Beating the Odds

Elizabeth Warren Will Beat the Odds and Win

Elizabeth Warren says, “You don’t get what you don’t fight for.” I know in my bones that is true. Twenty-two years after surviving breast cancer, it metastasized to my bones. Yet, by fighting, today I am stronger and healthier than a majority of Americans.

Fighting for a Diagnosis

Everyone told me the growing disfunction and pain in my right hip was arthritis. Finally, my Primary Care Provider (PCP) ordered an X-ray. Viewing the result, two orthopedic doctors said it didn’t look like arthritis; maybe it was Pagett’s disease. My PCP ordered a CT scan.

After seeing results of the scan, my physical therapist called. She said I had a metastatic illness throughout my skeleton, most prominently in my right pelvis. I needed to get a bone biopsy to find out what cancer had metastasized. Due to the fragility of the bone I was in danger of a pathological fracture. “I want you to use crutches to keep pressure off of the right hip.”

Thursday before Labor Day weekend 2018, I spoke with a scheduler at the appointed testing facility for a bone biopsy. He explained the delay in scheduling. “We had to find a doctor to do it, schedule a room, and order a special needle because ‘we don’t normally do bone biopsies.’” RED FLAG! I got the doctor’s name and checked him out online. RED FLAG! It was not his specialty and he had very low approval ratings. 

I called a friend to check my gut feeling that I was headed for a procedure that might permanently damage my right pelvis and leave me crippled. Concurring, she said, “Cancel it. You have one day before the long weekend to get rescheduled with an experienced doctor in a competent facility. You can do it.”

I cancelled the biopsy next morning and began searching for a place with experience. Just before noon I called to have an order sent. My PCP did not know this facility and sent it to a wrong number. I gave them the correct one. At 4:00 I received a call reporting that all tests and images had been received at my chosen facility. 

This Fight Is My Fight

Meanwhile, my naturopath and I reviewed the CT scan. It showed no tumors in any primary organs. I had done enough research to figure out that it was likely from the original breast cancer. She put me on a sugar and gluten-free diet with protein from green vegetables, fish, and poultry and gave me vitamins and a tincture to boost my immune system. I asked about using visualization to remove cancer cells from my bones. “Yes. Visualization has been scientifically tested and proven to be effective.” 

Two or three times every day I visualized myself being surrounded by a galaxy of Love, Hope, Expertise, and Archaic Body Wisdom. I took the light of the galaxy down through the crown of my head and through all of the bones of my skeleton, visualizing it zapping cancer cells and disposing of them. 

By the time the bone biopsy confirmed that the metastasis was from breast cancer, I had researched where to go for treatment. Eugene’s Willamette Valley Cancer Research Institute (WVCI) is part of a nation-wide medical network that collaborates on cancer research. 

I called to schedule an appointment with an oncologist so I could tell my PCP where to send an order. It would take weeks to see the person my naturopath recommended. The scheduler suggested someone else. I read his bio on my computer screen - 7 years at Mayo clinic and ongoing cancer research. Great! I’ll take it. 

Fighting to Stop the Growth of the Cancer

Everywhere at WVCI are the words, We Believe in Hope. My oncologist said, “You will have this disease for the rest of your life, but you will not die from it.” I like and trust this guy!

After getting acquainted and learning the drugs he was prescribing, I asked, “Do you think it would be possible by June 2019 for me to do a forty-five-minute presentation on my feet without crutches?” My accompanying friend gasped in disbelief. He was attentive. “I have been working ten years on an art installation that is scheduled for an exhibition in Seattle and I will need to speak about it.”

He responded, “I want you to see an orthopedic oncologist in Portland. You need to be seen by an doctor who is familiar with your disease.” Before I left, he had someone scheduling me an appointment at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). He sent me to the resident pharmacy to pick up my first drug. His plan to start me on a drug to strengthen my bones suffered delays as we fought with my insurance over their preferred drug versus his recommended one.

Two weeks later I was at OHSU. An orthopedic doctor told me there were treatment options, but it all depended upon what my goals were and how much I was willing to invest. I repeated my June 2019 goal. I asked about bone cement. He turned on the computer and showed me images of my right pelvis.

It looked like swiss cheese and there was a two-inch black hole. “We can’t do bone cement because it goes in as a liquid and would go right through the holes.”  He recommended doing ten days of radiation at WVCI and coming back in three months.

Radiation is exhausting but I was up for whatever it would take to restore my health and mobility. Once through that ordeal, my naturopath focused my vitamin supplements on bone growth. When I arrived back at OHSU on Christmas Eve day, I was no longer in pain and I had graduated from crutches to a cane. 

After X-rays., I saw the doctor and asked what they showed. He said there was no change. “But don’t bones re-grow?” “Yes, but very slowly. You may always have the ‘swiss cheese and black hole’. We have stopped the growth of the cancer. Come again in three months.” 

Fighting to Rebuild My Bones

I asked my naturopath, “If the X-rays don’t show any change, how could he say we’ve stopped the growth of the cancer?” Studying blood work done prior to my visit to OHSU, it showed that the breast cancer marker was down from 303 in September to 60. (It has since gone down to the 40s.) Radiation had given a boost to the drugs. We high fived and adjusted my vitamin supplements and visualizations accordingly. 

It was five months before I got back to OHSU. After X-rays, I was greeted by two of my doctor’s students who asked questions about what I was doing. I talked about my work with a naturopath. I did not mention my visualizations, sensing they would think that was ‘woo woo’. 

The interns seemed puzzled about something, so I asked what they saw in the X-rays.

Bringing up the images, one said there was obvious healing of the bone. I asked, “No ‘swiss cheese or black hole?’” The doctor confirmed this, said I was one of the lucky ones, and announced I did not need to see him again.

Three weeks later, I packed and shipped over forty art works, installed them at the gallery, walked for ten days up three metal staircases, and did six presentations without crutches or cane. I believe in science and the power of the human spirit.

Elizabeth Warren is fighting for the changes that will get this country back on track. I know in my bones that she can beat the odds and become the president we need at this point in our history. 

GET IN THE FIGHT

If you’ve been on the sidelines waiting to find out who the Democrats are going to choose as our presidential candidate, NOW is the time to move from the edges and join in the battle of our lifetime. The Civil Rights movement, resistance to the Viet Nam war, and feminist revolution fore-shadowed what we face full-front now.

The Iowa caucus was a mess because people are confused by a changing political paradigm. Old party definitions and ideologies have gone by the wayside because 21^st century problems cannot be solved with 19^th or 20^th century solutions. Environmental chaos is disrupting patterns of human settlement that we assumed were set in stone. Artificial intelligence is altering the whole concept of work and employment. Global systems of trade have put entire groups of people on the defensive.

A new ethics-based political paradigm has emerged. Based on values such as courage, truth, and respect for diversity, it transcends previous party, national and tribal identities. Greta Thunberg comes to mind as exemplifying this new lens for understanding the events of our era.

The Paradigm Battle

Paradigms do not change without periods of confusion, disarray, and conflict. We witnessed the current struggle to embrace the new paradigm when:

• Mitt Romney voted to remove a same-party president from political office, accepting the GOP ostracism that would result
• Vulnerable Democrat Doug Jones chose to protect the US constitution regardless of this resulting in the likely loss of his senate seat
• Adam Schiff and the whole House Impeachment team eloquently and with precision presented evidence of wrong-doing by an out-of-control autocrat while knowing that power-hungry Republicans would not listen
• Yavanovitch and Vindman, both from immigrant families, were willing to sacrifice their careers to get out the truth. 

Each of these persons made their sacrifice in hope that the rest of us would listen and have the courage to act on what we also know to be true. 

Protectors of the old paradigm of aristocratic money and power, relics of nation-states and the colonialism of previous eras, want to keep us in confusion and disarray because that paralyzes us from taking courageous action. Wall Street and the GOP tell us that our economy is thriving when in reality 30% of all workers are in a gig economy that provides unstable income and no benefits.  

The Democratic field of presidential candidates has been large, boding well for future leadership. But, having to choose between so many options can feel overwhelming. While many of these future leaders will be in a new Democratic administration, now we need to unite around one candidate so we can build momentum for the general election in which we remove the Divider-in-chief. 

After watching every debate, reading political essays, seeing C-Span videos of the candidates out on the campaign trail and looking through an ethics-driven paradigm, here's my overview of our primary options. Full disclosure: I am a Warren Democrat. 

New Paradigm Candidates

Any female candidate is part of a new political paradigm. This automatically makes her an outsider who is generally overlooked or ignored by old paradigm pundits. 

Amy Klobachar

With a grandfather who worked on the iron range and father who was a local journalist, Amy identifies with people who work hard for a living. She is a senator for Minnesota, a diverse Mid-Western state that has been hit hard by automation. With a strong record in the senate, she advocates for moderate changes to the system – something that appeals to the large older population but doesn’t give young people a lot of hope. Her clever attacks on other candidates will make it hard for her to unite the Democratic party. 

Elizabeth Warren

The daughter of an Oklahoma janitor and minimum-wage spouse, Warren worked her way through high school and a Houston public college. Her experience teaching special education, followed by attending law school in New Jersey led to a career as a law professor. Her principles drove her to research middle-class issues and to fight for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that has now returned 12 billion dollars to citizens who were cheated by financial institutions. Her intelligence and experience are invigorated with compassion. 

Single Issue New Paradigm Candidates

Tom Steyer

Issue: Saving the environment before it’s too late. His epiphany came after making billions in the fossil-fuel industry. In 2018 he helped with the blue wave by funding young people as organizers to get youth politically engaged. While climate change is a fundamental issue affecting the future of all of us and the whole planet, he has not spelled out how it intersects with all of the other issues we face.

Andrew Yang  

Issue: Work as we have known it is going away. Artificial Intelligence/automation is rapidly eroding jobs. It is important that we hear this message. As he foresees this, his solution is to give every adult $1000 a month as a base income. However, he has not done the math to show us how this would be paid for and has not articulated a full vision. Or if he has, he has not articulated it in a way ordinary people can understand.  

Old Paradigm Candidates

Joe Biden

The former Vice President is trying to become a new paradigm politician focused on ethics but does not know how to embed values into innovative new policies. His strong support in the African American community is a huge asset but he has so much baggage from a long career in politics that almost any adversary can find something with which to flog him. He was an early target of the orange-faced one and has not shown that he can beat him.

Michael Bloomberg

He is focused, rightly, on beating Donald Trump. As a billionaire and former three-term New York mayor who is cognizant of Trump’s bankruptcies and racist shady deals, he knows that Trump is a business failure driving the economy to greater inequities. He is spending his billions to make the rest of us aware of this. His black marks are money in politics and as a crafter of the Stop and Frisk policing that unfairly incarcerated people of color.

Pete Buttigiege

A 38-year-old smooth talker, he was mayor of South Bend, Indiana for eight years during which the number of incarcerated African Americans soared, exceeding other places in the nation. His gay orientation tempted me to place him in the new paradigm category, however he is following the old pattern of money influencing politics and is heavily supported by Wall Street. He attracts a large following, but his sexual orientation would make him a prime target for the Insulter-in-chief.     

Bernie Sanders

As a self-identified Socialist, this is the candidate the Hater-in-Chief wants. Sanders’ Socialist label is made to order for rallying the red-hat base. You have to hand it to Sanders for consistency over his forty-year political career. But he is a figurehead rather than a leader. He is unable to give moral direction to his followers who do not identify with Democrats and use name-calling and underhanded tactics to criticize Democratic candidates.

Get In The Fight

The GOP makes fun of Democratic turnout for the Iowa caucus being on a par with 2016 and not 2018, but the reality is that while over 176,113 people braved cold weather and new procedures to show support for Democratic candidates, Republican turnout was only 18% of that - 31,770. Each of the three Democratic front-runners had more than their total turnout. Don't be fooled by 'supposedly' large rallies for Trump; cult followers are often bused in from elsewhere.

To defeat morally bankrupt Republicans holding on to an old ineffectual paradigm, we need you in the fight NOW. If a conservative group in Arizona can enter the new paradigm and launch the Lincoln Project to defeat Trump supporter and enabler McSally, I know you can figure out a role in the upcoming election. I got ideas by going to ElizabethWarren.com. Now I'm writing letters to the editor and have an app on my phone that allows me to canvas anywhere any time. After getting trained in a Warren campaign on-line session, I'll be tabling for the Democratic party at the Asian celebration next Sunday where I’ll be using my app! 

Social Art in 2020

Daylight in Eugene, rather than disappearing at 4:00 in the evening, is hanging around until after 5:00. Yeah! The light’s return has given me energy for new ventures that give a sense of hope for a better relationship to our planet and one another.

Picking up on the trend toward wearing our heart on our sleeve, I'm designing three artistic shirts that invite reflection on moving us toward a new more human and earth-centered society.

VOTE Shirt Is Here

Attractive black short sleeve women's comfy top with white musically themed asymmetrical VOTE on back left shoulder and HOPE in front left pocket area for stylistically encouraging participation in democracy. 

$24 with first class free shipping at banyantreeclothing.etsy.com 

Shirt Back

Shirt Front 

Soon WOMEN’S EQUALITY Shirt

Sangria short-sleeve women’s comfy top featuring a white oracular goddess creatively highlighting social arenas needing to change. Hint: HERS is an international acronym standing for Health Rights, Education and Economic Equality, Representation 50% 50%, and Safety for Body and Soul.

Soon EARTH Shirt

Olive green men’s and women’s tees with white globe encircled by figures calling us to care for Gaia / Mother Earth.

Oregon Book Release Event

Save the date: Thursday March 12

Tsunami bookstore 2585 Willamette Street Eugene OR

5:30 Book Signing and Refreshments

6:00 Introductions by Nancy Golden

6:10 Reading by LiDoña Wagner

6:40 Book Signing and Earth Songs by Kathy Marshall 

Embracing Mystery

Photo by Jim Doty Jr

Winter Solstice approaches in the northern hemisphere, a season marked by long hours of darkness. Having previously emphasized the magic of the incremental return of light that follows winter solstice, this year I want to herald the power of darkness and the healing mystery that it brings. 

It is no wonder that many of us do not like darkness. Sight is often the most dominant of our six senses. An inability to see unknowns lying hidden in darkness makes us fearful and apprehensive. Still, in the big picture, winter’s deep silence is also an opportunity to rest our eyes and allow other senses to play a significant role.

Image from Science News

Something truly remarkable happens when we allow ourselves to sleep for longer periods of time. Unsuspected possibilities find nurture in nightly retreats, allowing for the incubation of barely conscious ideas. Dreams emerge with mosaics of long forgotten memories. Tiny seeds in our imagination sprout invisible roots. All of this remains unseen for weeks or months, prompting our rational mind to suggest that nothing is happening. We become impatient for this mysterious process to morph into clarity and visual evidence that our time of rest has not been wasted.

Photo from ABC News Australia

I am emerging from a long period of darkness. The decade I devoted to exploring humanity’s ancestral roots was similar to a long hibernation. Now that Seed of Imagination has been published, similar to Rip van Winkle, my refreshed eyes are discovering how the world from which I withdrew has changed. Walking in downtown Eugene, familiar landmarks are gone, replaced by strange shops with unusual facades. While I was sequestered in my studio and at the computer, some enterprises died. New ones have taken their place, or an empty space was left for something else to emerge.

Fear not. 

If you welcome it, 

darkness can be your friend. 

Image from St Louis Science Center

May this season be filled 

with deep mystery, 

giving birth to a commitment 

to create fair and just communities 

that give care-filled attention 

to the needs of Gaia,

Mother Earth.

A Meaningful Art Gift

SEED OF IMAGINATION: An Ancestral Creative Journey traces our human migration from East Africa to Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, Ancient Near East, and Oceania. The legacy of these ancient monumental journeys out of Africa is shared through visual art, journal entries, and intuitive reflections on travel and research. 

Wagner's self-portrait wraps around to the back for international endorsements.

Through recounting her decade-long creation of Celebrating Our Maiden Migrations, an installation of two and three-dimensional artworks, LiDoña Wagner invites you to explore your own deep ancestry, migration as a timeless reality, and human impact on our amazing planet. The narrative of this beautiful art book opens with:

I am on a journey,

both excruciatingly solitary

and frighteningly communal,

traveling with our ancestors,

migrating from place to place.

...

Based on Wagner’s own DNA test and genetic research carried out by National Geographic’s Genographic Project, the text is structurally similar to the DNA helix itself. Two story lines curve and turn throughout the narrative: the artist’s personal ancestral journey via travel and art making and our common human journey out of Africa. The bridge between these collective and individual forays into the unknown is formed by stunning paintings, sculptures, poems, and photographs.

Each of five sections opens with a poem followed by one of LiDoña's Stone Age paintings. Bear Greats the Sun, LiDoña Wagner, Collection of Gail and Munir Katul.  

Side pages with history, anecdotes and personal reflections add depth and dimensionality. Artists will find the book’s photographs of the evolution of Wagner’s mixed-media acrylic paintings, multi-board configurations, and kinetic mobiles fascinating and instructive. 

Photos from Wagner's exploration of her paternal ancestry in Sicily.

For anyone who loves beauty and the creative process, has done ancestral research, occasionally thought of swabbing a cheek, or ever wondered, “Where do I come from?”. 

Available at: lidonaw@gmail.com

Price is $39.95 plus shipping. Three or more copies for $38 each plus shipping. Receive in less than a week.

Available at: BookBaby https://store.bookbaby.com/book/SEED-OF-IMAGINATION

Price is $39.95 plus shipping. Through Print on Demand service you receive your book in two to three weeks.

Endorsements

... A journey of the kind depicted in Seed of Imagination is what I wish for every woman who is caught in a web of weakness, paralysis, and immobility in order to move her to be care-filled and audacious about the choices she makes.  

—Mary D’Souza, Founder and Director, Aditi Learning Centre, Maharashtra, India 

I’ve been deeply engaged with Wagner’s book ,,, the width and breadth of her mind and creative expression boggles me. I love how she allowed her process to guide the work. Her paintings are unusual and magnificent. The prose took me places I’ve never even thought to go. Now I want to swab my cheek and send in my DNA! I will return to this book again and again for inspiration.

—Skye Blaine, author of Bound to Love: a memoir of grit and gratitude and Unleashed

Transcending time and geography, Seed of Imagination is reflective of the necessity of courage in the essential art of living. An astonishing creation, this book is truly a legacy for all times.

—Sarah Buss, village development in Upper Egypt and author of Love Letters to a Mirage in the Desert and The Other Side of Midnight

Seed of Imagination shows how the human spirit and changing geography shaped our migration from Africa. The knowledge that we are children of an East African mother turns the myth of racial supremacy and communalism raging in Malaysia and around the world on its head.  ... 

—Dharmalingam Vinasithamby, freelance writer and public speaking coach, former editor for Asiaweek in Hong Kong and The Straits Times in Singapore 

... The book motivated me to find ways that I might better tell the story of African resilience in communities everywhere.

—Terry Bergdall, PhD, author of Methods for Active Participation: 

Experiences in Rural Development from East and Central Africa

At a time when our differences are a dividing force, Seed of Imagination is an insightful poetic narrative that invites us to discern deep-seated connections that have been submerged in a sea of unconsciousness. ... She weaves science, genealogy, her art and personal history into an exquisite tapestry of colorful connections that ignite a fiery celebration of our deep global roots. ...

—Eunice M. Shankland, training and facilitation consultant, Shankland & Associates LLC and UN Agencies

Tremendous and utterly unique! Seed of Imagination is a celebration of earthlings’ common ancestors and their ingenious migrations, resulting in the different cultures present today. If the people of Oceania could build outrigger canoes to carry entire communities across the ocean, what incredible journeys are possible for societies all over the world?!

—Aimee Hilliard, Executive Officer for Ecumenical Ventures: Chicago and Island Ventures: Philippines

What Is A Torus?

Energy field known as the torus

As a young woman I witnessed round mud huts arranged in a circle in villages of Africa and later Angkor Wat’s ladder-like temples blew me away. Fast forward to 2008 and 2017 when I was dazzled by the swoops and curves of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain.

This year’s reading of Lois Stark’s The Telling Image: Shapes of Changing Times put all of these awe-inspiring architectural wonders into perspective. The thesis of her book is that in each era of history human beings create architectural forms that model their understanding of social reality. The circle is the most basic form, imitating the shape of the sun and moon and denoting a social organization of shared leadership and cohesion important to a hunter gatherer lifestyle. The ladder (pyramids and square stepped temples) emerged with settled hierarchical societies that lasted from the birth of agriculture, through the industrial revolution, and into the twentieth century.

Temples at Angkor Wat

Seeing Earth from space gave human beings a way to see the absence of boundaries and the fragile beauty of ecosystems, forcing us to step outside our narrow view of reality and take an eagle-eye view of ourselves as not living in isolation but in relation to a broad shared context. And at the microcosmic level, seeing the DNA molecule set the centuries old ladder spinning, giving us a look inside the bodies we had assumed were bounded by skin of differing shades. 

The Helix - ladder takes a spin in DNA molecule

Thus in our time we have seen new architectural forms arise that depict different ways of thinking, living, and organizing our social life. As I read about and saw photos of incredible new forms of architecture around the world, I found my social paradigm shifting, morphing into images of networks and energy systems. 

Galaxy design for Auroville, a planned town in India

Galaxies, networked nodes, and electrical energy fields are some of the inspirations for contemporary architecture.

Hudson Yards in New York city

Today's architects use computer programs to help design buildings that are now possible because of new materials such as those used in aeronautics and space vehicles. Impacted by the earth-rise and knowledge of climate change, contemporary architects incorporate living systems into their designs. 

Grass-roof helix, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

The energy field surrounding each human body is the shape of the torus and we can expect to see more structures that imitate energy fields such as this. I find myself contemplating what these structures say about our body politic. How do these new images inform the creation of peace on Earth?

Florida Polytechnic Institute 

Even before reading The Telling Image, my social paradigm had begun to shift. For the past year, faced with the metastasis of my breast cancer from twenty-two years ago to my bones, my morning and evening meditations and healing visualizations have begun with an image of being part of a galaxy of Love, Hope, Expertise, and Archaic Body Wisdom. So, even without Stark's book I had begun adopting a new way of seeing the world. I bet you have as well.

Trusting Inner Guidance

Where do you turn when a decade-long project appears to be coming to an end or morphing into something not yet fully grasped? I often go to my Tarot cards for navigating such transitions, so in July, as I began recouping my energy after the exertions involved with showing my installation Celebrating Our Maiden Migrations, I pulled out my Osho Zen Tarot deck. Flipping the manual to Card Spreads or Layouts, I spotted one I had never used before – The Flying Bird.

After scanning the description, I decided to go for it when I saw that it involved both the masculine and feminine sides of myself and that each card higher on the layout would move me “into greater clarity and inner spaciousness. As I read the cards, I found myself deeply moved. 

After living with the results for a few days, I decided that I wanted a personal visual representation of the messages I was receiving and decided to make a ‘rood screen’ – a collage of images glued to the inside of a file folder. The file folder would allow me to fold my collage up to take anywhere and would be strong enough to stand up wherever I placed it. Here are the results of my reading with my personally selected images.

1.     Bottom / Lift-off 

TRUSTING INNER GUIDANCE

2.     Left side / Fear of Flying 

LETTING GO INTO NEW DIMENSIONS

3.     Right side / Response-ability to the Fear 

SHARING VIA COMMUNICATION

4.     Left side /Inner Support (intuition) of Responsibility 

REMAIN AT EASE

5.     Right side /External Support (intelligent action responding to the intuition) 

EAGLE’S VIEW OF POSSIBILITIES

6.     Left side / Relaxation and Acceptance 

ACCEPTING CHALLENGE OF THE UNKNOWN

7.     Right side / Arrival at A New Level of Awareness 

SPIRITUAL SPRING OF MATURITY

Final Rood Screen