HIGH NOTES

The Local Touch

As lifetime residents of northern Michigan, the team at Dunegrass has a home-grown perspective on the Up-North experience. “A Higher Latitude” refers to northern Michigan’s unique sense of place as a destination that offers worldclass outdoor recreation against a stunning backdrop of lakes, forests, and rolling hills.

It’s important to us to preserve the natural beauty that makes our area so special, and that’s why we take sustainability issues seriously. Our supply chain focuses on select growers and processors in the region to supply quality products and strengthen our community impact.

We’ve even launched our own line of in-house products, Northern Grown, to highlight the local growers and processors we work with. Decide between premiumgrown buds, quality distillate balanced out with botanically-derived terpenes, or fully packed pre-rolls. These elevated experiences are offered exclusively at all Dunegrass locations.

Whenever we can, we work with our local cannabis partners, and when Northern Grown isn’t an option, we’ve zeroed in on the growers and processors downstate producing outstanding products while taking sustainability issues seriously.

Also launching this summer is our groundbreaking new product in the cannabis industry, Lift Strips. Lift Strips are cannabis-infused, quick-release dissolvables and are discretely concealable for a low-key approach to consumption. While activation may be quick (within 1-30 minutes), Lift Strips are a calorie-free alternative to your typical lineup of options. Debuting at the Michigan Cannabis Cup this year, Lift Strips will soon have more flavors and dosing choices available.

From our Northern Grown perspective, A Higher Latitude is best enjoyed responsibly with friends. Please read our Responsible Cannabis Guide, a guideline for safe cannabis use and respect for the people and places you visit.

Find the Responsible Cannabis Guide—and your nearest location and new locations to come, such as Interlochen—on our award-winning website, Dunegrass. co. With six local shops and counting, Dunegrass strives to be your cannabis outfitter, delivering A Higher Latitude for whatever northern Michigan adventure awaits you.

guest opinion by Greg Holmes

When was the last time you judged another person? How often do you find yourself putting someone or something down? Be honest now. If you stop and think about it, it’s much more often than you would like to admit.

Why do we spend so much of our precious time and energy criticizing relatively insignificant things about other people, such as how they look, what they wear, and what they believe? And why do we worry so much about what others think about us?

Self-esteem can actually function like a seesaw, which was also known as a teetertotter. Although seesaws have mostly disappeared from playgrounds, it’s easy to remember how they work. The only way that you could go up on your seat is for the other person to go down.

The motivation for putting others down is almost always to elevate our feelings about ourselves. What is sad and sometimes d angerous is that this motivation often remains hidden from our awareness. We simply continue to be critical and even feel righteous about how we feel. The other person simply “deserves” our judgment, as if we somehow know what is right for them.

It is impossible not to compare ourselves with others. It is a given from the very ground up of our DNA that there will be lots of differences between people. The list is endless, including but not limited to physical characteristics, values, possessions, and achievements.

Differences between people are, of course, normal. The problem begins when those differences are assigned a value, creating opportunities for judgment, jealousy, and derision. This assignment of value comes from many sources, including, but not limited, to political parties, religious institutions, and companies eager to sell us their wares.

We are bombarded each day with images of what is the best thing to buy, the best thing to have, the thing that will give us a leg up on our neighbor. Advertisements frequently feature comparisons between people who have or use their product and the unfortunate others who don’t.

The real issue, however, is not what we are told has value but whether or not we believe that it actually does. We then use those beliefs to judge ourselves and others. If we have low self-esteem, we will be more vulnerable to what other people value—what they feel is right and what is good. From there, it’s a short hop onto the seesaw.

So how is self-esteem developed?

Basically, self-esteem is a feeling of overall confidence in yourself, and it evolves over one’s lifetime. The most important period for development of one’s self-esteem is duri ng childhood when the foundation is laid. A child’s parents are the main source of whether a child feels loved, valued, and respected. A child who feels abandoned, neglected, or harshly criticized by parents develops the feeling that who they are, what they do, what they say is simply not important.

Although it is essential that parents offer unconditional positive regard for their child, parents are not the only ones who influence the development of self-esteem. Teachers, coaches, and peers have an important impact as they can either judge or encourage the child.

An important factor is whether a young person’s ideas, dreams, or interests matter to others or whether these are dismissed or ridiculed. A parent or teache r who summarily criticizes the child’s ideas because they are impractical or “stupid” can actually interfere with the development and expression of the self. (A song that summarizes this dynamic perfectly is Supertramp’s “The Logical Song.”)

When children are in school, the differences between them and their classmates are easy to see. Comparisons about who did better or worse in academics, sports, and extracurricular activities happen all the time. Who has friends, who doesn’t, and differences in social or economic status are all judged and can further affect children who may already be vulnerable to criticism.

How children relate to their peer group in adolescence is super important. Relationships with friends are a major factor to how teens feel about themselves. Not having friends, feeling isolated, and being bullied increases low self-esteem and one’s doubts about oneself.

That leads us to a big question: Can we increase our self-esteem? It is possible, but it’s often very difficult to do so. It’s so easy to stay on the seesaw because we are often unaware that we are on it in the first place. Staying on the seesaw can give us a short-lived feeling of pleasure as it feeds our ego; but, in the end, being critical of others offers at best only pyrrhic victories, not contentment.

Stepping off the seesaw involves taking an honest, deep look at who you really are and the motivations for your behavior. What’s really sad is that after a lifetime of being judged by others and yourself, you may not know who you really are. Find a caring therapist or someone you trust who can help in your journey. Perhaps you will finally find the unconditional positive regard that you have been looking for your entire life.

Inexplicable

Tony Saunders of Steelton, Pennsylvania, led state troopers on an odyssey on April 4, WTAJ-TV reported. Early that morning, officers stopped Saunders on suspicion of a burglary the day before. In the trunk of his BMW, he had a dead deer; when a trooper went to open the rear door, Saunders sped away and eventually got stuck on railroad tracks. He left the car and ran into a wooded area. Later that day, a school bus was reported stolen from Abbottstown, and again, police gave chase. Saunders finally ran away from the bus and through parking lots, shedding his clothing as he fled. He was nude when arrested. At some point, he had transferred the dead deer into the school bus; he told them he was going to use it for garden fertilizer. He faces multiple charges.

It's Come to This

"There will be no plans to hunt eggs again." So proclaimed Jessica Baer, the assistant manager of The Greene in Beavercreek, Ohio, after an Easter egg hunt went awry there on April 2. The Dayton Daily News reported that the activity, which was planned as a well-choreographed event for children, was ruined when people didn't listen to directions. Instead, during the time period restricted to 1- and 2-year-olds, adults ran out to hunt eggs, which prompted a free-for-all. Some people even allegedly pushed children out of the way or knocked them over. "This is absolutely unacceptable behavior," officials said. "We feel the community will be better without the hunt."

Unclear on the Concept

Siva Moodley, a pastor at The Miracle Centre near Johannesburg, South Africa, died on Aug. 15, 2021, Oddity Central reported. But until recently, his body lay at a funeral home -- for almost 600 days -- because his family members were convinced he would come back to life. The mortuary couldn't move forward on a burial without consent from the family, who at first came to the facility to pray for his resurrection. "He was a well-known man and does not deserve this kind of treatment," the mortuary owner said. Finally, he took legal action to further the pastor's burial. In response, the Gauteng High Court authorized a mandatory burial or cremation, and on March 16, Moodley was finally laid to rest.

Compelling Explanation

In Dallas, grocery worker Coby Todd, 21, is sure that a "mischievous child ghost" pushed a shopping cart into his car as he was leaving work, Fox News reported on March 30. The day before, Todd had gone "ghost hunting" at a home in Frontier Village, Texas, and had sensed the presence of a "little boy" spirit, he said. He thinks the spirit followed him home and to work the next day. "Maybe he was trying to play with me," Todd said. He checked out the store's security footage to see who might have pushed the cart, and it does appear to suddenly turn and roll on its own toward Todd's car. The damage amounts to about $25,000, and Todd said "it upset me. It's not fake."

Parenting Goals

TikTokker Will Meyers posted in early April that he had to "go pick up my kid from school today because I made a big mistake," the Daily Mail reported. As Meyers packed his son's lunch that morning, he loaded in a can of Guinness -- because the black can looks a lot like Liquid Death sparkling water. "It looks like sparkling water, but it's definitely not sparkling water," Meyers said. Other parents weighed in, with one admitting they sent "two packs of cigarettes in a bag of paper plates and napkins to my daughter's class." A teacher soothed the guilty parents, saying it's a common mistake.

Suspicions Confirmed

The Environmental Protection Agency released the findings of a study on April 4 revealing that more than 9 million lead pipes carry water into homes across the United States, the Associated Press reported. The survey also ranked the states in order of how many lead pipes are still in use; Florida was first, with more than 1 million pipes underground. Erik Olson of the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council was surprised at Florida's position on the list because lead pipes were installed mostly before Florida's population rapidly grew. "We look forward to hearing an explanation," he said. The survey will be used to distribute funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Least Competent Criminal

Channing Vanderbilt, 31, was arrested in Chandler, Arizona, on April 3 after a shooting that killed a 58-year-old man, AZFamily reported. When officers responded to the scene, the man's wife said Vanderbilt had approached them as they were retrieving their mail and opened fire. Oddly, Vanderbilt was also still at the scene, pretending to be a bystander. He denied being involved in the shooting and said he was picking up shell casings as "souvenirs." He was charged with first-degree murder and other offenses.

Bright Idea

Here's a new thing to worry about: super pigs. Starting in the 1980s, Canadian farmers bred domestic pigs with wild boars, resulting in "super pigs" that are a headache for wildlife and crops, Yahoo! News reported. Now, the hybrids, which sometimes grow to 600 pounds, are moving south into the United States. "They are the worst invasive large mammal on the planet. Period," said Ryan Brook, a wildlife researcher at the University of Saskatchewan. The pigs feed on agricultural crops but also damage the soil by digging in it. They eat reptiles, birds and even whitetailed deer, and they contaminate water. While some have suggested hunting as a way to control their numbers, Brook said, "You simply can't BBQ your way out of a wild pig problem." Officials in Montana have introduced the "Squeal on Pigs!" campaign encouraging residents to report feral swine, and North and South Dakota have reported possible populations. Soo wee!