Dancing through the examine life

This past week was super hectic for me. Many a-things in my life started to crumble, including my shins :(  Is it too early to start researching shin implants?

Last week, I also said goodbye to Wicked the Musical. We had some great times together. We sang, we danced, we defied gravity together. Unforgettable.

Now I'm back to plowing through the Quantum Wellness Cleanse book. This is a really good example of how bad I would be if I were ever an English literature major. It takes me forever to finish a book, unless it's Confessions of a Shopaholic. With this book, there's just so much to soak in with each chapter and the plot is just so slow in unfolding. When will she finally get together with eating meat again??? 

On Day 19, Kathy Freston talks about Socrates' famous quote, "the unexamined life is not worth living."

That's easy for him to say. He made a career out of going around asking the tough questions in search of wisdom and truth. It's the end of the day and my brain hurts. It would be nice to be able to ice it like I'm icing my shins. Oh yeah, I sometimes can do that with an ice cold beer.

Like Fiyero, the hunky, charming prince character in Wicked, I say [or sing]:

Why invite stress in?
Stop studying strife
And learn to live the unexamined liiiife

Dancing through life
Skimming the surface
Gliding where turf is smooooth
Life's more painless
For the brainless
Why think too hard?
When it's so soothing
Dancing through life 

And we all know what happened to Socrates because he tried to get people to think and stuff. So why not just dance through life? It would burn more calories, that's for sure.

Are you dancing through life or are you living the examined life? If you're doing both, please video tape it so we can watch it on youtube. It could go viral like this one:

I digress. I sort of already touched on why I started my own personal food consciousness so I won't go there again. [If you missed it, or just miss it, you can read it here.]

Many of us are unsatisfied with just dancing through life, because frankly, who can even compare our moves to Kate Gosselin's show stopping Papparazzi number on Dancing with the Stars?

The good news is we are in a place where we would like to see the best of ourselves and the best for others. The not-so-good news is that we don't magically get there at the end of every song and dance sequence. I know my decision not to purchase meat has not even registered on any company's or restaurant's radar. No one cares about my decisions, but if I am able to stay true to my own principles with my smaller decisions, they will eventually add up with others who are on my same wavelength.  It also helps me to keep the ideals I value in the forefront of my life rather than just an afterthought.

And why does being conscious about what we choose to eat seem like insignificant choices? When you're ready to buy your next "toy" -- digital camera, car, laptop, dog -- how many reviews do you read? How many different retail outlets and online stores do you check out to compare specs and prices? How many people do you talk to because they have experience with owning these products?

How much more do we consume food than these products that we spend so much time carefully considering the particular brand and model we introduce into our lives?

People have a right to be concerned about where their car came from and if the engine was assembled in China by the hands of migrant factory workers working exhausting hours just to send what we spend at a movie theater back home to their families at the end of the month. Let us also be connected to where our food comes from and the different people and places that are involved with its production and final packaging as all white meat chicken nuggets for the unbeatable price of 99 cents. In other words:

Basically, conscious eating entails knowing where our food comes from and what goes into making it, and choosing to eat in a way that affirms our integrity and our most basic values. That goes for everything that we consume, of course, but with food, it's far more constant (we eat at least three times a day!) and our power to make better choices is far more profound here than with anything else we consume.               -k freston

Of course, I need to admit that I don't have all the right answers as to all the food choices I should make. Heck, I don't have any answers to the bigger life choices I need to make either. However, I know there is a sense of peace in aligning what I feel is best for my mind, body and soul. I can't change the bigger things that are throwing that particular alignment out of whack at the moment, but I can choose to eat healthy and consciously so that I'm not too bloated or unsatisfied with myself when it is finally the right time for me to dance through my examined life. Cue music...

 

 I'm pretty sure I'm doing the lawn mower, always a crowd pleaser.

Day 4: I eat because I care.

What a beautiful day it was today! Sorry, I'm an inconsiderate blogger and didn't take a photo to place here but just imagine a Saturday with the perfect temperature and the clearest skies. Not only that, but I managed to end up having dinner at a restaurant that had items on the menu I could order without being one of those annoying customers who has to spell out to the server what exactly they want or don't want in their food. (See video for example.)



I didn't want to embarrass my friend and whip out my camera to take pictures of my food, but I had a lovely vegetarian tamale and avocado and mango salad. Afterwards, I went to a bar and even the bartender was attentive to my plastic cup of water, giving me plenty of refills. I tipped him for not giving me grief for not having real drinks at his bar.

In all honesty, a few years back I could've cared less about where my food came from or what I was eating. As long as it was delicious, I'll take it. To this day, my favorite food is the chili cheese hot dog from Bud's Broiler. It's basically the antithesis of this cleanse. Sure my balsamic marinated tofu is good, but there's just something about meats of unknown origin on a white burger bun with a sprinkle of sweaty cheese that makes my mouth water.

I guess after living in California, all those alfalfa sprouts that came on my turkey avocado sandwich got to my head. Of course, there's also Al Gore and that Invconvenient Truth he invented, like the Internet. Now I've turned into this environmentally aware concerned citizen of the earth.

Beyond just caring for what I am putting into my own body, we are now learning more and more about where our food comes from and who, besides the cute barista, is actually making it possible for me to have my grande nonfat latte. Instead of blindly eating and consuming, we need to open our eyes before we open our mouths.

"A part of the cleanse process is about considering the whole picture: how the food serves our body, how it affects the environment, and the process by whch it gets to our plate. It means that we scrutinize the methods of production from beginning to end, making sure that what we eat is not only good for us, but also good for everyone involved."

-kathy freston

I know that some people think that it's futile for one person to change their eating and living habits for the sake of the entire world. I admit that the small steps I take to be "green" probably doesn't register in the grand scheme of things. But at least I care. 

I beg you to watch this short video from the Miniature Earth Project.

I have done nothing to be one of the 25 people who have clothes, a bed, a safe home, and the luxury to choose what I want and don't want to eat. I agree with Shane Claiborne when he wrote, "I'm convinced that God did not mess up and make too many people and not enough stuff. Poverty was created not by God but by you and me, because we have not learned to love our neighbors as ourselves."

For someone who has a blog and is constantly updating my Facebook and Twitter with mundane and asinine details of my life, it's obvious how self-absorbed I can be. So if I can be intentional about being kind to my body and provide for my own needs, how can I not make an effort to do the same for others?