CoAbode

Any health food enthusiast, dietician and a lot of moms will tell you that You Are What You Eat. But what does it mean?? Eat almonds, be a nut? Eat sugar, be sweet? Some suggest it's really the combination of foods that keep you well or kill you quickly. Others believe it's all in the preparation. Well I can assure you that if I get baked or fried on occasion it has nothing to do with how my food was cooked. I'm not exactly a health food nut but I like 'real' food. Not the unreal, not the classic "food products" of my youth -- heavy on the sugar and preservatives light on nutritive value. I'd eat a pop tart but cheese in a can defied logic. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't cheese -- it was cheeze -- whatever that is. Most of it though, even the stuff you'd consider mostly cardboard and plastic -- the kind with a dash of preservatives and food coloring -- believe it or not, that stuff starts out as 'real' food. And I think they have to keep at least a molecule of the real thing in it or they can't call it 'food'. So even if you're happy with mostly fake food you still need the real deal to get it started. Genetically altered crops are supposed to produce more and bigger produce and grain than the au naturale type but I'm not a fan of Frankenfood and frankly I'd take Mother Nature over science any day. She created an impressive system with an obvious sense of balance and I'm pretty sure she worked out exactly what we'd need to keep ourselves going for a very long time. Even Einstein couldn't do that. Scientists are good at observing nature and they've learned to mimic some of her best bells and whistles but genetic alteration seems pretty ambitious. Besides -- do we really need black eyed peas with lashes? Is there room in the market for square rice? Peas without pods? How about blue oranges? We should have stopped at cheeze-in-a-can and left it at that. Growing is such a natural process that growing unnatural things is bond to be a mistake and I think we can do without anything more exotic than blue corn -- which is, in fact, perfectly natural.

If you're a fan of old sci fi movies you might recall that "Soylent Green is people." It's the ultimate in recycling -- processing the human body (corpses) to make a very anonymous meal of unrecognizable, tasteless, mass produced people chow. However dehumanized that might be it's still a pretty gruesome thought and probably a bad idea -- there is a human version of mad cow disease and this is how it gets passed around. We really aren't supposed to eat our own kind unless it's an emergency. Okay -- so eating people is out of the question, we don't have enough room to grow enough food anymore and until someone finally invents that terrific little food fabricating machine they used on Star Trek we're going to have to come up with something entirely new.

Posted by CoAbode at 8:57 AM | Permalink

Good news!!! In the very near future you won't need gasoline to drive your car! So that's great!! We don't have to pollute the environment anymore! We don't need to drill for oil anymore! We don't need to destroy the delicate balance of the Alaskan tundra, the coastal seabeds or the fragile environment of the Middle Eastern deserts! We don't need fossil fuels! We can grow our own!

Of course you've already heard of the electric car (but they killed it), the natural gas car (fleet vehicles only), the hydrogen cell car (file that under "in your dreams"). You've probably also heard of the french fry car -- Willie Nelson has a tour bus that runs on something very similar but the oil his engine burns has never fried a fry. It runs on unused, unadulterated vegetable oil -- soy, I think. And most of Latin America has been developing 'flex-fuel' cars that work well with a high concentration of ethanol which is made from corn or beets. Wow! Crops are the new 'gas.' But where will we grow it???? If you're a vegetarian you're eating veggies grown in some patch of dirt, big or small and irrigated with water from a river or an underground well. If you're a carnivore you eat animals that eat grass and grain which are grown in some patch of dirt and irrigated with water. That's the same water and dirt we'll be needing to grow the new 'gas.' Uh oh! And don't think we can skip the grains and vegetables and go for the animal proteins instead. This won't be a case of forgetting about beef and lamb while feasting on chicken. Those egg laying, fry-me-up-in-a-pan feathered cluckers all eat grain and we're giving their feed to the engines instead. There should be a few fish left in the sea and I suppose you could develop an appetite for squirrel and pigeon but a society celibrating a new fuel to binge on could hardly be expected to do something so wonderfully sane -- or efficient. Maybe we could farm gold fish in our bathtubs and learn to love sushi.

There's a solution for every problem but it usually involves a sacrifice and I've been wondering just where we'll be willing to tighten the proverbial belt to avoid becoming a society of walking, biking or horse-riding humans with better health and shapely calf muscles. We could probably stop growing 'unimportant' things like tobacco and Christmas trees, poppies and daisies -- maybe even holly and poinsettias (because I never could figure out what we need them for when x-mas is over and who would really miss 'em if we didn't have 'em at all???). But no matter how much we cut back on the growing of unnecessary things it hardly seems that we could do much more than merely keep up with the demand for land. The fact is, there's less space to grow food and are more people to feed. As populations grow we'll need more houses and business buildings land I'm pretty sure we'll want to build them on a patch of dirt because "floating cities" seem to have gone out of fashion and no one has been able to perfect the art of building castles in the sky. Apparently whoever was in charge of planning for the future of mankind run amok just assumed we would have colonized the moon by now. Judy Jetson wouldn't have to worry about something as silly as food! With fruit still growing on trees and burgers for a buck at most fast food joints, it's hard for us to imagine a real food crisis in the US. But if we have to give up food growing space to get more fuel growing space -- we might have to move the chow line. So how do you feel about eating something like, uh -- bugs?

Posted by CoAbode at 8:55 AM | Permalink

There are so many ways to celebrate our loved ones. Over the years I have enjoyed creating rituals and celebrations that mark special passages of the people in my life... One of the most memorable occasions was a treasure hunt I created for my husband on Valentines Day.

When he came home from work the house was dark and only lit by candle light. He walked through the door and saw a candle on the entrance table with a note, “Welcome home sweetie, this is the first ‘Clue’ that will lead down a path towards finding your Valentines Gift.…

follow the candle lit pathway to an item that represents the day we were married, you will be able to spot it because it is surrounded by red roses, a wrapped gift and a red candle. When you reach the item lift it up for your next ‘Clue.”

(Next note) “Sweet William, here is a gift that acknowledges the love I have for you and the gratitude I feel when I think of our time spent together. Inside the gift you will find the next ‘Clue’. (The gift was a copy of a love poem that was read on the day we were married)

(Next note) “These words are dear to my heart and remind me of the day I promised to hold you in the highest light. Since that day my love has grown more full and tender for you. To find your next ‘Clue’ find a place in our home where these words remind us of our love each day, behind the words you will find the next ‘Clue’. (We have a framed copy of the poem in my husbands office, the next clue was taped on the backside of the frame)

(Next note) “Congratulations, you have found your way to the next ‘Clue.’ The next note you will find wrapped in a gift in the exact spot Aidan was brought into the world.” (Our son was born at home and in our bedroom) (The gift is a framed picture of our two children, Aidan & Malia, with love notes written by them on the back.) In addition there was another ‘Clue’

(Next note) “Beloved Father, You’re getting good at this… you are getting really close to your Valentines Gift. Your next journey will lead you to a place where the exact blooms that graced your wedding day lay.” (Outside in our backyard we planted flowers that we had in pots on our wedding day, in front of the plants there was a big velvet box decorated with rhinestones and jewels and it was surrounded by a circle of candles and flowers.)

(Next note) “Sweet King, there are so many ways in which you touch my life, the life of our family and the people you touch each day. This list a way to express the immense gratitude for the difference you make in our lives.” I then had a list of all the things I’m grateful for, just to give you an idea the list was 2 pages long. At the end of the list he found his next ‘Clue’ “Now you are getting really really close… the next clue will be found in the place you find warmth each night”

(Next note, taped on the outside of our bedroom door)

(Next note) “Sweet Lover, Ok… you are red hot! Before you enter, I have written a special scenario for you… (I then wrote down a VERY detailed scenario of our favorite fantasy) Sorry, can’t go into it this is a ‘G-Rated’ version.  When he finished, he opened the door, the room was filled with a pathway of candles and red rose petals that led to our bed were I was laying down waiting for him with just a Big Red Bow on… We then kissed, embraced and had one of the most memorable Valentines Day Ever! Enjoy!

Posted by CoAbode at 10:56 AM | Permalink