Real Food

real food
Originally uploaded by ken e williams photos

I’ve been hearing and reading a lot lately about our food - its nutritional value and safety. Eating as much locally grown and produced food as possible is one of my passions. Which is a challenge in the short growing season state of Wyoming. But  it's getting a bit easier thanks to the work of area farmers and farmers markets.

There is a meat market near by that sells locally grown beef raised by farmers and ranchers who care about the quality of the goods they send to market. Locally grown sweet corn was the markets here in September and consumed quickly by others who share my values of eating local.

While on a trip recently I purchased a “snack food” at a local quick market while filling my gas tank. The guy next to me at the cashier, a police officer in town, noticed and asked if I intended to pay for the snack because in all his years shopping in this store he’d never seen anyone pay for such a snack. I explained I would pay for the snack and had no intention of eating the snack. I had a photo in mind.

The ingredients of the snack food includes: sugar, corn syrup, water, enriched and bleached flour, coconut, partially hydrogenated vegetable and or animal shortening, high fructose corn syrup, pork gelatin and lots of other stuff like, sodium steardyl, yellow 5 lake blue. The snack food package lists calories as 340.

The apple and avocado did not come in a package. Their calories are 81 and 150. They each have lots of ingredients like fiber, Omega-3 fatty acids, natural sugars and vitamins that are produced in soil, water and sunshine. Their colors happen naturally and are not added in an industrial snack food facility or through the wonders of a chemistry lab.

Given the health concerns about the American diet, the epidemic of obesity, the number of children diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, is there any reason to buy food that is not real and simple and when possible grown and produced locally?

Michael Pollan recently wrote that he defines food as - something our grandmothers would recognize, has five or fewer ingredients, does not contain ingredients we cannot pronounce, that makes no health claims on packaging. To read more of his work go here.

Our state and federal governments are making efforts to insure the safety of our food. It is, I think, worth noting that regulations do not always work, inspecting food factories and companies with teams of lawyers will always be a challenge. Integrity and authenticity cannot be regulated. And we can buy "junk food" nearly everywhere but cannot buy home made bread, jams and jellies unless made in an industrial and government approved facility.

I for one would rather buy simple, locally grown and home made food whenever possible and know that the farmer who grew the food or home producer who made the food would shake my hand as a sign of honor and authenticity. I trust someone who I can look in the eye while shaking his or her hand.

Passage

Passage, Locke, CA.
Originally uploaded by ken e williams photos

In ancient Greek plays, a Chorus was used to express to the audience what the main characters could not say, especially about their fears or secrets. Was the choir's job to remind us of passages that might lead to the underworld or subconscious? 

Although it has been more than 2000 years since such choirs were regularly used in stage dramas, I have a Chorus that occasionally visits, reminding me in whispers of unpleasant memories and unresolved "secrets". These are not entirely unknown to me. I just do not like to dwell on some of the themes my Chorus sings when the day ends and I am no longer distracting myself with books, work, friends, fishing, or my garden.

I believe everyone has a Greek Chorus. Including those who claim loudly otherwise. Often too loudly. Even those who are most wired into modern culture, Millennium Gen kids, will on occasion express insightful knowledge about their fears and wounds in unguarded moments. The vast array of electronic distractions that appear to fill the lives of so many youthful and not so youthful friends and family do not distract enough for them to avoid the empty spaces which occasionally are inhabited with the whispers from their Chorus.

Listening to my Chorus has never been pleasant. And almost always instructive. It has been and I believe will continue to be like opening a locked passage and entering to learn lessons from the choir. And most important ... to be reminded that even behind locked doors where painful memories live, life can go on with joy. The past does not entirely determine the future unless I surrender to it.

"Dead roses"

"Dead roses"
Originally uploaded by ken e williams photos

Summer's ancient roses,
surrender to winter's cold
... beauty of their own.

Lessons for Boomers

in service
Originally uploaded by ken e williams photos

My friends know I often complain, whine and ponder the life style choices of the generation that follows my age group - the “boomers”. I am unable to understand, for example, binge drinking, multiple partner sexual experimentation, undisciplined credit card consumption leading to piles of debt. All this strikes me as narcissism at a level greater than the excesses of my generation.

If he were alive, my dad might disagree. He expressed, in 1969, dismay and disgust at my long hair, casual dress, choosing to live an “impoverished” life style and involvement with social & political activism. It remains my responsibility to ponder the differences and remind myself that, as in my youth, there are variations in the generation that currently challenges my values.

Nicholas Kristof recently wrote a tribute to members of the generation behind me. You can read his essay here. 

He thoughtfully documents that my generation could learn something from those still in high school and even grade school about caring for others, those that Dr. Lew Zirkle refers to as the “gray people”. Those left out and left behind. Find out about Lew’s work here.

There may be more folks accomplishing good through generosity and courage than those living only for themselves. It has been an important note for me to pay attention to these “kids” as well as members of the boomer generation who are taking a stand for the “gray people” ... and making a difference in the lives of those folks left out and left behind.

Tree bones

Tree bones
Originally uploaded by ken e williams photos

Sun covered tree bones,
are quiet testimony of
resolute beauty.

When the image in the mirror is not perfect.

through a mirror dimly
Originally uploaded by ken e williams photos

"That feeling that we're all searching for isn't about material wealth, about the acquisition of things. It's about being connected with other human beings. That is the essence of humanity."
Bill Mosher, producer of public television's "Visionaries"

Since my last entry big emotions have been rolling through many of my days. The contexts of this turmoil are (1) the political folks getting terribly worked up about this candidate or that candidate while the candidates spend hundreds of million dollars in the hope of getting elected, (2) reading two books (Mountains Beyond Mountains and Three Cups of Tea) about two courageous men who dropped out of the pursuit of riches and comfort in order to serve folks who have practically nothing in Haiti and Pakistan and (3) my ongoing reflection on efforts to understand and accept the personal conflicts in my family.

Simultaneously I hear the news of other folks wondering and worrying about related social changes: gasoline and food shortages, My Space/internet mini-celebrity ugliness (see story here), consumptive activity of never having enough electronic gadgets or shoes or photo gear or houses big enough to contain all this stuff, an epidemic of childhood syndromes like autism, obesity and rudeness, & family - community disintegration.

Is this an epidemic of narcissism set loose by some of the above? Are some of the activities listed a result of narcissism out of control?

All these stressful events seem like distractions, which keep me and us focused on ourselves, on how we can get our share of the good life while avoiding the complicated work of community and family. Will more stuff, stressful acitivity and distraction make us happy?

This morning I heard a story of a photojournalist who has for the past 15 years documented extra-ordinary service a few ordinary folks do among those with the least stuff and few distraction. According to the journalist who documented these folks with nearly nothing but family and community, most are finding fulfillment and happiness. Like some of the folks I met in Vietnam when I visited several years ago. For more on his story go here.

There have been other times in my life when I put energy into finding a mythic Eden or a Norman Rockwell world of harmony, simplicity and multi-generation connections. Such times involved looking into a mirror that did not produce a clear picture. Paraphrasing the Apostle Paul who said it well two thousand years ago … For now we see in a mirror dimly … now we know in part … now we abide in faith, hope and love. The greatest of these is love.

Did he mean we are fulfilled when we connect to others as we hope others will connect to us – while we wait and do the messy complex work of family & community building. The closest we’ll get to Eden on this earth?

I think so.

Old tire swing, Fromberg, Montana.

old tire swing
Originally uploaded by ken e williams photos

When kids didn't have lots of manufactured stuff, they, with their family and friends, used their imaginations and what was available to invent the entertainment they needed. They were rarely bored.

In 1955 the Mickey Mouse Club was first broadcast. Children could sit in front of a screen, see products that were pitched on commercials which were aimed at convincing the kids they "needed" stuff. Those watching did not need to use their imagination or talk to each other or improvise play or police their activity.

Current research and the common sense confirms that children under the age of two who watch videos and television hours each day will experience a delay in language development and have fewer social skills. Is it difficult to understand the reason so many children are now being diagnosed with forms of autism and attention deficit disorders?

Go here to listen to NPR story on play or here for a University of Washington study on the effects of television on language development.