FRIENDS
We all need them, and new research suggests that our brains recognize that and respond to it as well:
"Your friends may matter to you in ways that you can't even see - at the level of neural circuitry in the brain.
It turns out that the brain's frontal midline, an area between the two hemispheres that is associated with socialization and the way you think about yourself, also shows a greater response from friends than strangers, even strangers with similar interests and lifestyles, said Fenna Krienen, graduate student at Harvard University and lead author of a new study on the subject.  "What we ended up finding is that closeness really seems to matter to these circuits in the brain much more than similarity," she said."

So remember--good friends are not only fun, but they also stimulate your brain!  We Moebius people always need that. :+)

TODAY'S HERO
...is Brenda Scott Coleman of West Virginia, who was in an accident as a young girl.  No one knew it at the time, but young Brenda's jaw was injured, and the injury left her with a permanent facial difference, making it difficult for her to talk and eat.  Here's more:
"The poor, segregated, West Virginia coal-mining town where Brenda was born did not provide medical care and support sufficient to repair her jaw while she was still an infant. Instead, she grew up making accommodations for her facial difference: She ate the softest foods, hid her face in public, and relied on her family and her faith in God to comfort her, especially when she was old enough to attend school.
"We moved to Pennsylvania when I was 4 or 5 years old. I had a normal childhood except for my face," Brenda Scott-Coleman said, "and I always hid my face."  Scott-Coleman has written "Bren-Dee: A Child Who Survived on Bookmarks," a book about the challenges she faced as a child with facial differences. Her book takes readers through her childhood in the coal-mining camps of 1940s West Virginia, her experiences in school as a child whose differences made social interaction difficult and academic respect hard-won. She writes about her extended stay in a Pittsburgh hospital, awaiting her first reconstructive surgery, and her reaction to the surgery's results at age 7....Scott-Coleman eventually had 25 surgeries on her face.
She also pursued a successful career as an international trade specialist, and as a designer of jewelry marketed to girls with similar facial differences. After settling in Huntingtown and retiring from federal service, Scott-Coleman wrote "Bren-Dee," to share her story with children, teachers and parents. Scott-Coleman said she is working on a second book, which explores her continued struggles and surgeries as a young girl.
Though the surgeries never gave Scott-Coleman the face she once desired, she is able to see the good in the life she has, and in her book she shares that perspective.  "I can eat. I can talk. I still have a tendency to cover my mouth, but it never interfered with my work," Scott-Coleman said. "I still am reminded every day in the mirror that I had a problem. You just have to have hope and faith in God and a good family that supports you. Nothing's going to be perfect — I'm not perfect, but I can live with this."

Good for her.

"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting
for our wits to grow sharper." -Eden Phillips