Rich Diversity or Impoverished Tolerance? You Be the Judge

Who'da thunk we'd find any of this in Elburn, a psychic fair AND far right attitudes opposing it? There is more than one path to divinity, and it's my own opinion that finding the divine in oneself entails finding the divine in others--with love, tolerance, and understanding, regardless of philosophical differences. Who knows? Maybe to divine IS divine. When such ability is used to aid and heal, who is to say that it isn't a gift from God? Or Goddess? 

There is much stock to be taken from the creed, "An it harm none, do as thou wilt." And I can tell you, my friends, those words of wisdom do not come from Christian philosophy. But this one does, and an equal amount of stock should be taken from it, "Do unto others as thou wilt have others do unto you." That includes not imposing one's views upon others, unbidden and judgmentally. 

With all due respect to my numerous fundamentalist friends, I'm headed to that Elburn psychic fair with my mom, in just a bit. And not to protest. ...Unless it's to oppose narrow-minded, judgmental, moral elitism. But then again, to each his own. Intolerance, get thee behind me.

Psychic fair faces opposition in Elburn

June 25th, 2009, The Elburn Herald

• Letter: Connecting with dead not harmless
• Community center announces open gym
• Letter: Fireworks, celebrations and community character
• Elburn village notes

Filed Under: Elburn

Tags: Denise Vanvliet • Elburn and Countryside Community Center • Gary Augustine • Parents Advocating 4 Kids

Others say ‘A Day With Your Angels’ OK by Martha Quetsch

ELBURN—Some village residents, including a minister, are disturbed about an event that will bring psychics and mediums to the Elburn & Countryside Community Center Saturday, saying its focus is dangerous.

However, Denise Vanvliet, who is organizing the event, said “A Day With Your Angels” will be entirely positive.

“No devil worship, nothing like that,” said Vanvliet, massage therapist and owner of Intuition Institute, a community center business tenant.

“A Day With Your Angels” will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the gymnasium of the Community Center, 525 N. Main St. Vendors and exhibitors will include people offering aura readings, palm readings and Reiki mini-sessions to enhance a person’s energy flow, Vanvliet said.

Gary Augustine, pastor of the Evangelical Fellowship Church in Elburn, does not want children who might be at the community center to be exposed to “the dark side of spiritism and the demonic.” He and other church representatives have gathered together for community-wide prayer meetings since hearing about the event, and they will hold one on Friday at 8 p.m. in the Community Center gymnasium to pray for protection against the dangers they believe it will present.

On Saturday, a group of parents will be at the event representing Parents Advocating 4 Kids (PAK) to suggest with signs and literature that the community center where children congregate might not be the best place for a psychic fair, just as you might not want a shark exhibit in a water slide pool for kids, Augustine said.

The children who will be at the Community Center that day include those attending martial arts and dance classes, which are held in other areas of the building, Community Center Board member Jack Hansen said.

Hansen said he does not see anything wrong with allowing the event to take place at the Community Center, since nothing the vendors and exhibitors plan to do is illegal. The Community Center will receive a rental fee for ”A Day With Your Angels” and for the prayer meeting on Friday.

“We welcome both of these kind of events. They bring people to the community center,” Hansen said.

“Day With Your Angels” also will feature clothing and handbag vendors, and Paisano’s pizza.

News Flash on Hot Flashes

Okay, it's not really a news flash, and neither is it a brilliant stroke of genius. And if I'm the only person to have thought of this remedy, then I would be seriously concerned about the state of human intelligence. However, last night as "Whew, I'm hot" turned into "Oh crap, a hot flash" and my great big box fan was doing precious little to provide relief, I suddenly remembered my assortment of ice packs in the freezer. I normally keep them handy for migraines and muscle spasms, but as I prepared for bed last night feeling as if I had suddenly become a drenching wet human furnace, it miraculously occurred to me that those ice packs can serve another purpose: Hot Flash Nipping. Nip your Hot Flash in the bud by taking one ice-solid ice pack and placing it at the crown of your head. Use a headband to hold it in place if you have to. Then place a second ice pack at your C1, the hollow where your skull and your neck join. Hold in place (shifting position of pack at neck as needed) until pack softens and is body temperature. Guaranteed relief within 5 minutes. Or by the time ice pack melts. Whichever comes first.

US Boy Says He Wants to Stay in Brazil--I hope it works out better for this father than it did for me!

Nothing is worse than your own child rejecting you in favor of another person. I know this. The worst part is what the child is going through, and being helpless as a parent to make it better. It's excruciatingly unfair to have to place your parenthood on trial, to let strangers in a foreign country decide whether or not your own stolen child should be returned to you. It makes me sick.

This man's story is my own.

What the hell is wrong with people???


By MARCO SIBAJA, Associated Press Writer Marco Sibaja, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jun 18, 5:18 am ET

BRASILIA, Brazil – A 9-year-old boy at the center of an international custody battle told a psychologist he wants to stay with his stepfamily in Brazil rather than return to the U.S. with his biological father, according to a transcript of the interview.

In the transcript, released by the Brazilian family's lawyers on Wednesday, Sean Goldman tells the psychologist that if he is sent back to New Jersey to be with David Goldman he will "break down totally."

"I want to stay here in Brazil," the 9-year-old repeats in the interview.

The interview with Sean Goldman was conducted Monday by psychologist Terezinha Feres-Carneiro in a Rio de Janeiro hospital. It wasn't immediately clear who paid for the psychologist's services.

When asked to draw a picture of his family, the boy drew only his stepfather, sister and Brazilian grandparents.

The transcript's release follows comments last week by David Goldman that a hearing in Brazil had made public an issue that he said he had been legally barred from discussion previously: "The psychological damage that has been inflicted on my son is finally out in the open."

"There's no words to describe the anxiety and the pain that I feel from that," he said.

Goldman's lawyer told the judges about reports by three court-appointed psychologists who found Sean was suffering.

Calls to David Goldman and his lawyer late Wednesday were not immediately returned.

In 2004, Sean's mother, Bruna Bianchi, took him for a two-week vacation to her native Brazil and never returned. She divorced David Goldman in Brazil and married Rio de Janeiro lawyer Joao Paulo Lins e Silva.

She died last year, and a Rio state court granted Lins e Silva temporary custody of Sean.

A lower court in Brazil later ruled that Sean Goldman be returned to the U.S., but that decision was suspended after a petition was filed arguing that removing Sean from his current family environment would hurt the boy.

Last week, Brazil's Supreme Court rebuffed the petition, instead ruling the decision on the boy's fate must be made by a federal court.

At Rainbow's End

This morning, the sun shone through my north-east window, causing a rainbow to appear on one of my walls. It arced down and ended right at Alex's baby picture, taken when he was just a few weeks old, that sits atop my bookcase.

Since there is nothing hanging in the window to cause a rainbow, and because I'd never seen a rainbow appear in my bedroom before, I thought it was pretty remarkable. I took several pictures and pulled Mom out of bed to come see... And just before she walked in, my gaze landed on an object that lay in the sunlight. The sun was refracting off a dusty, upturned DVD.

I have to admit, I was disappointed. I had hoped it was a message from one of my grandparents, perhaps, letting me know all was well with them and my son, but I couldn't deny the obvious mundane source of my rainbow.

It was still pretty, though, and what a lovely symbol it made with Alex at its end!