this New England Establishment?

If you live, even partially under the Law of Love it shows – in how you look; in how you take care of yourself; in how you relate to others; in how you take on the responsibilities of being a part of a whole, in how you are not afraid to speak truth. Every minute of every day it shows and those around you see it. God is Love – not Law. Law cannot be fair and just. It was created by all of us and it embodies all of our sins, our flaws, our weaknesses, our biases and then those who most benefit from this Rule of Law throw in the demand that we all live by it or be negatively judged by it.

We expect and demand that Rule of Law to maintain a society in which we are judged and agree to be judged by a Rule of Law set in place to maintain the privileges of those in control and maintain the oppression of those who are under the heavy foot of the privileged.

God forgive us!

I nominate this Rule of Law for Bettina’s Hall of Shame!

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, politics
Posted in Bettina's Hall of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, Historical Support, Making Connections, Thought for the Day | Comments Off on Live by the Rule of Law – OR –

A Guest Responds – Popcorn and Mosquitos

Sunday, July 28th, 2013

Thank you for the recipe for an exceptional snack. I tried it and it was sensational.

I had to make two tries before I got it right. The main problem was keeping the popcorn crisp while adding the simple syrup and the chocolate. I messed up the first try and had soggy popcorn. The second try it was perfect. I let the syrup cool a bit before pouring it over the popcorn. Hot simple syrup right off the stove is guaranteed to give you a mess. The same thing with the chocolate. I added heavy cream to the chocolate chips while melting them, stirred the pot until it was all blended and when cooled a bit, added it on top of the simple syrup and the popcorn. I think the experience of doing this is actually what made it work the second time. I was too anxious with my first try and thought I knew it all the first time I made this snack. The blog read like it would be a snap. Once you figured out how to keep the popcorn crisp through the entire process and into the eating of this snack, it was a snap. But until then it was a worry.

When I melted the chocolate chips and poured them over the popcorn, it was a bit stiffer then when I added heavy cream to the chocolate while it was melting. The chocolate, with heavy cream added did not harden on top of the popcorn, which added to the texture and taste of this fantastic snack. I suspect whichever way you use the chocolate it will be a matter of personal taste.

The snack lasted about two minutes and I made lots for just three people.

My second comment is about mosquitos. I’ve read lots this season about what to do to fend off mosquito attacks – from staying inside when its dawn and dusk to all kind of remedies.

One I got from a stay in a Bettina home, which I haven’t found on your blog, worked. It has been tremendous for me and my children. Vitamin B1. We take one Vitamin B1 capsule before going out – about 15 minutes to 1/2 hour before going outside and whether its high sun or dawn or dusk we have had no mosquito bites. According to the breakfast where I picked up this tip, your skin would smell like mosquito repellant even though the only thing you did was to take this one Vitamin B1 tablet. Sure enough, my skin smells like mosquito repellant. When I get that odor I know I am good to go outside for several hours.

Hope this helps someone!

Ed. Note: The blog recipe the guest is referring to is: An Incredible Snack – Bettina Style, published May 28, 2013 and can be found categorized in Bettina’s Blog under Bettina’s Cookbook

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Networks Cookbook, breakfast table talk, Caramel Popcorn with Chocolate Topping, Mosquito Repellant, Mosquitos, Popcorn, Vitamin B1
Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Reader Feedback, Uncategorized | Comments Off on A Guest Responds – Popcorn and Mosquitos

A Bettina Guest Comments on Zimmerman-Martin

Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

You don’t have to copyright my comment! It is free to whoever wants to use it.

I’ve been a guest at Bettina homes for many years. My regret is that I was not at the home in Harvard Square to be a part of the discussions that I know took place over this trial and its verdict. They have some really unbelievable conversations – especially on race. So, I have to join the conversation via email. I understand,as a former guest in the network, my comments are accepted for Bettina Network’s Blog? If not, let me know. If yes, I will see it published – except, like most people, please don’t publish my name. I am not afraid of backing up my comments, I just don’t want anyone to pick up my name and start to harrass me.

My contribution to the conversation comes from listening to the juror. It was clear racism was deeply embedded in the jury deliberations. In the USA denial is the way racism continues and the way folks are able to go to Church on Sundays and feel good about themselves even when they have participated in some really low-down racism. They neither own up to nor are they even conscious of their sin. In this case, I think they were – the tears show some unconscious understanding of what they were doing. The juror saw Zimmerman very positively and could relate to him. Martin, however, in her comments, deserved what he got. How dare a Black man think he could question being stalked and treated in a demeaning way by someone like a Zimmerman. Afterall, Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch person – Martin was the hoodie wearing ‘punk’ – according to Zimmermans description. She said, she felt he was fully repentant and would be careful with his gun in the future. I wonder if that is true – or if he got the taste of celebrity from killing a Black man and will want more? So he becomes even more reckless and irresponsible with his gun. There are always two sides and her and the jury’s racism only allowed them to see the side which cast Zimmerman in a positive light and Martin as a stereotype. Her comments about Martin, as she quoted Zimmerman, were of a man looking in windows and clearly as someone who did not belong in the neighborhood because he was Black. Has anyone explained to her and the rest of the jury the definition of profiling? By the way, how could she quote Zimmerman who he did not testify at trial?

If you had any doubts that the Martin-Zimmerman decision was racist,or that the make-up of the jury was crucial to getting Zimmerman exonerated by the State of Florida, her comments erase those doubts.

I think this was a done deal before the trial – and I am not alone in that opinion. The Department of Justice was considering filing charges against Zimmerman because the State of Florida was refusing to do so (by dragging its feet). I think when they discovered the DOJ was coming, the State of Florida got its act together and started this trial, but did not intend for it to be a fair trial. A public show so DOJ didn’t come in to get a conviction after they covered for this neighborhood watch person for almost two months. To go forth with the kind of jury they picked – and to look at the history of convictions of Blacks in Florida and the refusal of the Florida prosecutors to charge some Blacks under the ‘Stand your Ground’ law – I don’t see how Trayvon Martin could get any kind of justice. It was a clear stacked deck before the case even started to be tried.

Thanks for the platform!

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, Bettina guest comments, breakfast table talk, Making Connections
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Making Connections | Comments Off on A Bettina Guest Comments on Zimmerman-Martin

Please ask your readers to sign the petition

Monday, July 15th, 2013

Thank you for your writings about the Trayvon Martin – George Zimmerman encounter. It was special and I learned a lot. You said everything I wanted to say.

The NAACP has a petition on its web site which you can sign asking that the Department of Justice file a case against George Zimmerman, who violated Trayvon Martin’s right to life.

You can sign this petition at

www.naacp.org/page/s/doj-civil-rights-petition

you may have to go back to the site several times because it has been overloaded with people trying to sign the petition. Be persistent – don’t give up – keep going back to the site until you are able to sign the petition.

All of Us At Bettina’s

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, George Zimmerman, Making Connections, NAACP's DOJ Petition, Trayvon Martin
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments | Comments Off on Please ask your readers to sign the petition

Martin-Zimmerman and they Followed Historical Patterns

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

Don’t you know, just about every table talk conversation today is about the Zimmerman/Martin case and practically every sermon in many different denominations and religions includes some reference to it.

This is our contribution to the conversation:

1) George Zimmerman was not tried by a jury of his peers. Wasn’t it in the 1960’s and 1970’s that lawsuits abounded because Blacks were tried by all-White juries and those law suits proved that the results of such cases had nothing to do with justice and more to do with allowing the racism of the society penetrate and skewer Court decisions?

Lawsuit after Lawsuit proved that and change happened – until now!

How is it then, that a jury of five white women with white children and one minority woman who the press has never identified as to race – sometimes she was Black, sometimes she was Hispanic – is a jury of Zimmermans’ peers. This decision had nothing to do with justice and this jury did nothing except let the racism and sexism of this society enter the Court system through the front door with a special escort to make sure those twin isms knew where to go.

When one reflects on the fact that the children were White and the women were going to consider this case from the biased perspective not of – what if your child was Black and went to the local grocery store wearing a hoodie or just went to the grocery store in his neighborhood where there was an overzealous, out-of-control neighborhood watch person out there on the street; but what if your child was the White kid named some form of Zimmerman who had to go through a trial because he was doing what he claimed was his job and felt perfectly justified in shooting Trayvon Martin to death after the neighborhood watch person provoked the incident which allowed him to do this huge violence against another human being?

Zimmerman was not charged for 45 days after the fact. Who said “justice delayed……………” What happened in those 45 days? When someone confesses to shooting someone to death, there is an immediate arrest in this system because the evidence is subject to be skewered, disappear, witnesses tampered with and on and on and on.

2) George Zimmernan was a neighborhood watch person. There were many comments that he was a wannabe policeman, but those comments from the media seemed put out there only to cover the ugly facts of what happened. Why is a neighborhood watch person in the street in his car watching for ‘trouble’ with a gun? Was he trained in the use of a gun? Did he have to make regular trips to the shooting range to make sure he knew how to shoot a gun and his skills were up to where they should be? Was he ‘fit’ in the way police and other law enforcement officers have to be, in addition to keeping up their skills with their weapons? Had he been vetted psychologically to know he was able to be responsible with a gun in this neighborhood watch job? Was he encouraged to carry a gun by law enforcement? Why was he not immediately removed from this neighborhood watch duty when it was clear he was not sure of his own ability to fight off any possible attack on himself without the use of a gun? I didn’t hear any of these questions raised.

Zimmermans’ personality – character – ethics – kept him from following orders from those who knew better and advised him as to what to do. To ignore those orders, get out of his car to stalk a Black man in a ‘hoodie’ after telling the police who this Black man was using very negative racist and demeaning terms is a personality, character and ethics exposure. This could not have been the first time this side of Zimmerman was exposed to those who elected him or allowed him to be the neighborhood watch person. What was their motive to ignore these warning signs and allow him out with his gun.

Zimmerman is a man whose own defense witnesses said could not fight – he was too fat to defend himself in a fist fight on the street. He couldn’t punch, etc. He must have been very insecure being a neighborhood watch person – why else was carrying a gun? He knew his limits and he knew his temper – is that what made him so quick to pull the trigger? That is a very insecure person who is looking for trouble when he goes out on a job where he is supposed to be simply a neighborhood watch person observing the neighborhood for signs of trouble and if he saw possible problems, his ‘job’ was to alert the police.

With a gun, Zimmerman was not an ‘observer’ who would quickly alert the real police to trouble. He was someone who was armed and ready and willing to use his weapon at the least provocation. He has shown that is true by his actions against Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was ready to use his weapon and to provoke an incident during which he could use his weapon – which he did. In the Mafia he would be a made man. In the gang world, he would be welcomed as a member, in the Florida police force ………………?

Has Zimmerman now overcome his half-breedness and is now welcomed into the arms of the majority group? Is this what it takes for a half-breed to become a full-fledged accepted White Person? Zimmerman didn’t make it by birth, but he has absolutely shown he is ready to take his place in a racist, sexist, classist system which is prone to violence against its minorities and is against giving its minorities justice in its court system. Review cases over the past years and see what you come up with! When the jury has spoken, justice has been served. No one commentating on this case has been willing to say other than the jury system has delivered justice. A jury system has delivered that kind of justice to a whole lot of Black folks over the generations – are we dissembling to take attention away from that fact? Are we throwing out a red herring to get folks to look in every place except at the truth?

3) We are all being told the jury has spoken and justice has been served because we are the best nation in the world and our justice system is the best there is!!!!!!! Tell that to the generations of African Americans who have been through our justice system and have seen results come through like Plessy vs Ferguson and a whole lot more. I could go on here and take time to list pages of such cases in which the same kind of justice we have just seen is traditional in this country when African Americans are involved.

When has this country’s justice system ever convicted a White man for the murder of a Black man? And clearly Zimmerman was White. His mother may have been hispanic or some other kind of minority, but his father was White and that is the determination in this country. He stands up as a White man and is respected as such.

4) This great system of justice will now reward Zimmerman and he is the man of the hour – he will shortly be the multi-millionaire of the hour as the offers pour in. I heard talk that his brother may even benefit since the media is talking up how ‘professional’, how ‘well spoken’ is his brother. All we could say is – how self-serving was his brother and how unbelievably horrible in the way he mocked what happened and put himself and his family on that top line where we are the best, most caring people in the world. A family that has produced a George Zimmerman has lots of problems the brother has not let slip out.

All on the back of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin’s life was taken so this man can succeed. Zimmerman followed the book, written over the generations – the racist, ugly names; the provoked violence for which the Black is blamed, the holier than thou attitude at the end, that the Zimmerman family seems schooled in………………. This name calling and showing the spite and vicious racist attitude the Zimmermans have towards African Americans has been slathered over and will soon be buried deep under everything else. Just the fact that the arguments in court were around who was the aggressor says the red herring had already been thrown and Zimmerman was a free man. After Zimmerman started the fight – the court argument takes up at the point where they could picture Martin as the aggressor and all is well – the jury acquits and justice is served. For who? Certainly not for the African Americans in this country. This was a case about racial profiling which resulted in the death of an African American and the courts’ have said ‘ justice was served because the African American was the ‘aggressor’ – and now let the real aggressor go free.

5) The aggressor was clearly George Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin was going home from the store – he was not breaking into a neighborhood where he did not belong, he was going back to his father’s house. This 17 year old child, who had never been in trouble of any kind, had an exemplary record, was going home and was followed and threatened by one George Zimmerman who then shot and killed him and there was a question in the trial as to who was the aggressor! Well – who was the African-American! In this society, in its criminal justice system, there is no question that in that circumstance the Black man was the aggressor – let the facts be selectively chosen to prove this case – AND THEY WERE.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, George Zimmerman, Making Connections, politics, Racism, Sexism, Trayvon Martin
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Making Connections | Comments Off on Martin-Zimmerman and they Followed Historical Patterns

Helping you Keep Cool in the Heat!

Wednesday, July 10th, 2013

Do you have a difficult time coping with the heat and high humidity? A recent breakfast conversation around a Bettina Network table just might come to your rescue!

We can’t guarantee results, but this breakfast conversation was intriguing and we tried the suggestions. It worked for us. Which reminds me, if you want to be one of those who tests suggestions from Bettina Network breakfast conversations, let us know, we will send you the conversation and you send us your results.

There were many suggestions on how to deal with the heat and high humidity. The one which intrigued us was the massage with Organic Aloe Vera Gel and Juice. We’ve heard that before and may have written about it, but given the weather around the country we thought we would take a flyer and risk repeating ourselves.

Everyone has their favorite thing to do when the temperature rises. We heard about hot tea on a hot day to cool off! We heard about sitting in front of the refrigerator with the door open – one we would not recommend. We heard about taking hot showers so you could come out of the shower and cool off. But the Organic Aloe Vera Gel and Juice worked for us.

Take a shower – warm, not hot. No soap please, just plain water.

After the shower and after you dry off, give yourself a massage with the Organic Aloe Vera Gel and Juice. You will find it is cool to begin with and as you give yourself a massage you will feel yourself begin to cool down. If you do this before bed you will sleep comfortably or you can even give yourself a massage, get dressed and go out. No, you don’t have to rinse it off.

How to find Organic Aloe Vera Gel and Juice? We tried several and wound up liking the “Lakewood” brand best.

I went crazy and also massaged my hair and scalp with the Aloe Vera Gel. Since I was not going out I took the risk of looking horrible to everyone who came into the house if things didn’t work with the Aloe Vera Gel. I was pretty sure it would not make my hair fall out, but I wasn’t sure about anything else. I know a couple people in the Bettina Network have tried it, but haven’t shared their trials or results with me.

It worked beautifully. I have been looking for something organic to give my hair a fuller look since it is starting to thin. This accidental side effect of this experiment worked perfectly. I added a bit of organic, virgin, expeller pressed coconut oil and that gave a tiny bit of a sheen that I liked. The two are a perfect combination. Since then, I also tried clipping a capsule of vitamin E into my hand and massaging it on top of the Organic Aloe Vera Gel and that worked even better. Which one to use, I think, is probably dependent upon the texture of your hair and how dry or how oily it is.

Another version discussed was Organic Aloe Vera Gel with an infusion of peppermint. Not only did we find this combination cooling, but it gave us a nice smell during the day – and it is difficult to smell great on a hot day. Either you try perfume and alienate everyone you come in contact with or you use nothing and maybe you will or won’t make it through the day.

Being a child of the heavy marketing that has gone on over the past few decades, and having been gullible enough to buy their messages it took a while for me to realize they were selling you the same product in different packages and under different brand names and at different prices, I have developed a horror of smelling and a need to be ‘clean’ – television commercial ‘clean’. I’ve used every tooth paste, deodorant, lotion, perfume, hair product, etc. that has been advertised to be the person pictured in the marketing and advertising. In the long-run, however, that only hooked me into spending money for nothing except to hurt my health, slowly, over a long period of time, but hurtful nevertheless. First I was paranoid about having a bad body odor, now it is about just smelling at all. I even give ugly looks to people who smell of very expensive perfume and other products guaranteed to give you a body-smell-good day if you pay the very high price for the products. When you think about it, their high price is totally justified because they have to pay for the product ingredients (about 3% of the total price) and that huge marketing and advertising bill.

The only substances we used besides the Organic Aloe Vera Gel and Juice was our favorite Organic Apple Cider Vinegar splashed under the arm in the arm pits. I wasn’t ready to take a chance of the Aloe Vera Gel alone taking on the job of keeping me smelling nice and fresh on a hot and very active day. It might have been able to do that, but someone else will have to try that experiment. My apple cider vinegar splashed on top of the Aloe Vera Gel worked the entire day with not even a hint of a smell.

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Tags: Aloe Vera, Anti-Perspirants, Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Deodorant, health, health and beauty
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Hair Health, Health, Health and Beauty | Comments Off on Helping you Keep Cool in the Heat!

Dr. Oz – Breakfast Conversation

Monday, June 24th, 2013

Considering we are a network which tries hard to be as organic as possible – which means in food, lifestyle, building structures, etc. – it was quite something to be a part of a breakfast conversation which resulted in all saying they were turning off Dr. Oz and his television program and anything he says.

This came from a television program in which he talked about Alzheimer’s and about metals as being looked at as possible causes and naming those metals – iron, zinc, copper – and – another program in which he dissed supplements.

Why did those two things cause so much conversation? It wasn’t about the organic things he talks about, but by the fact – as this group took it – that he galvanized many who were looking for information on how to live more organically and is now using that group to promote the agenda of the worst of those who brought us to this impasse of much money spent and no results, – or rather, much profits being pocketed by a few who leave the many ill, troubled and in dire circumstances.

Let me summarize the conversation:

It started because of conversation about aluminum and its being one of the possible causes of Alzheimer’s. We were talking about the fairly controversial Bettina Network blog suggesting that we all give up deodorants and anti-perspirants because they work by clogging our underarm pores with aluminum, etc. – read that blog for more information. One person let loose because she was fairly angry at Dr. Oz and felt he had led her down the ‘primrose path’ only to misuse her following of his programs to promote himself and get lots of money from the large corporations and big pharma. She talked about this program in which he attributed the increase in Alzheimer’s to our use of Zinc, Iron and Copper and that he and his invited guests strongly advised that we stop using iron and copper pots and use very little zinc. Her point was that no one uses copper pots in which to cook foods; iron pots have been used for generations with no increase in Alzheimer’s; and zinc has been great whenever she threatens a cold or other such infection and why was he so intentionally silent on aluminum.

The conversation was heated: Copper is used on the bottom of pots to make the heat more even and outside some other kinds of kitchen utensils, but copper would not withstand being used on the inside of a pot for cooking. So what did using those kind of copper utensils have to do with Alzheimer’s, since we didn’t have direct contact with the copper used on pots and besides, she said, he totally made no mention of what we believe to be the main cause of Alzheimer’s, which is our overuse of Aluminum, especially in pots – in which we directly cook foods which are in direct contact with aluminum and add to that all of the aluminum products which our bodies take in like deodorants and anti-perspirants. To totally eliminate aluminum from such a conversation when the research shows it is probably implicated was a real clue that maybe Dr. Oz isn’t as free of taking support, in exchange for protecting those from whom he takes it, as most of us think.

There was – especially- a lot of response to his including iron pots since iron pots have been used for generations – hundreds of years – without any indication that using these iron pots was increasing Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s did not become a problem until recently and the time line for the increase in Alzheimer’s totally lines up with the introduction of those Aluminum pots into general use in the 1950’s. A set of such pots were a great wedding present and many people still use the pots given to them decades ago when they married.

The second irritation that came out, as the conversation heated up, was Dr. Oz’s show on supplements. What made lots of people deride Dr. Oz and where he is coming from were those who knew that supplements were coming up for a vote, in the U. S. Congress, just days after Dr. Oz’s show dissing them and talking about how dangerous some could be and how useless were others and intimating that we needed a doctors advice or prescription for supplements and the FDA’s regulation of them. The claim that supplements should be regulated – is an old story – and Dr. Oz giving the case in favor of such regulation, in that time frame, showed exactly where he is coming from and the interests with whom he is aligned. The time frame in which his show discussed supplements looked to us as another political outlet for the arguments for doctor and FDA intervention. We know about budgets being allotted for such political issues and apparently, Dr. Oz was included in that budget.

That was a total misuse of his audience – both those physically present and his television viewers.

His show should start each segment by acknowledging to whom he owes allegiance and what he has been paid by the industries being touted – and that payment in any form.

We all agreed to lock out his shows and most of us had been Dr. Oz devotees. We felt used, abused, sold-out and that done under the table.

Good-bye Dr. Oz. You were great for awhile, but the public is a lot more astute than given credit. It may take a while, but we do catch on and move on. So many has-beens, and if we have our way, that will also be your road – a dead-end constructed by an intelligent, astute, understanding world-wide public.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: Anti-Perspirants, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Deodorant, Dr. Oz, health, health and beauty, Making Connections, Metals and Alzheimer's, Vitamin Supplements
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Health, Health and Beauty, Making Connections | Comments Off on Dr. Oz – Breakfast Conversation

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