I'm back from a summer of non-creative writing, taking the online classes way too seriously, putting far too much thought into two very simple classes which, because they were online, demanded a constant stream of chatter which I could not post without it being written to the quality of the next Great American Novel. While this gained me much repute amongst the teachers, it made me rather unpopular with my fellow students who usually dashed off simple sentences unburdened by deep thoughts or spell checkers. By the end of the classes I was getting no responses at all to my carefully thought out position papers in the Discussion forum; they quite likely (and quite rightly) thought I was some sort of elderly pedantic anal-retentive. I also found that my strongly relied-upon test taking skills of the past whereby I used to cruise through finals with nary an hour of study had deserted me along with millions of dead brain cells sloughed off these past 35 years. I only made B's on the finals, despite my actually studying (it felt very unusual, not really "me") but because of my compulsive essay skills, I received A's in the courses. Congratulations, Jim.
Totally unrelated: Had an interesting discussion about food (over lunch, naturally) and we were comparing notes about how people around the world perceive their meals. There is the Mediterranean diet, of course, supposed to be very good for you, but actually full of white flour pasta and bread. Then there is Mr. B's favorite, the Neolithic diet, supposed to be mostly meat, but probably full of grains as well (e.g. the contents of Ozi the Iceman's stomach). I brought up the concept of "main course" and explained the word "okazu" which in Japanese refers to everything in a meal besides the rice. In Japan you don't ask what's for dinner, it's rice. What goes with the rice is okazu. In America, the "main course" is the meat (or fish). We identify what we eat by the type of meat on the table. A meal without meat is not a meal. Tonight I had for dinner (on my own, no one else wanted to eat with me) a large bowl of brown rice (the gohan which means rice, or food) and the okazu--a plate of raw cucumbers, a small bowl of natto (fermented soybeans), a dish of stir fried zuccinni and onion, a dish of green beans cooked with garlic. Where was the main course? There wasn't one. Those main courses are what make you fat and schlerotic. If you eat meat, fine, just make it another dish on the table, don't center your life around it. When you have a chance to drive a herd of buffalo over the cliff, find a beached whale, or get invited to a barbecue, great, go for it, pig out on meat. However I am firmly convinced that a lot of our pains and problems in America these days come from our having assured ourselves a constant supply of meat along with that meat's burden of drugs and various substances like deformed prions. You would be surprised how little protein your body needs to function healthily--in 1970 for the first Earth Day we convinced the college food service to serve an "Earth Meal" that was 100% nutritionally adequate and reflected an equal division of food resources among all the earth's population. There was a little ball of hamburger on each plate the size of a medium sized marble. That's all you got and that's all you needed. I am not a vegan, but I am here to tell you all--you eat too much meat. Summer's over, no more BBQ's. Grill zuccinni instead, and if you need more of them, call me--I've got about 40 pounds of them I can't give away.
