August 2013

Many terms come to mind about young children who exhibit advanced skills beyond their years; gifted, wunderkinder, whiz-kids, geniuses, and child prodigies. There are swirling controversies about the age that defines a prodigy, but all agree it is someone who, at a very early age, develops memory capacity for one or more skills at a level far beyond the norm for their age. Those who are gifted in many subjects, but especially in mathematics, is suggested that they think in terms of long-term working memory (LTWM) capable of holding  relevant information  for extended periods of time.

Among those gifted beyond their years were Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart who composed his first classical piece at five, and Beethoven who understood the intricate fundamentals of music about the same age. Today pint-sized five-year old Tsung Tsung from Hong Kong plays classical music like a seasoned concert pianist, performing Korsakov’s ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ so nimbly, and with such tiny fingers, that even the late Van Cliburn would have wept. This diminutive violinist, who cannot tie her own shoelaces, brings audiences to tears.

Adolescent mathematicians stunned teachers in the 18^th century with advanced knowledge of math, long before the age of technology. Today students compete in international competitions displaying their incredulous skills; understanding advanced physics and mathematical capabilities beyond the norm.

One such 14-year old, Dorris Eaton Preparatory School graduate, Varun Jain of Danville, recently achieved the perfect SAT score of 2400. His father, Doctor Vivek Jain, told me that he had scored a high 2300 in the 7^th grade, and Johns Hopkins University awarded him a scholarship as the highest middle school scorer in the Centre for Talented Youth Program’s 33-year history. The CTY is a non-profit organization for identifying and developing talents of the most promising K-12 students, helping them fulfill the University’s mission of preparing future contributions to the world.

Varun never practiced to sit for the SAT; he casually decided to take it in the 8^th grade and scored the perfect 2400. For a 14-year, not yet in high school, this is very rare, and at this writing is thought to be the first to do so. A tiny fraction of the 1.6 million college-bound high-school students nationwide achieve the perfect score of 2400, and only after tutoring,  grueling study and practice.

Varun also attained a perfect National Science League Examination score, and scored in the top 1% in the American Mathematics Contest at 8^th and 10^th grade levels, and the American Invitational Mathematical Examination.

I have known of Varun since kindergarten; my grandson Nicholas Venezia was in the same class at Dorris Eaton. When I saw his mother, Doctor Vinita Jain again at graduation, I heard that Varun and his brother Vishal, both sitarists, were performing on a CD to be released this summer, with the Bay Area’s prominent Indian musician, Pandit Habib Khan. I knew I had to learn more about the mind, math and music and how they are linked.

Vivek Jain believes that math and music go hand in hand. “Varun showed interest in math and music since kindergarten. At that time he was doing 4^th grade math, finished algebra by the 3^rd grade, and was playing two instruments well; the sitar and violin. He played violin in the Contra Costa Symphony Orchestra and was also performing on the sitar—his favorite sitarist in Nikhil Banerjee,” said Vivek Jain, “and Varun also excels in sports; he played competitively in basketball, was the highest point scorer for their team, and played tennis until the end of the school year…and loves Ping-Pong,” he added.

The Voice of India

Music is a testing ground for mathematical principles in that it follows sounds made by instruments, the notes complimenting scale progression. So I wonder how the harmony of music and math can be related, but as a non-musicologist, I may never understand. Sitar music with its haunting quality, where the strings themselves almost sing, is played on the lap, secured by leg and foot as if an extension of the seated musician.

The sitar is an 18-string teakwood instrument that evolved from the lute circa the 8^th century, and when plucked resonates with distinctive timbres from the gourd-like sound chamber. The instrument was thrust into the Western music scene by three-time Grammy winner, Ravi Shankar; said to have had a musical soul and who left a legacy as the voice of India.

I asked more about Varun’s interest besides math and music. He was selected for Jeopardy Kids at eleven; placed third at Contra Costa County Spelling Bee in 6^th and 7^th grades, and California State Junior Spelling Bee. He beat out Monte Vista High School sophomores and juniors in the Lincoln Douglas Debate; captained the Dorris Eaton Science Bowl Team leading 7^th grade to third place, and 8^th grade finishing second at Lawrence Livermore, Sandia Labs. Out of 300 Math Kids, he won 1^st place two years in a row in the written Regional Math counts, and this year at Stanford campus helped his school team qualify for State for the first time.

Varun Jain’s academic resume is impressive, but he always retains a modest demeanor. His father states, “He believes in doing and performing without the accolades that anyone grants…he is the humblest person.”

Varun is using his spare time wisely; involved in a scholarship college-level course in Computer Science at the Bachelors level at California State University, East Bay, offered by Johns Hopkins University last year for being the highest scorer in CTY history. At the age of 14, Varun has been invited to teach online SAT classes to high school seniors and will be competing at Duke University.

I asked Varun some questions, and was not surprised at his answers; “Varun, who do you most admire and, if you were able, what single thing would you do to change the world, and how do you envision your future?”

“I admire Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein, and if I had the ability, I would make the world a more peaceful place for everyone to live and thrive…and I see myself in the future dealing with technology and the human brain…”

This summer the Jain family will vacation on the Yucatan Peninsula, and are looking forward to parasailing, snorkeling, and of course exploring the two millennia-old pyramids of the Mayan ruins.

 

 

Unfortunately, feeling peaceful and calm may not be a mainstay of your diet these days–especially if you’re dealing with financial pressures, health challenges, aging parents, or rebellious kids.

In my case, a stressful situation that I recently experienced erupted when a hot water pipe broke, causing a leak that was located underneath the concrete foundation of my house. Oi vey, not fun!

So, when you feel stressed, how do you respond? You might find yourself reaching for…

a)      Another glass of wine

b)      A cigarette

c)      Super salty, deep-fried snacks

d)      Excessive sweets (notice that “desserts” is “stressed” spelled backwards)

e)      All of the above

Now, since joys and sorrows are both a normal part of life, it can be helpful to develop healthy “self-care tools” to navigate the inevitable stressful times.

One self-care tool that I find difficult to get along without is self-hypnosis. When I’m unable to sleep, one of my most effective relaxation techniques is practicing self-hypnosis. I teach many of my clients how to use self-hypnosis to overcome insomnia and get a good night’s sleep.

Now, let’s get real here. When many of you hear the term hypnosis, you think about the eerie mind-control scenarios from Hollywood’s depictions. Or, if you’ve seen stage hypnosis, then you probably think of a guy with a pendulum telling you to quack like a duck. So let me share with you that stage hypnosis is for entertainment, whereas hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for personal growth and positive transformation.

What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy is a way to relax and calm your mind, body, and emotions in order to enter a focused state, where challenges and unhealthy habits can be explored. Because the imagination is activated, hypnotherapy is sometimes called “guided imagery.”

It might help to think of your mind as consisting of two parts—the conscious and the unconscious. Your conscious mind operates within your awareness and on a surface level, whereas your unconscious mind operates outside of your conscious awareness and below the surface.

Hypnotherapy addresses challenges and behaviors at a deep, unconscious level—below the surface—to explore issues from the inside out. And just so you know, many of my clients, after completing their first hypnotherapy sessions, express surprise at how inspiring their hypnotherapy experiences were.

What is a Positive Suggestion?

A positive suggestion is a positive statement that relates to a goal. When someone is in a deeply relaxed state during hypnotherapy, his or her unconscious mind can become open and receptive to positive suggestions. A positive suggestion is often the opposite of the self-defeating behavior that the person wants to change.

For example, when clients come to see me with a goal to lose weight, they are often receptive to these positive suggestions:

• You savor juicy fresh fruits and colorful vegetables.

• You feel satisfied after eating small portions during meals.

• You enjoy moving and exercising—and it feels great!

Finally, consider adding self-hypnosis to your “self-care toolkit.” Learn how self-hypnosis assists people to take breaks from their hectic daily routines—to stop pushing, to let go, and cultivate peacefulness…from the inside out.

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Save the Date: Attend Trina’s workshop for women and men— Managing Emotional and Compulsive Eating—at John Muir Women’s Health Center in Walnut Creek: Wednesday, Oct 16, 6:30-8:30 pm. Cost: $40 (Includes Weight Loss: 2-CD set). Seats are limited—register today for this inspiring workshop: (925) 941-7900 option 3. For more info, go to www.TrinaSwerdlow.com & click on “Private Sessions & Workshops.”

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Trina Swerdlow, BFA, CCHT, is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, an artist, and the author and illustrator of Stress Reduction Journal: Meditate and Journal Your Way to Better Health. Trina has a private practice in downtown Danville. You can reach her at: (925) 285.5759, or info@TrinaSwerdlow.com.

Certified Clinical Hypnotherapy services in California can be alternative or complementary to licensed healing arts, such as psychotherapy.

I love having my kids out of school and around the house during the summer months, but filling up their non-school hours is a full-time job. Kids today are so wired to be busy every minute of the day that without school they require constant stimuli to avoid boredom. When we were kids, boredom was part of the appeal of summer vacation. It made the days feel longer and it forced us to entertain ourselves. Of course, that can also lead to problems, because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Today, it’s up to us parents to keep our children constantly involved, engaged and entertained. As we all know, this is not always easy since most kids require instant recognition and gratification (thanks to this generation’s technological lifestyle). This can drive a lot of parents certifiably crazy.

Take my two daughters…please. Over and above the typical day-to-day craziness associated with their cosmetics, hair, clothes, shoes, bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, phones, chores, friends and battles with the adult lady who lives in our house (commonly referred to as Mom), we have new kinds of crazy to deal with that is directly related to the fact that my little girls are now young ladies, aka junior women.

When they were young or little the “crazy factor” was also little. Sure it got crazy at times getting peanut butter out of the dog’s fur, dressing and undressing Sweet Street/Polly Pocket/Barbie/Bratz or American Girl dolls three hundred times a day and playing the role of Prince Eric in the home theatre production of Little Mermaid. Looking back on it now, that was a fun kind of “toddler crazy” compared to the “teenager crazy” that now fills my house.

My soon-to-be sixteen year old, let’s call her Hannah because that’s her name, is really driving me crazy. I mean literally driving me crazy. She has her learner’s permit and has been “taking the wheel” every time we get into the car. She always wants to drive and will find compelling reasons why she needs to drive to her friend’s house, the gym, the grocery store, Santa Rita Jail or the Governor’s office.  She’ll also go just about any place I need to go (proctologist office excluded), just so she can drive. Unlike having a qualified chauffeur, being a passenger actually takes concentration and active involvement when you have a student driver behind the wheel.  Don’t get me wrong, my daughter is probably as responsible as any sixteen year old out there, but there lies the problem. Teenagers are all text absorbing, attitude giving, Snap-Chatting, gum chewing, YouTubing, hormone raging, late sleeping, Zombie loving demons. This is a description of someone qualified to pet kittens or watch movies, not drive the family SUV. In four short months, the State of California, is in all likelihood, going to give her a license to drive on her own. Are they crazy? It seems like just yesterday that she was wearing Huggies Pull-Ups. Now she’s going to be allowed to operate a moving vehicle… on the streets…by herself?  That’s crazy!

When it comes to car related expenses, most teenagers are completely unaware that the whimsical bill-paying fairies (Dad and Mom) who watch over their home on a monthly basis, now must budget for an additional driver. Unlike Aladdin’s magic carpet, cars take gas. Gas costs money. So does insurance, maintenance and air fresheners. Believe me when I say that the average teenager’s car smells like a cross between an over ripe school locker and a sweaty shoe barn, so air fresheners are necessities.  They’re also going to find that a carwash isn’t free and I charge standard water rates to use the hose at home.

Hannah’s impending transportation independence will relieve my wife and I from having to drive her everywhere, but this summer, it’s just driving us crazy.

My younger daughter, who we will call Claire, is an incredible athlete. She is equally gifted as a swimmer and soccer player. It is a source of joy and pride to watch her compete in sporting events. Getting her to practices and the email correspondence associated with each sport is what’s driving her mother and me crazy. The swim season starts in late January with stroke clinics. This is followed by pre-season conditioning beginning in early April, and the actual swim season runs from May 1^st through mid August, assuming the swimmer qualifies for the County Championships (which my daughter always does). Soccer, which you would think runs opposite of swim, begins its pre-season workouts pm July 1^st. This is followed by pre-season tournaments beginning in mid-August and the actual soccer season runs September 1^st through mid-April because once they get to the U-14 level, the league must break from November 1^st through the end of February for the high school soccer season. Are you beginning to see our calendar dilemma? There are so many days where she has two sports scheduled at times that often run together or slightly overlap that we’re going crazy getting her to where she needs to be. We often have just seconds to get her from the West side of San Ramon to the base of Mt. Diablo. During the fall, once school is back in session, it’s not uncommon for our four member family to each eat dinner alone or share a family meal at 11:30 pm. I wish we had another driver in the family.

Sports email crazy is something totally different from sports logistics crazy. During a typical swim season, it’s not uncommon to receive 10- to 20 emails per week about practice times, meet instructions and volunteer sign-up duties. I shouldn’t really complain because the previous two years, when I served as swim team President, the number of emails I received was closer to 10-20 per minute. Those crazy emails topics included everything from pop-up tent restrictions, cooler size limitations, private lesson availability, climate control – outside alcohol consumption – by the parents not the swimmers, inappropriate pool attire – again parents (usually the mommies), and volunteer job cancellations. Fortunately, soccer is a little less email crazy thanks to the invention of Shutterfly. However, if you serve on the board of any youth sports program you have my utmost respect, admiration and sympathy for the amount of crazy emails you deal with during any given season. They don’t make over-the-counter headache medication strong enough to deal with all the crazy parents convinced their child is the next Michael Phelps, Mia Hamm or Derek Jeter.

Finally, my girl’s interest in boys (and the boys’ interest in my daughters) might actually make me homicidal crazy, but that’s another article for another day. For now, let’s just say, as much as I love the additional quality time my wife and I get to spend with our loving offspring, you’re crazy if they think we would want the summer to last longer than it already does.

“Let me ask you something, Coburn. Some young man in the north says goodbye to his family, knowing he’ll probably never see them again. Then he walks down the Ho Chi Minh trail carrying a couple of mortar rounds or B-40s with ten of his comrades. By the time he gets to this place, maybe eight of his friends are dead because of malaria or B-52s.

This young man comes down here and sits on the riverbank waiting for one of those patrol boats to go by. He sits there with dysentery and no food and finally he sees one of those boats and shoots off his B-40. And misses. The patrol boat calls in an air strike and kills him. And while he’s dying, another ten men say goodbye to their family and march down the trail.”

“So what?” asked Coburn.

“In the south they take a young man, feed him well, put him in good uniforms, give him boots and an M-16 and train him and pay him. And then he goes to war in a helicopter, jumps out and someone shoots at him. What’s he do? He throws away his rifle, throws off his helmet and runs away. So, Coburn, who do you think will win this war?”

 

And so begins the story of Crazy Razor: A Novel of the Vietnam War, written by decorated combat veteran and Oakland resident, Kenneth Levin. A self-proclaimed student of the war, whose own experiences in Vietnam are combined with the personal interviews of North Vietnamese veterans, Levin deftly explores the nature of man amidst the chaos and horror of war.  And while the main character is no prince charming, Crazy Razor demonstrates with stark clarity that the real villain in war is war itself.

I sat down with Levin under the gnarly oak tree in his storybook garden, the sound of his two-year-old granddaughter’s laughter emanating from inside the picture-perfect house he shares with his ever-patient wife of 37 years, Eileen. It surprised me. This seemingly tough guy, this man’s man, shot twice in Vietnam and blinded by an infection he suffered after being dumped in the water, is really just an old softie, wrapped around the finger of an adorable, blonde cherub who has no idea what Grandpa has seen:

 

ALIVE) In your book, you write with amazing detail about the North Vietnamese soldiers and their side of the Vietnam War. You must have done a lot of research. Or was that a product of your imagination?

KENNETH LEVIN) Both.  I wanted the book to be as credible, accurate and realistic as possible. Details of the war from the South Vietnamese and American perspective were readily available, often from my own experience, but not so the details of the north and the National Liberation Front (VC) fighters in the south. When I found I could not get these details from books, libraries, or the web, and my letters to the museums and ministries in Vietnam went unanswered, I had to improvise. Guess. Imagine. Otherwise, I’d have never been able to finish the book. When reviewing the first draft, I decided I needed to fact check my book, to verify that my improvisations were realistic and made sense. So I went to Vietnam, toured the areas I describe in the book, and interviewed combat veterans of the People’s Army and the National Liberation Front. Much to my surprise, I found that my guesses about the other fellows’ lives were pretty accurate.

ALIVE) Your war ended over forty years before you started writing Crazy Razor? Why wait so long?

KENNETH LEVIN) I wanted to write the book, or at least a book, after reading Nicholas Monsarratt’s The Cruel Sea, a wonderful novel based on a Royal Navy officer’s experience during World War II.  That was a few years after I returned from Vietnam.  But then kids, mortgage, and a job all got in the way. Finally, in 2009, I looked around me and said that if I didn’t write the book now, I never would. So I retired, reached in the bucket, and pulled out the list. Number one was the book.

A) In your book you describe a conversation between an American and a Cambodian mercenary during a night ambush operation that ended tragically. Did that really happen?

KL) That story is based on a conversation I had with a Cambodian mercenary while sitting on a muddy riverbank waiting for the enemy tax collector’s sampan to come into our ambush. That was the first time I questioned what in the hell I was doing in Vietnam and what in the hell was my country doing in Vietnam. For the sake of the story telling, the scene in the book ends differently than what happened on that riverbank. Today we have drones controlled by people sitting thousands of miles away from their targets, while someone, I don’t know where, tells them to shoot or not.  In the story, the American is the person who says to shoot or not. And both the character in the story and I had the counsel of a wiser man, the mercenary.

A) I understand your next book has a story in it about the life of a Vietnamese veteran that his daughter told you. How did that come about?

KL) When I was in Hanoi in 2012, I was trying to find People’s Army combat veterans to interview. I had a list of some two dozen questions to ask them. Everything from what did you wear on your feet to did you think you’d survive the war? A young woman in the hotel where I was staying volunteered that her father was a vet and she would be glad to ask him the questions. So I gave her a copy and my email address and went on my travels. About a month after I returned to Oakland, I received an email from her with a lengthy attachment. There were all the answers to my questions and much more. I realized here was a story that needed telling. After nearly a year of email exchanges with the daughter, I had the man’s life story. From the child of a farmer, to a soldier, to a POW, to struggling veteran trying to build a life for his wife and children, to a smiling grandfather. His daughter is a gifted storyteller so together we wrote the short story. But other than the names that she insisted be changed, the story is not fiction.  It is true.

A) How would you describe Crazy Razor? What kind of a book is it?

 KL) I call it an anti-war novel, as is All Quiet on the Western Front or Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War. The problem is that when it comes to publishing, there is no such formal category called “anti-war novel.” So it is officially a war story or historical fiction. But Crazy Razor is really an anti-war novel.

A) For want of a better word, Crazy Razor ends with a surprising twist that may upset the average reader. Why did you do that?

 KL) There is no happily-ever-after ending to a war. If they live, they survive. Real life is not bundled up nicely with no strings hanging out. People are disturbed, life has been disrupted and justice isn’t always meted out. I purposely wanted the reader to feel unsettled and disturbed at watching a vainglorious narcissist in close proximity to a righteous murderer. There is no illusion about the goodness of the human heart. I paint an ugly picture, and that can be disturbing. But that is what I meant to do. War is a terrible thing.

A) You were a naval officer who advised the South Vietnamese Navy in 1968 and 1969.  One of your main characters is just that. Is this book autobiographical?

 KL) That is the most common question I’ve been asked by readers of Crazy Razor. The book is a novel and by definition fiction. But it is also purposely realistic and detailed.  In fact, some have criticized the book for too much detail and realism. In order to achieve the realism, I did a lot of research, but I also relied as much on my own experiences and memories. So in that respect, there’s a whole lot of me in the book. But I would not call it autobiographical. At least I hope not, given the character you mention. He’s not a very nice guy.

A) Tell me about the two women in the book, the language instructor and the intelligence analyst. They’re similar in some ways but so different in others. Why these two women?

 KL) Both women are Vietnamese, beautiful, intelligent, and sensuous. But one is selfish, calculating and cold. The other is warm, caring and sacrificing. One is dedicated to herself. The other is dedicated to lofty ideals and is also a traitor to her country. I used them to add a touch of soft femininity to a hard environment. And I used them as symbols, as vehicles—one of South Vietnam, the other of the north.

A) What are your next writing projects?

 KL) My bucket list is getting longer and longer with stories I want to tell. My next project is a collection of short stories that is, hopefully, in its final drafts. Crazy Razor is a big book, and it would have been even bigger, but I had to stop somewhere. So the things I wanted to write about, but did not, I put together and made sausage. The next book is a collection of sausage links – short stories — some are grim, some are humorous. And some address the question that once the war is over, what does a person do with all these memories? How can one live with oneself after witnessing and committing what by any standards are atrocities? The project after that one goes off to the publisher is a book based on my late brother’s diary that he kept while an army surgeon in Vietnam during 1965 and 1966. That one will be nonfiction.

A) In your author’s notes at the beginning of Crazy Razor you state that the only villain is the war itself. But at least one of your central characters appears to be quite villainous.  How could you say there are no villains?

 KL) I’m sticking by my notes. The two characters are men who, if they never went to war, would probably live quiet and lawful lives—one as an academic in a university in Hanoi, the other as a businessman in Hartford or St. Louis. One may be sociopathic but never put in an environment that allows that to come out.  But both men do go to war and are put into an environment that allows them to commit heinous and vicious acts of violence. Both do villainous things. But neither would have if not in war. In The Cruel Sea, Monsarratt says that the only villain in the Atlantic in World War II was the sea itself.  My feelings that war, not the men fighting it, is the villain are similar to his. A psychologist wrote me and said, “Altogether, I found it a profound book about the motives we use to justify our actions, the ugliness of war and the latitude it gives people to be at their very worst.”

A)Who’s your target audience for this book?

KL) When asked that question by the publishers, I thought for a bit and decided that since Crazy Razor was classified as a war story, the target was probably males over 50.  But much to my surprise, women seem to like the book.  Several have said that they avoid war stories but did read mine and enjoyed it. I don’t know if “enjoy” can be applied to a book of the horrors of war.

A)  How did you come up with the title “Crazy Razor?”

KL) My call sign when I was in-country was Crazy Racer. With a “cer,” instead of a “zor.”  It was a little like Alfred Hitchcock popping up in one of his movies for a few seconds.

A) How cathartic was it for you to write this story? Did you get rid of some of your demons for good?

KL) I certainly didn’t write the book for catharsis, but I think it was certainly personally cathartic for me. No, I did not get rid of any demons. But I did learn to live with the memories.

A) Once the war is over, what does a soldier do with all those memories? How can one live with oneself after committing all those atrocities?

KL) I don’t know.  Do we manipulate our code of ethics according to the context? Much smarter people than I will have to answer these questions. I’m sure many psychologists at the VA are immersed in this serious and knotty question.

A) You were wounded twice, lost your vision and contracted an Agent Orange connected cancer. Why aren’t you bitter?

KL) No one can be bitter with the family I have, the friends I have and the life I have.  I’m doing what I want to do. And when I feel like taking a nap, I just lie down and take one. Beat that if you can.

Kenneth Levin will be at Towne Center Books, 555 Main Street in Pleasanton, CA on Wednesday, August 21 at 7:00 pm.  Crazy Razor is also available at Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com.