A husband-and-wife team put their philosophy of “We don’t quit on family” into action, demonstrating how to combat isolation, build healthy relationships, and fight for (not with!) the ones you love, right where you are. When Chris and Julie Bennett and their four kids decided to move from Norman, Oklahoma, to Los Angeles, they knew they were setting out on a great adventure. They’d be leaving behind the church Chris and Julie had pastored, the comfort of their community, and the familiarity of their daily routines, but the new city promised to bring some much-needed change. Most of all, they looked forward to connecting with others in one of the most disconnected cities in the United States. What they didn’t expect was how this adventure—complicated by a cancer diagnosis, a relapse, and a worldwide pandemic—would challenge their notions of what it means to care for each other well, both as a nuclear family and as part of a broader community. It turns out that becoming family is stressful, messy, exhausting—and absolutely, totally worth fighting for. In a time when so many suffer from loneliness and it feels like developing authentic relationships is impossible, Chris and Julie invite you to step into their story to discover the fundamentals that lead to healthy, thriving families and friendships. You’ll discover the power of embracing vulnerability, accepting imperfection, and extending forgiveness, while finding fulfillment through enforcing boundaries and honoring and serving others. Whether you are looking to build your own community from scratch or strengthen your existing connections, Fighting for Family will inspire you to go all in on your relationships, no matter what your circumstances.

Seeking to identify the plant origins of the early sacramental beverages Soma and Haoma, this study draws a connection between the psychoactive properties of these drinks and the widespread use of cannabis among Indo-Europeans during this time. Exploring the role of these libations as inspiration for the Indian Rig Veda and the Persian Avestan texts, this examination discusses the spread of cannabis use across Europe and Asia, the origins of the Soma and Haoma cults, and the shamanic origins of modern religion.

In 2020 archeologists examining a 2,800 year old temple site in Arad, Jerusalem, revealed that cannabis resins had been burnt on an altar in a small enclosed chamber. Another find of cannabis used for medical purposes both topically and burnt were recovered at a 4th century CE site in Bet Shemesh Israel, testifying to the use of cannabis in the region over a 1,200 year period. In the 1900s the Russian archeologist Victor Sarianidi uncovered 3 large 4,000 year old temple sites in the Bactria Margiana Archeological Complex, and claimed evidence of cannabis, ephedra and poppy in the preparation of the sacred drinks of the Avesta and Vedas, haoma and soma. Sacred Zoroastrian texts refer specifically to the use of cannabis infused wines for revelation. Multiple Indo-European sites ranging from Europe to Central China, have revealed that cannabis was burnt and consumed in beverages in funerary rituals dating as far back as 5,500 years ago and continuing for thousands of years. In India cannabis is still taken in devotion to the oldest continually worshipped god in the world, Shiva. What was cannabis’ role with our distant ancestors, is cannabis the Lost Sacrament of the Ancient World?

n 2020 archeologists examining a 2,800 year old temple site in Arad, Jerusalem, revealed that cannabis resins had been burnt on an altar in a small enclosed chamber. Another find of cannabis used for medical purposes both topically and burnt were recovered at a 4th century CE site in Bet Shemesh Israel, testifying to the use of cannabis in the region over a 1,200 year period. In the 1900s the Russian archeologist Victor Sarianidi uncovered 3 large 4,000 year old temple sites in the Bactria Margiana Archeological Complex, and claimed evidence of cannabis, ephedra and poppy in the preparation of the sacred drinks of the Avesta and Vedas, haoma and soma. Sacred Zoroastrian texts refer specifically to the use of cannabis infused wines for revelation. Multiple Indo-European sites ranging from Europe to Central China, have revealed that cannabis was burnt and consumed in beverages in funerary rituals dating as far back as 5,500 years ago and continuing for thousands of years. In India cannabis is still taken in devotion to the oldest continually worshipped god in the world, Shiva. What was cannabis’ role with our distant ancestors, is cannabis the Lost Sacrament of the Ancient World?

Being both ethical and successful is challenging. The rewards of unethical behavior are often greater than the price paid for misbehavior. This book explains why leaders, seeking to run ethical and successful organizations, cannot depend only on the law and their organizations to make moral business decisions. The authors explore why making ethical business decisions is harder than is generally understood, and explores the difficulties leaders face as a result of differences in context, circumstances, and other challenges to ethical behavior, such as misleading rhetoric, inappropriate role models, cognitive dissonance and motivated forgetting. They argue that individuals need to establish ethical baselines that they will not cross when making decisions and explain how to do this systematically. The Challenge of Leading an Ethical and Successful Organization offers ways of handling ethical dilemmas successfully. It explores the need to determine in advance the potential areas of ethical conflict, and the potential costs of such conflicts and provides leaders with a practical ethical framework to reconcile ethics with business success. This book is essential reading for professionals, consultants, and academics interested in the ethics of leadership and management.

Criminality and Business Strategy: Similarities and Differences explores what can be learned from criminal organizations on four continents based on comparisons of their historical and cultural origins, chosen governance and power structures, and business models. It discusses how these contexts determined their applications of the principles and practice of effective, but amoral leadership, and whether these lessons can be applied to legitimate business enterprises. In this book John Zinkin and Chris Bennett argue that defining a "crime" is a contested issue and that criminality can be viewed as a spectrum, comprising a range of different types of crimes, the harms caused, and the variety of punishments involved. They discuss the critical role of the state in determining where criminality is perceived to sit on the crime continuum. The authors delve into how the state and organized crime are natural competitors, and how organized crime and legitimate businesses are subject to many of the same internal and external strategic considerations. They contend that the resulting similarities between criminality in organized criminal organizations and legitimate businesses are greater than the differences and that the differences are only in degree and not in kind. This thought-provoking study of criminality will be of immense interest to professionals, coaches, consultants, and academics interested in the techniques and ethics of leadership. The book is, in effect, the result of an intellectual journey of the authors from the ideas presented in their earlier book, The Principles and Practice of Effective Leadership, to the issues in this book discussing important, difficult, and contested subjects. The journey continues in their third book: The Challenge in Leading Ethical and Successful Organizations.

Although little known, cannabis and other psychoactive plants held a prominent and important role in the Occult arts of Alchemy and Magic, as well as being used in ritual initiations of certain secret societies. Find out about the important role cannabis played in helping to develop modern medicines through alchemical works. Cannabis played a pivotal role in spagyric alchemy, and appears in the works of alchemists such as Zosimos, Avicenna, Llull, Paracelsus, Cardano and Rabelais. Cannabis also played a pivotal role in medieval and renaissance magic and recipes with instructions for its use appear in a number of influential and important grimoires such as the Picatrix, Sepher Raxiel: Liber Salomonis, and The Book of Oberon. Could cannabis be the Holy Grail? With detailed historical references, the author explores the allegations the Templars were influenced by the hashish ingesting Assassins of medieval Islam, and that myths of the Grail are derived from the Persian traditions around the sacred beverage known as haoma, which was a preparation of cannabis,opium and other drugs. Many of the works discussed, have never been translated into English, or published in centuries. The unparalleled research in this volume makes it a potential perennial classic on the subjects of both medieval and renaissance history of cannabis, as well as the role of plants in the magical and occult traditions.

The stroke I am referring to in this book is a CVA (Cerebrovascular Accident). In my case, it was a blockage in the central lobe with a banging headache, dizziness and then the whole left side losing feeling. Not nice! I realised this was life threatening when my consultant turned to my husband and said, “We need to act quickly; time is not on her side.” My husband’s response was, “Don’t stand there, get on with it!” If he hadn’t, my life now would be very different. My concentration levels were not good at first. I knew I needed to keep my brain active: I did not want to lose my mind, memory etc. However, with the help, love and support of others (and two years on), I can now share my thoughts on this experience. Who knows? It may help others to cope. Through this book, I am going to share my deepest darkest days, and explain to you why I feel lucky.

In need of adventure, and inspired by the explorations of Lewis and Clark, Chris Bennett made a plan to take his small fishing boat on an historic 460-mile journey down the Cumberland River. The trip would begin in Creelsboro, Kentucky, just a few miles below Wolf Creek Dam, and take him through Nashville, Tennessee, and on past the Land Between the Lakes to the Ohio River. Says Chris, "I wanted to seek out new life, and new civilizations; I wanted to boldly go where no electrician, or used guitar salesman, had gone before..." In June of 2007, he recruited Neal "Action" Jackson, of Jamestown, Kentucky, and loaded up his trusty Bass Tracker to set out on the adventure of a lifetime. Part travelogue, part rural history, part high-seas adventure, Rivermen of the Cumberland is funny, inspiring, and insightful.

The 17th and 18th centuries were years of political, constitutional and religious conflict in England, Scotland and Ireland. They were also a period of civil wars and conflagration. The aim of this book is to provide an understanding of the political, social and religious attitudes of the period 1587 to 1784. I have tried to illustrate these aspects through the songs and music. The songs are laid out in chronological order. They cover the important events of the period.
The songs begin with the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587, and the accession of James I (of England) or VI of Scotland. They cover the important constitutional issues, which led to the major battles of the Civil War. There are songs from and about Cromwell's Commonwealth, the Restoration 1660, the Dutch Wars, the abdication of James III, The South Sea Bubble, The Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, and their aftermath. The book is complemented with a brief history. Also, there are separate notes explaining the historical and political context of each song, as well as a chronology of important dates.

While the implementation of evidence-based medicine guidelines is well studied, there has been little investigation into the extent to which a parallel evidence-based management movement has been influential within health care organizations. This book explores the various management knowledges and associated texts apparent in English health care organizations, and considers how the local reception of these texts was influenced by the macro level political economy of public services reform evident during the period of the politics of austerity. The research outlined in this volume shows that very few evidence-based management texts are apparent within health care organizations, despite the influence of certain knowledge producers, such as national agencies, think tanks, management consultancies, and business schools in the industry. Bringing together the often disconnected academic literature on management knowledge and public policy, the volume addresses the ways in which preferred management knowledges and texts in these publicly funded settings are sensitive to the macro level political economy of public services reform, offering an empirically grounded critique of the evidence-based management movement.

The year 2018 marked the fiftieth anniversary of May '68, a startling, by now almost mythic event which combined seriousness, courage, humor and theatrics. The contributions of this volume-based on papers presented the conference Does "la lutte continue"? The Global Afterlife of May '68 at Florida State University in March 2019-explore the ramifications of that springtime protest in the contemporary world. What has widely become known as the movement of '68 consisted, in fact, of many synchronous movements in different nations that promoted a great variety of political, social, and cultural agendas. While it is impossible to write a global history of '68, this volume presents a kaleidoscope of different perceptions, reflections, and receptions of protest in France, Italy, and other nations that share in common a global utopian imaginary as expressed, for example, in the slogan: "All power to the imagination!" The contributions of this collection show that, while all social struggles are political, many lasting changes in individual mentalities and social structures originated from utopian ideas that were realized first in artistic productions and their aesthetic reception. In this respect the various protests of May '68 continue.

Over the last thirty years, scholars of health care organizations have been searching for concepts and images to illuminate their underlying, and shifting, modes of organizing. Nowhere has this controversy been more intense than in the United Kingdom, given the long succession of top down reorganizations within the National Health Service (NHS) over the last thirty years. This book characterises the nature of key reforms - namely managed networks - introduced in the UK National Health Service during the New Labour period (1997-2010), combining rich empirical case material of such managed networks drawn from different health policy arenas (clinical genetics, cancer networks, sexual health networks, and long term care) with a theoretically informed analysis. The book makes three key contributions. Firstly, it argues that New Labour's reforms included an important network element consistent with underlying network governance ideas, specifying conditions of 'success' for these managed networks and exploring how much progress was empirically evident. Secondly, in order to conceptualise many of the complex health policy arenas studied, the book uses the concept of 'wicked problems': problematic situations with no obvious solutions, whose scope goes beyond any one agency, often with conflicting stakeholder interests, where there are major social and behavioural dimensions to be considered alongside clinical considerations. Thirdly, it makes a contribution to the expanding Foucauldian and governmentality-based literature on health care organizations, by retheorising organizational processes and policy developments which do not fit either professional dominance or NPM models from a governmentality perspective. From the empirical evidence gathered, the book argues that managed networks (as opposed to alternative governance modes of hierarchy or markets) may well be the most suitable governance mode in those many and expanding policy arenas characterised by 'wicked problems', and should be given more time to develop and reach their potential.