Monday, March 1, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Where does my food come from?
Last week I started reading Barbara Kingsolver's memoir-ish Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which is an account of her family's move to Appalaicha and the year they spent trying to eat only local food that had been grown and produced in their own county. Even after finishing only the first quarter of the book, I have been struck with the urge to find out where my food comes from, in every sense. As grocery-store oriented as we are, we tend to think that food comes from the grocery store, forgetting that it actually grows. Yeah, really! Like, in the dirt. And we tend to forget that foods come in seasons. Grapes for example. Yesterday I came home and there was a bowl of grapes in the fridge. It's February and I live in Tennessee. There are also avocadoes, raisins, apples, peppers, and spinach in my fridge. I'm pretty sure avocados don't grow here, and I know for sure that it's not apple or pepper season. I have suddenly become almost self-conscious of the fact that I - me- a person who likes to think of herself as environmentally, socially, politically, economically aware, a person who likes to think of herself as intelligent and thoughtful doesn't know where her food comes from. I don't know where it comes from, how it's grown, how it's harvested, when it's in season, who picked it, how far it traveled to get here. . . granted I know basic things like apples grow in the fall and strawberries come in the summer but the number of things I don't know outweigh the things I do.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
and yet. . . .
I am endlessly dreaming of writing, drawing, working on creative projects, writing papers, making music, the days when I will do all these things and yet. . . . .
I think at least three times a week of all the places I long to travel to, everything I long to do, the walk across england I long to take, the experiences I dream of having and yet. . . . .
I am a flurry of tightly wound, anxious energy that dissipates into ellipses before even reaching my fingertips. . . .
and yet. . . .
I dream of the day when all this anxiety, and over-thought will cease, when the tension will melt from my shoulders, when I will write every day, and challenge my brain to truly think every day, and when i will run with ease over the rolling hills of my landscape, and yet. . . .
that day continues to elude me.
Whether this is of my own doing, or simply a pipe dream, I do not know.
there is only uncertainty. i must accept this.
and yet. . . .
"the opposite of a great truth is also a great truth"