I simply have to continue telling you the story of my West Coast road trip. It has left some lingering memories that I am happy to share with you. After exploring the various coastal cities of Oregon, I did a little bit of  ‘bin raiding’, experiencing outlet shopping heaven; $5 T-shirts and $1.99 specialty sports socks at NIKE outlet. (Now that’s what I’m talkin’ bout.)  And yes, the Coach outlet was 40% off, but no, it did not have any purse to my liking. Then again, maybe my taste is unique? Because I saw this crazy sight:  A lady with about 12 Coach purses hanging on her arms, her eyes clearly hungry, and madly hunting for the perfect purse, while her husband lagged behind her carrying even more purses and looking so dejected! My wallet didn’t lose too much weight at the outlets though. Incidentally, did you know Oregon doesn’t have taxes? Needless to say, my friend was able to get an awesome wardrobe update at Van Hussen!

On the drive back toward Washington we pulled over to catch a bit of an amusement/water park called “Wild Waves”. (It’s just outside of Tacoma).  It was ‘officially’ the season opening weekend, but the water park did not in fact open due to the cold temperature. HOWEVER , we didn’t let that stop us from getting our fun on; we had a blast going on so many thrill rides and spinning literately upside down with our legs dangling in the air! My body had a total adrenalin-rush as we got completely soaked in a splash down log ride. Brrrrr! (Said with a huge smile on my face!) “The Corkscrew” was for me a no-contest compared to the old style roller coaster ride.  I think one factor was we underestimated the roller coaster and were so surprised at how fun it was.

This place of course had many junk food stalls, and me being in love with ice cream mini melts, (I first discovered them in Disneyland years ago) I went for them.  We just sat back and took a break in the sun after about 5-6 major rides…Refreshing was the cool ice cream but wow did it ever do a number on our stomachs. So much so that we ended our day of thrill rides after we ate them.  I suppose it begs the question; does our ability to enjoy days like this decrease as we age? 

Settling our stomachs, we then settled into the heart of Seattle, staying at the Best Western again which was a convenient 2 minutes from the Space Needle. We went to a nearby Thai restaurant and walked around the park before we headed to a Laser show that was visual overload at the Science Centre. (It looked like most of the people were high going in!)  An experience no matter how people look at it, I have to say the show was really interesting. The music was like an adventure thrill ride unto itself- with rock, world, punk and mellow music taking us through a range of emotions and exciting visual adventures.

The last day of our Victoria long weekend road trip coincidentally happened to also be the week before Memorial Day in the USA, so there were many retail sales going on. On the Monday we visited the Science Fiction Museum, which is connected to the “Experience Music Project”, which I ABSOLUTELY loved! There was a 600 plus guitar tree, an ever-changing stage with metal blooming flowers above, “The Jimmy Hendrix Lounge”, and the audio history room which documented oral history as told by various musical and science fiction industry people.  Hearing the actress that played communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the popular Star Trek television series, Michelle Nichols retelling her experience with Martin Luther King JR. and her being apart of the first interracial kiss on TV with William Shatner brought tears to my eyes. We were really present to stories about people who were expert at telling such moving tales about their overcoming of barriers. 

The section with R&B was mind blowing, and I saw a presentation of a guy who can replicate all sorts of mechanical and other sounds simply with his lips. It was just astounding!  I was excited to hear about how ‘the big black out in New York’ helped to start the R&B music scene as within month, there were tons of DJs with turn tables mixing and creating their own music for battles.  You can get a taste of it here: http://www.empsfm.org/programs/index.asp?categoryID=60

My favorite of all, was this musical room upstairs, where people can play with all sorts of musical instruments, from drums or guitar, to bass, congo, piano- you name it- and anyone can even make their own recording, or just sing along with very famous tunes!  It was a dream come true to be in that room where it felt literally possible to “be your own rock star”.
Now those of you who don’t know me, and come to think of it, even those of you who think you know me well, may not be aware that I’ve been addicted to science fiction from day 1! I wanted to be an inventor as my first career choice at age 5. Where is this story about my past aspirations going? Well, The Science Fiction Museum, as Shania would say “that don’t’ impress me much.”  It just didn’t. Photography is not allowed, and it comes off as if it is just a museum of toys and pictures and movie posters behind plastic cases. There was no interactivity, let alone things that would inspire the mind to expand. They did not have the sensory stimulation like the EMP.  However, this building was built by Frank Gehry, a golden curving structure that changed color depending on the light of day, with patches of blue….and giant bugs on top of the door.  I loved every bit of that experience.

Now seeing as it was my friend’s first time in Seattle, I was excited to be the tour guide and so we went to Pike Place Market for lunch,  (after riding on the free downtown bus! “Oh yeeeeah….”)  It was loud and busy that day. Seriously, like 100 times the bustle of Granville Island I kid you not, and so, we walked further downtown towards our underground tour of Seattle. The tour was run by very funny tour guides who told us the history of Seattle; how it was built on silt land, with exploding toilets, and a big fire that burned the whole city down in 1919.  We walked through many part of the original city, and saw that the history of Seattle has it’s shady bit, namely not recognizing the Madam that left all her fortune to build Seattle’s education system!  The name Seattle was the name of a first nation’s chief, Chief Seattle. I found it fascinating to learn just how many challenges early pioneers faced in their everyday lives just trying to get housing, water, transportation, safety, etc. Sometime we forget where we have come from as a society. And we just live and travel in these huge cities. The underground tour experience was amazing and I highly recommend the tour, it really gives you context of the city of Seattle, and the spirit of their people.

One of the most apparent things during our visiting Washington was that the retail sector was a lot more fancy in the USA than in Canada. Gleaming metal frames, pristine glass and stylish layouts of products inside all the stores made me really aware of how much work goes into the presentation and merchandising of these places! Everything was placed, ‘just so’, and presented like a Christmas gift.  A cool thing about Seattle is that it has very different vibes between the various neighborhoods and so no matter what your mood or style, there is something to suit your style. There are funky restaurants and bars along 5th Street. The area near the Space Needle is all touristy and catered to families, but then there are various architectural and open spaces near the water for those who love the outdoors and crave exploration.  It is very obvious to all that Seattle is a musical city. There are often very different types of music ranging from PUNK to JAZZ played live from various restaurants and little holes in the wall. We got a taste of all of it, and it tasted good!

Come to think of it, I should also tell you that during my last trip there, we visited the Boeing Aerospace Museum, where I learned tons about World War I and II, as well as the history and various evolutions of planes, jets, and other aircrafts.  The experience left me breathless, especially seeing the magnificent British Concord in person. Standing right in front of what was a real human achievement.  

It’s funny you know? Because looking back, I can still remember distinctly the first time I visited Seattle. I actually thought… “What an ugly city, full of gray buildings that are no taller than 5 stories high, and what is with these weird intersections that seem to spin you around in circles?”…  After a few visits however, I’ve noticed that my impression of Seattle has since improved. The city has definitely grown on me and I have come to regard Seattle as a city that is beaming with activity and life, from all across the board and at various different paces.    

All in all, I think people from Seattle are very similar to Vancouverites, in the sense that they’re laid back, more liberal. They have strong core values, they care about their environment, and they respect independence. These are qualities I admire in a society. It’s probably why it reminds me of Vancouver. It’s probably why I am so happy to live in Vancouver, and happy to continue to visit Seattle.

If you’ve been reading our newsletter, you’ll know that I’ve attempted to meditate for sometime now. And I have to admit, every time I have tried to do so, it has been a definite challenge. I had to really work on giving up thinking I was either developing multiple personalities or becoming schizophrenic with so much seemingly endless chatter inside my head.  I found that my attempts at meditation were making me more agitated than relaxed and I had developed a real aversion to it.  I also understood that there was some barrier I had to overcome, I mean, how could so many people talk about being in a calm mind frame from meditation. That many humans have to be telling the truth right?
So naturally, when a dear friend sent me a link to an upcoming 10-day meditation retreat called Vipassana in Merritt, I jumped on the chance, and will be forever grateful for this life changing experience of which I will now share with you… Thank you for reading, and continuously joining me as I am on this journey called ‘life”!

Here is an excerpt from my journal on the 3rd day of my retreat:
“It’s my third day here at the meditation centre. My legs and joints are sore, and my body hungry but my mind is crystal clear.  Everyday it seems we sit in silence practicing our breathing, while each morning the birds sing wonderful melodies of nature song, and each afternoon, Zeus throws down thunder bolts as if on cue around 2-3pm, followed by the theatrics of rain.

We have heard all kinds of rain; Gentle soft rain that whispers quietly, downpour that nourishes mother earth or playful rain that is on only for 5 minutes of power play.
We’re in God’s country, when the thunder hits, our building is creaking with activity; the blinds begin to dance, windows begin to shake, fat raindrops slap against the glass making “pat, pat, pat” sounds.

I’ve never visited Merritt before and I see that it’s very much a part of the earth.  I’ve seen cute chipmunks running around, butterflies and bees buzzing about, and beetles in the woods during my stroll around the surrounding area within the bear fence.  The plants and trees give off a fresh mountain aroma that engulfs our senses, and refreshes our spirits. 
I really like the meditation.  At first all I could feel was the pain/discomfort in my body, then came the living nightmare brought on by my sadistic egotistical mind.  Now, my mind is calmer, more quite, and my heart is like the glass surface of the calm sea.  No waves, no splashes.  The mind still wonders, but I’m aware of it.”

The retreat I took part in teaches Vipassana meditation.  It has no religious affiliation, it’s a method to cleanse your mind, and help you along the path to enlightenment.  I was really surprised, as I thought meditation is the physicality of sitting in one posture and relaxing. I had no idea there was a whole body of knowledge and wisdom to go with it.  Over the 10 days in noble silence, each day after 2 vegetarian meals, we were treated to one hour of discourse in the evening from S.N Goenka, the gentleman from Burma that has brought Vipassana meditation back to India and around the world, which now has 140 centers.  He was quite a successful businessman from the Hindu community, plagued by a migraine headache; he accidently tried Vipassana and in turn has been leading a life of balance, and bliss.

Vipassana was discovered by Siddhartha Gautama, Buddha (The word Buddha means ‘awakened one’) 2500 years ago, who was a royal prince that denounced his position and power to search for a path to end eternal suffering and misery in the cycle of reincarnation.  He abandoned his position at age 29 and succeeded after 6 years of continued search, learning, meditation, and became enlightened underneath a Bodhi tree.  Out of compassion, he spent the next 40 years teaching people how to live Dharma, and practice Vipassana meditation to reach enlightenment themselves. The amazing thing is that never once did he have the desire to be to be idolized or to turn his practice into a religion.

 In his lifetime, he had made major impact in many parts of India; from kings to the untouchables, he did his good work turning their lives of turmoil and distress into those of peace and harmony.  Yet after 500 years, his meditation had grown, and gained popularity in South East Asia. Places like Thailand and Burma and then into China, Japan and Korea, and spreading the love into the Himalayas like Tibet…Yet can you imagine, it disappeared in India?
You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you all this? Well we learned a lot from the various stories told about Buddha’s life, and listening to the various Indian stories Goenka told was fascinating.   One story I particularly loved was that of 4 young men from New Delhi. They partied and went drinking one night, then they got into a canoe and wanted to row to another place. They worked hard, sweating and rowing all night, but when the sun came out the next morning, they saw that they didn’t go anywhere, because they had forgotten to untie the rope from the dock.  When this story was told, the teacher was trying to illustrate the lesson that volition is very important, but only walking on the right path will get you to the final goal.
During the 10 days of silence, I learned a ton about myself.  For the first time, I got to know myself, even though I had insomnia the whole time I was there.  By day 7 I was thoroughly exhausted from fighting the storm otherwise know as my ego. But I was resolved to keep my intention of finishing the course. And I did finish it. The last 2 days for me was bliss, as then my mind had become quite and I could see reality as it really is.

It was interesting because during the first 5 days, my mind went into an explosion of creativity, coming up with all sorts of business ideas, and all this “stuff”. Of which I wrote down some of it. But then, I had my notepad taken away from me because the centre wants us to have no distractions whatsoever.

I noticed that my egotistic mind is very capable of coming up with all sorts of drama and lies, as Shakespeare put it so eloquently from one of his famous plays:“There is neither good or bad, it is what you think”…  I felt that probably for the first time, I had come to realize that I was never really in control of my life as I had thought I was. It seems to me that life is a series of decisions we make based on pleasure and pain; craving the pleasure we choose one way, and avoidance of pain leads us into so many other ways of being, and then there are those whole  ‘other’ decisions that are just made in ignorance.

After thinking on all this for a very long time, I finally understood why I chose the career path I had led. Why I was among the types of personal relationships had entered, and why I keep the type of friends I keep in my life. I have to be very honest with you; a lot of it was out of vanity, curiosity, and affection for flair and drama.  I was able to see how selfish and rude I had been in my past behavior at times, and I took the time to really strive to gain that perspective of “Walking in other’s shoes.” As I did so, I began swelling with love and compassion for those who have transgressed against me in the past, as they were simply acting out of ignorance, just as we all, by human nature act out of ignorance.

The way the words were spoken, and the manner in which the wisdom was taught at the centre carried this feeling that was comfortable, as if it was wisdom we already knew but it was simply a reminder of the truth that is within our common consciousness; the god that lives within all of us was revealing that if we can just quite down the ego to listen, we will finally be able to hear the truth of consciousness. 

I’ve been practicing Vipassana mediation 2 hours daily, and it’s truly remarkable how content and blissful it makes me feel.  I’ve gotten off the drama train of emotional highs and lows, and am now striving for not happiness but rather, bliss.  I will no longer look for passion in others, and myself but rather I will seek to see and to understand the virtue and reason behind people’s ambitions and behaviors. 

Interesting is that the centre in Merritt is purely run by volunteers, and the cost is all by donation.  The courses last 10 days, 20 days, 30 days, and 45 days.  I’ve met people from all walks of life, from various religious backgrounds at this retreat, and on our last day together, EVERYONE was absolutely radiant with love, compassion and goodwill.  It felt like we shed 10 million lbs of our old baggage, and found our respective inner compasses of wisdom to help guide us to make just and righteous decisions that will only lead us from darkness to light in life.

If you have a little time right now, go visit Vipassana Meditation Schedule, BC, Canada Source: www.dhamma.org /http://www.surabhi.dhamma.org/

to find out when the next one will start.  If you live elsewhere, there are 140 centers around the world in which you can to learn this amazing technique.  Most centers have rideshare programs in place, so you don’t have to worry about transportation if you don’t have a car.  It is the best 10 days you’ll ever experience.

Several friends have turned me onto the TED conference videos that are posted on YouTube, I’ve been getting very addicted to them. They are like heroin for the mind.  As a fan of Anthony Robbins, I was thrilled to watch him in a 22 minutes short clip that was jam packed with great insights, you can watch it yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpc-t-Uwv1I

Here are some snap shots of what he’s talking about:
He’s not a motivational speaker, but more instantly he is the “Why” guy, who in 29 years gets the call when results are needed immediately and after working with 3 million people from 80 different countries, he sees that certain patterns seem to emerge.  There were 2 master lessons he has discovered along the way.

1)    Science of Achievement: turning your dream into reality
2)    Art of fulfillment: appreciation and contribution

Anthony Robbins noted to the audience that there are people in this world that are equipped with money, education, love, comfort, background yet they still go in and out of rehab, while others who have faced challenges of all kinds such as abuse of mental, physical, and sexual boundaries, or those people who have suffered other trauma, injury or tragedy, are still able to become amazing human beings…. So he says that it’s not the resources that determine achievement, instead He comments that if you’re playful enough, fun enough, creative enough, you can get through anybody, and be resourceful to make your dream into a reality.  It’s not the lack of money, technology, people, time, etc those are excuses.  Anthony says the common belief is that our biology determines the future, but he believes decision determines destiny. 

1)    What am I going to focus on? Focus gives meaning…. When Rosa Parks refused to give us her seat, her higher standards, and decision shaped a movement that changed a country.

2)    What are you going to do?

When Lance Armstrong, a professional cyclist was faced with testicular cancer, he had the emotional fitness and psychological strength to go on to win 7 world champions in the Tour De France!  There are 2 invisible forces that shapes us:

1)    State: Physical/ emotional
2)    Long Term: our model of the world/worldview.  The shaper of meaning, the filter that determines our emotions and actions.

Anthony talks about Target, Map and Field.
Your Life Target is determined by your 6 human needs:
1)    Certainty – To avoid pain, to have control via money, security, smoking…
2)    Uncertainty – When everything in life becomes predictable, you’ll get really bored, so we need variety.  People like surprises, but call the bad surprises problems.
3)    Significance - We all want to be recognized, appreciated, and looked up to. It’s done through our pursuit of status, money, tattoos, skills etc. People without knowledge, money, background will resort to violence to gain instant significance, thus violence will never cease until we change our ways of approach.
4)    Connection/Love- Most people want connection and are scared of love because they might have been hurt before by love.  We do it through intimacy, friendship, prayer, owning pets, etc.
These 4 needs are needs of human personality.  The following 2 needs are ‘needs of fulfillment’:
5)    You must grow- So you have something to give of value to others
6)    Contribute - Outside of yourself

Anthony talks about the fact that when he was 11 years old during Thanksgiving, his family had no thanksgiving dinner, and his parents were fighting over it.  Someone came to their door and delivered Thanksgiving dinner for them.  His father saw it as a sign of his failure to provide for his family and in turn left, he saw it as a sign that strangers care and years later built a foundation that now feeds 2 million people on Thanksgiving and Christmas in 35 different countries.

What Anthony was trying to illustrate was that we all have the 6 different human needs, but because of our different prioritizing system, it shapes our decisions and actions.  Some people’s lead system is the seeking of the feelings of significance and gratification, while others’ lead system is for connection/love.  The map is the operating system that helps us achieve our goals of our human needs, and there are also 7 different belief systems that guide our operating system, one of them being concept of TIME. 

The last thing Anthony stresses was the critical importance of emotion!  He notes there are 6,000 different words in the English lexicon to describe various emotions, yet if you ask most people on a weekly basis their dominant emotion from moment to moment, they’ll list 12, out of which, more disempowering emotions shadow empowering emotions.  There are people who no matter what happens will be angry, sad, depressed, etc… And again, there are others who, no matter what happens to them, they are happy and excited. 

When 9/11 happened, Anthony Robbins was leading a weeklong boot camp in Hawaii for 2000 people from 45 countries and translating into 4 languages.  The night before 9/11, he was on stage talking about emotional mastery.  He had stated to his audience that people really live when they know they’re going to die.  So he asked them to imagine that if they knew they’d die in 9 days, to ask themselves, what would they do? Who would they call?
 There was a woman in his audience from New York, who’s ex boyfriend had died.  Her current boyfriend had proposed to her, and she had refused.  He said to her that their relationship was over if she went to this week- long seminar, so she agreed and took off.  That night, she left a message to him telling him that she loves him and will marry him.  Within hours, he called back as he was about to die, (because he works on top of the World Trade Centre) to tell her she has given him the best present in the world, and that she should not hold anything back in life and live it to the fullest every moment.  As she’s sharing his voicemail message on stage with the whole audience, a Muslim man from Pakistan stood up and told her that he wished to hold her hand, but frankly this is retribution.  That man was asked to be on stage… He clearly wanted to be a terrorist, and another Jewish man from Israel with opposing views was also brought onto stage.  Real dialogue exchanged, and 4 years later, they co-wrote the book “My Jihad”, and now they are going around to various Synagogues, and Muslim Temples teaching people how we can open our minds to create lasting peace. 
Anthony closed off his talk asking everyone in the audience to explore “your web, your needs, your believes, your emotions that’s controlling you for 2 reasons:”
1)    There is more to you to give and achieve
2)    Appreciate what’s driving others, as it’s the only way to change the world.

Helen E. Fisher, PhD biological anthropologist, is a Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University. She has written five books on the evolution and future of human sexuality, monogamy, adultery and divorce, gender differences in the brain, the chemistry of romantic love, and most recently, human personality types and why we fall in love with one person rather than another.
Fisher maintains that humans have evolved three core brain systems for mating and reproduction:
    * Lust—The sex drive or libido
    * Romantic attraction—Romantic love
    * Attachment—Deep feelings of union with a long-term partner.

“Love can start off with any of these three feelings,” Fisher maintains. “Some people have sex first and then fall in love. Some fall head over heels in love, then climb into bed. Some feel deeply attached to someone they have known for months or years; then circumstances change, they fall madly in love and have sex.” But the sex drive evolved to encourage you to seek a range of partners; romantic love evolved to enable you to focus your mating energy on just one at a time; and attachment evolved to enable you to feel deep union to this person long enough to rear your infants as a team.”

But these brain systems can be tricky. Having sex, Fisher says, can drive up dopamine in the brain and push you over the threshold toward falling in love. And with orgasm, you experience a flood of oxytocin and vasopressin--giving you feelings of attachment. “Casual sex isn’t always casual” Fisher reports, “It can trigger a host of powerful feelings.” In fact, Fisher believes that men and women often engage in “hooking up” to unconsciously trigger these feelings of romance and attachment.

What happens when you fall in love? Fisher says it begins when someone takes on “special meaning.” “The world has a new center,” Fisher says, “Then you focus on him or her. Your beloved’s car is different from every other car in the parking lot, for example. People can list what they don’t like about their sweetheart, but they sweep these things aside and focus on what they adore. Intense energy, elation, mood swings, emotional dependence, separation anxiety, possessiveness, a pounding heart and craving are all central to this madness. But most important is obsessive thinking.” As Fisher says, “Someone is camping in your head.”

MRI brain scan Fisher and her colleagues have put 49 people into a brain scanner (MRI) to study the brain circuitry of romantic love: 17 had just fallen madly in love; 15 had just been dumped; 17 reported they were still in love after an average of 21 years of marriage. One of her central ideas is that romantic love is a drive stronger than the sex drive. As she says, “After all, if you causally ask someone to go to bed with you and they refuse, you don’t slip into a depression, or commit suicide or homicide; but around the world people suffer terribly from rejection in love.”

Fisher also maintains that taking serotonin-enhancing antidepressants (SSRIs) can potentially dampen feelings of romantic love and attachment, as well as the sex drive.
Fisher has looked at marriage and divorce in 58 societies, adultery in 42 cultures, patterns of monogamy and desertion in birds and mammals, and gender differences in the brain and behavior. In her newest work, she reports on four biologically based personality types, and using data on 28,000 people collected on the dating site Chemistry.com, she explores who you are and why you are chemically drawn to some types more than others.

In her new book “ Why Him, Why Her” she discusses that there 4 basic biological types of people: Explorer, Builder, Director and Negotiator.

Explorer: People who are high in Dopamine, they are curious, daring, creative, novelty seeking, energetic, optimistic, and carry a certain grace in their physical movement (ex: Barack and Michelle Obama).  Words used most are adventure, fun, travel, curious.  They are better off dating their own type.
Builder: People who are high in Serotonin, they’re traditional, conventional, social, cautious but not fearful, loyal, conscientious, popular, family oriented, networking, managerial, persistent, moral, religious, follow rules (ex: Al Gore, Tiger Woods).  Words used most are Trust, Values, Respect, and Morals.  They are better off dating their own type.
Directors: People who are high in Testosterone, they’re analytical, logical, tough minded, direct, decisive, good with tools, engineering, good at math and music, exacting (ex: Bill Gates, Hilary Clinton).  Word used most is intelligent.  They’re attracted to Negotiators.
Negotiator: People who are high in Estrogen, they’re expressive, excellent verbal skills, people skills, imaginative, intuitive, egalitarian, indecisive, introspective, compassionate, altruistic, web thinkers.  Word used most is Passion.  They’re attracted to Directors.
Dr. Fisher cautions us that 100 million prescriptions a year of anti-depressants are given out in the US alone, which kills the sex drive, kills orgasms, therefore kills our ability to fall in love and stay in love as it suppresses Dopamine circuit in your brain that’s responsible with elation, and obsessive thinking related to romantic love.

She believes that women find intimacy through face-to-face conversation. It comes from millions of years of holding our babies in front our face, talking, cuddling, and educating our children.  Meanwhile, men bond by way of sitting side by side through activities and if one turns around to have a conversation, the other looks away naturally.  This behavior is a function of the hunting and gathering pattern that is millions of years old, of sitting in the bush.  Women also display more holistic, web thinking pattern versus men’s single-minded focus, thus the world has more male geniuses but also more male idiots.  So as men and women struggle with our different patterns of thinking and problem solving, marriage will only become more egalitarian with the rise of women’s social economic and sexual power bringing us into the future or returning to the past of how it was on the African grassland millions of years ago.  Women are more educated, more intelligent, and more capable than any other time in history, and expressing themselves sexually by having sex sooner, having more partners, displaying less remorse for partners, marrying later, having less children, and leaving bad marriages.  2 major trends that will have the greatest social-economic impact for the next 100 years is women closing the gap of power and status with men, and the aging population.  These two factors will only stabilize marriage and make better ones.

You can watch her in video on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q78oSyoWViE