Andrew Vachss

     Andrew Vachss is one of my heroes. I like this guy so much that I rearranged this section of my Web site, alphabetizing now by first name instead of last, just so I could give him top billing. It's a small gesture, perhaps, but a sincere tribute nonetheless.

     Before I made direct contact with Andrew Vachss (pronouncd "Vax") in July of 2000, I watched him from afar for about ten years. I needed to see if my initial respect for him as a gutsy warrior—with revolutionary ideas, practical solutions, and passionate devotion to the cause—remained constant over time. Actually, my respect for him grew over time.

     Although Vachss is famous for his series of crime novels that feature a character named Burke, it is his other work in the world that first caught my attention. Vachss is an attorney who relentlessly goes after predators who prey on children.

     I'd tell you all about it, but he and plenty of other writers have already done a good job of that. In fact, you can go to his Web site right now and start with a great piece called "Andrew Vachss: Beating the Devil." It was written by Zak Mucha and originally published in the April 2000 issue of Gallery Magazine.

    Once you're on Vachss' Web site, you might as well hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on your door, because you're probably going to be there for a while. His Web site has enough reading material (not to mention great pictures) to keep someone busy for 30 years of solitary confinement. And it's all good stuff. Really good.

    As Vachss once told me in a letter, he seems to inspire everything except disinterest. He has a reputation for offending people with his outspoken views about the idea that we are what we do, the absolute belief that evil is always a choice, and the radically responsible notion that our child protective and juvenile justice systems are not only not working, but that they actually contribute to the creation of predators.

    Ironically, it seems that the very things that offend others about Vachss are precisely the things that inspire the hell out of me. For example, let me entice you to read the text of a speech he gave many years ago that so inflamed some people that they walked out. It's called "Who Is the Serious, Violent, Habitual Offender?"

     If you read it, I promise that you'll either be incited or insulted—or perhaps both at different times. But you won't be bored. As for me, I was cheering wildly, thinking that the world could use a whole army of Andrew Vachsses. Actually, it's up to all of us to be that army and take responsibility for protecting our children against predators. His Web site can show you how.

    I'm one of those helping professionals who thinks that responsibility is the number one issue in therapy—and in life. This is one big reason I love Andrew Vachss: because he takes responsibility and gets things done.

     If you want a hundred more reasons why this guy blows my socks off, check out his Web site or see below to search his Web site's extensive RESOURCES section.

P.S. to dog lovers: Andrew's site has an amazing photo gallery of canine warriors, including John's and my special friend, Zeke. After Zeke died in July 2001, Andrew offered to add Zeke to the "Backup Pack" section of his Web site, so Zeke could live on in cyberspace. If you'd like to see Zeke on Andrew's site, and thereby find yourself in a good position to peruse dozens of other dog photos (complete with personalized and often hilarious captions), please click here.

To learn more about how you can help to protect children, please visit:

National Organization to PROTECT Children (a national, nonpartisan, pro-child, anti-crime membership organization dedicated to the protection of children).

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Center for Touch Drawing

    In the introduction to a 1991 interview with Deborah Koff-Chapin (founder of the Center for Touch Drawing), I wrote: "One of the gifts of interviewing people is that I get to meet some amazing people. Some of them are well-known; some are not. Then there are those who will be famous, given enough time for word to get out. Deborah Koff-Chapin is one of those people."

     Ten years later I'm writing this, and I'd say the word is definitely out. Although Deborah would gently protest my description of her as famous, the truth is that her extraordinary SoulCards deck has sold more than 42,000 copies worldwide, and it's been translated into four languages since its release in 1995.

     Now SoulCards has been joined by SoulCards 2, a sister deck of sixty more unique and powerful images that are offered without interpretation for the purposes of reflection, inspiration, and creative delight. These images come into the world through a process called Touch Drawing, which was given to Deborah in 1974, while she was in a state of playful revelation during a mundane cleanup task on her last day of art school at Cooper Union in New York City.

     You can learn more about Deborah, Touch Drawing, and SoulCards in a second interview I did with her in late 2000, entitled "From Paper Towels to SoulCards."

     As for my personal connection with Deborah, it's been one of my life's sweetest gifts. It started in 1990, when Deborah called and asked if I would allow her to come meet me and do a series of "Inner Portraits" for me—and if I liked the experience, perhaps I would interview her?

     What transpired was one of the most incredible afternoons of mutual creation that I've ever experienced with another person. After we chatted for a few minutes, Deborah set up materials to teach me how to do Touch Drawing, so I could draw simultaneously while she did inner portraits of me.

     In simple detail, she showed me how to ink a plexiglass board with a roller, overlay the inked board with a large piece of semi-transparent paper, and then draw with my hands—without implements—directly on the paper. When a drawing is done, the paper is turned over and the image is revealed.

     For two solid hours, Deborah and I both drew, nonstop, in silence. When we finished, I had done 22 drawings and she had created 30 different 18"X24" framable drawings of me—drawings that were not portraits in the conventional sense of the word, but were rather expressions of various parts of my personality, psyche, and soul. In fact, one of them, which I call "the face of my soul" (shown here), still hangs in my studio where I use it for meditation.

     Although I'm an artist who was already comfortable drawing with both hands, I had never drawn without implements, with both hands simultaneously, on paper that was inked on the opposite side. From the first time I did Touch Drawing, I loved how it seems to short-circuit my brain and directly access body memories and archetypal images held deep in my cells.

     Images came out of me that I had never seen before, and indeed, those same images have appeared again and again in subsequent Touch Drawings done years later. Mysteriously, those particular images never seem to come through any other medium, even though I draw nearly every day. Such is the power of Touch Drawing.

     Needless to say, I was so moved by my first experience with Deborah that I not only interviewed her; we also became friends. Over the years, she has played many roles with me: interview subject, comrade-in-arms, fellow artist and writer, confidante and soul sister, and most recently, the guiding light who helped me survive the brutally arduous process of independent publishing. I don't think I could have birthed Dr. Cat's Helping Handbook on my own without the help of my "big sister," who blazed the trail before me with her own independent publication of SoulCards.

     To give you a taste of her SoulCards, I'll share one with you (there are 119 more). It's from her first deck, which I bought immediately upon its release years ago. Holding it in my hands with my eyes closed, I asked to be shown the card that most fully represented my soul path. I pulled a card and then opened my eyes to see a gorgeous drawing (shown here) of a woman "leaving the picture" with a butterfly behind her left shoulder. I laughed with delight, knowing that this image was a perfect symbol for my passion work with death.

     SoulCards are like that—always reflecting myself back to me in ways that are beautiful, awe-inspiring, and downright magical. Come to think of it, those are good words to describe my friend Deborah—this exquisite woman who is an artist, writer, singer, and teacher...and one of my favorite human beings.

     Go to her Web site now, if you like, where more wonders await you.

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Christiane Northrup, M.D.

     It was 1995, and Christiane Northrup's groundbreaking book, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, had just been released. One of my publishers sent me a review copy and asked if I'd like to interview Dr. Northrup. I said yes.

     I still remember the first time I saw her in the publicity photos. I was struck by the depth of compassion in her face. I felt as if I was looking at a very old soul, someone who had witnessed much pain and had learned how to hold it in her heart with extraordinary tenderness and respect. Every time I've seen her since then, speaking on television or smiling out from the covers of her books, I see the same kind face, only the kindness has deepened and strengthened over time.

     Although I have not yet met Christiane in person, I told her once in a letter that she seems to play the role of "Mystical Midwife" for me. For years now, she shows up in one way or another at key transition points in my life. Invariably, the transition points she midwifes are the ones that require me to listen more and more deeply to the wisdom of my body—which is, of course, the main theme of Christiane's work.

     The first time this happened was actually the first time I'd ever heard of her, when my publisher set up our telephone interview to talk about Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom. As it happened, I had to cancel the interview at the last minute due to a healing crisis—a cancer scare that required a uterine biopsy.

     Fortunately, the cancer scare turned out to be just that: a scare. However, I'd never had to cancel an interview with anyone in a decade of doing them for all kinds of people. Also, the biopsy was such a ghastly experience that my body was screaming at me afterward, angry that I had submitted to such an invasive procedure instead of just asking it—my own womb—what was wrong.

     In point of fact, the right direction of inquiry was inward, though the voice of my fear was also glad to have medical confirmation that no cancer was found. Once I put all the pieces together, I realized that I would have had to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to notice the "coincidence," namely, that the biopsy forced me to cancel with none other than Christiane Northrup, who is one of the world's foremost champions of feminine wisdom.

     Thus, when I finally remembered to ask my own womb—the feminine center of creation—what was going on, the message came loud and clear: STOP WRITING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S WORK AND GET ON WITH YOUR OWN!

     I knew immediately what I had to do. For years, I'd allowed my other writing—especially all my interview work (which I loved)—to interfere with the completion of my own book. And so, I must give credit to Christiane Northrup's mysterious "midwifing" effect on me that I changed course with my writing right then and there, stopped interviewing other people for years, and got on with the completion of Dr. Cat's Helping Handbook (published in 2000).

     The funny thing is, after my book came out, my "Mystical Midwife" showed up during another tectonic shift. This one was too big and too personal to talk about, but ironically, one of the punch lines is that I may be returning to interviews—except this time, they'll be for one of my own books. Who knows, I may even ask Christiane for one!

     For now, I encourage you to explore the Web site of this cream-of-the crop doc. Her site is loaded with information and support especially designed for women, and it's expanding all the time. By the way, she has written two other masterpieces: The Wisdom of Menopause and Mother-Daughter Wisdom. I recommend them both!

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Read more of Cat's favorites (page 2)
 

Links to favorites outside this site

RESOURCES at THE ZERO child abuse child advocacy orgs child care child labor child pornography child safety child sexual abuse child soldiers children & medication contact legislators domestic violence donations/volunteers "false allegations" foster care hate crimes health care hotlines human trafficking infant abandonment juvenile justice legal resources lesbian, gay, bi and transgender mental health missing children pain management parenting resources pets/assistance animals sex offenders sexual assault stalking un convention on the rights of the child victim resources youth violence GO! The Official Website of Andrew Vachss

Adbusters

Alice Miller (list of books by Alice Miller--author, educator, child advocate, and one of my longtime heroes)

Anne Wilson Schaef (author and educator)

Animal Communication (Mary Getten)

The Bright Side: Wings of Support (resources for body, mind, and spirit)

Claudia Black (author and educator)

Eureka Jewelry Design (elegant and beautiful handmade jewelry by Cindy Sherwin)

Greenway Communications (Marla Greenway, a multi-talented woman and my best friend)

Ira Byock, M.D. (physician, author, educator, and expert on palliative and end-of-life care)

Laura Davis (author and educator)

Lucia Capacchione (author and educator)

Lynne Finney, J.D., M.S.W (author, lawyer, and educator)

Men's Network Against Domestic Violence (information and resources to help end family violence)

National Organization to Halt the Abuse and Routine Mutilation of Males (NOHARMM, dedicated to ending the inhumane and unnecessary practice of involuntary infant circumcision)

Susan Slotter and Soulscapes (fine art photographer, artist, and workshop leader)

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