I finished my first book of the new year: Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger. My favorite part of the book was part of the story "Outside the Eastern Gate" wherein a girl under some circumstances is trying to distract herself and part of her distraction is reciting the first two lines of a Chinese poem (in English) those lines are: "Outside the Eastern gate Are girls many as the clouds"
I really like that translation, something about the sentiment (and it being more or less meangingless to the girl in the story? maybe?) but also the clean sound of the language. I liked the idea of trying to find a mantra, something to block out things that are going on. I also liked the poem.
The poem (found via Google) goes like this:
Outside the Eastern gate
Are girls many as the clouds;
But though they are many as clouds
There is none on whom my heart dwells.
White jacket and grey scarf 1
Alone could cure my woe.
Beyond the Gate Tower
Are girls lovely as rush-wool;
But though they are lovely as rush-wool
There is none with whom my heart bides.
White jacket and madder skirt
Alone could bring me joy.
I don't know if 'healthly' is a word - we already have healthy - but I think I want to make it one.
Today's New York Times magainze had an article by Michael Pollan, a smart sounding man from the Berkeley school (at least he teaches there) his book, The Omnivore's Dilemna, is something I have never read but maybe the paperback later this year will be something Amazon reccomends to me. I liked the article. Especially the opening line:
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
Sound advice I'd say. Yesterday I was sick, vomitting up the contents of my stomach and possibly suffering from a blocked intestine sick, so what did I eat to try and make myself feel better? Dry toast and chicken soup. However I've found recently that when suffering from various stomach ailments I feel much better after a salad. This might not be a conventional American home remedy, but it worked this time - I had a salad for dinner and kept it down (though the processed cinnamon and sugar oatmeal I had for breakfast didn't work however the salad I had for lunch did the trick again...) This of course follows the advice above. Interesting, ne? Towards the end of the article (which is well worth reading) he outlines 9 more detailed pieces of advice based on his opening line. A summary edit is below:
"So try these few (flagrantly unscientific) rules of thumb, collected in the course of my nutritional odyssey, and see if they don’t at least point us in the right direction.
1. Eat food. Though in our
current state of confusion, this is much easier said than done. So try
this: Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t
recognize as food.
2. Avoid even those food
products that come bearing health claims. They’re apt to be heavily
processed, and the claims are often dubious at best.
3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
4. Get out
of the supermarket whenever possible. You won’t find any high-fructose
corn syrup at the farmer’s market; you also won’t find food harvested
long ago and far away.
5. Pay
more, eat less.
6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks. Confounding factors aside, people who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than we are. Any traditional diet will do: if it weren’t a healthy diet, the people who follow it wouldn’t still be around...Let culture be your guide, not science.
8. Cook. And if you can,
plant a garden.
9. Eat like an omnivore. Try
to add new species, not just new foods, to your diet. The greater the
diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your
nutritional bases."
And why I love the TSA.
Here I am set to leave San Diego, the town that I grew up in. On the 8 freeway out to the airport we passed a new apartment complex in the Hotel Circle area. There are no services (grocer, shops, etc) within walking distance of this complex. Really the only thing its close to is the freeway, what ease of driving! This is the modern world.
Last night at dinner some friends of mine were talking how recently they were going to meet at a park for some disc golf, instead of walking the 8 blocks (probably about a mile in San Diego) they drove over. The people they were meeting also drove over, in separate cars. 3 cars to get four people, a dog, and some frisbies to a park.
Not that this is a phenomena unique to Southern California but it does illustrate how easy it is to not think about what we are doing - whether its living in a building with absolutely nothing to walk to (save hotels?) or not walking to place that could be walked to.
Oh yes the TSA. One of my 'gifts' this year is my mothers old video camera. Maybe I'll film something in the new year. Most likely I'll just film myself. Not that I have delusions of making myself into a lonelygirl or a Ze Frank or that I think videoblogging is the new vogue, just something that might happen now that I have the tool. The camera affords things being filmed, one thing ready at hand is myself.
Anyway the camera was going to be checked. My checked bag was too heavy as a result of me trading in my duffle bag for an old suitcase from my mother (I'm big on re-use and or recycle). This old suitcase was heavy and filled with crap was heavier still, in fact about 8 pounds over the 50 pound luggage limit.
So I had to lose/shift weight to my carry on bags. One of things shifted was the afformentioned video camera. Not being fully aware of TSA's vigilance I did not remove the camera from its bag within a bag. This oversight meant I got to be removed from line as they rubbed a little pad (small cloth on plastic wand) inside my bag, inside the camera bag and over the exterior of the camera. There was a little machine that for some reason reminded me of an auto-clav that the cloth was put into after each rub, then removed and re-used. I assume they were looking for residues. I was polite but did not want to seem too curious. Curiousity you see can be suscipcious.
What did this cost me? A little time. Its interesting though how the delays accumulated (suitcase heavy, repack bag, re-check suitcase, get pulled out of line by TSA) and could lead to accumulating frustrations, if one was the type to get frustrated by such things.
The seriousness afforded security, they explained they have to do this because my type of camera still accepts a certain type of tape and can be modified in a variety of sinsiter ways, is not so much comforting as it is interesting. If I had known more about the TSA and removed the camera would I have been pulled aside? Probably not. Compliance with un-written rules (I saw no sign reminding me that certain video cameras must be removed) implies conformity and trust. While non-compliance, even as a result of unplanned oversight (the camera was orginally going to be checked), implies non-conformity. And if the 60's and 70's taught us anything its that dissidents need to be tear gassed and shot at.
So why do I love the TSA? Because the illusion of security is so much more interesting than the actual thing. They have neat gadgets and just enough authority to be a real pain in the ass. In the end they are people. They follow protocol. At least thats what I'd like to think.
