I have a list of wishes for my birthday:

1) K-12 Education Reform: Use Brooklyn Free School (http://brooklynfreeschool.org/) as a template for a democratic school system that empowers our youth to be responsible and active members of society. Fortify sex education to include relationship education (respectful communication, emotion control and development, self and mind awareness education). Teach nutrition and serve high-quality school lunches. Fortify art, music, and sports programs.

2) Health Reform: Improve national welfare and economy by ending sickness and profit economy of preventable hospitalization and prescription drug use. End preventable disease and hospital stays with proper nutrition education and easy access to free checkup clinics. END FDA catering to regulated industries, or create separate agency to produce food guidelines. Current nutrition information needs to be made widely accessible, via phone apps, etc. Do away with FDA food pyramid. Socialize grocery stores, Or require clear distinction between "food" and "food products." Do not allow community-run grocery stores to carry packaged or processed foods.

3) Sustainable farming, ranching, organic-only, non-gmo mandate. Bee protection policies. Stop using food for energy.

4) End war on drugs. Regulate and license growers. Educate and certify experts in responsible drug use.

5) Treat people in prisons as humans. Heavy focus on rehabilitation. End solitary confinement. Make sentences labor-related with psychological improvement guidelines for release.

6) End oil economy by taxing oil products at actual cost to environment.

7) Update public transit systems across the country. Accommodate for bicycles and shared vehicles, scooters, buses etc.

I have a few more, but will have to post later…

C'mon America, give a girl a happy birthday!

A complaint I have with intellectuals, particularly science-loving intellectuals, is their outright rejection of things like religion and astrology. Scientists and fundamentalists often make the same mistake of rejecting (or accepting) complex ideas by process of oversimplistic reductionism.

Both groups (religious fundamentalists and science fundamentalists) want simple, easy-to-understand answers, but for different reasons.

The problem is, when approaching topics like religion, both groups are denying the wisdom of five to ten thousand years of principles being passed on through metaphor, stories, myths, and allegory. Often I notice science fundamentalists will take a mythical story or bible story and reduce it to its "logical" points, and try to secure a true/false statement. This approach often misses the more subtle and deep meanings of the characters and circumstances of the stories that are being told.

Likewise, religious fundamentalists are often trying to secure information that supports their missions of conversion or self-preservation, and tend to reduce religious stories to very surface, actionable logic without considering the deeper message of the stories.

I have disdain for both approaches! I find both approaches to be arrogant and self-serving. Arrogant, in that fundamentalism is a less-than-100-year-old movement, and yet they feel so confident in their conclusions to throw 10,000-year-old-babies out with the bathwater. Self-serving, in that religion and astrology both have served humanity very well for thousands of years, yet are outright rejected (in the case of science) or outright accepted (usually in part) if their distilled messages match the motivations of the group.

Can't wait to dive into my astrology certification program this summer. It has already added so much richness to my life and I am excited to learn more about the ancient ways.