By Kirkwood Callahan • Guest Columnist

Political change may arrive with the speed of a tsunami transforming all before it. The GOP takeover of Congress in 1994 was such an event.

Another change may move more slowly like a steadily rising tide. We take note only after it reaches us. The ascent of unaffiliated voters in North Carolina is such a phenomenon.

Managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park are bracing for a higher-than-normal level of bear activity this fall and are warning Park visitors and neighbors to be especially careful about protecting their food and garbage from bears.

It’s almost time for resolution and termination but first some last minute housekeeping. You should know that I do not believe Adam and Eve are historical people. I was taught Darwin’s theory of biological evolution by the Jesuits and that’s how I perceive life on our planet. That is also Rome’s official position. I also believe in the theory of spiritual evolution convincingly put forth by the paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (It’s a toss up, however, to see which is moving at the slower pace.)

My buddy, “Ralph,” teaches at a major university. He is about as bright a guy as I’ve ever met and one of the most well rounded. He can expound on any topic from the physical sciences to the formation of black holes, to Shakespeare, classical music, the stock market, the Greeks, you name it. One night at the school’s annual fund-raising gala he and I were discussing a mutual friend “Edward,” who was coming unglued.

The theme throughout this book has been: When a person is emotionally messed up, he or she was made that way, in most instances, from childhood experiences. This is not my idea; I’ve just brought it to your attention. Those of us in the mental health field encounter this truth everyday we go to work.

When listening to my patients tell about their less-than-perfect, sometimes horrific, childhoods, I sometimes asked myself, “Who saved their butts?” Yes, they were in analysis and, yes, they had a multitude of problems yet they were, in most cases, able to function in their families and in society. They were capable of performing their jobs, loving others and being loved — at least to some degree. It stood to reason that somewhere in their youth or childhood someone must have done something good — to them. Discovering that person, or persons, was an important part of the analysis.

When children are growing up their parents are omnipotent, so it is safe to say they will have enormous impact on their children’s emotional development. When environmentally caused problems arise, a parent is probably — at least partially — responsible, either directly or indirectly.

Many of the maladies that affect our emotional systems are fueled by the amount of anger we have storehoused in our unconscious minds. This cache of dangerous energy will dictate more than any other factor whether we are at peace with ourselves, and others, or are a bundle of nerves replete with anxiety, fear, guilt, and frustration. It can even dictate our ability, or inability, to love and to be loved, and to experience and sustain joy. Anger is a curse of being human and what is bedeviling is that we can’t consciously feel it for what it is. It’s just there in the unconscious — eating away at us.

The majority of my patients came to see me because they were depressed. Some were especially down in the dumps and others were only vaguely sad — but all the time. Depression is now at the epidemic level in the United States and I’d like to give a plug to the pharmaceutical industry. Through years of research and development it has discovered numerous drugs that effectively alter moods so that people can get out of bed, go to work, adequately function within their families and cope from day to day. These drugs do not “cure” depression (or other emotional problems) but they may keep them from overwhelming, and they’ve become necessary in our society. So “Attaboy” to the drug companies from a traditional psychoanalyst. They are filling a necessary need, and we’ll talk more about them in Chapter 25.

I was sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch of our house in the North Carolina mountains enjoying the summer night. Barbara was out of town visiting her parents. It was an extraordinarily pleasant evening with soft breezes and a light rain. The insects in the trees had begun their eternal argument about Katie: “She did .... She didn’t! ... Yes, she did .... No, she didn’t!” An owl in the woods across the road gave a low, triple hoot.

People go through life with a multitude of eyeballs. Architects see structures noting design and materials; realtors look for FSBO’s (for sale by owner’s); clergymen see the wondrous hand of God on his creation, or they see the mark of the Devil — depending on their bent. Judges look for precedents; lawyers look for loopholes; burglars look for open windows; policemen look for suspicious characters and tree trimmers look for Dutch elm disease. There are so many facets to life we can’t possibly see them all, so we specialize. In the case of a shrink, our eyes are on the lookout for unconscious forces. This chapter will give you an idea how I, as a psychoanalyst, view some aspects of everyday life.

Shrinks, like other professionals, are a kaleidoscope of humanity. They are fat, skinny, tall, short, handsome, beautiful, ugly. Some have bombastic personalities and others are terribly shy. If there is a common thread, and of course there is, shrinks, like their patients, knew they weren’t quite right. That’s why they entered the mental health field. Psychoanalysis has been called the only profession where people pay you — so you can cure yourself.

Early in our training we were taught that our most important tool to help patients was our intuition, because the heart and gut are more attuned to emotions than is the logic of the brain. Intuition, we learned, superceded academic knowledge and could also overrule guidelines on how to conduct psychoanalytic sessions. My time with “Erica” demonstrated this. In her first session she came to see me because she was “Guilty about my past.”

Sigmund Freud, M.D., of Vienna, Austria, is known as The Father of Psychoanalysis. Note, that is the Father, not the founder. The founder was another medical doctor, Joseph Breuer, who was a friend and mentor to Sigmund. Dr. Breuer had a woman patient, the famous “Anna O,” who completely baffled him. She had multiple complaints including headaches, stomachaches, leg pains, chest pains, neck pains, dizziness, temporary loss of sight, temporary loss of hearing, temporary paralysis, you name it. She was a mess and none of Breuer’s medicines were helping her.

At a social gathering I am introduced to someone. The conversation goes like this:

Mutual Friend: “Helen, I’d like you to meet Jim Joyce.”

Rush hour traffic is heavy in all directions as you come to a red light. You are in the left lane with one car in front of you. The driver signals for a left turn, which is what you are going to do. When the light changes to green the car in front does not move forward into the intersection. The man doesn’t budge until the light goes to yellow then slowly makes his turn. It is now red, leaving you sitting there forced to wait for the next change of lights. He “gotcha” — adding at least a minute and maybe more to your trip home. He also got you by raising your blood pressure and making you say bad words. You have just been the victim of “passive aggression.”

Albert Einstein said that insanity is when someone does the same thing over and over but expects different results each time. Einstein was wrong. That is not insanity, but it is the hallmark of a psychological phenomenon called, “The repetition compulsion.”

Like so many of the psychic forces that affect our lives, transference is mostly conducted at the unconscious level. (I’ll bet you are not surprised.) But unlike some other unconscious forces, transference is fairly easy to spot once we grasp the concept, and see the abundant evidence. It is also a key ingredient of the psychotherapeutic experience.

Carl Jung was a workaholic, and unlike his wife he needed little sleep. After Mrs. Jung (Emma) went to bed, Carl would sit in their darkened bedroom sipping cognac after cognac while thinking great thoughts. One night he began ruminating on the scientific discovery that from the moment of conception the microscopic body of a human fetus begins the millions-of-years’ journey of mankind’s evolution. During the time in the mother’s womb the person will begin looking like an amoeba, evolve to look like a tadpole, then a lizard, a bird, a monkey, a Missing Link, a Neanderthal and finally a Homo Sapiens. This evolutionary process, when you stop to consider it, makes the saying, “The miracle of birth,” frivolous. The miracle occurs at conception and continues for the next nine months.

We shrinks have been accused of starting the sexual revolution, which began in the mid-20th century. This isn’t true. A case could be made that it was the Irish writer, James Joyce, (no relation) who started the sexual revolution, at least in modern literature. After the obscenity ban on his novel Ulysses was lifted, other novelists piled on by filling up their works with explicit sexual content. (Ulysses has been acclaimed by many scholars as the best novel of the 20th century. If you have infinite patience, and three PhD’s, you may get through it, finding it at once brilliant, tedious and filthy.)

The emotional system is subject to illness just as are the various parts of the body, but to isolate an emotional illness, and put a completely accurate label on it, is often impossible. A bodily illness, on the other hand, may exist without interaction with another part of the body. Many cancers, if caught early, are isolated and can be surgically removed before they spread. Broken bones can be re-set and heal completely. Sprained muscles will, in time, heal themselves.

Many people thing being a shrink is a mysterious, even glamorous, profession. It is, but only at cocktail parties. The day to day doing of it is hard work and often involves the elements of: Fear (I hope she doesn’t kill herself tonight): Frustration (Why won’t this idiot admit to the obvious): Boredom (Is he going to tell that story again!) Yes, there are joyful moments when the patients “get it” and there is much gratification as their lives improve. But therapy is more fun for the patients than for their therapists. Certainly it is more interesting to them.

One of the first things we learned as psychoanalytic candidates was that a person’s I.Q. (basic intelligence) and his or her emotional stability have nothing to do with each other. Early on in my practice I experienced this. Some of the most emotionally wrecked people I saw had MENSA status I.Q.’s. Some of the healthiest were barely able to squeak through high school. This confounding truth was an ongoing source of wonderment to me as it is for all psychoanalysts.

When my session on a Friday was over I got up and proceeded to the door of the consultation room. As I passed Jean’s chair he handed me a piece of paper. He’d never done this and I asked what it was. It had a woman’s name and phone number on it. “Call her and set up an appointment,” he said. “She’ll be your first patient.”

Early on psychoanalysis was dubbed “The Jewish Science” because nearly all of the first practitioners were Jews. Although Christianity was fathered by Judaism, there are some striking differences between these faiths. Jews don’t concern themselves with an afterlife; Christians are pre-occupied by the concept. Slap a Jew in the face and be prepared to be slapped back. Slap a Christian and he will turn the other cheek. (Not really, but we’re supposed to.) A Jew believes “getting even” is appropriate when he has been harmed by his fellow man. Christians believe in forgive and forget. (Not really, but we’re supposed to.)

I had become a dedicated analysand (patient) and continued to see Veryl after my wife and sons moved back to Florida. I became hooked on the process, intrigued by the simple truths it revealed, and hungered for more. I also began to harbor a secret fantasy of one day becoming a psychoanalyst, and I confided this to Veryl.

By Jim Joyce

We like to think we are in charge of our lives, and sometimes we are, but there are times when events occur beyond our control that take us places we didn’t know existed and from which there is no turning back. That’s how I became a psychoanalyst. It was unplanned (un-dreamed of) and sometimes I wish it had never happened. Psychoanalysis is a dangerous profession.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series on campaign issues in the 11th District Congressional race between Republican Congressman Charles Taylor and Democratic challenger Health Shuler.

Voters looking to the topic of immigration reform to help decide who to vote for in the Nov. 7 race for the 11th District congressional seat will be hard pressed to find any philosophical differences between the two candidates.

By Chris Cooper

It would be pretty tough to find someone around here that hasn’t heard at least a little about the hard working congregation of local musicians that call themselves Commonfolk.

'An Inconvenient Truth’

Regardless of where you may stand on political issues, one very important truth is making itself abundantly clear on this planet. It’s getting warmer. If you haven’t seen Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” you owe it to yourself to learn more about the Earth’s most pressing issue.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Tuckasegee residents are hoping that the proximity of an ancient Cherokee village to the site of a proposed rock quarry will help coax state officials not to issue a permit to the quarry’s operators.

The media coverage the last three weeks about goings-on inside the Haywood County School System involve very complicated spending matters. The controversy about flood rebuilding decisions, FEMA reimbursements and accusations about motives, however, come down to a very important matter for parents and taxpayers in Haywood County — are the school board and the administration making wise spending decisions?

By Marshall Frank

They’re at it again. Once again, the world is held hostage as Christians pray for their lives and nations shutter at the prospect of chaos everywhere, all at the whim of the religion of peace.

Results of a much anticipated zip code study conducted in Waynesville will be shared at a public meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 28, at the Waynesville town hall.

Monarch butterflies will soon be passing through Western North Carolina on their long migration back to Mexico for the winter.

The monarchs’ migration schedule is dependent on milkweed. They move north with the onset of spring, following the trail of milkweed as it blooms.

By Michael Beadle

At first it seemed like madness.

Why else would anyone freely submit to running 15 to 25 miles up and down steep mountain roads and trails over a 24-hour period?

Little did I know what I was getting into when some fellow runners approached me at a 5K race and asked if I wanted to sign up for the Blue Ridge Relay, one of the longest-running races of its kind in the country.

Landowners will have the chance to get a better handle on managing their woodlands responsibly with a lineup of summer workshops between July 16 and Aug. 22, each focusing on a different aspect of land stewardship. Locations include Cradle of Forestry, the N.C. Arboretum and Bent Creek Experimental Forest. 

Each workshop will entail one-and-a-half days of hands-on field activities and classroom instruction from natural resources and land management specialists:

• Discovering Your Land: Basic Land Management Skills, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 16 at Cradle of Forestry and 9 a.m. to noon July 17 at Bent Creek Experimental Forest

• Woodscaping Your Woodlands and Firewise Management, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. July 17 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 18 at Bent Creek Experimental Forest

• Native Landscaping and Water Management, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 20 and 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 21 at N.C. Arboretum.

• Stewardship, Recreation and Liability, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 21 at N.C. Arboretum and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 22 at Cradle of Forestry.

Addie Thornton, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 919.515.5065. www.woodlandstewardsnc.org. 

The Coweeta Listening Project will come to Cowee Farmers Market from 3:30 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10, to collect individual stories about special places in the region and the types of environmental changes that locals have seen over the years. 

The group will give an informational presentation about how climate change is expected to affect southwestern North Carolina. In addition to its typical vendors, the June 10 farmers market will also feature mountain dulcimer and Native American flute music from Dog House Duo and an informational booth from Friends of the Greenway, or FROGS. The market is held at 51 Cowee Creek Road outside of the Macon County Heritage Center at Cowee School off of N.C. 28 in Franklin. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Shopping at Mast General Store in Waynesville on Saturday, June 7, will be a plus for the planet.

Shelby Reece from Waynesville Middle School won Haywood Waterways’ Kids in the Creek T-shirt design contest. Her winning design, “Jumping Trout,” will be featured on 800 T-shirts when the program occurs this fall. 

One of the most prized bringers of spring song in Western North Carolina is the golden-winged warbler, and Highlands Plateau Audubon Society has awarded a grant to help increase human knowledge of these beautiful and endangered birds. 

To the Editor:

My name is Mitchell E. Powell and I was elected vice chairman to the Haywood GOP on the same day Pat Carr was elected chairman. I resigned from this position only a few months into my term and only a couple of months after our newly elected treasurer resigned. I resigned because of personal attacks from the same “group” that is currently attempting to remove Pat Carr. 

By the time this letter is published, a June 3 Haywood County GOP meeting will have already been held. Those who attended know what this group is doing to the local party. The turmoil this group is causing will have a tremendously negative impact on the local elections in the fall.

The people who are at the root of the effort to remove Pat Carr have been attempting to undo the election that she soundly won. This small – but LOUD – group of so-called Republicans continually attempts to derail the local GOP at every opportunity. An actual affidavit against Pat Carr was filed with the State of North Carolina and Haywood County by Monroe Miller. The group that signed the “Formal Charges Filed Against Patt Carr” include Monroe Miller, Eddie Cabe, Tomile Cure, Greg Burrell, Ken Henson, Andrew Jackson, Jonnie Cure, Mark Zaffrann, Rebecca Mathews and Eleanor Worley (name information posted on Monroe Miller’s Blog internet site).

Note that Debbie King’s name appears to have no signature on the form. Her husband Dennie King is running for county commissioner. Debbie King is a central player in the group, but likes to work in the shadows. These are the same people that seem to cause consistent problems at every meeting, even voting against the meeting agenda. 

They accuse Pat Carr of having secret meetings and anything else they consider “out-of-line” in any of the never-ending charges the group dreams up. To my knowledge, Pat Carr has never had any secret meetings, nor committed any action that could be grounds for her removal. The only so-called secret meetings I am aware of are the ones held by many members of this group prior to the county convention where Pat Carr was elected. I attended two of these meetings (they call them dinners) thinking that I was working with a good group of Republicans. Their number one goal was to beat Pat Carr and now they seemed obsessed with it. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds!

The actions this group takes are an embarrassment to the Haywood GOP and to all citizens of Haywood County. In my opinion, these people are more Libertarian than Republican. 

Mitchell E. Powell

Haywood County

To the Editor:

I am delighted that EPA has finally moved to abate the disastrous impacts of climate change by regulating carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. But, given the adverse reaction from the coal industry, the EPA should have issued parallel regulations on emissions from meat industry operations. Each state could than determine its own strategy for curbing greenhouse gases.

A 2006 U.N. report estimated that meat production accounts for 18 percent of man-made greenhouse gases. A 2009 article in the respected World Watch magazine suggested that the figure may be closer to 50 percent.

The meat industry generates carbon dioxide by burning forests to create animal pastures and by combustion of fossil fuels to confine, feed, transport, and slaughter animals. The much more damaging methane and nitrous oxide are discharged from digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools, respectively.

In the meantime, each of us can reduce the devastating effects of climate change every time we eat. Our local supermarket offers a rich variety of plant-based lunch meats, hotdogs, veggie burgers and dairy product alternatives, as well as ample selection of vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts. Product lists, easy recipes, and transition tips are readily available online.

Wade Moore

Waynesville

To the Editor:

Look past the claims and misleading “facts” that the Republicans are putting out to see the reality. The net result from four years of Republican rule is a weaker middle class and a starved education system.

There is absolutely no evidence that a single job has been created in N.C. by the tax breaks to the rich. In fact there is no evidence that any of the Bush tax breaks of the past created any jobs.

The fact is that middle-class incomes are flat and we now will be paying more taxes than before. The so-called tax reform shifted taxes from income tax to new sales taxes. For example, now we have to pay sales tax on the labor charges to service our cars. What the Republicans have done is to shift and hide taxes for the middle class. Only the rich get real tax breaks.

Much has been made of the raises for teachers, but 1,500 teachers will not get raises under the last Gov. Pat McCrory proposal. The facts are that the total funding for education has been cut drastically. About 7,000 teaching positions have been cut, and the state university system has had cuts of more than 25 percent. 

The Republicans claim they have appropriated more money for education, but that does not come close to equaling the funding from the previous sales tax that they cut or the federal funds they lost. The bottom line is that our standing on teacher pay and funding per student have dropped to the bottom of funding in the U.S.

Don’t be fooled by the claims. Look at the facts.

 Norman G. Hoffmann

Waynesville

To the Editor:

With the business of making a living that each of us has to address in any given day, we would expect those who represent us in the North Carolina Legislature — whose salaries are paid by our tax dollars — to be concerned  with our overall health and safety without our having to worry about the issue. Well, take a closer look.

Senate Bill 786, which opens the door to fracking — oil and natural gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing methods — in North Carolina, recently went through the N.C. Senate like a greased pig. It is titled Energy Modernization Act (2014), simply a smokescreen for eliminating or weakening the health and safety regulations associated with this intrusive mining process. Our senator, Jim Davis (R-Franklin), is one of the original sponsors of this legislation (as SB-76). Among other changes, this legislation would:

• Shroud in secrecy the chemicals used in the fracking operation, making it a crime to disclose their identity (§113-391A), greatly hampering medical or remedial action in case of groundwater contamination, which has been a recurring problem with fracking operations in other states.

• It is presumed that groundwater contamination can only occur within 2,640 ft of a fracking well-head (§113-421), yet by its very nature, tunneling and fracturing — involving the proprietary chemicals used — move significant distances from the well-head in a horizontal direction.

• Ordinances prohibiting fracking made by any county, city or other political subdivision would become invalid under this new law (§113-415A), overriding the will of the people who originally enacted them.

• Oil and gas prospectors may not be held liable for trespass on your property as long as they collect exploratory data by seismic undershooting from an off-site location (§113-395D).

• Any tax on the extraction of oil and gas by fracking shall go to the state of North Carolina, and not to the benefit of the county, city or political subdivision where the resource was extracted (§105-187).

• The Department of Commerce, in conjunction with other state agencies, is authorized to study the feasibility of constructing a liquid natural gas export terminal in North Carolina (Section 22.a). Foreign exporting?

This bill, shortly to be voted on by the North Carolina House, is based largely on the model of the oil and gas industry itself, failing to address proper disposal of the secret fracking chemicals (supplied by energy behemoth Halliburton), protection of land and water after active fracking has ceased, or safe methods of transporting the resources after extraction.

Our mountain area has been mentioned as one of the “most promising” (industry term) areas of North Carolina for oil and gas shale extraction. As we are all aware, the quality of our mountain water is superb and the rest of the Southeast depends on us as their source of such, not to mention our own needs.

If you are tired of seeing our elected representatives concentrate on profit rather than the health and safety of the folks they represent, let them know that fracking has no place in North Carolina. They expect to start issuing fracking permits in July. Call today, while they are still in Raleigh for the short session, and tell them to vote no on SB 786. 

Doug Woodward 

Franklin

To the Editor:

We live in a country where we are free to pray wherever, whenever and within whatever religion we prefer. We are also free to not pray. If one wants a religious blessing on local governmental business decisions, one could do so at home, in the car or wherever they wanted before going to the public business meeting because we are free to do so.  

One could also ask for that blessing during their church service in the church they choose to go to. Why, then, would an elected official feel it necessary to have their personal religious-based prayer during a public meeting? 

Unlike the higher governments, local governments require citizens of all faiths or no faith to go before the board for business like zoning, permitting, business licenses, variance permission and the like. And so it makes sense that the meetings provide a respectful environment that considers the differences in belief systems within the public that the elected officials serve. Engaging the public in a mayor’s personal religion or even a display of various secular prayers at a public business meeting sets quite an uncomfortable precedent for any mayor or future boards who may have a wildly different belief system (or even a self-declared religion) they “proclaim” as the norm. If deemed necessary, a moment of silence would serve a better solution for all.

Kolleen Begley

Cullowhee

A Civil War reenactment will be June 13-14 at The Shelton House in Waynesville.

Enjoy lectures, Civil War reenactments, displays of period clothing, replicas of the Southern Cross of Honor, museum tours, barbecue and Contra-dancing.

At 7 p.m. Friday, June 13, there will a lecture by Jule Morrow, Captain of the 25th N.C. State Troops, titled, “The Civil War in Haywood County in 1864.” All day Saturday, June 14, there will be a Living History Camp, filled with military and civilian re-enactors, camp music by Anita and Zach Pruett, and Butts on the Creek BBQ available. Museum tours will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, there will be Civil War Infantry Drill & Musket Firing, followed by a lecture and public demonstration by Jule Morrow titled Civil War Weapons, as well as a Civil War fashion show. The day will be capped off by a performance from 7 to 10 p.m. featuring Whitewater Bluegrass Company, with contra and square dancing to be showcased

The reenactment is free and open to the public.

www.sheltonhouse.org or 828.452.1551.

The 4th annual Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 14, in downtown Waynesville.

Acclaimed comedian Jim Gaffigan will perform at 7:30 p.m. June 14 at Harrah’s Cherokee.

Gaffigan has proven to be a major talent beloved to a wide range of audiences, achieving accolades and awards for his stand-up comedy, acting and writing. His clever, quiet style has made him one of the top-five most successful touring comedians in the country.

He has had breakout guest appearances on comedies and dramas ranging from Portlandia, Flight of the Concords and Bored to Death to dramatic roles in all three versions of Law & Order. In recent years, Gaffigan has also become a mainstay on the big screen.

Tickets are $34.50, $44.50 and $54.50.

www.harrahscherokee.com.