Locals Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks had some interesting, entertaining, and very important things to say about John McCain today on the Huffington Post. Here’s an excerpt:
Never mind that when John McCain smiles, it looks about as warm and inviting as a moonlit New England country graveyard.
Never mind that he exhibits more twitches, tics and jaw-clenches than the night shift at a meth lab.
Never mind that he’s started having prison-camp flashbacks such as addressing the citizens of a rally as “My fellow prisoners.”
A long campaign and economic uncertainty can stress out anyone, whether he’s a 72-year-old presidential candidate or just some average retirement-age guy who’s trying to keep nine houses and a dozen cars running in tough economic times.
However, when he came out with his recent macho swagger about fear, we felt it was time to intervene. Specifically, he gave a prescription for fear that is dangerous. It’s a method of dealing with fear that will drive you nuts if it doesn’t kill you first. If you missed the actual quote, he said, “I know what fear feels like…I know what hopelessness feels like. I felt those things once before. I WILL NEVER LET THEM IN AGAIN…”
We feel compassion for him and the circumstances that brought him to make the fateful choice to seal out his emotions. It’s a serious problem for him health-wise, but when he seeks to inflict it on the rest of us, it’s time to set him straight. Here’s a shot of straight-talk expresso for John McCain: When you won’t let yourself to feel your natural, organic feeling of fear, you get out of touch with reality. If you won’t acknowledge the existence of fear, you can’t tell the difference between what you’re really scared about and what you think you’re scared about. You don’t have a clue about what’s going on inside you. You don’t know whether there’s a real threat out there or just something your mind is making up. You think life is dangerous, but the reality is just the opposite: you’re dangerous to life.
The Hendricks’ take on the issue is similar to what Michael Meade (a mythologist and author who does healing work with veterans) said recently when asked about John McCain – basically that McCain appears to be suffering from PSTD in a very pronounced way, and that it affects his stance in the world (particularly in regards to Iraq and Iran), as he’s still fighting a battle from his past. Meade stated that, “He still needs a war because he’s still trying to get out of the war he was in.”
It’s understandable, and certainly worthy of deep compassion, but very dangerous for someone striving to be the leader of the United States.
Here’s the Hendricks’ full article on the Huffing ton Post: Body Politics: The Source Of McCain’s Odd Body Language, And The Gift It Brings
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Bullshit. You go through what he did and see if you live through it. Ojai is too isolated from reality and the real world. You can sit there and spout off all kinds of radical things but none of you are living in the real world. Only an incestuos little isolated valley. If you had to live next to nine tenths of the people in this world, you wouldn’t like it or be able to handle it. Ah gee. The BIG world of reality has hit Ojai with the BIG trucks.
Taryn, are you aware of how angry, closed minded and sactimonios your comment sounds. This post offers insight and deserves consideration. Dismissing it entirely based on where the author lives merely reveals how your bias prevents you from actually learning anything.
There’s nothing in that article blaming McCain for what happened to him or saying that it isn’t impressive that he survived it.
But it is legitimate to talk about how that has affected him when he’s asking to be the guy sitting next to the red phone.
Taryn, if we follow your logic we may as well not offer counseling to veterans who’ve been through the hells of war. We would just not talk about it at all and hope it will go away.
That approach to life may work for you, but I’ll pass.
Come on everyone. McCain may be running, but should he win how long do you really think he’d be President. Would he even get through the first term before melanoma or a stroke claimed him?
BTW-if you click on the link, be sure to open the door three times and then click on the deer.
Taryn,
Generalizations reveal narrow-minded thought, how ironic that your hypocrisy is accusing everyone else of that very same tunnel vision. Some of us Ojai residence came from large metropolis like Los Angeles and New York, are we then also narrow-minded because we moved here? Now that we are within these valley walls we have lost touch with reality? Having studied psychology briefly in college I would agree this columnist assessment of McCain’s mental state.I’m no expert but, its so painfully obvious that he is still trapped in his war mentality of the past. His uneasiness and anger are emerging as he’s unable to suppress them much longer. When he speaks I see his smile but behind his grin is rage, it’s in his eyes, there’s no hiding what the eyes reveal.
Growing up in LA I became very good at seeing people for who they really are, despite what comes out of their mouth. McCain is trying to make up for lost time I believe. I think he’s got a battle to win still and hell jump at the chance to use this country to fight his war. Sound familiar at all?
Having that said, I am not praising Obama, I haven’t felt the Obama fervor like most others. He’s a very smooth talker. I wish just for one election I could vote for a candidate I truly believed in. Not this time, unfortunately. .02 and a grain of salt.
I guess if, as Taryn believes, the “real world” of what McCain went through is what qualifies someone to be President, the Gitmo detainees are who the Republicans should really be running. They’ve been there for more than six years, compared to McCain’s five, and by all accounts have suffered far greater than he did.
How about it? Khalid El Mohammed, Republican candidate for President?
Consider the source.
This thread has sort of opened a window in my closed mind.
The Hendricks. Seem to have created quite a business out of openness. However, the openness contains quite a closed-minded psychobabble judgementalism, which so infuriates commoners against elitist libs.
Arriana. Seems to have come quite a ways climbing the ladder. I was in the same patriarchic cult years ago, and recall that Mrs. Huffington wanted to use California as a stepping stone but it slipped.
So many ironies to iron out. The Huffpo and the Ojaipo. For all its insularism, noted by a commenter above, Ojaipo seems more cosmopolitan than Huffpo, thanks to rilers like MT and Jock; and well, maybe spk, Raymond, BC and other unnamed anonymi; who am I forgetting?
Follow the money. Who raised the most money and from whom? Obama by a landslide, thanks to the big banks. Who has the most advisers on staff composed of the same people who caused the crash and are now cashing in? Obama by a landslide.
So I’m thinking: forget the words and the appearances. Follow the money trail. I mean, conmen are good at appearances, even as they pick your pocket.
The liberal mind is an interesting study and the Huffpo an arresting exhibit.
Somehow McCain is more honest. At least he said: “I screwed up.” I can’t imagine Obama saying that. McCain seems more down to earth than Obama who is associating himself with the “best and the brightest.” And how the mighty fall, again and again but we never seem to learn; get conned again and again. I used to work in the veteran PTSD business, and again most of them were more honest than the rapists, uh, sorry I meant therapists, who of course were of a more liberal, educated background.
As spk pointed out, the red and blues are a red herring. I’d say two horns of the bull or of the devil. Gee, we have a choice. Which horn would you like? Can I have a blue herring? No, that’s not on the menu. Even Raymond doesn’t care for the two party system covering for the one party cistern.
Go to go. Happy Ojai Day. Keep talking. Ojai is the Way. Huffpo can follow in our wake. I mean how can you possible keep up with 10,000 comments or whatever their adverisers count? Bigger is not better. Go the way of smallness. Go the Ojai way. Listen up, Washington.
But Dennis, McCain was on a comedy show, joking, when he said he “screwed up.”
I’ve never heard McCain seriously admit to a mistake.
I have heard quite a few of his former admirers say they wish he would own up to all the mistakes he has made in pursuit of this campaign and blind ambition. He’s already going to lose the election. If he steps up and shows some contrition, for picking Palin, for all of the things he’s done, at least he might reclaim some respect before its over.
This entire campaign has encouraged violence against women.
We’ve seen pundits make comments about taking Clinton behind the woodshed to teach her a lesson, comediennes suggesting “our black brothers” should gang rape Palin, cartoons referring to Palin as a Mother I’ld Like to Punch and rap videos about raping Palin, Clinton, and former First Lady Barbara Bush.
What has the left come to that they are encouraging something this dispicable?
Thanks for the clarification. I didn’t know where McCain made the remark; just saw it on the news.
I think Obama is the better man and the Dems the better party. But It’s not much of a choice for me. Obama is in with the people who are intent on saving the system but that conflicts with my conviction that the system is not worth saving.
Most people have no idea that there is a viable alternative. What you think is what you get. When Obama gets in we are in for four more years of the “best and the brightest.” To me that is quite dark indeed.
But then, as Dylan said: Satan comes as a man of peace. Obama may be an angel in disguise but he’s aligned himself with con men, posing as saviors. Not a healthy situation, to say the least. But time will tell. Miracles do happen. I would not rule them out.
For party, on my voter registration I put: “Red Brown and Blue.” They changed it to “Decline to state.” Typical of the system. It tells you that you have a choice when you really don’t. Same old con game. Me, I choose to be free because freedom is a quality of love. The patriarchal system that cons us is about power. We get what we align ourselves with.
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