Twas the Night before Thanksgiving

I spent a couple of hours at the Austin Street Shelter last night.  The Shelter is one of several organizations providing an evening meal and a cot for the night for the homeless of Dallas and tonier suburbs in the area. 

I was there, along with my wife, daughter, son-in-law, and three grandsons, as part of a contingent from my church providing dinner (food and servers) on Thanksgiving eve to the men, woman and kids who eat and sleep in the Shelter each evening.  Last night we served turkey, dressing, mashed and sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and all the trimmings to 400 folks.

It was a good experience for me.  There were all sorts of folks from all sorts of backgrounds with all sorts of stories.  Mothers and wives escaping abusive marriages.  Men in their twenties and women in their sixties who'd lost jobs, marriages, hope.  The ill and the healthy.  Those who had messed up their lives with drugs or alcohol or crime and those who were victims of circumstances beyond their control. Families and individuals.  The fuzzy mentally ill and the scared sane.  All God's children together.

I was impressed how each person managed to maintain their personal dignity in a dire place - I doubt I would be as stoic or thankful as these folks were for a few slices of turkey, potatoes, and stuffing.  And as much as the diners were thankful for their meal, it seemed that their being addressed as "Sir" or "Ma'am", being asked if they would prefer one or two slices of turkey, was emotionally nourishing to folks who are often invisible, disregarded, or "done to" if not "for."

I have no idea what to do about cyclical poverty...I used to believe I knew but living awhile has convinced me of my ignorance.  I do believe that no one "solution" will render the shelters obsolete, or that feeding the poor will suddenly become a thing of the past.  Too many poor, too many reasons for poverty, too many exceptions that make easy, fast resolution of poverty improbable if not impossible.

But I do believe that on a micro-level small individual improvements are possible.  Seeing the impoverished helps.  Serving others with dignity helps.  Supporting shelters and speaking on behalf of hose who use the shelters helps.  Advocating training, retraining, and subsidies to underwrite new employment and reduction of underemployment of the working poor helps.  Giving an individual the dignity of work rather than a handout helps.

Many of us are one paycheck, one illness, one divorce, one economic downturn away from the Austin Street Shelter.  Let's give thanks that this year we weren't being served ta the Shelter thisyear...shall we take the small, individual steps so fewer folks will be getting their turkey and dressing at the Shelter this time next year?  So it's less likely we may be in those lines as well?

CSAs: A Response to Middlemen Raising Food Prices

If you haven't been in a grocery lately you'll be surprised, possibly shocked, to see how prices for food continue to rise.  What's more shocking is that the folks who produce the food are not seeing increases in their revenues, only continually rising costs.  So where does the pressure for higher prices come from?
Middle men.

The hundred and one companies who get the food from the farm to your supermarket - the merchandisers, distributors, transport, warehousing, food processors, etc. who stand between you and the farmer.  And these companies are often not driven by the needs or concerns of individual local owners who live in the communities they serve.  No, they are owned by nameless, faceless investors whose management team tries to milk every possible nickle out of every transaction for their shareholders (who are often themselves).  It's a no win proposition for farmers and end consumers it seems...or is it?

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a new approach to cutting out middle men in the food chain.  Essentially, farmers sell "shares" of a future crop to members of the public, using the money to grow the food and make a reasonable profit.  In exchange the shareholders will receive (or pick up) a percentage of the freshly harvested food based on the number of shares they purchased.  Sound to good to be true?  This approach is currently working in thousands of locales across the United States with good results. 

An excellent website to learn more about CSAs is LocalHarvest.  LocalHarvest  makes it possible for local farmers across America to direct folks to their farms - in addition to CSAs, LocalHarvest also provides information on organic farmers, restaurants and grocers.  A truly groovy site. 

So when the sticker shock at the big box grocery wears off, check out LocalHarvest and CSAs near you.  It gives you access to the freshest local seasonal produce, keeps your money in the local ecconomy, and supports true family farmers in the business of growing healthy food for their neighbors.  Sounds like a deal to me!

Is all the travel necessary?

With the new tighter security standards at airports resulting in accusations of TSA screeners groping passengers, I find myself wondering how long it will take for enough folks to boycott the airlines and force Congress to rethink their entire approach to airline security? 

Some folks say we should adopt the Israeli approach to pre-flight vetting of passengers, which I support if Americans don't mind footing the bill for much more government insight into our daily lives.  Some folks maintain our government already has all the information on us that the Israelis have on their folks.  Uncle Sam may have the data, but it's gonna take a whole lot more folks to turn that data into usable information, I believe.  So where's the money coming from?  The airlines?  The passengers?  The government?

I think there's a more fundamental question that ought to be asked: is all the travel really necessary?  How much safer would we as a nation be if we spent less time travelling?

If we didn't feel obliged to mosey all the time we might find

• costs of fuel would fall with domestic demand leaving consumers with more cash to invest in other ways (cutting consumption AND taxes both leave more $ in your hands, ya know?)
• less domestic demand might help wean us on dependence on alliances with less that savory nations abroad (which means we have less reason to police other nation's borders so we can get their oil)
• we'd get to know our neighbors and regions and appreciate the towns and states we call home
• we'd find that life can be mighty rich and diverse right where we are if we don't just run away from it
• and we'd be a safer nation because folks nfah (not from around here) would stick out like sore thumbs

Yes, I know that shareholders in airlines, refiners, hotels, et al will insist that Americans have a God-given right to travel (usually in various levels of discomfort) at will.  (I have not found that language in the Constitution or Bill of Rights but I am certain there are any number of congressmen, lobbyists, corporate attorneys and PR firms more than willing to help me read between the quill inked lines and correct my erroneous thought.) 

And no, I'm not advocating government control or economic disincentives (travel taxes) or any of the 1,001 possible ways of coercing folks to do the right thing for themselves and the country.  I'm just asking my fellow Americans, the next time they think about going somewhere more than, say, 100 miles from home, they ask, "Is this trip worth the irreplaceable time from my life and do I really want to be groped to get there safely?"  If the answer is "no", or "Hell, No!", consider taking a car, a bus, the train...or better yet, just stay home.

Holding to the Path

It's so easy to get lost and wander from the path.  A friend  missed a couple of commitments this week although he couldn't tell you why or what he did with the missing time.  Sometimes I think he's procrastinating and other times...hmmmm

He's journalling trying to find what's going on - it's embarrassing to miss appointments or realize he had failed to keep a promise to me.  It makes finding employment, or clients, highly problematic.  And it makes friendships stressful for all involved.

When I asked him what I could do to help, he said, "Please forgive me.  Bear with me while I figure this out.  Let me know when I'm falling short, and please, don't give up on me."  It's a tall order as we've been going through this time and again for five years.  But each time I think this is the last time I'll put up with his behavior, the last time I'll put up with his problems, I seem to find something else I value in the friendship that makes the trouble worthwhile. 

As much as I want him to hold to a proper path, it's important I stay to mine as well.

What a $1.95 Buys

I went into a local supermarket last week and found red and yellow bell peppers on sale for $1.95 each.  Yes, each.  I know that this is November and normally past the pepper season.  Yet I picked fresh bell peppers from my garden not three days ago....

The peppers on sale weren't particularly large (about the size of my fist), they weren't flawless (most had at least one or two bruises), and were already past their prime.  I was reminded of a talk my friend John Caldwell (hey, John!) always gives to potential vegetable gardeners:

"One dollar and ninety five cents, " John begins, "will buy you one red pepper in a store.  One dollar and ninety-five cents can also buy you a pepper ready to transplant at a nursery which will possibly grow 10 peppers so now each pepper costs you 19.5 cents - not a bad deal.  But for the same $1.95 you can also buy a packet of pepper seeds.  With some work and good luck, each seed can become a plant producing ten red peppers, and a packet usually contains 25 to 30 seeds, so for $1.95 you might either buy one red pepper, a pepper transplant that will yield 10 peppers or grow 300!  Not to mention that each one of those peppers is a source for future plantings...."

True, when you buy the pepper in the store you have a ripe pepper right now.  You don't have to plant the seed, tend it, water it, or pick it.  You don't have to wait expectantly for 90 days or more for the peppers to grow and turn from green to red.  You don't have to protect the peppers from insects, birds, and high winds.  Let's be honest: gardening and farming are time intensive, no matter how much labor is saved through technology.  It can also be resource intensive depending on locale, weather and soil.

Some suggest that the high price for a red pepper in the store is really a time tax because the farmer had to leave the pepper on the plant longer to get to the desired color and couldn't plant other crops in the interim.  A good point, except that most of the $1.95 doesn't go to the farmer, it goes to middle men in the agribusiness complex.

But for me, there is another factor to be considered in the costs of growing your own food vs. buying in a store. For me, nothing is sweeter than eating food I've had a hand in growing.  In a time when so many folks make a living by managing information, by abstraction, there is nothing more concrete than tilling soil, planting seed or laying in transplants, cultivating the soil and harvesting produce.  It is a lesson in deferred gratification, in hope and faith, in stewardship, and in mothering the world. 

The $1.95 pepper may be a good deal for some folk, but it is a bad deal for many, including me.

Planting the Winter Garden

In many parts of North America you may have one, two or three growing seasins with distinct crops for each.  In North Central Texas, depending on a given year's weather, it is possible to have multiple crops which cross traditional seasonal boundaries or which can be grown at different times during the year. 

2010 has been one of the unusual years.  This afternoon, 20 November, I picked fresh eggplants, sweet and banana peppers and salad greens from a friend's garden.  Last year when we planted the first winter garden at our Parish the Saturday after Thanksgiving we were sure we had made a mistake.  Subsequent ice and snow storms and a 17 degree night temperature further convinced us we had made a mistake.  Yet at the end of March this year we harvested a significnat amount of beautiful greens.  Seems God has a better sense of soils and growth than we do....

This morning I joined my friend John Caldwell and a few other volunteers and laid in (transplanted) the Parish winter garden.  In addition to lettuces, kale, and swiss chard, we have beets, radishes, and peas.  I know it seems starnge to plant peas so late in the year, but we have faith in the soil (heavily amended with compost and Starbucks coffee grounds), the Parish sprinkler system, and the strnegth of the transplants John raised from individual seeds that we're likely to have good produce for local ministries through 'til the end of March when the Spring garden goes in.

I'll keep you posted on our continuing adventures in Winter gardening...please feel free to share your experiences and questions too!

Recipe: Meat, Rice and Peas

Sometimes I need a meal that is easy to make, easy to eat, and looks good to boot.  Here's one I learned from my Mother which I've Gussied up a bit.  Add hot Garlic Bread, a seasonal Salad and fresh fruit  to turn this into a complete meal.

Ingredients

3 tbsp. Olive Oil
1/4 cup chopped Onions
1/4 cup chopped Red Bell Pepper
1 lb. Ground Beef
1 cup White Rice (cooked)
4 oz. English Peas
Garlic Salt seasoning
Lemon Pepper seasoning

1. In a large pan cook chopped onions and bell peppers in olive oil until onion is translucent.
2. Add ground beef and cook until ground beef is thoroughly browned. 
3. Add cooked rice and English peas.  Mix ingredients thoroughly.
4. Season with Garlic Salt and Lemon Pepper to taste.  Mix ingredients thoroughly while pan is on low heat for five minutes.

NOTES

• If you like, use ground lamb instead of ground beef - if lamb is leaner than the beef you usually use increase amount of olive oil for browning.
• Crushed garlic can be used in lieu of garlic salt.

Makes 4 servings.

Brazos de Dios Community

This past Sunday The Dallas Morning News ran a story on the Brazos de Dios Community situated in Elm Mott, just north of Waco, down yonder off I-35.  The story, which covered the better part of three pages on a prime readership day for the paper, offered insights into the life of Christian folk who migrated down here from New York over the last 30 plus years to establish a place where they can live a more natural and harmonious existence.  What I found interesting is what the article didn't address or follow up on.

The majority of folks mentioned in the article had Pennsylvania Dutch last names.  The women wear traditional clothing associated with Amish and Mennonite communities. There is a general agreement on homesteading using lower tech tools and processes in the community whenever possible.  They run a Homesteading School which is highly thought of and are open to teaching the general public the tools and techniques of their way of life.

What I also know, indirectly through discussions with a friend who has visited the community, is that the roughly 1,000 member community also shares an Anabaptist faith which is not open to the general public.  That there is both a public and private community face in Elm Mott and that the community is both intensely inwardly focused and outwardly manifested.

I support Brazos de Dios making a place for their way of life within an hour or so of the Metroplex - they greatly enrich the culture and options for all of us.  I respect their willingness to shun many of the predominant values and mores of the surrounding society for their own vision of the good life.  And I pity them that their public noteriety will undoubtedly bring down on them every sort of dreamer, looky-loo, and nut case in the Metroplex for the forseeable future.  God help ya and bless ya, folks!

Sunny Saturday

This morning St. Fiacre's Guild was going to turn over the parish garden plot and transplant Fall veggies (lettuce, spinach, and kale), but last night the lowering sky and blustery wind caused me to rethink our plans.  So I called John (hey John!) and suggested we move off our gardening until next Sunday - which, if the prognosticators are correct, will be wet and wild out.  Sigh.  Gardening in North Central Texas is never quite as simple as a person might wish. 

Stunk Skunk on Stump?

A skunk sat on a stump. The stump thought the skunk stunk. The skunk thought the stump stunk . What stunk, the skunk or the stump? 

I can always count on my friend, Jeff Pierce, to provide that je ne sais quoi that makes a day more than a day...it's an occasion!

Slow Down, It Won't Run Away

I have been known on occasion, well actually usually, to wolf down a plate of food while folks around me are still getting their napkins in their laps and their hands firmly in control of their cutlery.  I won't try to excuse this bad habit, but I would like to talk it through with you if you have a moment.

I haven't always fallen on my food like Ali Baba's thieves on a caravan.  There have been times when food was very dear to me: those years when I was out on  my own after college and a meal a day was a good day for me.  When you haven't much to eat your attention to food and eating can become sacramental: putting that slice of bread covered in PB&J into your mouth is sometimes the holiest moment in a mundane day when you're truly hungry. 

And later, when I had the money to eat well every day, keeping kosher also focused my attention on food and eating because you can't just grab a burger at McDonald's or Tex-Mex at Taco Bueno.  You are often forced to slow down, to make choices of what you will and won't eat, when and where you'll eat, and also recall why you have the food to eat in the first place.

But I no longer have the discipline of kashrut or the lack of funds to keep me focused.  Food is my addiction, and a particularly dangerous one at that.  It isn't policed like alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.  It's readily available - I can even grown my own! And while being overweight carries health risks, as well as social opprobrium in some parts of our nation, I know I can easily pull up to a fast-food restaurant anywhere in America and feed my hunger - even if it isn't a hunger that food can satisfy.  

Which hungers are beyond food's abilities to assuage?  Boredom. Fear. Anger. Depression. Unease. Bad economic news?   Have a donut.  Business issues?  Grab a burger and fries and work through it.  Trying to solve the problem of more debt than income?  Let's have dinner out and talk about it.  And while I agree makers of prepared foods,grocers, and restauranteurs could do a better job with nutrition, I'm the one walking in and buying their products to feed my face and fill the holes in my soul.

So what to do?  Well, my wife has come to my rescue on more than one occasion with this thought, "Slow down, it won't run away."  When I begin to shovel food, "Slow down...."  When I take a larger portion than I need (or really want)  I hear, "Slow down...."  She's right, of course.  The food won't run away...and my eating too fast or too much won't get me away from the concerns that cause me to bolt my food trying to fill up mental or emotional holes.  As a friend remarked recently, "your stomach isn't a street and you aren't on a Street Crew trying to fill the potholes."  Enough said.

Slowing down when I eat lets me taste the food, get some joy and satisfaction out of it, mellows my mood and makes me a more pleasant dinner guest.  Slowing down also treats my soul, my body, and my food with greater respect.  Finally, what is better than spending time at a meal with friends, food, and conversation?  And when I have rushed through meals, how many of those moments have I unwittingly lost forever?

So having talked this over with you, I see why slow is the best way to go when I eat...thanks for listening.

Welcome!

So I was complaining to my friend Maureen (hey, Maureen!) that I hadn't quite gotten around to starting to write a couple of books, yada, yada, yada.  So Maureen, in her usual helpful manner, suggested I start blogging.  Azoi!

Although I have a very warm spot in my heart for technology (or is that feeling heartburn?) I've decided to take her advice for three reasons

• Blogs are reasonably quick and easy to prepare and publish vs. paper-based texts
• There is always the outside chance someone may read this and find it edifying
• It has a lot of neat features whch I can waste time with rather than do meaningful work....ahem

I have chosen to name this blog Master of the Obvious Indeed as an homage to my sister, Dana, who has been known to comment on my incredible powers of noting and commenting on (what seems to be) the obvious, although I find "things are seldom what they seem" as Gilbert & Sullivan are always quick to point out.

Get comfy, have a spot of tea and a scone, and join me as I explore matters obvious and mysterious!