Eat to Live, Don't Live to Eat

Memorial Day is a day to proclaim proclamations. So, here we go.

• I support servicemen and women; I support veterans. 
• I support veganism and vegetarianism; I support organic, local food. 
• I do not support corporate-sponsored federalism, conflict-of-interest government posts, or any big business lobby that shapes public policy for the good of private profits. 

I have been eating vegetarian lately and trying my best to wean off of dairy and fish as well. I'd ultimately like to eat an exclusively whole food and plant-based diet. Deducting beef, chicken, pork, and seafood was easy. Eggs are difficult (damn, I love a perfectly poached egg on a darkly toasted English muffin), cheese is almost irreplaceable (is life without pizza really worth living?). Several weeks ago I read Roger Ebert's review of a new documentary, Forks Over Knives. 

Just from reading his review, I knew a change in my diet was imminent in my own future. Today I saw the film. I cannot tell you how effective this film is for me; I may be young enough to not feel the health problems that would appear inevitable in my future, but I am almost old enough to not be able to do something about it. Some of the subjects of this documentary actually halted and reversed their fatal diseases by changing their lifestyles and adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet. Yes, we are all going to die. But it is the quality of life in those twilight years that will matter. I don't want to be pain and immobile; I don't want to worry about halting a deadly disease. I want to prevent it from emerging in the first place. 

I highly recommend you see this film, you do your research, and you decide for yourself. Whether you eschew beef and cheese is up to you; but knowing the truth about why we eat the way we do and who it benefits is crucial. This country is but a baby and it's not too late to change the course of our lives and the policies that will shape our children's' lives. Learn to think, think to learn.

A Compendium of Me

Wow, life has been going forward full throttle lately. I can't keep up with my Goodreads account, let alone the chronicling of my life's goals and aspirations on this blog. Ever since becoming inflamed with the Hunger Games trilogy, I have been reading young adult fiction almost exclusively. For those of you who have kept up with my reading life over the years, you know that it is my habit to be reading 4 or 5 books at a time, engaging by Kindle, Audible, print, bathroom paperback, and iPhone all at once. I intend to make some method out of all this madness and do a giant best young adult literature of the oughts post. So, stay tuned.

I had a beautiful lunch with my friend Jenny this week; we ate at Pomelo and I told her all about Israel and Jordan. She asked me questions that no one else had, asked me to surmise what the women who live in that culture really think about the lifestyle that they have chosen/have been expected to lead. While I can't know, and am sure that the Orthodox expat female population are happy in their homes, I don't think I could ever live a life that was circumscribed by thousands of years of tradition and patriarchy. Rules are meant to be living and breathing boundaries. Life, and culture, can shift from one instant to the next, and traditions should grow and change--and be allowed to grow and change--over time to reflect that.

What I'm Reading

Currently reading:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Format: Audible, narrated by Sherman Alexie
I think I could listen to Sherman Alexie read all day long. His self-described sing-song Native American affect is wonderful and perfect for this heartfelt story of a stranger in two parallel strange lands. I am nearly finished with this coming of age tale, and hope to read more by Alexie soon.

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.
Format: Kindle
What I think so far: Written in the late 80s and with a heavy-handed narrative style. I find myself having to pay close attention to the semantics but am riveted by the plot and characters. Within the first chapter, upon learning that a "geek" is a circus performer who bites heads off of chickens and then drinks the blood from their open necks, I knew I was hooked in.

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Format: Kindle Edition
What I think so far: All an author has to do to ensure my being beholden is open with a WWII survival thread. I'm looking forward to Foer's research and journalistic style because I need more oomph for my own newfound vegetarianism. Also, I love my dog. So far I am laughing and turning the pages quickly.

Summer Book Club, chil'ens!

UPDATE: Holy crap, this book is blowing my mind. Someone else please read it so we can gossip about it!



I have unilaterally chosen this summer's Summer Book Club book. Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin.

Read it, or don't (this Summer Book Club has turned into a one-woman-show for the last few years). I'll be done with it before summer starts, anyway. Review to come!

Another one bites the dust

It has been a long semester. As I put my jumbled-up thoughts into words, I know there is still quite a lot more to do. I've got to finish my screenplay, finish grading, clean up my desk/home/life, and somehow make it to the weekend. This semester has been a whirlwind of good, bad, ugly, and awe-inspiring. I am grateful for it and glad it is over.

I have been blogging at Freshman Seminar for Success like a mad woman. My aim was to paint a portrait in a few words of each student and link to the blogs they created for their final projects. Reading their posts and evaluations truly touched me, and I am such a better teacher for having lived through this semester with them.

Here's to summer. Scott and I heading are south for family-centric adventures and Los Angeles freeway-driving. I filled up my gas tank yesterday, paying $48 for just over 11 gallons of gasoline. Oh, San Francisco. I love you.

On Moral Ambiguity

I'd like to make the characters in my screenplay a little more... how shall I put this... morally ambiguous? Also, the family's existence depends on the conception of the middle generation during the last days of camp life before liberation in 1945. I just finished reading Viktor Frankl's very important work, Man's Search for Meaning, which is half concentration camp memoir, half introduction to logotherapy. In Frankl's memoir, he vividly describes the systematic dehumanization that a camp prisoner undergoes. Piece by piece, a person's tertiary characteristics and needs fall away. Vanity, dignity, aesthetics,lust are all replaced by nothing but hunger and an inclination to survive (and even that wanes in time for most prisoners). In Frankl's account, the bodies of the prisoners were so starved (literally and figuratively) that there was really not even a thought of sexual interaction.

A colleague of mine, who knows more about the Holocaust and World War II than even me, suggested I make one of my characters a Capo, someone who traded their Jewish prisoner comradery for the privilege of more rations and the burden of beating, killing, torturing, foremanning, and otherwise-keeping-in-line subordinate prisoners. This would allow for a more believable reconcilation and procreation between the man who will grandfather and the woman who will grandmother the main character. What do you think? Everyone needs a little evil, right?

Baby goats!

Okay, I just had to get that over with! I love baby animals. This little guy let me pet him forever - until he chomped on my finger! Cutie pie, nonetheless.

I have just finished M.T. Anderson's Feed, which was interesting, though a little below my reading (grade) level. I also finished my friend Lucy's Wanderlust, the second book in her Beautiful Americans trilogy.

The best part about Feed was the near-seamless narration of future teenagers' slang and the nonchalant reference to grotesque environmental degradation. There were beef farms (beef farms!) where filet mignon grows in bushes and, once in a while, a genetic mutation will occur and an eyeball or horn will pop up in the otherwise beautifully marbled pink and white.

The best part about Wanderlust was its winding down; the characters are all really quite well-developed and subtle for a reader. I found myself understanding them over time, as their onion-like layers on facade and misdirected pride were peeled away. I am looking forward to the last installment; moreso I am looking forward to Lucy's foray into WWII-theme fiction (my favorite).