But for years, as an avid Howard Stern listener, I’ve heard Howard talk about how he overcame back pain by seeing a New York doctor, John Sarno, MD. Howard talked about how Dr. Sarno helped him understand the mind-body connection for his back pain that ultimately led him to pain-free living with no medical intervention.

So I ordered Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Dr. Sarno in November of 2008. I read a bit of the book when I bought it but I couldn’t get into it so I stopped after a dozen pages.

And then last week, while traveling for business, I decided to give the book another shot. After reading a couple of chapters and following the advice in the book, I am no longer experiencing regular back pain. There have been some random moments of pain in the last week, but I quickly apply the advice in the book and the pain goes away.

Dr. Sarno makes the point in the book that the book is no replacement for seeing a doctor so I’ll make the point, too. But, if like me, you’ve been through the full gamut of doctors and been told that there is nothing really wrong with you and you are still experiencing pain, this book may give you a way to deal with the pain which, for me, made the pain go away.

So how does it work? I won’t try to explain the entire concept since I wouldn’t do it justice, but the doctor’s research tells him that the pain is a physical expression of repressed anger and anxiety that your mind blocks to protect you. The book offers advice on how to confront the pain, acknowledge the source, and deal with the repressed anger and anxiety so you can live without pain.

Sound crazy? It may be, but it worked for me with an almost immediate benefit. And if you’re dealing with back pain, I hope it works for you, too!

Thanks, Howard and Dr. Sarno!

Here are four things I do to stay connected to what’s happening:

Setup a Google Alert for Billerica

Go to http://www.google.com/alerts, type Billerica for your Search Query, select Everything so you get News, Blog posts, and other mentions across the web delivered to your inbox. You’ll find you get local news from the Lowell Sun, Billerica Minuteman, Billerica Townie News, etc., business news for Billerica, and the local bloggers.

Subscribe to the Billerica Minuteman

Even though you’ll get most of the news from the Google Alert, I recommend subscribing to the print edition of the Billerica Minuteman which you can do at http://buy.mypapertoday.com/index.html.

You can also view the digital edition at http://www.wickedlocal.com/billerica but not every article is posted to the web, hence my recommendation to subscribe to the print edition.

Watch BATV

BATV, our local cable access channels, broadcast local government meetings like the Board of Selectmen, the Planning Board, Finance Committee, and Town Meeting as well as other community events. You can tune in to most meetings live and also watch recorded meetings on TV as well as on the web.

Comcast: Public Channel 8 – Educational Channel 99 – Government Channel 22

Verizon: Public Channel 31 – Educational Channel 24 – Government Channel 26

Check out http://batvinc.org/ for the program schedule and video on demand.

Become a Town Meeting Member

The Google Alert is informative and free. The Minuteman subscription will give you a well-rounded view of what’s happening in town and will only cost you a couple of bucks. And BATV will show you most of the key meetings you’d want to see. For all three, you don’t need to leave your house. All you need to do is read and watch.

But for my fourth recommendation, you’ll need to leave the house and come to Town Hall for a few nights in May and October to participate in Town Meeting. You must either be elected to Town Meeting in the April Town Election or be voted in by caucus, if there is a seat available in your precinct, in order to serve.

At this time, I think only three of our eleven precincts are full. And with Town Meeting starting this Tuesday, there are around 40 open seats across the various precincts. In precinct 4, the precinct I represent, we have 9 openings so come on down to Town Hall on May 1st at 7:15 pm, if you want to be caucused in… and if you don’t know what precinct you reside in, you can use this page on the Secretary of State’s website or call the Town Clerk’s office to find out at (978) 671-0924.

By participating in Town Meeting, you’ll have the Town Manager, the Superintendent of Schools, and all of the Town department heads brief you and the rest of Town Meeting on the key issues facing the Town. And even better, you’ll be able to vote on what action we, as a community, take on those issues.

So while the first three recommendations are passive, the fourth is active, but still manageable since Town Meeting only meets twice a year for a few nights in each session. And while we’re all busy, what price or amount of time can you put ahead of the future of your children? For me, the time I spend at Town Hall is an investment I’m making in the future of my three children.

So, please, come on out! I hope we see more new faces fill the open seats at Town Meeting, especially the families like mine that have a lot at stake with some big, make or break, decisions coming up in the next few years like the future of Billerica Memorial High School.

If you have questions about getting involved, please post a comment below or give me a call. I’m in the book.

And if you have other suggestions for how to keep current on events in town, please drop those in the comments, too!

Please share this post with your Billerica Facebook friends!

After tabulating the results and realizing that I had lost, my wife, Denise, called home to let our children and my mother know the outcome of the race. My oldest daughter, Alyssa, answered the phone and upon hearing the news, she told my wife “Tell Daddy we still love him!” When Denise told me what Alyssa said, I was reminded of what I already know, all too well. I’m incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful family and they are the center of my world. They are the reason that I participate in town government. I believe the time I spend at Town Hall helps make this town better, for my family and for others, and it’s a privilege to be a part of the process.

I’m looking forward to continuing my involvement in our town government. As a Town Meeting representative and the Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee, I’ll be busy over the next few weeks preparing for and then participating in Spring Town Meeting. We have much to do, and while I would have enjoyed leading Town Meeting as the Moderator, I know we’ll have a successful meeting with Gil Moreira at the podium. I wish Gil all the best in his term as Moderator and I’ll continue to do what I can to make the Moderator and Town Meeting a success.

So thanks again to everyone who had a lawn sign, wrote e-mails, held signs, made phone calls, voted, and encouraged me along the way. I couldn’t have done as well as I did without all of you. Thank you.

Michael Moore

25 Peace Street

I lost 1,485 to 1,117.

Congrats to Gil and best of luck on your term as Moderator.

Please take a moment to vote before 8 pm. Thank you!

My responses appear below Jeff’s questions:

1. In your campaign, you said you are interested in improving the quality of government. After the election (assuming there are no write-ins), there will be 45 total empty TM seats. In 8 of the 11 precincts, voters will not have a choice because there are more seats than candidates. Does lack of competition for TM seats hurt the quality of our government?

The assumption that there’s something wrong with the people in the 8 precincts that don’t have competition, that they somehow aren’t the best the precinct has to offer and that they negatively impact the quality of the decisions made by Town Meeting and the folks in the competitive precincts that get elected are the best the precinct has to offer and therefore make great contributions, isn’t one I’m willing to make. And I don’t think that’s exactly what you’re implying…For example, in my precinct, Precinct 4, I think we have some great representatives who bring a lot to the table yet we don’t usually have competition for the seats.

I do think there’s potentially something to be learned by examining the three precincts with competition. Who are the people running? Are there hot issues that affect their precinct more than others? Are there any lessons we can learn that could help cultivate the same type of activism in other precincts?

2. Of the 10 towns in Middlesex County with representative TM, only Reading (30%) had more projected empty TM seats than Billerica (19%) going into the election. Natick was one notch above with 13%. Our neighbor, Chelmsford, was best at 2% empty. Aside from less interest compared to other towns, it also looks like a trend over time: after the 2011 Billerica election TM was 13% empty and in 2010 it was 10% empty. Has it always been this way? How can we reverse this trend?

I don’t know what the statistics say but I know we’ve had a caucus for seats in my precinct every year since I was voted in by caucus in 2008. My suspicion is that the lead time to pull nomination papers and get them turned in gets away from some people who intend to run and they use the caucus process to get back in since it’s easier than trying to drum up ten signatures or more for a write-in campaign.

In terms of reversing the trend, I don’t know what motivates most people to get involved or stay involved. For me, it was a particular issue with my daughters’ school that drew me in and then I enjoyed participating so much that I ramped up my participation by applying to the Finance Committee. When the big issues in town do come up, I think we need to let people know that joining Town Meeting is a great opportunity to join the process and help develop solutions, much like former superintendent of school, Anthony Serio, pointed out to me.

3. Reading filled up all its empty seats on Election Day: 121 people appeared on ballots as write-ins (Reading only requires only one write-in vote to be elected.) Additionally, there is an article on the Reading Warrant (#22) that would reduce the number of TM seats from 192 to 144. It is time that Billerica thinks about doing the same? What would be the pros and cons of reducing the number of Billerica’s TM seats?

As the population of our town grows, reducing the number of representatives in Town Meeting doesn’t feel right to me. I’d rather see more outreach done to try and bring people into the process before we go down the path of shrinking the meeting. I don’t think we’ve done enough to try and bring people in. The Moderator can be part of that process but I don’t think the responsibility should be with the Moderator alone. Creating an outreach plan to bring more people in might be something to look at, much like your Keystone group aspires to do.

4. In 2010 the median age of Billerica TM was 55. Only 20% of TM was under the age of 45. Do we need more representatives in their 20s, 30s, and 40s? Why or why not?

We need people who care about the future of our town, regardless of their age. To say retirees don’t care about building schools or putting in sewer isn’t a universal assumption I’d be willing to make. I think many of the 55 and over representatives recognize that a generation or two before them built schools that they attended and their children after them. And the grandparents certainly want their grandchildren to thrive in a great environment. I think the outreach plan shouldn’t be targeted at the PTO’s only. I think you need to include the COA and other groups, like people who rent apartments (not the non-voting population that some people think they are – renters, for the most part, care about the town, too) as well.

5. If you answered yes to the above, how can we attract younger people to run for TM? Robert Putnam (“Bowling Alone”) found that younger generations (like mine, Generation X, and millennials), are much less interested in civic engagement than Baby Boomers and the generation before that (which he calls the “civic generation”). If he is right, we may have trouble replacing older people with younger ones in TM.

I think some people, regardless of age, might not have an issue that’s sparking their interest. If you find the issue and light the match, people will come. And quite frankly, if people don’t have some passion around the issues and the process, they’ll likely be bored to tears since, as you know, the work of Town Meeting isn’t always glamorous.

6. Voter turnout has been been very disappointing recently. In 2011 we managed only 13.0%, despite election day being a beautiful Saturday. Local towns that have already held their 2012 elections are turning out at up to double that rate. Why don’t Billerica residents vote?

I don’t know and it’s a great question. For the first few years I lived in Billerica, I probably voted every other year. I didn’t pay attention to the issues. I didn’t know the candidates though I did notice the signs (the tomato on Rome Capobianco’s signs – brilliant marketing, Fraz – a very memorable nickname, etc.) so it wasn’t until I got involved that I really started paying attention.

I’d love to see the town do more to drive awareness. Candidates put out signs on lawns but the town doesn’t usually put a sandwich board on the common or around town in major intersections announcing the election date. I’m willing to bet we have the signs and simply need to get them out a couple of days in advance. I think a little effort could go a long way.

7. Further, why aren’t they registered in the first place? I calculated about 6,400 unregistered adults in town, or 21% of voting age adults. That was last among region towns. Burlington was second-to-last, with 14% unregistered.

Another great question that I’d love to know the answer to… the Registry of Motor Vehicles makes it easy to register when you renew your driver’s license but that only happens every five years, I think, so without more easy opportunities I’m not sure people will make the effort. I’d love to know if there are any studies that have looked at this issue nationally.

8. What affect will new technology (electronic voting, for example) have on general interest in TM?

Done right, I don’t think it will drive anyone away. I also don’t think it will draw anyone into the process, unless we find it saves significant time and that may attract some folks who were put off by the time commitment back into Town Meeting.

Thanks for the opportunity to answer your questions. And I hope everyone marks their calendar for the election on April 14, 2012. Polls are open from 8 am to 8 pm. – Mike

The show is available online at http://batvinc.org/vod in the Government/Political category titled 2012 Candidate Roundtable: Town Moderator.

Beginning on Thursday, March 29 and ending on Wednesday, April 11, the Town Moderator Roundtable Discussion program will cablecast on the following days and times:

• Thursdays – 6pm
• Fridays – 7pm
• Saturdays – 9:30am
• Sundays – 4pm

The show will air on Comcast Channel 22 / Verizon Channel 26.

Many thanks to John, Matt, Liana, and the crew for producing the show!

• Friday, March 23, 2012    12:30 PM
• Wednesday, March 28, 2012    06:00 PM
• Saturday, March 31, 2012    03:30 PM
• Thursday, April 05, 2012    06:00 AM
• Sunday, April 08, 2012    05:00 PM

Thanks to Peter, Jim, Tony, John, Matt, and Bob for putting the show together!

UPDATE: You can watch the show on demand at http://batvinc.org/vod. Go to Government/Political and look for Eye on Billerica 0311: Town Moderator Forum.

The schedule will be, as follows:

• Sunday, March 11 – 4:30pm
• Monday, March 12 – 3:30pm
• Thursday, March 15 – 7:30pm

It will then be entered into a normal rotation beginning on Friday, March 16 and ending on Thursday, April 12.

Those days and times are, as follows:

• Fridays, 12:00pm
• Saturdays, 6:00pm
• Sundays, 7:30am
• Mondays, 5:00pm

Alternatively, you can watch the video on Vimeo anytime you like.