Reading Rainbow: Omnivore’s Dilemma

“Whatever we may have liked about the era of cheap, oil-based food, it is drawing to a close. Even if we were willing to continue paying the environmental or public-health price, we’re not going to have the cheap energy (or the water) needed to keep the system going, much less expand production. But as is so often the case, a crisis provides opportunity for reform, and the current food crisis presents opportunities that must be seized.”

“…tear out five prime south-facing acres of the White House lawn and plant in their place an organic fruit and vegetable garden.”

- Michael Pollan, “Farmer in Chief,” The New York Times, October 12, 2008.

After Michael Pollan’s October article in The New York Times, I made a mental note to read his books, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. After his inspiring interview on Bill Moyer’s Journal, I put a star next to that mental note. Then, when the White House announced they were tearing up some of the South Lawn for a garden, I said, “DUDE! OK ALREADY. I WILL READ YOUR FREAKIN’ BOOK!”

Well, Mr. Pollan, I’m sorry I yelled at you. I read your book, and I liked it a lot. But now when I walk into the grocery store, I see row upon row of processed corn dripping poisonous pesticidal grime. In the produce aisles I see out of season vegetables drowning polar bears in the melting Arctic. And when I pass McDonald’s, I see the children of our nation’s founders wallowing in type 2 diabetes and their own adipose tissue.

Hyperbole aside, I appreciate Mr. Pollan’s even-handedness. While expounding the problems of industrial food practices (which are MANY), he also explores the contradictions of the industrial organic movement (Whole Foods), and the limitations of locally grown foods (e.g. I shouldn’t expect fresh tomatoes in January. BOO). He explains the challenges of eating ethically but provides the impetus for doing so through simple exploration of our current food system.

This is the most influential book I’ve read in a while, and I’m making some changes. 1) I’m growing basil, chives and tomatoes on our tiny balcony (a somewhat pathetic but well-intentioned token of self-sufficiency). 2) I’m cutting back on CAFO meat (SO happy to be dating a vegetarian – maybe it will finally rub off on me). And 3) I’ll try to rely more on the local farmer’s market for seasonal produce, eggs, dairy & grass-fed meats than the grocery store.

BONUS ROUND

4) I will fill our bathtub with soil and being growing squash, green beans, bananas and pineapple trees (joke – no such thing).
5) I will become an insufferable critic of the lunch choices of my boss and co-workers. (A BANANA, BOB! Do you know they have to ship that all the way…)
6) I will knock Big Macs out of the hands of tourists and replace them with homemade bread and leafy greens grown locally (not to exceed a stone’s throw away from the U.S. Capitol Building.)
7) I will send barrels of high fructose corn syrup and caged poultry to all 50 senators to help them visualize the tragedy that is the industrialized food system.

COME ON PEOPLE! I AM THE FOOD REVOLUTION (AND SO CAN YOU!)

Reading Rainbow: Atheists and Foxholes

Last week I went binge buying on Amazon and ordered Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Great American Hypocrites and God is not Great. I’d seen the various authors give intelligent interviews, and I wanted to read more of what they had to say.

Don’t worry mom, I am not a vegan food terrorist, hubristic partisan hack, or atheist out to make everyone worship Darwin… at least not yet.

I had the books delivered to me at work, and our BYU intern brought one to my office. She’s always been pleasant, even though she knows I’m an ex-Mormon that’s “gone off the deep end.”

She handed me the package, and I said, “Yeah! One of my books arrived.”

“Oooh, what’d you get?” She said.

“Let’s see,” I replied, opening the package to find the book that mocked her religion and framed me as hostile to her and all other believers. WHY COULDN’T IT HAVE BEEN THE GARDENING BOOK! THE ONE ABOUT HOMEMAKING AND CANNING TOMATOES!

I blushed a severe shade of red and hesitated.

“Do you not want to share?” She said.

I didn’t want her to think I’d just purchased How to Enslave and Eat Innocent Children, so I pulled out the bright sunny cover of God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and laughed with obvious embarrassment.


Luckily this intern has a sense of humor/strong sense of civility and laughed so hard that my face returned to its natural color.

Reading Rainbow: Law School Admissions Torture(Prep)

Too many episodes of Scrubs made me a pre-med in college (a short-lived two-semester delusion), and too many episodes of Raising the Bar have made me register for the LSAT (a half-day multiple-choice ordeal).

Why am I taking the LSAT? Because I haven’t ruled out law school. But then again, I haven’t ruled out running through on-coming traffic across the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge and then swan-diving into the Potomac River to live permanently with mermaids and pretty fishies.

I bought a small paperback LSAT guide, the size of a romance novel, because it was less intimidating, and well, cheaper.
Here’s a taste:

Questions 34-35

During a museum trip, Martha and John each attend three history lectures (B, C, and D) and three science lectures (X, Y, and Z). They do not attend the same lecture at the same time, although they attend all six one-hour lectures. The lecture schedule must conform to the following conditions:

- John must attend each science lecture prior to Martha attending that same lecture.
- Martha must attend each history lecture prior to John attending that same lecture.
- John cannot attend two historical lectures consecutively.
- Martha must attend lecture Z third.
- John wants to bring his dog to the lectures.
- Martha never talks to strangers.
- Martha and John hate each other.

34. Which one of the following could be true?
(A) John attends Y first.
(B) Martha attends D first.
(C) Martha will inevitably slap John on the mouth.
(D) John’s dog will bite Martha.
(E) Martha is voting for Sarah Palin just because she has ovaries.

35. If John attends lecture B fourth, which of the following CANNOT be true.
(A) John must attend lecture C sixth
(B) Martha doesn’t even like museums.
(C) John has to postpone the lecture to "work" on the financial crisis.
(D) Martha also doesn’t accept candy from strangers.
(E) Hybrid will get the lowest score in the history of LSAT, EVER.

Photo(flickr) : Superheroes - Puja

Reading Rainbow: The Commitment

I used to think Ira Glass was a woman.

If you’re more familiar with The Diane Rehm Show than This American Life, and a friend invites you to go hear Ira’s live old-fashioned "radio show” at GW University, you might think that Ira is wonderfully hip for bringing old radio back to the youths of today. You would be wrong and horribly embarrassed.

But I have repented of my ways. Now I listen to This American Life when I brush my teeth, walk to work, fold laundry, and watch Project Runway. In fact, I carry a boom box on my shoulder, blasting the program everywhere I go. Now I know that Ira is a MAN, a wonderful man who should be president of everything, but I digress.

Dan Savage is a regular contributor to This American Life, and after listening to one of his stories, I went out and bought his book, The Commitment. I’ve never read such a personal memoir. When reading it, you wonder if you should feel guilty for prying into his personal thoughts.

Dan talks about the feelings of his boyfriend, their son, and extended family when it comes to marriage. Dan’s mother wants them to get married. His boyfriend isn’t sure. Their six-year-old wants them to “pinky promise, to seriously and forever promise,” that they will always love each other and stay together.

With my brother’s impending marriage, the subject has graced my mind. More honestly, the subject of marriage has been more of a throbbing headache beginning when I was born, climaxing the month after my mission, and only recently beginning to subside.

It was the next in a long line of accomplishments I had planned for myself.

I find myself in a strange limbo, unable to "move forward," into a phase I've always wanted, but isn't available to me, and one I'm not always sure is right for me. On the one hand, there is a legitimacy and protection afforded to married couples, a sense of possession, of permanence. On the other hand, being unable to get married keeps me from obsessing about a false endgame, and keeps me focused on quietly building a relationship without fanfare. Dan Savage:

“Before gay marriage became an option, no one expected a same-sex couple to put on a floor show for our families and friends about how much we really, truly loved each other. Straight couples that want their relationships to be taken seriously have always had to jump through the marital hoop, but not gay couples. We couldn’t cut to the front of the take-my-relationship-seriously line by getting married two days or two months or two years after we met. Unlike heterosexuals, we had to do the hard work of building a life together in order to be taken seriously, something we did without any legal entanglements or incentives.”

Of necessity, convention was discarded when I decided to live fully and unabashedly. But just because I discarded the default roadmap doesn't imply my destination has changed. Whether or not I will ever be allowed to get married, I will have tenderness, beauty, inspiration, love and growth in a relationship I commit my heart to. Married or not, relationships are difficult. But building them is the most brilliant thing we may create. I love this sentiment by Dan Savage:

“My relationship with Terry has always been our own creation, the product of a love some people believe isn’t even supposed to exist. With state and church against us, there’s a kind of dignity in loving each other anyway.”

Reading Rainbow: Letters to a Young Poet

I stop by Capitol Hill Books, the place to buy used books in Eastern Market. Books crowd the walls like anxious Catholics waiting to see the pope: Non-fiction in piles on the stairs; foreign language above the toilet in the bathroom; poetry in the sink of the upstairs kitchen.

I’m looking for Ranier Maria Rilke’s, Letters to a Young Poet. This sacred text was introduced into my cannon by Birdie, one of my oldest Utah friends. I’m reading it again, marking the margins and gifting it to Young Apollo. With Letters, Birdie also passed on the AMAZING (slash - potentially annoying) habit of marking up books and giving them away. When you read one of Birdie’s books, you’re letting her guide you around her favorite passages and share her thoughts on its beauty.

I’m passing one on to Young Apollo because he hasn’t read it, and no one should be denied beauty. I try to keep my highlighting to a minimum, but in Letter One, I can’t help but star the passage, corner-fold the page, and attach flashing lights, just to be obnoxiously clear that THIS IS A FAVORITE PASSAGE!

“If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches.”

I also highlight parts of Letter Seven.

“It is also good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.”

Here I have to be careful. I don’t want to wax cheesy (NO hearts, stars or unicorns), but this sentiment might just BE my raison d’etre. But since stars and exclamation points won’t augment this statement, I hush my pencil and choose to let Young Apollo experience the scenery without my commentary or flashing lights (something about… silence being important, the best policy, very COOL, and like, totally RAD).