Combatting Shelf Reliance

Yesterday was an exciting news day for me. I loved hearing that First Lady Michelle Obama is starting an organic vegetable garden at the White House! I cannot think of something that better signifies popular acceptance of the importance of growing your own food, and organically at that! It is a great sign of leadership and I also liked Michelle's focus on the way a garden can help people (especially children) to learn about better nutrition, and perhaps most importantly, where the food they eat comes from and what it takes to produce it.

I think this is such a vital subject to consider because it speaks to how divorced we have become from the basics. Since humans have to eat for survival, it seems logical that not knowing how to produce your own food would be a pretty cavalier--maybe even dumb?- attitude to have. It assumes 100% reliance on store bought "shelf" items. It assumes that one will always have money to buy said items. It assumes that there will always be available food produced by "someone else" . It assumes that one is comfortable with the quality of the food this "someone" produced and the means by which it came to be at your table.

I have started to question a lot of these assumptions. I don't know if I should be comfortable eating something grown 5000 miles away from me or eating meat fed grain that most of the earth's people would gladly eat or ever wondering whether the thing I am feeding my children is going to end up giving them cancer. I don't want unknowns going into mouth or the mouths of my babes! I am no expert about the state of our industrialized food system, but some of what I've heard and read discourages me and makes me want to seek out better options that are more in my control.

The most obvious and inexpensive way I can think of doing that is to grow more of my own food, pesticide free. I already know that my backyard cucumber isn't going to look anything like that perfect green waxy long boy in the produce section, but what I trade out in looks maybe I'll trade in for taste and the satisfaction of self-reliance? I've grown a few herbs and veggies in my time and it is hard not to smile and say "I grew that!" when you bite into it. It is deeply satisfying to eat something personally tended to and watched. Like so much we've lost in modern times, it is a tribute to the sweetness that comes from delayed gratification. In the garden, good things really do come to those who wait. So for me, I think if you have the time, the space, and especially if you have little kids around that can benefit from the firsthand experience of learning about nature and where their food comes from, having a backyard garden seems like such an easy way to reconnect with what you eat.

But I also recognize that gardening is not for everyone and definitely not a requirement of modern life. There are so many other ways to take better ownership of what you put in your mouth. Supporting local CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) is another great way. These programs have sprouted up all over the country and it is genius. Basically you sign up with a local farmer and pay them a fee for a season's worth of fruits and vegetables...this way they get money upfront before the harvest and you get fresh, locally grown stuff all summer! It is such a cool thing. We did it through Borski Farms here in Salt Lake for a couple years and enjoyed it so much. It definitely made us cook differently because you get a different selection each week and we certainly ate better quality food. Here is a list of local Utah CSA farms if you want to check it out. And if CSAs are too much of a commitment, don't forget to support local farmers at local Farmer's Markets!

I just heard about a cool program called Farm to School that basically does the CSA thing for the food served in school cafeterias. They connect local farmers with local schools so the kids are given healthier, fresh food and the farmers are supported by a big client. Since Cleo will start kindergarten next year (gulp) this is an idea that really appeals to me. I think it is brilliant! It doesn't look like there are programs here in Utah yet but I contacted them today and I'll find out the details. Keep you posted.

cult of done with or without hypnosis

I have always wanted to get hypnotized. I'm fascinated by someone being able to implant a way of being and doing so effortlessly into one's head. I have often wondered if you can get hypnotized to be more motivated and stop procrastinating. It seems so much more fundamental than doing it to stop smoking or over-eating! Wouldn't it be wonderful to just wake up and act, to go forward with your ideas without doubt or fear or laziness? Maybe it would be cheating or weakness or make me a crazy tunnel visioned robot, but I have never adequately conquered my own inner procrastination/talking out my ass/ beast and I wouldn't mind the outside help.

It is hard to be approaching 35 and realize that if I don't make good on some of these dreams I dream, the time will have past and I already feel the raw edge of regret creeping in. I know life can feel long on a daily basis, but increasingly I'm noticing it flying by. I want to lasso time and hold it captive and make her my mistress! I can't believe I've been back from New York 5 years which was as long as I lived there. I've catalogued a lot of good things in the last 5 years (hi, 2 beautiful children made from scratch!) but I really want to get serious about my goal to Achieve-- note the very serious capital A.

I am impressed with doers. I'm impressed by people that do less talking and more acting. I'm impressed with people who try and are unafraid of looking silly. This is an area I could really stand to improve in. I want to be one of those people.

Jaren sent me the above manifesto courtesy of the very interesting Bre Pettis today that so sums up the way I feel and the way I would like to approach my ideas and my sense of "doing" going forward. In case the cool graphics are hard to make out, here is the complete manifesto:

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

I love it! Hope you do too!

Between this and Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Projects' reminder "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good", I think I have some new, inspiring guidelines to grow from. I need to just get out there and start swinging and not worry so much about whether I've had the right coaching or know the rules. But please, don't forget to tell me if you know a good hypnotist!

to every season...

i am trying not to mourn the snowstorm today. the erratic weather of the late winter drives me insane but at least at this point I know the snow will melt quickly and give way to the grass and the tulip shoots. I feel like I'm in a holding pattern--waiting, waiting for spring to spring and my energy to climb back up so i can tackle all the little daydreams on my list for the yard, house, and my time in general. cleo seems to be having this same reaction. yesterday she spent a good half hour composing a list of all the summertime activities she is excited to do. (her cute poppi sat and spelled out each word while i pitter patted around the kitchen cooking and cleaning.) in case you need a translation from 5 year old, it reads: swim, camping, hiking, nature walk, tubing, tree climbing, flower gardening. collect: butterflies, bugs, flowers, hide and seek outside.

the list is impressively simple and happily pretty well matches what i want to spend my time doing this summer! to cleo's list i would add bbqing, gin and tonic drinking, horseshoe playing, and reading in the sun. isn't it amazing what a little sunshine and warmth affords us both physically and mentally? simple pleasures seem so important and so much more attainable in the summer. a sweet watermelon, a whiff of lavender in the air, looking at the golden tan on your child's shoulders, lemonade on a porch swing... these small things really seem like something, and i guess it is because of their scarcity--the fact that we have to wait for most of the year to indulge in them--that makes them so sweet.

i feel so lucky to live somewhere with pronounced seasons. it is like a built in change of scenery and perfect for the a.d.d. i fight in my brain. every autumn, winter, spring and summer give me new chances to look forward to things and reclaim stuff i have missed. i look forward to these shifts in my focus and activities--even in wardrobe! i love the feel of that first wool sweater after the long hot summer as much as my toes peeping out for the first summery flip flop day. equally as much do i love the subtle changes each season brings in what and how i eat. summer's abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables at their peak of flavor makes it so easy to just eat light and fresh. i love grilling and fresh utah corn, cold pasta salads, and caprese salad with fresh tomatoes and basil. in the winter i crave those heavy meals where i cook and simmer something on the stove forever to draw out the flavor low and slow. mashed potatoes, tortilla soup, roasted meats and veggies....it all feels so savory and comforting, just what you need on a cold winter's night.

seasons seem like nature raising the flag and attempting to get our attention once again. (thank heavens she is a persistent sort!) the snow today got my attention and though it didn't make me want to run out and make one last snowman or snow angel, i know that the real miracle is that by next november i'll be running outside basking in the magic of those flakes all over again.

"i am a weapon of massive consumption"

i clued in to this phrase over the weekend. it floated to my ears from the lyrics of "cheeky" british singer lily allen. her song "the fear" is pretty popular and it is worth a listen. it is catchy and fun to sing to in the shower and it turns out the lyrics are powerful cultural commentary. here is my favorite section:

Life’s about film stars and less about mothers
It’s all about fast cars and cussing each other
But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic
and that’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic

And I am a weapon of massive consumption
and its not my fault it’s how I’m programmed to function...

I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When do you think it will all become clear?

‘Cuz I’m being taken over by The Fear.....

i hate to go all junior high and recount lyrics like this, but the reaction i felt to the song surprised me. instead of focusing on the over-riding negative commentary about our culture's decline, the lyrics made me feel this weird surge of empathy for the lot of us. i generally hate avoiding accountability for your own actions, but i think there is some truth to the song's insight " i am a weapon of massive consumption and its not my fault, it's how i'm programmed to function." we live in a world where buying stuff is our main way to survive, connect, and prosper. if you are a part of this culture, you consume. it is who we have been taught to be. it is behavior that has been modeled by our parents (thank you, boomers) and is now being modeled by us to our own kids, perhaps even more mindlessly and certainly much more debt-laden. the powerful programmers of our society--the advertisers, the marketers, the media at large--inundate us with our wants and "needs". it is hard to imagine how one could be immune to the impulse to go out and buy, acquire, accumulate, keep up, etc. if you are even remotely plugged in. and the current economic crisis has drawn attention to just how virulently our government encourages us to spend and purchase as patriotic, freedom-loving americans. in fact, isn't our need for consumption our number one import and export these days?

for the most part, i feel competing "programs" other than consumption have not yet emerged in american society. sure, there have always been voices against what our lifestyle will ultimately do to us and our planet, but on a massive scale, there hasn't been a paradigm shift in how we are all programmed to function. what would those programs even look like?

lily allen's song oddly gives me hope. if a pop singer is forcing me to ask these questions then surely something is surfacing here. call it an awareness or at least an admittance. and that, as they say, is the first step and it definitely feels like a step in the right direction.