The Coffee Party

I didn't start this blog to discuss politics - largely because it's a subject that invariably leads to me getting depressed, dejected, or angry, and I want my blog to have a positive message. Amazingly, I think that there just might be a way to stay positive and bring up politics.

I learned about the Coffee Party today. It's a grassroots organization created as a sort of response to the Tea Party. The idea is not to be radical leftists, but rather to be truly non-partisan (if that's even possible) and to bridge the gap between the left and right and to find common ground. The following quote from the group's founder, Annabel Park, in an article in the Washington Postsums it up nicely:

"We want to shift the paradigm from thinking of politics as a zero-sum game with two opposing sides. If one side loses, the other side wins. This is not a democracy. This is a misunderstanding of the tenets of democracy. Democracy is based on the notion of the common good. People should come together to go through a deliberation process to produce collective decisions that benefit the common good. As citizens, we need to find ways to, first, create a stronger sense of community and common good among Americans. And this is precisely why we believe that the rhetorical frameworks currently dominating our political process is not good for the country."

I hope I'm not jumping the gun, but based on what I've seen so far, it seems like the Coffee Party may be the first political organization that I can really get behind. I know I'm not alone in my frustration with the system. It seriously bothers me that our elected officials have a very strong tendency to disagree with the other party just for spite. I'm also not happy about how corporations are able to buy votes. The Coffee Party is trying to change that. I'm not sure how they plan to achieve this, and I don't know if I'm confident that they will be able to, but as long as the movement stays true to its current ideals, then I'm in.

I went to a meeting this afternoon. It wasn't publicized very well, and there were about a dozen people. We had an interesting discussion about what brought us there and what we think we can do to get the message out. The exciting thing was that the people there truly did represent both the right, the left, the middle, and the disenchanted with politics but hopeful that this movement might bring about positive change. It's not a bunch of radical liberals, but rather people genuinely interested in fixing the problems with our current political system.

Next Saturday is "National Coffee Party Day," and there will be meetings all across the country for interested people to get together and to share ideas. These meetings should be well attended, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of it. If you're interested in finding a meeting in your area, go here.

Food, Inc - Review

I just watched the documentary "Food, Inc." The information in it wasn't news to me. Most of the information covered was in Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma." It was, however, eye-opening because they showed limited footage of the conditions in which factory farmed animals live, as well as the terrible conditions for the workers.

The best thing about the film is that it is far more accessible to the average American than a book. I know that most people aren't as gung ho about reading as I am, and many people don't like much at all. "Food, Inc." was an hour and a half, and I think that everyone should watch it.

Most of us are completely ignorant about where our food comes from, yet food is the most fundamental building block for life. Unfortunately, the majority of food available comes from just a few giant corporations, and they are not interested in our health. They are interested in making a profit. It turns out that the FDA and the USDA tend to be on the side of the corporations rather than the farmers and the people. This is not OK.

At the end of the film, they said that every time you purchase food, you are voting. If you purchase organic, local, non GMO (genetically modified), sustainably grown and raised food, you encourage your supermarket to continue offering those products, and to offer more in the future. Yes, it costs more out of pocket to buy organic, but the rewards to your body, your community, and the planet are substantial.

I have found that it can be difficult to start dialogue with people about food. They don't want to hear it. There is a sense of security in doing what is familiar. If people learn the truth about the industries they support with their eating habits, it's uncomfortable, and let's face it, no one wants to be uncomfortable. Food, Inc. isn't a feel-good movie. It is painful to watch at moments, and I'm not ashamed to admit that parts of it made me cry. Even so, if I could, I would have everyone watch it. Hopefully, it will make viewers stop and think. Every time someone chooses organic - even if it's not all the time - it is a step in the right direction.

My Favorite Drug

The following post was a response to a question posed in a friend's blog. My friend is Mormon, and she asked about whether her readers (most of whom, presumably, are also Mormon) drink coffee, which is verboten in their religion. She also asked about how "evil" it really is.

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I am not Mormon, and I don't base my actions on the words of profits, though I do recognize that there is often a great deal of wisdom in what they said. Personal wisdom comes, in part, from understanding the reasons behind rules that we are given. Once we know the reason, we can choose for ourselves whether or not the rules are just and should be obeyed.

I am a caffeine addict. At the end of March I'll be one year "sober." I had to quit drinking all caffeine because of the havoc it wreaked on my stomach. I used to drink copious amounts of coffee, tea, and soda. I still crave it at times, and I have even had dreams of drinking Dr. Pepper.

That being said, caffeine simply isn't good for you. From a Chinese Medicine standpoint, caffeine is the equivalent of a credit card (where you're talking about qi/energy instead of money). It creates false energy, borrowing from resources that you don't have, leading to exhaustion. As caffeine use increases, it becomes harder and harder to stop because you have smaller and smaller quantities of your own natural resources to draw from. Ultimately, this will lead to health problems that can range from fatigue to much more serious conditions.

I had several signs that came from divine origin (a story for another day) that indicated quite clearly that I needed to stop drinking caffeine. I chose to ignore the signs, and my health took a nosedive. I didn't follow a directive from my Goddess, and that made me less faithful. That doesn't mean that I stopped having faith and belief. It doesn't mean that I didn't strive to do my Goddess's will in other aspects of my life. It simply means that I wasn't living up to my full potential as a religious person.

In life and in religion, there are big rules and small rules. The big rules tend to be easier to follow - don't kill people, don't steal things, etc. The little rules are easy to bend because the effects and the consequences aren't as noticeable, and it's easier to justify them. Murdering someone is wrong, plain and simple. Drinking coffee... wellll... that's just not as clear. I would go so far as to say that from a moral standpoint, it isn't wrong; it's just a bad idea.

The problem with ignoring small rules - especially when dealing with religion - is that it becomes easier to ignore other, bigger rules. I know that when I don't act on what the Goddess says in one area, a lot of other things tend to slip, and it takes a lot of effort to get back on track.

The other thing that I try to always keep in mind is that if the reasoning behind a rule is sound (which, if it's coming from a deity, it's pretty safe to assume that it will be), then following it will ultimately make your life easier. Yes, it sure is convenient to have a nice, hot, grande soy no-whip white mocha in the morning to wake you up, but in the long run, there will be consequences. If you're lucky, they won't be as serious as mine, but there are, of course, no guarantees. Coffee won't keep me from heaven, but it can make life miserable.

D'oh!

There is a Chinese Medicine technique called Moxabustion (or Moxa for short) where you burn the herb, mugwort, on or over acupuncture points to introduce heat into the body. I had never had moxa done to me, and there was part of me that doubted its efficacy.

In class yesterday, we learned how to moxa patients and practiced on each other. It was fun, we played with fire, and no one got burned. One of the points that we used (ST 36) is good for a great number of ailments. One of the things that it does is to increase production of HCl in the stomach. My stomach is already too acidic, so I knew that this particular point was one that I shouldn't have anything done to. Because we were using moxa, though, and the point is below the knee rather than over the stomach, I figured I'd be fine. The amount of mugwort used was miniscule, so how could it possibly have an effect?

I have now learned the very important lesson that just because I don't understand exactly why Chinese medicine works, doesn't mean that it isn't going to do exactly what the text books claim it will do. This system of medicine has been around for thousands of years and has been fine tuned and perfected. I spent all day yesterday being absolutely miserable because my stomach was producing huge amounts of acid, exactly as promised. Oops.

Indulgence

I have to admit that I'm starting to feel the difficulty of eating local. Starting this journey in the middle of winter without any preserved produce is wearing on me. I am soooooooo tired of apples and pears and carrots and potatoes (well... ok. I'm not actually tired of potatoes, yet, but I can tell that I soon will be). Even though it's spring here, it's way too early for new varieties to be ready to eat. Heck, not everything has even started budding yet.

In order to keep from going entirely insane, and because I was overwhelmed with an intense craving, I bought a gallon of Simply Orange Juice (with lots of pulp and no ingredients other than orange juice - not from concentrate). It's amazing how good oj tastes when you haven't had citrus in ages. My stomach isn't 100% on board with this because of the acidity, but the rest of my body is loving it.

As with any special diet, I think that the key to success is moderation. I refuse to feel guilty for indulging in something healthy that my body demanded. I need to remind myself that one of the most amazing things in modern America is that we can get fresh fruits and vegetables year round. We tend to take that for granted. When starting out on a new path, it is easy to demonize anything that isn't right in line with that path, but the truth is, there are pros and cons to everything. Do I think that eating local is beneficial to both the planet and me? Yep. Do I think that consuming something that had to travel 1000 miles from California is evil? Nope, but I'm not going to do it on a regular basis - only when the good outweighs the bad. In this case, my body's need for --insert nutrient that I wasn't getting enough of here-- trumped my desire to eat local.

Responsibility

One of my professors mentioned that she had read an article in National Geographic that said there are no more pristine bodies of water left on Earth. I couldn't find the article to confirm, but regardless of whether or not the claim is true, it's a terrifying thought. It may have been an exaggeration, but the fact is that humans are pretty damn good at polluting, and we have the capability to pollute everything, and we are not kind to our planet.

One of the basic principles of Chinese Medicine is the concept that humans are holistic. Nothing in our bodies exists in isolation, so when you treat a patient, you search for the cause of the problem rather than just treating the symptoms. This concept is well known to most people who seek alternative forms of medicine. What is less well known (at least I was quite pleasantly surprised when I learned) is that Chinese Medicine also views the body as not being separate from the environment. The simplest way to think about it is to look at how seasons affect our health. No one can deny that the flu is more prevalent in winter and allergies are more prevalent when plants are pollinating. If you delve deeper, it becomes obvious that poor air quality will lead to a wider prevalence of lung problems, and radiation leads to more instances of cancer. Five Element acupuncture takes things a step further and takes the taoist view that all living things are interconnected and, fundamentally, we are all One. My aforementioned professor pointed out that as the earth gets less and less clean, our bodies seem to reflect that. The example she used was food allergies. More and more people are showing signs of having severe food allergies that didn't make much of a dent in the population before. I remember when they could serve peanuts on airplanes without fear that someone allergic would keel over and die because they looked at a nut. Almost a quarter of my close friends now are "glutards" - people with some degree of sensitivity to gluten, a protein found in many common grains, but I had never even heard of the issue until a few years ago. What if the increase in allergies and sensitivities are reflections of the planet on our bodies? Of course, there are other factors, such as a growing awareness and acceptance in the scientific community of food allergies, but I can't dismiss the notion that the more we damage our environment, the more we damage ourselves. We're not just leaving a legacy of environmental degradation for future generations to take care of, we're actively hurting ourselves and the ones we love with our species-wide ennui. Of course, given that we constantly fill our bodies with food that directly harms us (I'm looking at you, McDonald's), I can't say that I expect this revelation to make any dent in the world.

...which brings me to another point. The problems facing us today are overwhelming - pollution, climate change, natural disasters, war, famine, drugs, gang violence, heart disease, equal rights, oil spills, national debt, reality television, and the list goes on. When I start to think too much about it, I get downright depressed. I'm not exactly in a position of power and influence, and I can't affect change in a meaningful way, and yes, I'll admit that sometimes I think I just shouldn't bother trying. It's so much easier to shut my eyes and pretend that they're not my problems. Don't I have enough to worry about paying bills and studying for my 8 classes? Unfortunately, I can't bury my head in the sand and expect that someone else will solve everything.

I recently attended a Unitarian Universalist service in which the minister talked about responsibility. He said that most people think of responsibility in relation to power. If you have the power to do something about a problem, it is your responsibility to do so. Unfortunately, that definition lets a lot of people off the hook. I don't have the power to fix climate change, so I don't need to do anything about it. The minister offered a new definition that boiled down to - if there is a problem, even if you don't have the power to fix it, you need to do what you can, knowing that your actions alone won't necessarily change things. If enough people follow that definition of responsibility, over time, things will improve. If no one follows it, then we're all royally fucked.

So I pick my battles and do little things here and there that won't change the world overnight. Most notably, I'm eating local and sustainable food, and I hope to bring positive change to people one at a time when I start practicing acupuncture. Every time I do something that I know is the right thing to do, it gives me motivation to do another thing. I know that I will never be perfect, and my actions are a drop in the bucket. It may take time, but with enough drops, we can eventually fill the bucket.

Festival of Lights

In the modern Pagan tradition, today is Imbolc, the festival of lights. It's one of the 8 major holidays that celebrate the turning of the wheel (a.k.a. the changes of the seasons). You may also know today by the names Candlemas (the Catholic version of the holiday), or Groundhog Day. February 2 falls roughly in the middle of the winter solstice and the spring equinox, which are supposedly the first day of winter and the first day of spring. It's kind of like hump day for winter. You've gotten through the first half. Hooray! So you light a bunch of candles to brighten up the gloom, and party like it's 1999 because dammit, you've survived so far, and it's good to have a reason to celebrate.

The reality is kind of different here in Seattle. Today, I went for a walk in Discovery Park. When I started my walk, it was about 52 degrees, sunny, and beautiful. I walked until after sunset, and the temperature had dropped a good bit, but I was still comfortable without a hat on. Leaves were just starting to come out on some of the trees, one particularly hearty plant had put out some flowers, and the pussy willows had fuzzy tips. There were robins, ducks, loons, and seagulls out and about, foraging for food. It's hard to get worked up about winter when, for all intents and purposes, it's over. Oh sure, it's possible we'll get another night or two where the temperature drops below freezing, and it's still a little too early to plant most seeds outside, but really, it's spring. To that I say, "Hooray! Winter is over!!!!!" I don't care if the groundhog sees his shadow, the fact is that it's just going to get warmer and greener and more wonderful every day, and that makes my heart happy. I've lit a candle - not to help stave off the remaining winter, but to honor the return of life and to celebrate new beginnings.