My mother handed me over our 30 year plus Haggadah when I arrived at her home in Chicago and the place I was born. She pointed out how these well worn, wine encrusted Haggadahs had my name, my oldest brothers name and the name of my first friend Linda next to the sections we were supposed to read. How wierd is that she entoned. A few days later we would be paying a visit to my eldest friend who has by all strokes of the imagination (no pun intended) survived a brain hemorrhage and is doing unbelievably well after only a few short months. We arrive at her and her husbands condo and who helps deliver us to our parking spot in this downtown Chicago highrise, but one of her brothers. "What is he doing here", I think to myself? Then we walk in the door and not only is he there but so are Linda's other brother and his wife all the way from Florida. It doesn't dawn on me until I look at the table that we are going to be having 2nd night Seder. How cool is this I think and how miraculous that my friend is fully capable of reading the parts that are offered her. Still missing a major piece of her skull, she has all her faculties about her. She's a little slow moving and not her usual exuberant self but for the most part she is back.
It's so terrific when we can attach the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea to the miracles that surround us each day. Let us thank G-d for the ordinary and not so ordinary miracles in our lives. Hag Sameach!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Why It is Likely that Abraham and Sarah Lived Into Their 90s and Well Into Their 100s
Ok...I know it's been forever that I've blogged...here is something I wrote after reading the book Health at 100 by John Robbins.
If you read the book of Genesis in the bible you know how the story goes. Abraham and Sarah lived into their 90s and Sarah gave birth very late in life. Although the ability of Sarah to give birth that late could be disputed, I hypothesize that living into their 90s was not at impossible, but actually the most likely scenario of all.
Having just finished reading the book Healthy at 100 by John Robbins, son of the Baskin-Robbins tycoon, I began to think about the likelihood of our ancestors living healthy, vigorous lives l into old age. In his incredible book, Robbins talks about more recent cultures in which people regularly lived into their 80s, 90s, and even the low 100s while enjoying good health even in their advanced years. These cultures include the Abkhasians of the Caucasus, the Hunzians of Pakistan, the Vilcabambans in Equadors Andes Mountains, and the Okinawans of Japan. Likely you have heard of the last group but not of the other cultures.
Sadly these cultures have not maintained this amazing longevity because of the encroachment of Western society. As we’ve done all over the world, we exported our fast food and sedentary way of life as the “norm” for progress. Before coming into major contact with Western cultures all of the cultures named above farmed their own food which was organic and not filled with the junk that we identify as food today, because many of them are mountainous peoples they walked or hiked on a daily basis to farm their food and just do all the things necessary to survive, and in addition they all had close knit and loving societies where the elderly were revered and were the children and people of all ages.
Because of the healthy lifestyles they led they had none of the chronic diseases that we have today and so cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and other diseases were unknown. He does not talk in his book about infectious diseases but I’m guessing that with the level of biodiversity prevalent at that time and certainly at the time of our ancestors infectious diseases were probably not that prevalent. And because there weren’t many people at the time, diseases like the plague, malaria and TB that often come with large populations living in close proximity did not have the opportunity to take a foothold. Fresh water was bountiful and predators to feed on rats often vectors of disease were available so these diseases did not have a chance to reach humans or if they did, they rarely spread.
Living thousands of years before these cultures, the early Jewish people would have been in a similar situation to the Abkhasians and the other cultures named above. Hard work and healthy food would have been abundant. Polution and other causes of disease would not have existed. People would have lived communally and although warlike at times would have spent most of their lives living in peace.
If you read the book of Genesis in the bible you know how the story goes. Abraham and Sarah lived into their 90s and Sarah gave birth very late in life. Although the ability of Sarah to give birth that late could be disputed, I hypothesize that living into their 90s was not at impossible, but actually the most likely scenario of all.
Having just finished reading the book Healthy at 100 by John Robbins, son of the Baskin-Robbins tycoon, I began to think about the likelihood of our ancestors living healthy, vigorous lives l into old age. In his incredible book, Robbins talks about more recent cultures in which people regularly lived into their 80s, 90s, and even the low 100s while enjoying good health even in their advanced years. These cultures include the Abkhasians of the Caucasus, the Hunzians of Pakistan, the Vilcabambans in Equadors Andes Mountains, and the Okinawans of Japan. Likely you have heard of the last group but not of the other cultures.
Sadly these cultures have not maintained this amazing longevity because of the encroachment of Western society. As we’ve done all over the world, we exported our fast food and sedentary way of life as the “norm” for progress. Before coming into major contact with Western cultures all of the cultures named above farmed their own food which was organic and not filled with the junk that we identify as food today, because many of them are mountainous peoples they walked or hiked on a daily basis to farm their food and just do all the things necessary to survive, and in addition they all had close knit and loving societies where the elderly were revered and were the children and people of all ages.
Because of the healthy lifestyles they led they had none of the chronic diseases that we have today and so cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and other diseases were unknown. He does not talk in his book about infectious diseases but I’m guessing that with the level of biodiversity prevalent at that time and certainly at the time of our ancestors infectious diseases were probably not that prevalent. And because there weren’t many people at the time, diseases like the plague, malaria and TB that often come with large populations living in close proximity did not have the opportunity to take a foothold. Fresh water was bountiful and predators to feed on rats often vectors of disease were available so these diseases did not have a chance to reach humans or if they did, they rarely spread.
Living thousands of years before these cultures, the early Jewish people would have been in a similar situation to the Abkhasians and the other cultures named above. Hard work and healthy food would have been abundant. Polution and other causes of disease would not have existed. People would have lived communally and although warlike at times would have spent most of their lives living in peace.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The Omnivores Dilemma
Ok...I know...I know...it seems like lately all I do is book reviews. Well here is another one. I have to say though I keep picking books that are somewhat depressing. This book is no different. It really gives you pause to consider how corporate greed and circumstance have turned an ordinary vegetable...corn...into a commodity and the creator of not only horrible stuff like high fructose corn syrup but toxic waste from all the cattle that are fed some version of corn. Practically everything you eat if it's processed or comes from a cow is made from corn. What I found out is that corn-fed beef is actually not nearly as good for you as grass fed beef. But you have to go to Argentina to find that. Why has this happened? Well it's a combination of subsidies that have been given to farmers since the 50s and the fact that they can now grow a tremendous amount of corn and have to keep trying to grow more of it because the more they grow the more the market is glutted and the price goes down...so they have to in order to stay afloat. So now we are awash in corn. And we have to come up with ways to use it. And we have. Who wins? Not the farmers...they are making a pittance...but the big conglomerates that make everything from plastics to ethanol to the lovely HFC I mentioned earlier that is so bad for you. What can you do? Read! Read all the labels on the packages of food you buy. Don't buy processed food. If you read a label and have no idea what the ingredient is...it is corn...
After reading this book, I'm considering going vegetarian. Or going to Argentina where at least I know the beef is good for you.
After reading this book, I'm considering going vegetarian. Or going to Argentina where at least I know the beef is good for you.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
A Lonely World
As I read more of the book "Healthy at 100" and ponder the chapters about the protective health effects of love and family I can't help but wonder what has happened to our world. A world where many of us live alone or are divorced and may have one or more children in our care. Where old people are left to die in nursing homes. A place where many of us will never know what its like to live in real community. One where no one ever moves and you know all of your neighbors. One where people really care and stop by just to say hi. One that only a few in this country still know well; the Amish and Orthodox Jews.
How far has progress taken us except away from our families and ultimately from ourselves. I've lived for 28 years away from my family of origin. Have these all been lonely years? I have many people I call friends and I feel fortunate for that--but its not that the same as having them close at hand. Willing to stop by just to see how you're doing. They like I have incredibly busy lives. Even with husbands and children many feel the same sense of disconnection I often feel. The phone is only a poor substitution.
How can we be "Healthy at 100" if we live isolated lives. A part of me wants to go live in a place where "everyone knows your name" and yes "knows your business". Because that's the kind of person I am. I'm a connector. Today I had an idea. Instead of Big Brothers and Sisters; why not Little Grandchildren for those who really need grandchildren. As a single woman with no children, I don't look forward to my elder years. How can I when I fear being alone with no one to come visit me. I will need to adopt grandchildren just so I can have that privilege or have "Little Grandchildren" that will come to my side. Or perhaps, just perhaps I'll go live in Okinawa where elders are still treated with respect and people still live well to a ripe old age because they feel useful.
How far has progress taken us except away from our families and ultimately from ourselves. I've lived for 28 years away from my family of origin. Have these all been lonely years? I have many people I call friends and I feel fortunate for that--but its not that the same as having them close at hand. Willing to stop by just to see how you're doing. They like I have incredibly busy lives. Even with husbands and children many feel the same sense of disconnection I often feel. The phone is only a poor substitution.
How can we be "Healthy at 100" if we live isolated lives. A part of me wants to go live in a place where "everyone knows your name" and yes "knows your business". Because that's the kind of person I am. I'm a connector. Today I had an idea. Instead of Big Brothers and Sisters; why not Little Grandchildren for those who really need grandchildren. As a single woman with no children, I don't look forward to my elder years. How can I when I fear being alone with no one to come visit me. I will need to adopt grandchildren just so I can have that privilege or have "Little Grandchildren" that will come to my side. Or perhaps, just perhaps I'll go live in Okinawa where elders are still treated with respect and people still live well to a ripe old age because they feel useful.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
How to Get People to Eat More Veggies
So I've been thinking about our health care crisis and what we can do to fix it. As I mentioned in an earlier blog I'm currently reading Healthy at 100 by John Robbins. There is study after study about the benefits of eating a healthy diet and exercising to prevent chronic disease. Even if we start late we have a greater likelihood of living healthy, vigourous lives into old age. So how to we get Americans to eat more and exercise more?
One way I thought of getting people to eat more vegies is to utilize the Flexible Spending Account not only as a way to get a tax break on health care costs not covered by our insurance plans, but also there should be a way that we can use these cards to buy vegetables. Of course this doesn't ensure we will eat them but it would give us some incentive to buy them. We should also be able to use these cards at our farmer's markets and CSA's (CSAs are those farms that deliver fresh vegies to your house).
And while we're at it why not be able to use these cards to pay our monthly dues at fitness facilities.
Giving a tax break to those who are tryng to eat right and exercise only makes good practical sense.
So listen up Presidential Candidates...have you thought of this one?
One way I thought of getting people to eat more vegies is to utilize the Flexible Spending Account not only as a way to get a tax break on health care costs not covered by our insurance plans, but also there should be a way that we can use these cards to buy vegetables. Of course this doesn't ensure we will eat them but it would give us some incentive to buy them. We should also be able to use these cards at our farmer's markets and CSA's (CSAs are those farms that deliver fresh vegies to your house).
And while we're at it why not be able to use these cards to pay our monthly dues at fitness facilities.
Giving a tax break to those who are tryng to eat right and exercise only makes good practical sense.
So listen up Presidential Candidates...have you thought of this one?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Living to 100
I'm reading the latest book by John Robbins (same guy who wrote Diet for a New America). I just started it and I'm anxious to see what I have to do to live to 100...oh by the way the title of his new book is "Healthy at 100: How you can --at any age--dramatically increase your life span and your health span". The first 2 chapters talk about people who live in mountainous regions and live to be 100 or close to it but live vigorously into old age. Hiking and dancing and just loving life. It made me what to go live among the goats. They also treat their elders with respect. The older you are the more respect you get. In fact older people often inflate their age due to this fact. So heres a new idea for retirement. Instead of moving to Florida or Palm Springs, move to Abkhasia in the Caucacus and then you can be assured of the good life...just don't plan on any golf games or sitting watching the tube...you'll be out their working and tending the goats for sure.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Stock Market Woes
OK...so my friend Ralph who is a financial planner warned me about 2 months ago that the stock market was going to tank. Did I listen? Of course not. I had been looking at my porfolio anyway since I moved some of my 403Bs over to one Fidelity plan instead of having them in 3 different places. I even talked to my fidelity person and my brother and was going to move a good chunk into a money market since I'm 75% in the stock market. Did I do it? No! What an idiot! Now yesterday I talked to my father and he said not to do anything. Nothing. Shum Davar! "You not retiring for many years!" Although this is true...the last time the stock market tanked it took several years to get back to where we were and my friend Ralph said that I may never get back there. Oy! What's a girl to do...I guess I should listen to my friends and gut next time. So often in life we know we should do something "now" and we don't. We know we should make a change, but we sit on it. Similar to my career woes, where I knew that a change was needed but instead I did the safe thing and took a job. Most people would say that was the prudent thing to do. Perhaps it was. I know that if I hadn't and with the stock market taking a tumble I'd be dealing with a father that would be freaking out because I wasn't working. Sometimes you just have to go for the safe thing and save the scarier things for later. Maybe I'll go bungee jumping.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Getting Along with Co-Workers
One of the biggest areas of job dissatisfaction is the inability to get along with co-workers. Often this stems from our own insecurity and jockeying for position. How people treat each other in the workplace also has a lot to do with the organizational culture. If you work in a place where the boss doesn't treat people well or where the boss is insecure and lets people do and say whatever they want, then very likely this will trickle down to his/her employees. A lack of trust develops between people, factions develop, etc, etc. I've recently experienced both situations. Can you do anything about a work situation in which the boss treats others poorly or is a poor manager? Well you can certainly look elsewhere for work, which is probably the best recommendation because no workplace can operate effectively with a boss like this for very long. But you can also get to know your co-workers and treat them with the utmost respect, avoid gossiping, and keep your nose to the grindstone so to speak. I for one decided that leaving was the only was that I could do it...I don't have a very thick skin. In my new job I've been put in a situation where I got a job over the person I'm working the closest with and she has had to orient me. I've been honest, straightforward, and where there were areas of work that were unclear I've suggested going to the boss together to clear things up. I think this has worked well. Of course this being said, I've only been in the position for 2 weeks. We'll see how this all plays itself out in the weeks to come.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Regaining Our Connection with Nature
Although I decided to go to a teaching tonight instead of choir, it was great because the first thing we learned was that Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (he was a hassidic rabbi that was totally into the environment) said that each living thing has it's own song. The rabbi gave the example of a turtle that travels thousands of miles to it's destination. How does it know where it's going? The idea is that in nature animals know their own song, it's only people that have to discover it. I thought this was a profound idea. And, if you look at native cultures who live much closer to nature they we do they are much more tuned in to the earths rhythms and songs.....Aborigines...songlines...Native Americans....and the Bushman....who hearing tapping and can go across the desert by following some inate message. I highly recommend 2 books if you care to learn more about Bushman. A Story Like the Wind and A Far Off Place.....by the same author.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Chemical Sensitivities and Fragrance
For those of us in the world who wake up each day not knowing how we'll feel, life can be challenging. I long for the day when I can consistently wake up refreshed and charged up knowing that my head will be unfuzzy and my remarks will be brilliant because I have the energy to recall that joke from long ago. I also long for the day that I'll get out of bed and won't feel dizzy and can actually say "yes" to a hike in the Cascades.
Because I'm now working with a woman who wears perfume, I've noticed that I'm have more brain fuzz than usual. I got up the guts to tell her how it's been affecting me and luckily she agreed to stop wearing it. Of course who knows how long it will take for her clothes to stop smelling from it.
As a result of this assault on my senses, I really am beginning to believe that my head fuzz and dizziness is a result of being around small amounts of perfume each day. I know even I could be better about using products with no fragrance at all even though for the most part, everything I have is fragrance free.
Some day like smoking, fragrance will be illegal in the workplace. Luckily I work for a hospital so there is a fragrance free policy. I just think it will take a few more canaries in the mine for this to be a no brainer for business.
Because I'm now working with a woman who wears perfume, I've noticed that I'm have more brain fuzz than usual. I got up the guts to tell her how it's been affecting me and luckily she agreed to stop wearing it. Of course who knows how long it will take for her clothes to stop smelling from it.
As a result of this assault on my senses, I really am beginning to believe that my head fuzz and dizziness is a result of being around small amounts of perfume each day. I know even I could be better about using products with no fragrance at all even though for the most part, everything I have is fragrance free.
Some day like smoking, fragrance will be illegal in the workplace. Luckily I work for a hospital so there is a fragrance free policy. I just think it will take a few more canaries in the mine for this to be a no brainer for business.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Neighborhood Shops are Disappearing
About 6 months ago an entire city block near my house was demolished. That block held some longstanding businesses including a Karate place, a bar, a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant, and some other small businesses. What has come in it's place are a drug store (not so bad) but also the Money Tree, T-mobile, and Kinko's FedEx. Small businesses just can't afford to pay the price for new construction. And it's a damn shame too. It takes away the small town feel of our neighborhoods and doesn't allow us to connect with the merchants we've come to know and love. Who wants their neighborhood to become a strip mall. Yuck! A friend of mine who owns a bookstore in Seattle and had to close down her bookstore in Bellevue because the building was being razed and she couldn't find anywhere in Bellevue with rent that she could afford. I'm not sure what the answer is but maybe it's our city planners and laws about how areas are zoned. I'm guessing there is not much one can do if the owner of an old set of building wants to sell out for the money. If anyone has an answer to this problem I would love to know about it. Somehow certain neighborhoods like Greenwood have maintained that wonderful small town and individual proprietor ability. I wish the same were true for Lake City.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
A News Years Wish
Trying to find inspiration for a New Years wish is not easy. Where does one go for that those illusive words that will give people hope when war we are still at war, when friends are getting divorced, when you are starting a job that is just a placeholder for what you really want to do in life, and there is so much uncertainty. I think that the writings of Pema Chodron is always a good place to go for inspiration. Pema Chodron reminds us that the ground is always shaky. We are constantly searching for the firm, stable place that in reality does not exist. Things are constantly changing. I don't know who said it, but the only thing that is constant is change.
In my women's group we alway talk about living in the moment. This makes the most sense of all when you really think about it. We can make all the News Year Resolutions we want, but likely we will go off that diet, stop exercising, stop meditating, and just plain not doing what we set out to do because life is always throwing us a curve ball. And we just get too dang busy.
So for this New Year try to love the life you have, plan for the future but don't expect it to turn out as you expect, be joyful whenever you can, and relish the happy surprises that come your way.
Happy New Year to all!
In my women's group we alway talk about living in the moment. This makes the most sense of all when you really think about it. We can make all the News Year Resolutions we want, but likely we will go off that diet, stop exercising, stop meditating, and just plain not doing what we set out to do because life is always throwing us a curve ball. And we just get too dang busy.
So for this New Year try to love the life you have, plan for the future but don't expect it to turn out as you expect, be joyful whenever you can, and relish the happy surprises that come your way.
Happy New Year to all!
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