I am sure your parents only have good intentions for you when they steer you towards being a lawyer, but ultimately it is your life, and you must make the decision. I believe that the mate you choose and the career you choose are the most important factors in the quality of life you will have, and if you believe, after working at this law firm, that being a lawyer is not for you, then you must follow your gut here. Having a career helping people be healthy is a beautiful thing!

When I decided to become an actress, my mother was not happy, mostly because she was worried about the ups and downs of show business. But for 21 years now I have been an incredibly happy person, even with those ups and downs!!!! If I had picked a more mainstream career because of what my parents wanted – something more “secure”, “steady”- I wouldnt be as happy as I am now, that is for sure.

I have a low threshold for stress too, so I understand what you are talking about. Most of the stress in our life, however, is controllable, is we are willing to make changes. Look at what you consider important in life, what makes you happy. Does that coincide with a law career or a career in natural health and healing? If you are passionate about what you do, you will make it a success. Certainly here in California there is a market for it. Alot of people make a good living off healing, not as much as being a lawyer, but certainly they are happy! Ian’s massage therapist, Ted, used to be a lawyer and quit to do massage and he says he is much happier.

Good luck to you. I hope you follow your heart.

Alexandra

I am not a bodybuilder, but I know that when I trained for the Ironman I ate alot of eggwhites. As I am a vegetarian, and not a vegan (vegans dont eat or wear or use anything that comes from a living creature. I dont wear leather, wool or silk, but I do still eat eggs and some milk), I could eat eggwhites, and drink protein shakes with whey (a milk byproduct) in them. I am not surprised that your friend couldnt gain alot of muscle on a vegetarian diet unless he/she were really pounding the eggwhites. Eggwhites have the highest biological value protein of any food.

There are many incredible athletes who are vegan, however (Carl Lewis, for one), and I believe that most people, with a bit of effort, can get enough protein from a vegan diet. Weightlifting and bodybuilding might be the exception to that, but I dont know for sure. A search on the internet will probably provide you with some examples of vegan bodybuilders.

Thank you for writing. Good luck with your weightlifting. Oh and by the way, I prefer “Alexandra”!

Best,

Alexandra

Osama Bin Laden does not have nuclear weapons, and the best way to ensure that he never gets them is to negotiate with North Korea, not alienate them, as President Bush did last year by calling North Korea an axis of evil. What good does name calling do? North Korea’s dictator is one of the cruelest leaders on earth (that whole country is starving), but he is weak ( I dont care how many bombs he has) because North Koreans are poor, starving, ill-educated, unhappy. He needs the United States because he cannot maintain a stranglehold on his dictatorship for long. So starting a fight with him is just stupid (and Bush started it by calling them names. It put North Korea on the defensive). We can win over North Korea through diplomacy because North Korea needs alot of what other countries have (food, most urgently).

Unfortunately, because Bush believes that “security” means troops, guns and bombs, countries are
rushing to get nuclear weapons because they see how they will get treated if they dont have them: look at Iraq, who spent sooooo little on their military equipment compared to us; and North Korea, who got coddled when they hinted they had nuclear capabilities. I believe that true security is making these countries a better place to live, and that the United States has an opportunity to be the most loved (and therefore safest) country in the world through generosity and diplomacy.

I look at the long term view, and I KNOW that America is less safe today than on September 12, 2001, and I think that is because Bush responded with hatred and violence and bullheadedness and disrespect. I believe that if he had not decided to be a cowboy and start two wars (that didnt even accomplish their initial intentions, to catch Osama and Saddam), leaving 2 countries in disarray and dozens very angry at us for not working with the international community, we could have held on to some of the goodwill we got from the world when we were attacked on 9/11. If he had decided to rebuild those countries instead of decimate them with tons and tons of (cancer-causing) weapons, we could have had the Arab world on our side.

Thank you for writing. I enjoyed your thought-provoking letter.

Alexandra