Origami Yoda

Normally I like to share the high-faluting grown up books I like to read. This one is decidedly not grown-up, though it is possible to pull some grown-up truths out of it. This is an audio book I have listened to multiple times with my kids. They like it, and Mom gets a kick out of it, too. There are some drawbacks. The main characters in this book are in middle school so there are girl-boy issues. I don't mind this much because my kids are fully aware that OTHER kids have crushes, dates, kiss and do things like that. Language is the other issue. The author, in order to make the book believable, uses bad language like "butt" and "stupid" and various other negative names like "loser" to prove his point and set the tone. (This is bad language at my house, anyway.) If you can get beyond that, or incorporate some talks about appropriate language into your teachable moments, there is some great stuff in this book. The premise is that a rather dysfunctional kid in school has made an origami yoda (thus allowing for some pretty entertaining star wars references) that he puts on his finger as a puppet. The dysfunctional kid goes around the school and his origami yoda gives other kids advice on some of the difficult things these middle schoolers are facing. The narrator is trying to figure out if yoda is "real" or not. Not only does this book give practical wisdom about handling some tough social situations, it has lead to some very exciting conversations about other things that we may or may not believe in. Are there mystical things in the world? Can everything be explained by logic? It even led to some great conversations about religion and god. There are some neat plot twists that I didn't expect. The author just came out with a new book this August called "Darth Paper Strikes Back" How awesome is that? He likes to share the origami pattern wealth on his website and apparently is prepared to visit school groups with masses of green paper squares so everyone can create their own paper yoda guide. I better stop now before I get into the bad star wars puns. So may the force.... oh just....the end.

The Culture of Our Discontent

I loved many insights made in this book. As with many conclusions that are drawn from information gained in the fields of evolutionary biology and anthropology, I do not assume that all of the information presented in this book is law. I see the information gained here as a smattering of fact presented in conjunction with common sense conclusions, and the author's bias. It helps my opinion of the book that I agree with many of the conclusions the author has drawn. She brings attention to the lack of real evidence we have that the Western way we treat mental illness is working. She questions the use of drugs in many scenarios, but I believe has a realistic respect for the undeniable aid drugs have given to some who truly need them to function. One of the most interesting points she brings home is that other cultures are worth learning from when it comes to treating mental illness, and even defining it. She calls for those of us in Western culture to drop our arrogance and view even primitive cultures as a source of education about human nature. That outlook, along with the evidence she puts forth made this book a wonderful educational experience for me.



The Following are quotes form the book by Meredith F. Small:


Pg. 127 - Western Culture is no different from any other culture in producing conditions that encourage expression of particular psychologies. We cannot assume that our metal illnesses are all biological - that is, biochemical - while their mental illnesses are all culturally constructed.

Pg. 146
like any good tribe, we have collectively agreed that genes, physiology, biochemistry, and biology are where the answers must lie, even though no one has really demonstrated that our belief system, and our treatments, are any better than poisoning chickens, casting a spell, or trance dancing.

Pg. 149

The author is interviewing Arthur Kleinman, a psychiatrist and medical anthropologist, chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Harvard.

What is missing from both diagnoses, Kleinman feels, is an understanding of how the human mind is entwined with the whole experience of being an individual embedded in a family, a culture, and a society. Mind and body cannot be separated, and both are affected by everything else in life.

pg. 156

The Western medical model of mental illness is dangerous because it is arrogant. We have the best medical facilities, the most sophisticated technologies, and the most comfortable life. Surely we should also be the happiest people on Earth. Yet with all these advantages, it appears that mental illness, especially depression, is ubiquitous in Western culture. By unquestioningly accepting out own belief system, we run the risk of not learning from other cultures that might, in fact, be coping much better.