The Whole30

Today marks the 30th day of my Whole30!

What is Whole30 (and the Whole9)? The program's creators describe it this way: "Whole9’s original program designed to change your life in 30 days. Think of it as a short-term nutritional reset, designed to help you restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, calm systemic inflammation and put an end to unhealthy cravings, habits, and relationships with food." It's a free program (although there is a good "Success Guide") you can purchase on their site, which has a lot of helpful info.

Why I Did It

I chose to do it for a few reasons. One, while I was in Nicaragua a lot of my eating habits were disrupted - and that was a good thing! I may not have eaten super well there, but it at least broke my habits. However, when I returned I started to fall right back into them - lots of sugar, no cooking for myself, calorie counting, etc, and I didn't feel good about that. Also, a number of people at CrossFit have done the Whole30 (many of them more than once), and had positive experiences. Finally, ever since attending my first CrossFit class in November, I've totally fallen in love with the sport. I have so many goals I want to reach - consecutive toe to bars, one unassisted pull up, dead-lifting over 200#, getting my double unders down, and much more! - and I hoped that Whole30 might help me become more of the lean, mean, CrossFit machine I dream of becoming.

Some Thoughts On My Experience With Whole30:

* For me, I think the best part about Whole30 has been the change in my morning routine. I've always loved breakfast foods (in college I used to eat 6-9 donuts a day - true story), and I've always had carb-y sweet things in the morning. In fact, on day 3 or 4 of Whole30 I actually had a moment where I woke up and thought, "Why bother getting out of bed, I don't get to have donuts/scones etc" - yikes, hello sugar addiction! While on Whole30 I made eggs every morning for breakfast, usually scrambled with spinach and chorizo. On the few days I haven't been able to do this, I really miss the protein. So this is something I know I will keep doing, saying to myself, maybe you'll have a scone later, but you cannot start the day with inadequate protein and a sugar rush.

* For someone like me (like a lot of us) who will always be in recovery from a life time of disordered eating, Whole30 was a great way to help me break my addiction to counting calories, and the fear a lot of us have of eating fat.

* It wasn't as brutal as it seems. I had to cook and plan a little more, and it can definitely make socializing tough, but for the most part it wasn't as hard as I worried it would be. Well, until......

* One thing I didn't see mentioned but would tell any woman thinking of doing it, is be aware of where you are in your cycle. You do not want to try to battle with PMS cravings and emotions at the same time as you start the Whole30. I didn't have as many sweet cravings as I thought I would, but when PMS arrived in Week 3 I was a real brat. I got cranky and wanted to just roll around in a vat of donuts and eat them all until I died a sweet sweet maple frosted death. So, you know, maybe start the Whole30 right after your period or something.

* Other physical benefits. I was really "regular" if you know what I mean. Also, my skin got better, and zits cleared up.

* Not riding that damn sugar roller coaster was great - I realized that when I eat sugar I get hot all over and flush, how quickly I would crave more, etc. And, of course, realized that most of the time I craved sugar it was because I was bored, sad, stressed, or something else unrelated to actually enjoying the food I was eating.

* One hard part: as an ex-vegetarian (and ex-vegan) who still struggles with my love of meat, sometimes it was hard to eat so much meat. The Whole30 people really stress eating hormone free, grass fed meat, which is awesome, and I tried to buy mine local as well. But having meat twice a day every day (at minimum) was sometimes hard for me to get used to, and I think it will continue to feel that way. (They've recently come out with more resources for vegetarians who want to try Whole30, but I think that would be very very difficult.)

* I like that I became much more aware of food labels. Previously, I had just looked at them to check out calories (truth), but when I started looking to see if they included any of the dozens of forms of sugar, I started to quickly put anything down with more than a half dozen ingredients. This was cool. I would pick something up and think, I don't even know what half of this stuff is - I'm not putting this in my body! I liked that.

* Finally, although the Whole30 crew instructs you not to weigh yourself during Whole30 and warns against our dependence on the scale generally, for many people weight loss is a motivating factor. I won't lie - it was attractive to me as well. Some people have incredible weight loss, like 20 pounds or more in a month, and people have such incredible testimonies (the weight fell off, everything in my life improved!) that it's easy to get your hopes up that the Whole30 will basically fix everything in your life. Unsurprisingly, that wasn't my experience. Weight loss wise, I lost a few pounds in the first week and then just maintained there. I definitely felt less bloated and more firm within the first week, which was great, but I didn't have huge weight loss and I think that's for a few reasons:

(1) I did as they say, and didn't monitor calories at ALL, which I think is good, and the ONLY way to really break your sugar addiction (which I did - yay!), but I think that some people who lose a lot of weight "break the rules" and limit their food intake/calorie count.

(2) I ate a ton of nuts and dried fruit (they recommend limiting your fruit intake, which I finally did the last week, but otherwise I was like, forget it, it's fruit and I'm already monitoring so much.

(3) I was working on building back all the muscle I lost in Nicaragua, so in reality I probably lost more than a few pounds of fat, but I added muscle (which is what I wanted, but it doesn't translate to scale #s).

They recommend doing body measurements before you start and I really wish I had done that, because I think that progress would be more noteworthy than the scale. Also, lifting weights and changing my mindset via CrossFit has definitely given me a more "f the scale" attitude - I've been thinner in the past, but fatter, if that makes sense, and now I'm relatively heavier but leaner, etc.

Support/Guides/Recipes:

Of course, the Whole30 site has a TON of good info (although it took me a while to find my way around, and, to be honest, I get sort of bored reading all the science stuff, or hearing people talk about how cave men ate, etc).

These aren't Whole30 specific sites, but a lot of them have done the Whole30 or are paleo (which is close to Whole30 but less strict. And people get really into "paleo treats" (like paleo "donuts" etc) that you are supposed to avoid during Whole30): The Clothes Make The Girl, TGIPaleo, A Girl Walks Into A Bar(Bell), Civilized Caveman Cooking.

Day 31:

Now what? This post does an excellent job outlining some of the challenges of finishing the Whole30. I have definitely had a lot of these thoughts; while I don't want to be Whole30 or Paleo forever, I will admit that I'm a little nervous about reintroducing stuff into my diet and losing all the (mainly mental) progress I have made. I love what they write about the tendency people have to get attached to a strict diet, and the importance of dealing with making your own choices, and living a healthy life. I think it's really important to trust yourself to make decisions, to not feel totally "all or nothing," or live in fear of "slipping." I also thought this post was great - if you find yourself having a nightmare about eating something "bad," it's time to reassess. I really appreciate that they address the fact that Whole30, as with any eating plan, can become unhealthy if taken to an extreme.

I will definitely continue eating protein packed breakfasts. I will continue to read labels, and throw back things that have lots of ingredients, and things I don't recognize. I will be mindful about seeing how my body responds to dairy, grains, and sugar. But, to be honest, I'm still not sure how Whole30 will change my eating habits in the long run - I'm certainly planning on eating donuts again at some point in my life! The creators of Whole30 suggest doing it a few times a year to "reset" and I really like that idea (OK, I'll admit it, I'm a crazy planner and already have a second round of Whole30 scheduled for July).

Anyways, I hope all this is helpful. If anyone has more questions, or comments about their experience with Whole30 I'd love to hear them!

Listening to: Sharon Van Etten, Live In Concert: SXSW 2012

A great article about ending your Whole30 (and generally about avoiding over dependence on a strict diet, and learning to listen to your body).

Image: Manny Quiles is a “former pro boxer from Connecticut, now an addict living in a homeless shelter. Manny’s career ended after several injuries left him with a right eye that is unable to focus. Unable to fight, with little other skills, he found himself homeless and turned to heroin.” from Portraits of Addiction in the Bronx.

Not a big fan of Amazon (support local bookstores!), but this is fascinating: Amazon's new HQ in Seattle.

This American Life tweeted today: "We are retracting the episode "Mr. Daisey & the Apple Factory." We devote this week's show to the retraction." Huh. That was a very powerful episode, I'm definitely interested to hear about the retraction.

Our local film festival is in it's 11th year - and I'm volunteering for the first time! So excited for the ashland independent film festival, it really is an incredible feat and just a wonderful week of films and community.

My CrossFit family, Rogue Valley CrossFit, was featured in the local news!

By Laura A. Hughes, Executive Director of the Ruth Ellis Center: "Homeless LGBT Youth: Living on the Streets at the Dangerous Intersection of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Race, and Class"

From the NYRB, Why Finish Books?

Image: source.

Love this, CrossFit has definitely helped me change my ideas about health and heal some of my body image issues: Embrace Them Thighs: "But seriously, being a woman is pretty cool in itself, but being a strong CrossFit woman is wicked cool. We get to prove to ourselves daily that nothing scares us. We walk into our CrossFit gym with a glowing confidence, all because we know that when we hear “3..2…1…GO” WE are the ones in control of that moment. WE are the only thing standing between us and that barbell. And WE have the capability of changing our own lives, right then and there. And that’s some pretty powerful sh*t."

Latinos make up potentially powerful, if dissatisfied, voting block in west: "Many Latinos who are eligible to become citizens, aren't taking the time to go through the process. And many who are citizens aren't bothering to vote. That dilutes what should be a powerful voting block, but activists are trying to get them to become more politically engaged."

NYTimes: Religion And The Social Crisis.

A great article about "January mode" v. "February mode": "Geneen Roth would say that no food should be forbidden and I know what she means but I have not yet figured out how to sledgehammer my own nature into a more spiritually enlightened shape when it comes to moderation...Most of all, I’d like to be my best January self . . . without that ever-present nagging feeling that the REAL me, the February one, is barely being held at bay." (h/t to Amy at Just A Titch!)

The New Song, by W.S. Merwin

For some time I thought there was time
and that there would always be time
for what I had a mind to do
and what I could imagine
going back to and finding it
as I had found it the first time
but by this time I do not know
what I thought when I thought back then

-

there is no time yet it grows less
there is the sound of rain at night
arriving unknown in the leaves
once without before or after
then I hear the thrush waking
at daybreak singing the new song

Happy (day after) International Women's Day! 20 Photos of Female Activists Throughout History

Resistencia, the film: "The film follows 3,000 landless farming families as they occupy the palm oil plantations of Miguel Facussé, the richest man in Honduras. Over their two-year-long occupation, they've been threatened, jailed, beaten, had their homes burnt down, and more than forty farmers have been killed by Facussé's guards, the police, and the military, all of which work together to try and push them off the land. Despite this constant violence, the families are still there and they're not going anywhere."

Image: source.

Although comparisons to Nickled & Dimed make me worry it has the same problems (for instance, instead of an upper middle class white person pretending to be poor for a year, maybe we could actually talk to the people who are...) (although Ms. McMillan goes out of her way to present argue against the assumption that she comes from the middle class), I'm still adding this book to my "to read" list: "Planting, harvesting, processing, displaying, and cooking that vast hoard of grub, of course, requires veritable armies of workers. Keeping it cheap and plentiful for consumers, while also profitable for the food industry, means those workers generally get paid very little. The 11 million people who staff the nation's restaurants earn average wages of just over $10 an hour. The 230,000 people who plant and harvest our crops would consider that an improvement; their average pay is just $9.64 an hour. Meatpacking workers are, relatively speaking, the aristocrats of the system: the 83,000 men and women who slog through the blood and guts of our meat supply get $11.60 an hour for their trouble. In all of these occupations, workers bring home average annualized wages that land them below or just above the poverty line for a family of four....In her important new book, The American Way of Eating, Tracie McMillan illuminates this murky yet vital sector of our economy. In her year of research, she embedded herself in the Big Food trenches and (to paraphrase Kafka) scribbled down what she saw among the ruins. She worked undercover stints in California farm fields, at two Walmart stores in Michigan, and at an Applebee's in Brooklyn, living on the wages she eked out, often alongside the people with whom she toiled." source

Another great one from StoryCorps: A Mom Becomes A Man, And A Family Sticks Together.

"Here’s what Dr. King got out of the Sermon on the Mount. On Nov. 17, 1957, in Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, he concluded the learned discourse that came to be known as the “loving your enemies” sermon this way: “So this morning, as I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you: ‘I love you. I would rather die than hate you.’ ” Go ahead and re-read that. That is hands down the most beautiful, strange, impossible, but most of all radical thing a human being can say." from Radical Love Gets a Holiday by Sarah Vowell

"Knowing how to be alone is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape." - bell hooks

You Reading This, Be Ready

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life -

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

by William Stafford

image: source.

Listening to: Bryan Stevenson (founder and ED of EJI): "We need to talk about an injustice": "In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness."

In church this past week, Rev. Pam spoke about the incredible rate of environmental destruction we are wreking on the planet, and the need for immediate and serious changes in the way we live (driving and flying less, being aware of how far away the things we eat and wear and buy are being shipped from, etc). She said, "We fear that what is needed will make our lives diminished. But what if we can save the world by living even better lives than the lives we’ve got? What if the changes we make, make us happier? What if they build richer lives and healthier communities?" I loved that, and have been thinking about it ever since....

Image: Mary Daly

Recently read & enjoyed this article. The title is a it misleading - it's less about parenting then about ideas of "happiness" generally. I liked this quote:"Happiness as a byproduct of living your life is a great thing. But happiness as a goal is a recipe for disaster.” How to Land Your Kid in Therapy: "Why the obsession with our kids’ happiness may be dooming them to unhappy adulthoods. A therapist and mother reports."

“Loneliness is not lack of company, loneliness is lack of purpose.” - Guillermo Maldonado

From Dissent: Growing Up Slowly: Ladyblogs, Womanhood, and Extended Adolescence in the Internet Age

Image: source.

Particularly interesting to me because of the Whole30 - I've definitely noticed the effects of sugar on my mental and emotional health for a long time: Do Carbs Make You Crazy?: Evidence that blood glucose and dietary carbohydrate affect mood.

Oddly taken with this poem: Lift Your Right Arm by Peter Cherches

The Vanishing Mind: Dealing With Dementia Among Aging Criminals: "At a California prison, prisoners doing time for murder are caring for inmates with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia."

From Flavorwire: Tiny Libraries, DIY Reading Rooms, and Other Micro Book Depots

Recently read and enjoyed in the NY Review of Books: Willard Mitt Romney, and The New World of William Carlos Williams.

Last night a friend and I watched "Beginners," and I cannot reccomend it highly enough. My big warning would be that it is somewhat challenging to face life once realizing that I'll never be Melanie Laurent, that Christopher Plummer isnt my dad/bff/roommate, and that I don't own that dog....Seriously, though, great movie.

Angela Davis Says Black People Have a Responsibility to Support the DREAM Act

Edible rooftop school garden! So many things to love.

Love these self irrigating planters, might have to give them a try (potentially perfect if you don't have a great space for a garden.)

Listening to: new album from the Magnetic Fields.

Intersectionality is not optional.

“People sometimes ask me, ‘If things are so bad, why don’t you just kill yourself?’ The answer is that life is really, really good. I am a complex enough being that I can hold in my heart the understanding that we are really, really fucked, and at the same time that life is really, really good. I am full of rage, sorrow, joy, love, hate, despair, happiness, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and a thousand other feelings. We are really fucked. Life is still really good.” - Derrick Jensen

From the LATimes: Licenses for illegal immigrants would make roads safer, LAPD chief says. (This story was also featured on NPR)

USA Today: "What life is like for 14-year-old killer tried as an adult"

Image: source.

On "pop-up urbanism," “tactical urbanism, spontaneous interventions, and the other forms of unsanctioned public space activity that are extremely important in today’s discourse over how public space is used and allocated."

Facts About Rihanna And Other Abused Women. Yes yes yes: "But if you sincerely want to reduce the incidence of domestic violence in our society, I beg you to refrain from judging her. Strange as it may sound, judging women who return to their abusers only makes the problem worse."

So, I'm on Day 11 of this thing called the Whole30. I learned about it from friends at CrossFit, and it's basically a month long program to "reset" your body by eating whole foods - no sugar, no grains, no alcohol, no dairy. While it's definitely had its challenging moments, for the most part it's been a great experience. I'll wait till I've completed the month to do a write up, but I felt like at least mentioning it, since it's been a big part of my last two weeks!

"You don’t discover courage right away…You discover a tender, shaky vulnerability. It takes courage to be vulnerable. But when you live with a genuine heart, unarmored, you can trust the basic goodness of yourself and humanity." - Pema Chödrön

This article made me giggle and remember fondly my many years of living alone (of which there will undoubtedly be more in the future): One Is the Quirkiest Number: The Freedom, and Perils, of Living Alone. It also made me roll my eyes numerous times - I think it's clear the author thinks it's much crazier and like *riskier!* for women to live alone because of all the "weird" behavior they might indulge in. Relax, yo. Just because there might be a few hours in the day a woman isn't spending trying to present herself in the perfect way for anyone who might be watching doesn't mean she's on a downward spiral towards irredeemably antisocial behavior.

Image: source.

Haha, yes, love this. From The Onion: Female Friends Spend Raucous Night Validating The Living Sh*t Out Of Each Other": The entire night we just went balls out with the confidence-boosting,"

Watching this tonight, been looking forward to it: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Music video for Josh Ritter‘s “Love Is Making Its Way Back Home” created by Prominent Figures using over 12,000 pieces of construction paper

Realizing I haven't written on here about CrossFit for a while, which is weird because it's become such a big part of my life. My "box" (the term for a CrossFit gym) is so supportive and encouraging and gets me excited about pushing myself in a way I absolutely couldn't on my own. It was hard to see how much progress I had lost while I was in Nicaragua (despite running and hiking every day), but my CrossFit friends have such an attitude of "Just get back to work," that that's what I did! Feels great to be lifting weights again, working on my pull ups, and generally back on the road towards badassness....

From Michelle Tea: On Hysteria, Transphobia, Man-Hating, Sobriety, Anonymity and Writing (everyone I know - including me - is totally hooked on her series about getting pregnant)

Image: source.

Listening to: Cat Power, She Loves You So Hard.

From Tiger Beatdown: Even kitchenmaids get the blues: compulsory heterosexuality on Downton Abbey

Sarah Menkedick: Proof of Extreme Hardship: "US/Mexico border and the relationships that straddle it: personal narrative-reportage about the waiting in Ciudad Juarez for a fiancé visa."

(I hated the formatting of this article, I just have to note - it's frustrating when you want to read something but the format is distracting or clumsy....)

Reward Good Food: Prince Charles on Healthy, Sustainable Farming

American Experience's "A Class Apart" is streaming for free on their website for one more week: "From a small-town Texas murder emerged a landmark civil rights case. The little-known story of the Mexican American lawyers who took Hernandez v. Texas to the Supreme Court, challenging Jim Crow-style discrimination." Recommended!

Image: source.

Ready to see the faces behind the voices? Babes of NPR.

From the NYTimes, a powerful slide show of images following the prison fire in Honduras that killed hundreds. Although it's clearly an injustice and tragedy no matter what the status of those killed, it's also horrifying to note that most of the inmates were never formally charged or convicted.

Occupy Oakland, an illustrated history.

From the LA Review of Books, Leslie S. Klinger on the cult of Sherlock Holmes.

The NY Review of Books on Downton Abbey (warning, spoilers!)

Interesting: Women May Earn Less, but They Find Their Work More Meaningful: "Women may be making a trade-off between pay and other aspects of work that make them happy."

A friend of mine is currently volunteering at an orphanage in Haiti for a few months (the second time she has done so). She linked to this incredibly powerful post by a couple volunteering in Haiti, about the unfathomable decisions some families face.

Image: source.

This article on seed starting is getting me excited about working on my garden this year. Even though it snowed today....

Listening to: Compassion and the true meaning of empathy: "Buddhist roshi Joan Halifax works with people at the last stage of life (in hospice and on death row). She shares what she's learned about compassion in the face of death and dying, and a deep insight into the nature of empathy."

Currently reading: Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua by Stephen Kinzer, and, of course, a mystery: The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler.

Thinking of a good friend doing amazing work in Honduras, and all the other people working for justice in Central America: UN Special Rapporteur Margaret Sekaggya urges the Honduran Government to effectively protect human rights defenders.

Nicaragua -> Oregon

I'm back! So much to write, and to catch up on, but for now I'll just say that I had an incredible time in Nicaragua - I really couldn't have asked for a better month. I got back home around 1am on Saturday morning, so I very much still have one foot in Nicaragua and one foot here. Thanks so much to all of you who sent supportive messages while I was gone!

I'm very much in the midst of catching up on emails, work etc, but I'll get back to blogging ASAP. For now, here are a few of the books that had a huge impact on me while I was in Nicaragua:

- Nicaragua: Living In The Shadow Of The Eagle does the seemingly impossible by presenting centuries of Nicaraguan history in a very compact, readable, and politically aware format. An excellent introduction to Nicaragua, and the history of American involvement in Central America.

- The Jaguars Smile: Salman Rushdie spent 3 weeks in Nicaragua in the 80's and this is his account. It's not without flaws - he admits his own ignorance and biases, and even with an updated forward the book reads like a relic. But Rushdie quotes from a variety of excellent poems, had some good access to "important" people, and had a real appreciation for the artists of Nicaraguan. It's a quick read, and be sure to read the updated intro as well (which is now almost 10 years old and pretty out of date, but offers a glimpse of 90's Nicaragua).

- Nicaragua: Surviving The Legacy Of US Policy is an incredibly powerful collection of images and first person testimony about the devastating effects of the US-backed Contra. The authors photographed and interviewed Nicaraguans (including community members in Lagartillo, the village where I lived) in the 80's and again 20 years later - the result is both hard to put down and difficult to read.

- Finally, I most recently finished The Death Of Ben Linder: The Story Of A North American In Sandinista Nicaragua, one of the best books I've read in a while. Through an incredible amount of research and interviews, the author recreates the final years and days of the life of a young American who lived and worked in Nicaragua in the 80's, helping build and operate a hydroelectric plan in rural Nicaragua, before he was murdered by the Contras. The book is a vivid portrait of Nicaragua in the 80's as well as a powerful and affecting story of an American trying to live responsibly in the world, a young man struggling with his own idealism and desire for personal fulfillment and social change.

Oh, and two more: The Country Under My Skin is the autobiography of Giocondi Bella, a wonderful Nicaraguan poet. Hers is a very specific view of the revolution as experienced by a privileged woman living in Managua, choosing to fight with the Sandinistas. Eventually I got tired of hearing about her endless love affairs, but the book is worth a read for its first person account of the internal politics of the FSLN in the 80's. Finally, if you're able to find it, the Cooperativa Maria Zunilda Perez in London has published La Vida De Tina/Tina's Life Story, a powerful first person narrative of the life of Tina, a woman who lives in El Lagartillo and lost her husband and daughter in the contra attack.

In addition to these books, the snippets of poetry I've read have been an important part of my time in Nicaragua. The piece that has stayed with me the most is the following, a selection from "Epitaph For The Tomb of Aldofo Baez Bone," written by (Padre) Ernesto Cardenel:

they killed you and didn't say where they buried
your body, but since then the entire country has been
your tomb, and in every inch of Nicaragua where your body
isn't buried
you were reborn.

they thought they'd killed you with their order of
fire!
they thought they'd buried you
and all they had done was to bury a seed.

Hi all! Tomorrow I leave for a month in Nicaragua - no phone, no internet, no tv, no hot showers, no CrossFit, no family or friends. Just me and a backpack, in a small town, learning Spanish. This image from Keri Smith (left) says it all. See you in February! One last post before I peace out for a while:

Listening to: Joshua Foer: Step Outside Your Comfort Zone and Study Yourself Failing

Ha, oh McSweeneys: LOOK, WE CAN EITHER STUDY FOR OUR LAW SCHOOL FINALS, OR WE CAN BRING ABOUT THE VIOLENT DISSOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM.

Yes! Love Vanessa Davis!

Liked this design*sponge interview about Portlandia ("artisinal knots, pickling") And, just because: Portlandia: Dream of the 90s ("I gave up clowning years ago!" "Well, in Portland you don't have to.")

As more and more friends "settle down" and I continue to plan my life in one year and two year stints, the pull between staying in one place and continuing to jump around becomes stronger. So there was a lot I could relate to here: A Place to Lay My Heart. I want community and stability, but I also want adventure, to see new places, to have new experiences, to not wait around for something....ah, who knows.

And....related! "The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it is not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of the other person - without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other." - Osho

Wow. My Guantánamo Nightmare.

From TAL this week: Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory: "Mike Daisey was a self-described "worshipper in the cult of Mac. Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out."

"Accept yourself / so deeply / that you are not afraid to let go / of what is not you." source.

Let's Celebrate by Mandy Coe

the moments
where nothing happens.
The moments
that fill our lives.
Not the field bright with poppies, but
the times you walked, seeing
no leaves, no sky, only one foot
after another.

We are sleeping
(it's not midnight and
there is no dream).
We enter a room - no one is in it.
We run a tap,
queue to buy a stamp.

These are the straw moments
that give substance
to our astonishments;
moments the homesick dream of;
the bereaved, the diagnosed.

Despite my waning love for Jordan, Jesse, Go! and my disappointment with their support of Adam Carolla, I'm still going to check out the newest Maximum Fun release, a pop-culture podcast called Bullseye.

Yikes. The Law School Bubble: How Long Will It Last if Law Grads Can’t Pay Bills?

Both too familiar, hilarious, and actually useful: Ask a Clean Person: Tackling a Major Clean-up

Image: source.

Loved this article about Lynda Barry.

Another inspiring life: Robert L. Carter, an Architect of School Desegregation, Dies at 94 (thanks, nk)

So beautiful. Can you imagine what this would mean to you as a kid? "With the aim of touching the hearts of 45 children in a homeless shelter in the bronx, student Samia Kallidis designed a personalized art kit that includes a coloring book and art supplies currently needed at the shelter."

“Being a leftist is a calling, not a career; it’s a vocation, not a profession. It means you are concerned about structural violence, you are concerned about exploitation at the work place, you are concerned about institutionalized contempt against gay brothers and lesbian sisters, hatred against peoples of color, and the subordination of women. It means that you are willing to fight against, and to try to understand the sources of social misery at the structural and institutional levels, as well as at the existential and personal levels. That’s what it means to be a leftist; that’s why we choose to be certain kinds of human beings.” - Cornel West

Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s Resolution List, 1942

1. Work more and better
2. Work by a schedule
3. Wash teeth if any
4. Shave
5. Take bath
6. Eat good — fruit — vegetables — milk
7. Drink very scant if any
8. Write a song a day
9. Wear clean clothes — look good
10. Shine shoes
11. Change socks
12. Change bed cloths often
13. Read lots good books
14. Listen to radio a lot
15. Learn people better
16. Keep rancho clean
17. Dont get lonesome
18. Stay glad
19. Keep hoping machine running
20. Dream good
21. Bank all extra money
22. Save dough
23. Have company but dont waste time
24. Send Mary and kids money
25. Play and sing good
26. Dance better
27. Help win war — beat fascism
28. Love mama
29. Love papa
30. Love Pete
31. Love everybody
32. Make up your mind
33. Wake up and fight

A great obituary from The Economist: George Whitman: A bibliophile in Paris

Image: Lizzy Stewart.

Yay! They've officially announced the dates for CASA’S 9th Annual Ride Through Paradise. "CASA's Ride is one of the Northwest's premier cycling events... The event features four courses (13-mile, 30-mile, 62-mile and 100-mile) through beautiful Klamath County, Oregon." This was the first century (100 mi ride) I did last year and I loved it. It was definitely brutally hot (the last time I will ever make the mistake of not wearing sun screen just because it's not hot when I start at 7am....), but it's not a super hilly course, and the support crew was so nice.

New addition to the podcast rotation: Romantic Friendship.

Book updates: Just finished The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø. At the risk of sounding stupid, I will admit that I was often confused by this book, as it jumped between three related stories, with various characters (some of whom use various names...I think?) Overall, not as impressed by Nesbo as I expect to be, given the rave reviews. Now devouring The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. It's just the sort of non-fiction book I love (like "Devil In The White City" and, to a lesser extent, "Hellhound on His Trail") - a rollicking story with lots of entertaining quotes from primary and secondary sources on a variety of topics (Victorian mores, the early 20th century, the history of archeology and anthropology), and a modern day tale interwoven with one from the past.

To the New Year
by W.S. Merwin

With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning

so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible