Zann

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget." - Arundhati Roy

My interests are people, all people, real people, and first and foremost, the people I love. I am very blessed and I cherish each precious one of the many beloved people I am so lucky to call friends and have in my life. I strive to live up to such gifts as these ones.

I am in love with this experience. With life. I find it fascinating that we have the capacity to reflect on existence, the capacity to become conscious of consciousness itself, and overflow with love in that recognition.

I love my work. I have been blessed in my life with right livelihood. I have been a homebirth midwife for many, many years. I teach childbirth classes and love working with people at this precious time in their lives (it is such an honor!) and am very proud of the program I have developed over the years. I am also a Lactation Consultant. I LOVE what I do and know my services make a difference and contribute in the best way. I feel very honored about this.

I also own a business where I put on events, talks, workshops and the like. We have featured a variety of authors, poets and teachers, such as David Whyte, John O'Donohue, Andrew Harvey, Cosi Fabian and Stuart Wells. I have a background in Public Relations, Publicity and Atrist Management.

Interests? I have many.

I love life and laughter and good conversation and good friends. I prefer one on one time with people where I can focus solely on them. I sometimes feel over-stimulated in groups. I love wit and cleverness and irony. I love irreverence. I love inquiry. I am infinitely curious. I love the experience of thought. I love language. I also love the sweet territory of silence. (Martin Keogh)

Stephan Choiniere (Photo by Lois Greenfield)
I'm passionate about the arts, and modern dance especially. I am passionate about good poetry, spoken word, the oral tradition, music, politics, social justice, civil rights, natural childbirth, patient advocacy, good healthy debate, public discourse, anti-racism, ending corporate personhood and I feel we have to put issues about protecting the environment above all others right now. I believe in ending the failing war on drugs. It is the legal pursuit of an unenforceable prohibition that has created great absurdity and expense and created more crime and problems than it ever hoped to solve.

I LOVE good conversation and I LOVE the dynamics of human relations. I am an unrepentant feminist and a relentless liberal.

I believe in a free press and we do not have that now in the US today. I believe in media justice and feel we need to rise up and act about media policy and regulation to ensure we have an informed public. The fact that we do not have real journalists and a free press in this country is part of the reason we have such poor voter turn out, and such apathy about how votes are and are not counted in this country. Studies have proven the more you get your information from television news, the less accurate information you have, (with Fox News watchers having the most inaccurate and false information). I support organizations like FAIR and MEDIA MTTERS who are trying to make a difference.

I love to learn. I love education. I have an extremely curious, inquisitive mind. I believe in lifelong learning. I believe in education for its own sake. I hold multiple post graduate degrees because I have been drawn to the study of many things: Psychology, Women's Studies, African American Studies, Medical Anthropology, Human Sexuality, Theology, Gerontology and Marriage, Family, & Child Counseling (which is the Psychotherapy licensing degree in California). Now I am fascinated with all they are learning about the brain every day. I would love to be in a PhD program studying Neuropsychology. But then I've always loved Political Science and always wanted to get a law degree as well. If we only lived long enough and education was more affordable..... My mind needs a lot of stimulation and I love to learn and be in good conversation, even with people I disagree with. In fact, I find I learn a lot that way.

My father was an activist very involved in the civil rights movement. I became passionately involved at a very young age in this struggle and have been a political activist ever since. (half a century, but who's counting?) For me, the personal is political and the political is personal .... So if you're fighting for freedom, you can sign me up!

ERACISM For white skinned persons like myself, for me the first step means first understanding our White Privilege. Privilege is unmerited benefits that a group of people get based on false stereotypes about their race and/or color. Thinking about the things we take for granted, that persons of color cannot. That is one of the starting points to Eracism. Only a starting point, but please let's all start getting that work done and stop the hate and erase racism and classism.

This amazing world we live in is filled with both beauty and terror. This world has some nasty things goin on that are mean, unjust and dangerous.

It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip. ~Lillian Hellman

The Environment? Media Issues? The War? Ending Poverty? Racism? Global Warming? The list is long. What do you feel passionately about? We must not sit back and know there are these problems and do nothing. We all need to Stand Up! Do Something !
TAKE ACTION

What can you do? What will be your part?