So this weekend, amidst all the cookies and fudge and potatoes and falafel (I decided to break out of the normal Thanksgiving leftovers), I finished Michael Pollan’s amazing book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and it truly has changed the way I look at food.

First, the basic premise of the book is that Pollan is tracking where our food (and food-like substances, i.e. Twinkies) come from. He looks at the food chains here in the States and describes the processes by which food comes to our tables. In the end, he comes to some pretty striking conclusions about American eating habits.

Here’s what I took away from the book, without giving too much away. I will try to avoid eating corn syrup whenever possible, and I will try to avoid eating corn that is no longer corn-ish (i.e. malodextrin, citric acid, etc). I don’t want to keep flooding the market with corn that helps keep farmers underpaid and contributes to America obesity.

I am also even more resolute in my vegetarian diet now. Perhaps, if I’m ever in a situation where I can buy meat from sustainable, free-range farms, I will change that position (although I doubt it – I simply can’t handle the thought of killing an animal, and if I’m not willing to do it, then I don’t think I should eat it.) That said, I do understand why people eat meat, and I don’t judge others. I’m simply doing what seems right to me.

I want to try very strongly to grow more of my own food and to eat food in season. I think I’m really going to miss salad in the winter, but I’ll make it.

I need to think carefully about the organic food I buy. Is the organic food any less commercial than the the non-organic food? If not, then is it more beneficial – in terms of petroleum and the other costs – than eating a non-organic, local product? That’s a tough one.

In fact, after I read this book, I found myself curious about what I could eat at all, but then my mother made an observation – she is so wise. She said, “Obsessing over eating good food is like obsessing over anything – it’s not good for you,” or something to that effect.” So I’m not obsessing, just trying to be thoughtful. And I’m reading Pollan’s next book In Defense of Food so that I have some more wisdom on how to make reasonable choices.

What do you guys eat, not eat, avoid, crave? Tell me about your food stories. I’d love to hear them.
And if you have reviewed this book, let me know, and I”ll link to your review.

– The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Filed by Andi at 7:24 am under Uncategorized
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This week I received an update from one of my favorite bands, Over the Rhine. Linford, one of the founding members and husband of the lead singer Karen, always writes these beautiful notes about where they are in life. Here’s what he said in this letter:

I know of no better time of year to convene in warmly lit rooms for real music. There’s something about bundling in out of the cold and the dark of these late Fall evenings, and gathering together with friends and strangers alike for the simple grace of a song sung from the heart.

What a beautiful idea, and one I hope to participate in by attending a few shows this December. I hope you can do the same. . . take off your scarf, warm up your fingers, drink a little wine, and relax with some good music.

Filed by Andi at 8:36 am under Uncategorized
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Wednesdays are garbage days in my neighborhood. The more diligent among us haul their trash cans out the night before, so when we awake, they glisten with frost and become, oddly, beautiful. The rest of us, those who can’t bear the thought of one more thing to do at the end of a long day I suppose, get up and haul the cans out early in the morning. Ours join the rows of detritus lining sidewalks, a miniature army that speaks of tidiness, health, and, of course, consumption.

This morning I woke late, a glorious part of my teaching schedule this semester – no classes on the day before Thanksgiving – and hurried down to FIRST make coffee and then carry out the garbage. I opened the blinds that had been glowing gold with sunshine and saw a perfect fall day. Utterly blue and pristine sky, honey sunlight, and the tingle of cold. And luckily, I hadn’t slept through the garbage truck’s arrival.

So I pulled on shoes, opened the back door, and grabbed the trashcan that I have to haul through the house since I live in a row of adjoined townhouses and am too lazy to walk around the entire row lugging my garbage. I trotted to the front door, unlocked it, and stepped out. Dropping the garbage on the sidewalk, I paused. And breathed. Breathed. Breathed.

The air this morning is what the word “bracing” was created for. It lights your lips, spins down your throat, and catches your lungs with a bright force that leaves you bigger than you were before. It’s like my lungs bloomed in my chest, an irony since the air was cold. But in that moment, I decided that today will be a good day. (Then, I decided I should go back inside because I was standing there, head lifted, on my sidewalk – in my pjs.)

Sometimes I think it’s simple decisions like that on which the whole world spins. Will today be a good day or a bad one? Will I decide to see beauty or ugliness? Will I decide to talk to that person who makes me nuts or will I hurt them with words, or actions, or bombs? Will I decide to be kind or resentful? Will I smile or grimace?

So today, as I wait for my parents to arrive, I am content and pleased. And ready to go for a walk in that cold air. Off I go.

(On a side note, does anyone know the word that means “things standing in rows” that I’m trying to spell correctly? It thought it was “eschelon,” but I”m getting nothing. Ideas?) – “Sunset Farm” by D L Ennis
If you like D L’s work, visit his site; he’s having a great deal on his prints for the holidays.

Filed by Andi at 7:43 am under Uncategorized
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Are any of you feeling this way right now – tired, drained, sucked dry by life? Tapped out, so to speak. I’ve never really thought about the phrase “tapped out” before this morning, but if it refers to the idea of a keg or beer barrel being drunk from to the point of dryness, I’m there. I feel like each day I refill myself enough to just get through the day, but then life drinks me up – my students, my writing, my life in general – and by the time I hit bed, I’m drained again. To be honest, sometimes this feeling is good – like I’ve given all I have to give without holding anything back – but sometimes, when these days come one after the other as they usually do during this part of the semester, I don’t take much joy in this. I simply make it through each day.

That said, I am reminding myself of what I’ve been taught about rejuvenation.

1. I need silence sometimes. Complete silence. No music, no movie, no conversation. Just silence. So yesterday, before I taught my night class, I turned off the music, leaned back in my office chair (I might have laid on the floor if I knew how clean it was), closed my eyes, and just sat there. In those moments – about ten minutes actually – I felt a little tiny spring of energy pour into the basic of my spirit. And then I had enough to get through one more class.

2. I need relaxation, real relaxation. My yoga teacher tells us that we each need to rest – with no stimulus – for 15 minutes a day. I absolutely know what she means. Sometimes the noise of even the radio makes me start to vibrate with frustration and anxiety. In those moments, I need to learn to step back, make silence, and let myself wind down. When I’m all tight and nervous, I can’t absorb energy at all.

3. I need to realize that it is only God, the Divine, that can really fill me up. If I try to do it myself, I’m just leeching strength. If I look to other people to do it for me, I will be disappointed, even though my dear ones always mean well. I must learn, again, that God is the source. Here’s what Thomas Merton says, “God is a consuming fire. [God] alone can refine us like gold, and separate us from the slag and dross of our selfish individualities to fuse us into this wholeness of perfect unity that will reflect [God's] own Triune Life forever. As long as we do not permit [God's] love to consume us entirely and to unite us in [Godself], the gold that is in us will be hidden by the rock and dirt which keep us separate from one another” (New Seeds of Contemplation And that, for me, is the key. I feel often very separate from other people, as is part of the nature of humanity, but part of the reason that separation exists, I feel, is because I keep letting the “dross” and “dirt” of life to get in the way. I keep clinging to things – my identity as I see it, my pride, my control – as ways to bring myself contentment. But the reality is that it’s only when I let those things go, when I let myself be truly free in the glory that is God, that I can actually be rejuvenated rather than “tapped out” by life. This teaching is true for my faith, Christianity, but is also in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam – this seems to be a basic tenet of God’s nature. If we but allow God to move through us, then we live from the power of God. The question I must ask myself is how to keep that in mind . . .

May you have energy and strength for today, and may you know God loves you deeply.

Filed by Andi at 6:33 am under Uncategorized
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This morning, the sun is glittering off the ice on the still-green lilies in my yard. We’re at the cusp of winter, which I try to honor but settling into the evenings more, sewing, watching movies, going to bed early with a cup of tea beside me as I read myself to sleep.

So with those evenings in mind, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite, lesser-known films.

1. Love, Valour, Compassion – by Terrance McNally. It’s a great story of friendship and love. Beautiful.

2. The Last Kiss – by Paul Haggis. Like Crash , another of Haggis’s films that I love, this one is full of human insight that blend humor and poignancy.

3. Artemisia. A film about the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, a famous Italian painter.

4. In the Bedroom, based on a short story by Andrea Dubus. Powerful and unpredictable – utterly human.

5. Pan’s Labyrinth. Fantastical, troubling, and ultimately gorgeous.

Share our thoughts on these films. Tell me your favorites. I need more movies to watch this winter, and would love suggestions.

Filed by Andi at 9:16 am under Uncategorized
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