The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I am reading a fabulous book that some of you might be interested in. Here's the link to the author's website: http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/. Since my family is sick of hearing me talk about it, I thought I'd try you all!

When I taught high school biology we did a unit on cell division. Every year I would order "HeLa cells" from a biological supply house. They were cheap! My students would process and stain them and then look at the chromosomes under the microscope. It was way cool!! All I knew was the cells came from a woman named Henrietta Lacks who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Her cells have been dividing in culture ever since.

Little did I know the whole story of Henrietta and her family. She never knew her cells were taken. Her family never knew. And yet they have been used in some of the world's most important scientific breakthroughs - the polio vaccine, for example. Billions of dollars have been made, yet Henrietta's family got nothing. Her name is unknown - she is buried in an unmarked grave. This book is about racism, ethics, poverty, scandal, and scientific discovery. And it reads like a novel - fascinating!!

Let me know what you think!!

What's Your Justin Bieber?

My daughter sent me this youtube link - you have to watch it first (click on it) and then come back to read this.

3 Year old crying over Justin Bieber

Was that hilarious or what? I'll admit part of me was thinking OK, enough already - this child is too upset!! But I kept watching anyway :) If you stopped watching before the phone rings, you need to go finish it! It's the funniest part.

In seminars I talk about the importance of developing emotional maturity. That only comes from really getting in touch with the way you think. We all watch that little girl and realize how silly it is that she would even think that she loves Justin Bieber. But in her mind it's real. She'll continue to grown and learn and she won't be having that same emotional tantrum as she gets older. Of course as adults we don't have temper tantrums anymore........... or do we????

Adult tantrums tend to manifest themselves in other ways besides screaming and crying (although that does happen!) They show up in actions like sarcasm, the silent treatment, eye rolling, huffing, slamming doors, etc. etc. I'm sure you would never do any of these! I, however, have been know to slam the occasional door. When I do any of these it reminds me that I haven't learned another way to cope.

The plan in life is that we will mature in our thinking and our emotional responses. But we still all have those occasional Justin Biebers - things that seems so real in our minds until we take time to learn and maybe think differently. So......... what's your Justin Bieber?

The Christmas Tree in the Corner

My Christmas tree is still up. There, I said it. It's out in the open. Everyone knows. My husband Tim and I began joking about it the second week of January. It became less funny the end of January. An embarrassment the first of February!

Then something interesting happened. Tim said, "I dare you to leave it up all year!" I was like yeah, right! I don't do dares! Then he said, "We should leave it up as a symbol - a symbol of our commitment to work on what's important in our lives right now." Hmm.

When I'm not traveling I work at home, and every time I would start to take down that silly tree I would be interrupted by a phone call or something that required my attention - something truly important to our lives. I would get sooo frustrated. Tim's comment reminded me of Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey's 3rd habit is Put First Things First - put time into what's important to you.

To be successful at anything in life - whether it's cooking, scrapbooking, going back to college, writing that book or starting a business - we have to make time for it. But most of us, including me, let other things get in the way. We think taking the Christmas tree down must be done. I mean, come on - what would people think if they came to my house and my tree was up!!! Don't so much care anymore.

So who's with me on this? Here's the challenge: What is a goal of yours that you don't have time for? Why aren't you working on it? Now pick a symbol - something you aren't going to do in order to work on that goal. Use that symbol as a reminder that you have choices each and every day. Post your symbol here and let's support each other on this. I dare you to do something even more bold than leaving your Christmas tree up all year!