The Quasidesperate Me
20 minutes ago I dropped my husband off in the yet-to-be-popularly-discovered neighborhood of Georgetown for some live music and beers with friends. I now sit in our tiny studio apartment; mind wondering.
I want to be there, anywhere, just not at my desk trying to edit an article for school from a scholarly journal about the active stabilization for a robotized beating heart – part of a biomedical discipline I know nothing about. Again, mind wondering.
I should be studying. Editing. Analyzing. Critiquing. Nope, I’m not. My mind is wondering.
After I left my husband on the dimly lit street near the bar, I decided to drive home over the lower Spokane bridge and noticed how eerily empty the streets were. I figured I had the time, so I drove slow on the drawbridge over the Duwamish. It was the kind of grey concrete, hazy tan depiction of an evening that you would see in a low-budget,
industrial-ridden, apocalyptic film about a quasidesperate humanity nearing extinction; quite reminiscent of anything you would hear off The Wall by Pink Floyd. As I approached the Delridge, W Marginal, Spokane three-way intersection in the midst of my War of the Worlds fanaticizing, I found my thoughts interrupted by the screeching reality of school and the heavy load of work sitting back home on my desk – far more sinister than my fantasy world I was engulfed in.
20 minutes later here I sit. Dramatic! Questioning if the fantasy world I’d dreamt up was really a subconscious cry of
my own quasidesperate self.
Maybe school is getting the best of me, already. Or maybe I just need a good science fiction novel to read. I’m taking suggestions.
A PNW July
Although we are already head deep into August, I have to say July holds a lot of significance for me. And this year was no exception.
When I was little July meant summer was seriously underway as my mom, brother, aunt and 3 cousins would begin to make our nearly daily visits to “Wet-n-Wild”. It meant being a sun baby with white sun-kissed hair, a super dark tan and free from the repercussions of UV rays that we kids escaped by submerging ourselves in chlorine infested pools. It also meant fruit, which meant over-indulging myself in the red delicious beauty of strawberries for every meal.
When I was a teen July meant summer concerts, and in order to participate in these concerts I needed money. July meant getting a job. Thus began my reality of the 9-5 summer grind which eventually bled into after school hours long after the summer was gone. My childhood wants of bathing in the sun became less of a desire and more about the sheer struggle to survive in the sweltering heat at an all-day outside event.
Being a born and raised Texan now living in the PNW as an adult, July’s meaning has changed yet again. Aside from my desires to now bathe in the sun, and more often than not having that desire shaded by the constant cloud coverage, I focus my attention on other significant happens. Yes, July still means enjoying the red delicious beauty of strawberries and it still means summer concert events, but it also now means celebrating love and adventure. This July, this time, means celebrating 3 years of that love and adventure.
My husband and I have a passion for trying new things, but we also love to have traditions. So with our 3 year wedding anniversary on the 12th of July we decided to try a new little restaurant, The Blackboard Bistro, owned and operated by local foodie extraordinaire, Jacob Weigner. I must preface this experience I am about to share with you by explaining that since living in Seattle my eyes have been opened to “real” food — food that jolts your senses and shocks you mentally into realizing the potential depth of what “real” food can be. I am typically stunned at not only the quality of food up here, but amazed by the attention that most of Seattle’s chefs possess for what food they touch, love, and claim. With this said, Jacob of The Blackboard Bistro has surpassed this reputation while maintaining a certain sensibility and respectable level of modesty. Our meal began with complementary glasses of Prosecco (for our anniversary of course – which my husband lined up ahead of time) followed by an assortment of cheeses served with variations of apple slaw and chutney.
For our entrées:
A Stokesberry Farm’s (local) braised beef with steamed mustard greens, farro and mustard jus, washed down by an Oregon brown ale for my husband and a seared feta cheese salad with artichokes, over roasted tomatoes, spinach sautéed in a white balsamic reduction and a lemonchelo Prosecco cocktail with rosemary sprigs from Jacob’s luscious herb garden for your’s truly.
For dessert:
We ordered sugary doughnut holes with warm lavender dipping custard (served in a 5” cast iron skillet) and also received a complementary slice of lemon flan with sautéed blueberries in a reduction sauce topped with 2 chunks of poppy seed brittle, along with fresh cups of French pressed local coffee.
It is with a remorseful heart that I have to report my dear husband forgot his camera on this celebratory evening so I can only try illuminate your imagination through words. It was truly a colorful meal and the best one yet in Seattle.
As this July wraps up there is an annual outing that we try to make every July 31st to celebrate our arrival to the Pacific Northwest. This year we fell a little behind and had to make this traditional adventure on August 13th – our famous sunrise at Sunrise excursion.
We’ve had many friends show interest in wanting to do this with us and my husband and I feel we’ve really found something quite special. We make the drive up to Mount Rainier, leaving around 2am putting us at around 4,000’ up by 5am. Then we hike up a few thousand feet more, nearly half way up the 14,000’+ volcano, just in time to witness the sun pierce through the clouds below and peak above the Cascade range throwing colors of purple, pink and orange as far north as Canada and as far south as Oregon.
And after all the giddiness has settled and you realize what you are witnessing. Silence. Nothing but silence. Stillness and peace so overcomes you and fills you up with a rapid alacrity that suspends you in that moment, unique from the next and so engrained in your mind that you soon begin to wonder how you got right where you are. Then, you realize all you hear is your breath intertwined with the wind. Both circle downward in attempts to reach civilization below but only dissipates before the half a million or so still sleeping have the chance to hear or feel it. This realization then materializes in front of you and the acknowledgement of just how special you are, to be where you stand, hearing and feeling these things that otherwise you would have missed settles within and allows you the acceptance of your insignificance.
Although I will always reminisce about sun tans, strawberries and concerts, growing up during the Texas heat as a kid I can now add the PNW summer traditions to my memory bank. This is what July now means to me as an adult – taking the time to celebrate experiences, any experience you choose, in a new light. Encourage it, embrace it, and enjoy it.
Like this:
Smiling at the Sun
Fifty-eight degrees doesn’t seem warm to this Texan but after 9 months of gloomy cold, fifty-eight and sunny sure looks inviting. It has been pretty obvious from some of my previous posts that I have been doing everything humanly possible to get the sun to shine. Recently my husband and I started smiling at the sun – mainly out of sheer happiness but also maybe in a weird sense of hippiness, to provoke it to stay. Whenever we are out and about and find ourselves free from the shadowy confines of a building, tree, or cloud we stop and face the warmth of the illuminated spot picked just for us, eyes closed, and smile. Sometimes we stand in silence but mostly we stand and giggle together. There’s something about missing the sun that when it arrives you automatically forget why the previous 9 months sucked so much. It’s like the gloomy cold was worth it, just for that giggly moment of warmth. I hadn’t really understood this natural, eager feeling to bask in the sunshine until yesterday when we made a trip down to Alki to walk the beach and enjoy the warm fifty-eight degrees on the water. We had been walking for several miles passing joggers, kayakers, cyclists, roller-bladers, and others out walking the esplanade. We approached a more secluded section of the strip when I noticed a woman in a crisp white jogging suit standing just off to the side of the trail, nearly on the edge of the seawall itself. She was standing alone, jacket unzipped slightly to catch the cool breeze off the Sound, and she was facing the sun. We walked leisurely by her and I found myself staring at her to the point where my head stayed locked with my eyes as my body passed. I started giggling and then crying. This woman was smiling at the sun! My husband noticed it too. After three years of feeling like a visitor in this city, I finely felt what it meant to be a Seattle-ite. Welcome home.
Like this:
“Who’s reading Ishmael?” – AS
It’s not every day that your husband has a conversation with a near stranger about your scholastic endeavors and odd study topics, but then again I have a unique husband who surprises and intrigues me every day. And so it was within this conversation that my husband found himself discussing the co-adapted memeplexes in relation to our cultural circumstances with a fellow neighborhood resident one evening.
It’s strange enough to understand the progression of our society let alone try to dissect its origins and complexities. These two men: a 35 year old rural Texan and a 20-something year old cityite with wrapping still on him were able to connect, agree and converse about Mother Culture and the predetermined stories she allows us to believe are our own.
My husband told me he could have sat and listened to our neighbor speak of the intentional and unintentional combative struggles of this selfish gene all night. Finally, after a few hours of debating and explaining our neighbor abruptly stopped his sentence and stood up from his seat. My husband described it as if a light turned on as he watched our neighbor walk over to his enormous bookcase. He ran his fingertips over each book on each shelf as if his brain were scanning a mother board of information and then slowly pulled a book from the lower shelf. He turned to face my husband. Held out his hand and said you need to read this. It was Ishmael.
It should have been the predecessor to my entire degree on human nature and values. The book entered our home just as I was completing the early submissions of my final humanity papers. Once my husband told me how the book came to him I immediately began to read it.
Here I will have to part from the rest of this story. Ishmael is not my story to tell, but for one to read and reach conclusions on their own. I consider myself fortunate enough to have had parents who raised me in the beliefs of Christianity and who were willing to for me to explore public schooling as well as private schooling in Lutheran and Catholicism and even individual interests in Buddhism and Hinduism. My parents even allowed me to go to the extremes by sending me off to focus on and express my liberal artistic schoolings. At 32 I find that I have finally rounded out my studies by exploring environmental science, naturalism, and human values and feel fulfilled in honest, hard thinking about what it means to live your own story free from cultural memes and what it would mean for humanity to be without an Ishmael.
Pulverize It: The Art of Smoothie Making
I am an addict. I have been for over a year now. I start every morning with a drink and even down my pills with it right before I walk out the door to head to the office.
Oh…it’s not that bad, get your head out of the gutter because this time I’m not talking about alcohol.
I have been a vegetarian for over half of my life and I am almost embarrassed to say that I have just mastered the art of pulverizing fruit into a taste-full and texture-approved smoothie. If you’ve attempted smoothie-making you understand the time, thought, and love that goes into making the perfect balance of taste and texture without completely compromising the raw nutritional value of the fruit by including additives to help with said issues.
Nearly two years ago I began making smoothies for breakfast based off a recipe I found somewhere in what I soon found to be an unreliable cookbook. I quickly adjusted the recipe, adjusted again, and continued adjusting for about 3 months until I found what I think to be the best all natural, home-made, fruit smoothie. I have been making variations of this smoothie ever since.
I’m going to preface this recipe with a point that should not be taken lightly. Buy a decent blender. It really is the key to making the best smoothie. I personally have the Kitchen Aid Artisan 5-Speed 56-Ounce Shatter-Resistant Blender & Serve Pitcher. Two years running and it hasn’t failed me yet. If you’re going to be serious about your smoothies be serious about your equipment. Also, I highly recommend you buy your fruits local and organic for two reasons: 1) you will have the peace of mind knowing where your fruit came from and 2) you will be getting the best possible tasting smoothie by using organic fruits, which always have more flavor and nutritional value.
This recipe makes 2 servings.
Ingredients:
- Ice, 5 cubes (from the tray, not from a bag of ice or ice maker, you want those deep rectangular cubes for a maximum chill)
- Plain Yogurt, 2 heaping tablespoons (so no need for any of that “no fat” mumbo-jumbo)
- 1 Medium Apple (preferably a Braeburn for the depth of that classic apple flavor) cored and cubed leaving skin on
- 1 Banana (very ripe) peeled and chopped
- 1 Medium Pear (preferably Bartlett for its strong flavor and juiciness) cored and cubed leaving skin on
- The juice of ¼ of a Large Orange (Navel or Valencia will do) preferably or you can substitute the orange juice for the juice of ¼ of a Small Grapefruit (a Texas Ruby Red is all that will do)
…this is where you can stop if you’d like. Simple uh? This mixture will give you an even flavored smoothie, not too strong on either end of the fruit spectrum but super tasty.
Recently I have been adding a few more ingredients to, what I call the “base” recipe. You can add on top of this about 1 more serving of any fruit you’d like, but this is what I found to be the top:
- ¼ cup of Cranberries (I use the bagged Ocean Spray variety or, if available, the fresh pint size container)
- ¼ cup of Blueberries (local, local, local, organic, organic, organic – can’t stress this enough as most mass-produced blueberries have zero flavor and usually have a terrible textural consistency)
- 1 Shot of Acai Juice (I use the Now Acai Juice Superfruit Tonic from Supper Supplements)
These three fruits will add a little bit of a bite to your smoothie.
Directions:
Place the ice cubes into the blender then scoop the yogurt in. Add the orange (or grapefruit) juice and the acai tonic (optional).
Add the banana, apple, pear, and the cranberries and blueberries if you’d like. Put the blender lid on and pulse on “Puree” about 6-8 times to get the ice broken and fruit blended slightly. Puree for about 30 – 45 seconds. Pure into two 8 oz. glasses, take your vitamins and enjoy.
Everyone is familiar with Newton’s law of motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every idea, every decision, every thought acted upon, there are also effects brought on by these practices, brought on by human free will and ideas of cultural values.
An individual’s connection to nature, or lack of connection, directly effects our environment. Awareness of this connection on a personal level allows us to understand nature to the point where affluenza, overconsumption of material possessions, and ecological and economic depletion are controlled and restoration of our past damages to our ecosystems can begin. Changes in an individual’s lifestyle can reduce the over-consumption of many of Earth’s natural resources and even potentially increase one’s happiness and health. Once individuals take responsibility for their actions, influencing their own behavior will eventually influence their community’s behavior and can ultimately change an area’s sustainability.
About two years ago I read Green Metropolis by David Owen and it totally rocked my sustainable world. Owen’s approach to sustainability suggests a building up approach rather than a building out method. This somewhat radical view on sustainability would promote denser populations within a community, which some environmentalists argue against. Think about it though. Suburban houses are typically built with a larger square footage layout and on larger areas of land which require more energy to maintain, thus producing more waste than smaller spaces within a city. Owen provides insight into how the expansion of population density within a major metropolis actually increases the use of public transportation and ultimately reduces the carbon footprint. This type of living would result in the reduction of per capita greenhouse-gas production and create a greener city and community.
Owen’s description of sustainability was a revolutionary one to me. He described sustainability as one of the most abused and misused words today and that to live a sustainable life means to understand every aspect of preserving life. Owen argues that communities can lower their energy use by utilizing public transit or walking which also promotes a sustainable life. Take for instant, a kitchen, a hybrid car, and sofa. A million dollar kitchen renovation can be described as sustainable if the cabinets are veneered wood from bamboo; new hybrid cars are considered sustainable because they run on half-gas and half-electric; and even our furniture can be considered sustainable if the seats are made from soy-based foam and reconstituted fibers and woods. While sustainable living appears to be accessible everywhere these days, it doesn’t always mean that we are living a sustainable life. No one thing can be sustainable; not a kitchen, a hybrid car or a sofa. Sustainability is a concept, an idea, a way of life. It begins with the individual, but the impact can be felt within a community.
Human cultural changes have created many shifts on our values. Our perception of those values and the effects they have on the environment predict how we react to our connection with nature and civilization’s impact on land usage. Before the agricultural revolution (nearly 12,000 years ago), humans lived in small groups as hunter-gatherers, moving as needed to find food for survival. Cultural changes led to more sedentary lifestyles which soon evolved into more civilized ways of living. Our cultural need to control nature has ultimately depleted and disrupted major ecosystems, causing harm to the world in which we live.
To rectify this cultural pre-determined dominance, we need to take individual responsibility for our past and present actions so that our existence and resources remain sustainable. As individuals we need to be willing to break down the cultural value of the past and reinvent our stories to adapt to the changing environment around us.
So how can this seemingly radical idea of living smaller be put into motion?
We’ve got to be willing to make the lifestyle change opposite to that which America was based – Live small, not big. Achieve community, not sprawl.
After reading Owen’s Green Metropolis, I realized there were five steps to beginning an individual change in lifestyle which I quickly implemented and still practice today.
1. Live Small and Be Healthy:
Living small means you take only what you need. When you take only what you need you then find you consume less. I believe this is the first step to living a more sustainable life.
I joke with my husband all the time about our tiny 500 square foot condo in Seattle that we share with our two dogs saying that we are “living the European life”. And we are, to some extent, minus the accent and locale. But by living small we are forced to spend more time outside than indoors which actually betters our health and increase our sense of community. Efficiency is also built in to smaller living which means smaller bills resulting in lower stress and promoting healthier blood pressure. We are also within walking distance of everything by living in the city. Closer proximity within city neighborhoods results in walking (or public transit) instead of driving, which promotes a healthy, active lifestyle – but we’ll get to that point in number four.
2. Simplicity in Living:
Over-consumption of many of earth’s natural resources and foods can be avoided by simply living simple (with less material possessions). We can actually conserve natural resources and reduce our total waste when we actively avoid over–consumption of material items. The less we buy, the less packaging there is to toss. This falls into the “only take what you need” category I mentioned above.
3. Buy Local:
Buying locally can have a major impact on environmental sustainability, especially when entire communities participate. Arguments of expense become the excuse for people not willing to make this change. However, when living in a smaller space that has the built-in efficiencies that most rural homes do not, there really is no dispute. The money you save with built-in efficiencies, mean you’re able to support your local businesses and promote your community. No doubt, buying locally can evoke sticker-shock for some; however, it is not price that stands between us and our local culture, but our attitude surrounding it.
4. Stop Driving
There’s an illusion surrounding hybrid/electric cars. This illusion is that you (as a consumer) will feel better about yourself when driving one of these cars because it says you are environmental aware and are consciously making an effort to help the environment while saving money at the tank. The fact is, yes, you are environmentally conscience and you are saving money at the tank, but are you really making an impact? You’re still driving, still using energy, and still not massively reducing your carbon footprint. If you want to make an environmental statement while positively impacting the natural world walk, bike, or take the bus.
Hybrid/electric cars give the illusion of being a positive impact on the environment but do not address the actual issues of environmental degradation. What does address environmental degradation while making a significant impact is driving less or not at all -period. Conserving natural resources by driving less and walking more can be accomplished through living closer and living within proximity to one’s basic needs. By reducing an individual’s daily distance of travel, production and consumption will lessen, therefore making the energy used more efficient.
5. Integrate the Five R’s: Recycle, Reuse, Refuse, Reduce, Repurpose
You might be pondering to yourself right now “Five R’s?” Most of the time we only here this concept referenced as the “Three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. Reducing waste through the five R’s — recycle, reuse, refuse, reduce, and repurpose — can reduce consumption and redesign the way we use products, and when combined with living smaller, can become more feasible.
Recycling is considered a back end approach to waste – dealing with waste after products have been produced. However, it is an important way to reduce resource use, and this a quick, easy, and reliable solution.
It is the last four R’s that are the preferred solutions because, unlike recycling, they tackle waste from the front end, before the waste occurs. To refuse and reduce means to escape affluenza by refusing to buy what we don’t need or simply reducing the quantity of our consumption. Reuse and repurpose rely more on items that can be reused over and over for the same task while repurposing an item means to find another use for it all together.
All five R’s can be utilized in either an urban or rural environment, but results are greatly seen in urban settings where living smaller and built-in efficiencies can together have the most impact.
When considering our cultural history, environmental impact, pre-determined values, and need for responsibility, the struggle to convince ourselves to live differently in order to protect our future seems to be a never-ending battle of who’s right and who’s wrong.
But can’t we always rely on Newton’s theory when making our decisions? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When we treat our environment with respect we are ultimately treating our bodies with respect. Our culture has been fixated on controlling what we thought to be ours to control, when in fact, it was only ours to live with harmoniously.
Live peacefully and sustainably my friends.
Growing Young: Connecting to the Fountain of Youth
I am a strong believer that living a small life will leave a big impact: few possessions, less space, and healthier mind, body and soul can influence humanity greater than we think. We can grow younger if we choose to recognize the essential necessity of our existence, and to reconnect to the one vital aspect that sustains humanity. Food.
I love food. More than I love to eat it, I love to understand it. The food you ingest should be simple, whole, organic, and local. It is a terrible thing to not know what you are eating and to blindly accept what is marketed to you.
Our culture needs to get back to realizing the importance of understanding, knowing and reconnecting to our foods. In doing this we can actually begin to reverse the detriments of our over-processed, chemically-enriched, genetically-altered fake foods that have become wide-spread and disease ridden. Real food is out there and IT is the fountain of youth.
The Fountain of Youth:
The best way to grow young is to stop eating meat. Many Americans do not want to hear this, but it’s the truth. You can’t make this change overnight and I defiantly wouldn’t suggest it. You don’t have to join PETA and you don’t have to succumb to a hippie, new-age thought. Just simply reduce your intake of meat, specifically red meat, and then stop.
The Protein Myth:
Embracing a vegetarian diet is a direct path to growing young. There are many myths about going vegetarian: low energy, not enough protein, not a balanced diet, decreases athletic performance. When in actuality if you know and understand food you can disprove these myths. Some of the strongest animals in nature eat a raw, plant-based diet, like elephants and gorillas, and they continually build massive muscle tissue from simply living off fruits and vegetables.
Whole Foods:
Vegetarianism is the closest means to eating whole foods. Whole foods are the best source of nutritional value and a balanced diet because they are as close to their natural forms as possible (they contain no added ingredients, are unprocessed, and are unrefined).
Examples of whole foods are: raw fruits and vegetables, legumes (peas, beans, lentils, soy), nuts, seeds and whole grains.
Eating whole foods is important because the best source of protein comes from the amino acids in living whole plants. Amino acids are vital to humans because these contain important compounds such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen that cannot be created within the human body and therefore must be obtained through our food sources.
Obtaining Nutrition:
When we eat whole foods we are taking the most direct path to nutrition. Our bodies can bypass the many necessary steps in breaking down protein into usable amino acids which it cannot bypass when we eat meat. When we eat meat we have to use unnecessary energy to break down protein to get to the amino acids found within certain meats that our bodies can actually use. In eating a plant-based diet we are directly and efficiently ingesting the right proteins our bodies need without using unnecessary energy.
Meat protein = indirect path to nutrition. Plant protein = direct path to nutrition.
Whole Foods help us synthesize the essential amino acids that we cannot produce:
Spinach, Hemp Seeds, Broccoli, Peas, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Kale, Romaine, Chickpeas, Wild Rice, Flax Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Celery, Blackberries, Peaches, Oranges, Nuts, Sea Vegetables, and Honey are just some of the best and most direct sources of getting these vital compounds into our bodies.
The best way to eat these foods is raw. When cooked, the breaking down process of the protein becomes harder for our bodies, resulting in lower amounts of usable amino acids – about 50% less.
Whole Foods that help increase energy:
Sprouts, Broccoli, Asparagus, Spinach, Almonds, Peanuts, Soy Nuts, Yogurt (which is full of vitamin-B and helps convert other nutrients into energy), Kidney Beans, Lentils, Baked Beans, Sunflower Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, and Citrus Fruit (a good source of vitamin-C) are examples of energy providing foods.
If interested, the sites below are a great start for beginners or for people looking to learn more about being vegetarian.
References:
