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Sunday, March 23, 2014

Talking with a mouth full...




Sorry Mr./Ms Hardin. Have had this for years and don't know where I found it or would credit you and the publication.

It's at least impolite to talk with your mouth full. It can also be unappetizing to others, messy and a general display of being quite less than polished. Not to mention that the point of your comment is often lost or dismissed. Online, people can do the equivalent by posting in an uncivil, opinionated, closed-minded, dismissive, attacking way. And sadly, this type of interchange occurred in a conversation intended to explore, and hopefully think creatively about,  important issues around our food system.

Having registered for an online course about our food system and health, taught by nationally recognized university faculty I was looking forward to lots of information, tough questions, diverse perspectives and meaty conversation. In week three of a six-week course, the faculty was required to post:

SPECIAL NOTE: there are some issues with civility on the forums and we want to remind students to follow these rules, which are posted on the syllabus:
--Respect the viewpoints of others, including your peers, the faculty and guest speakers. As a wise kindergarten teacher once said, “Don’t yuck someone else’s yum”. Food is very personal and we ask that you respect and appreciate cultural, religious and personal differences. We look forward to learning about your experiences with food, your communities and your interactions with the food system.
--Respect these rules. Students who do not respect the forum rules will be asked to un-enroll from the course.


Sigh.

We don't have the luxury of letting food system problems - shortages, limited access, nutritional quality, choice, concentration of producers, methods of production and more - go unquestioned and potentially successfully addressed. Questioning is a step toward understanding and without understanding, solutions can be short-lived at best and answer the wrong question at the worst.

Being sure that our experience and knowledge is right is dangerous but easy. It's what has been true for us. But there are many truths to experiences and knowledge is always progressing. And with the progression of knowledge comes the inevitable change - letting loose of what we "knew" to embrace and work with what we have "learned."

Skepticism is appropriate so that learning is fact-based and free of shaping by vested interests. The progression of knowledge is a messy and potentially fraught process by its nature. Making it worse by metaphorically talking with a full mouth makes it even more difficult.



Sunday, March 16, 2014

Missing Spring

Looking out to my deck
Its been totally white outside for so long. Inches and inches of snow after snow. It's been gray and cold and windy. A really long, brutal winter.

Suddenly, most of the snow is gone. And its sunny. And blindingly bright for those of us who've been "holed up" for so long. The blue skies are magnetic, drawing you out even though the warmth is deceptive. The brownish green grass and trees, hint at the Spring season, which, if like recent ones, will not be the lingering warm up of my youth, but rather a stumble directly into Summer or a throwback to Winter before a rapid heat up.

Is it wrong to want the more gentle transitions of the seasons of my youth? Is it simply a silly nostalgia for yet another thing long gone? Maybe. Maybe not.

Transitions allow time for adaptation. Whether it's apple trees adapting to increasing warmth and slowly coming into bloom rather than being yanked there because temperatures get too warm too quickly. Transitions called for wardrobes that make sense for a time, then are put away and the next season's wardrobe comes into use. And back in the time of seasonal transitions, things were kept from year to year, as long as they fit, because they were only used for a few weeks here in the Midwest, rather than being needed for extended periods.

Why is adaptation important? Seems to me that without that time, things are more pressured, more stressed. And if that happens, more subject to breaking down because they can't keep up. As true of people as it is of apple trees. People and trees need time to adjust and grow stronger. And people need time to make better decisions. We've seen the result of speeding things up. I'm a firm believer in slowing things down.




Saturday, March 8, 2014

Shreds of Evidence







There is a bag of shredded paper sitting by my front door. One of many that have been generated as documents kept for decades are finally liberated.  Documents that recorded the passing of time, important occurrences no longer clearly (if at all) remembered, and the meticulous filing of things that haven’t been referred to let alone needed in an embarrassing amount of time.

Files can remain long after the person is gone. This is part of what creates the necessity of clearing out a house after a parent or other family member dies. Personal papers give tiny glimpses of aspects of the person that the person doing the clearing out may never have known. Looking at work awards, or hand-written letters (now perhaps emails) or even bank statements can provide an insight into what had meaning, what was duty, what was appreciated.

The process of clearing out my own paper life was at first painful. As if the shredding would erase my life, make it as though it had never happened. But it did happen, whether anyone remembered or not, it did.  So why keep all this stuff that will never be missed?

The shredded files, calendars, bank statements, checks, receipts and more is going to a small business to be used as packing material. Rather than sitting in a dark closet, the evidence of my prior life will see the light of day again and serve another purpose. It feels good to know it is being used rather than trashed or even recycled. And it feels good to know I’ve done something useful in finally getting rid of it.