Verizon Leaves Customer's Credit Stained in Writing Off $18,000 Bill

This article was originally published by Technorati on 17 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

A couple of weeks ago we reported the predicament of Bob St. Germain, who had been unable to settle a disputed $18,000 cell phone bill from Verizon since receiving it in 2006.

Thanks in no small measure to Technorati coverage, I'm sure, we are happy to report that Mr. St. Germain is resting comfortably, his debt having been magnanimously forgiven by Verizon.

Not quite.

Yes, the $18,000 charge (previously reduced by half) has been removed from Mr. St. Germain's monthly statement, but in one last smashing bit of corporate egoism, the bill was not reduced to a normal amount or completely forgiven--it was written off as uncollectible.

This is what is known in the business as wrenching defeat from the jaws of victory. Another apt cliche might be cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

Inner Body Awareness Slows the Aging Process

This article was originally published by Technorati on 16 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Some dermatologists are now recommending moderate amounts of sun exposure based on the health benefits of vitamin D. Our skin produces Vitamin D when it's exposed to the sun. Studies indicate that most Americans have deficient levels of it.

The downside to increased sun exposure is the cumulative damage that UV rays can cause. This is why doctors recommend covering face, neck and hands while soaking in the sun for 10 to 15 minutes three times a week on arms and legs. UV rays are responsibly for most of our wrinkles as we age.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could somehow combat this aging process? Slow it down? Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle claims that we can through "awareness of the inner body."

Slowing Down the Aging Process - An Excerpt from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

In the meantime, awareness of the inner body has other benefits in the physical realm. One of them is a significant slowing down of the aging of the physical body.

Whereas the outer body normally appears to grow old and wither fairly quickly, the inner body does not change with time, except that you may feel it more deeply and become it more fully. If you are twenty years old now, the energy field of your inner body will feel just the same when you are eighty. It will be just as vibrantly alive. As soon as your habitual state changes from being out of the body and trapped in your mind to being in the body and present in the Now, your physical body will feel lighter, clearer, more alive. As there is more consciousness in the body, its molecular structure actually becomes less dense. More consciousness means a lessening of the illusion of materiality.