Non-Paper Daily, 2.24.09

*Tonight, President Obama gave a semi-State of the Union address to both houses of Congress. I was on the road for the speech, but read a bit about it and apparently it was came across well... or even better than well. Health care reform and "let's not give up" seemed to be big themes. Here's the text. Those who saw it, thoughts?

*Hillary is killin' it around the globe. She's a star. That said, her comments about pushing human rights discussions in China onto the backburner while we figure out the economic situation were dead wrong. Now, more than ever, is the time to press the Chinese into action. They still need us more than we need them, so why not do some arm twisting to get the Chinese into (at least) the 20th century?

*It is my mom's birthday today. I arrived back in La Grande for classes at EOU and to celebrate with her. Happy birthday Carol!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" (yes, I know Mrs. House (5th grade teacher), books are underlined, but I don't know how to do that on here) by Barbara Kingsolver is my current read. The penny version: A family tries to live solely on local food for one year and along the way they write about our current corporate food system, it's costs and benefits, and how/why local food is the preferable option.

Last night I read a passage that struck a chord, so much so that I've typed it up for all to see. It reminds me of something my mom always talked about, that we should always make the best of whatever situation we are in. Wonderful advice. Enjoy:

When I was in college, living two states away from my family, I studied the map one weekend and found a different route home from the one we usually traveled. I drove back to Kentucky the new way, which did turn out to be faster. During my visit I made sure all my relatives heard about the navigational brilliance that saved me thirty-seven minutes.

“Thirty-seven,” my grandfather mused. “And here you just used up fifteen of them telling all about it. What’s your plan for the other twenty-two?”

Good question. I’m still stumped for an answer, whenever the religion of timesaving pushes me to zip trough a meal or a chore, rushing everybody out the door to the next point on a schedule. All that hurry can blur the truth that life is a zero-sum equation. Every minute I save will get used on something else, possibly no more sublime than staring at the newel post trying to remember what I just ran upstairs for. On the other hand, attending to the task in front of me—even a quotidian chore—might make it into part of a good day, rather than just a rock in the road to someplace else.

I have a farmer friend who would definitely side with my grandfather on the subject of time’s economies. He uses draft animals instead of a tractor. Doesn’t it take an eternity to turn a whole field with a horse-driven plow? The answer, he says, is yes. Eternal is the right frame of mind. “When I’m out there cultivating the corn with a good team in the quiet of the afternoon, watching the birds in the hedgerows, oh my goodness, I could just keep going all day. Kids from the city come out here and ask, ‘What do you do for fun around here?’ I tell them, ‘I cultivate.’”

Now that I’m decades older and much less clever than I was in college, I’m getting better at facing life’s routines the way my friend faces his cornfield. I haven’t mastered the serene mindset on all household chores (What do you do for fun around here? I scrub pots and pans, okay??), but I might be getting there with cooking. Eternal is the right frame of mind for making food for a family: cooking down the tomatoes into a red-gold oregano-scented sauce for pasta. Before that, harvesting sun-ripened fruits, pinching oregano leaves form their stems, growing these things from seed—yes. A lifetime is what I’m after. Cooking is definitely one of the things we do for fun around here. When I’m in a blue mood I head for the kitchen. I turn the pages of my favorite cookbooks, summoning the prospective joyful noise of a shared meal. I stand over a bubbling soup, close my eyes, and inhale. From the group up, everything about nourishment steadies my soul.