A little shout out

I wish that we could just accept and respect that everyone's is different and what works for me doesn't have to be what works for you but we can still be friends. If we bother to look, our commonalities always outweigh our differences. I feel like so many people see others as being narrow minded and intolerant when they're often more culpable of bigotry and intolerance, just in the other direction. Some of us might lean more towards a grueling schedule and focused ambitions like Simone de Beauvoir. Some might need a cow for inspiration and average only 30 minutes of "work" a day like Gertrude Stein. Arguing about who was "better" would be rather silly. Both were great. Neither was insulted or lessened by the fact that the other was different.

This post is dedicated to everyone who realizes that
1. equality doesn't necessitate sameness
and that
2. Working without a salary doesn't indicate a lack of contribution to society any more than working for a salary indicates a contribution to society

I stay at home. Full-time. And I don't get paid for it. And that doesn't make me a bad or lesser person. I suppose if we didn't have kids and my spouse went out to work while I sat at home and ate bonbons while watching reruns of Days of Our Lives I would feel like I sucked. But that's not the case. And if I felt that life required me to work outside the home then I would take the leap and figure it out. But that's not the case either.

I actually still want to "have it all", the kids, great marriage, strong career, beautiful home, etc. I just don't feel obligated to have it all at once. Life has many parts, but I don't think they're all meant to be lived at once any more than all the verses of a song are meant to be sung at once. That typically ends up being a cacophony. At least for me. I'm terrible at juggling a million things at once and moving at the speed of light gives me a headache. Some people thrive on that though and they're amazing too.

What triggered these thoughts is another book, of course. I love reading about brilliant people (or people who made brilliant contributions) and sometimes it's wonderful to read about the more mundane aspects of their lives. They often become more human with quirks, habits, and faults unique to themselves and sometimes quite foreign to me. Their simple humanity has the strange effect of simultaneously making them less daunting and more inspiring. While walking past a shelf at the library a little book caught my attention so I grabbed it and if your in the mood for a little mundane and often quirky inspiration perhaps you should grab it as well.

A Dietary Tragedy

One of my bigger pet peeves about diets is the tragic change in the word “diet”. Originating from Greek diaita meaning  “manner of living”, diet  evolved to indicate the type of food a person usually consumed. However, when we say “he’s on a diet” we’re not talking about the fact that he eats food, we’re saying he’s on a special and probably restrictive diet. He’s dieting.  How depressing! “Diet” should have a beautiful  connotation, the sum of all things delicious and nourishing that we consume from day to day and year to year. The bringer of health, longevity, mental acuity, and physical balance.

Maybe this all starts with the fact that I generally don’t approve of the idea of a short term special diet. Logically lasting change is formed by ongoing habits and practices, not temporary fixes. Especially in the area of food, if it’s not healthy on a long term basis I can’t help but question its claim to healthy if just consumed in the short term. I suppose you could argue that a problem with low iron should be remedied in the short term by iron supplements, but actual underlying problem of not getting enough dietary iron would still have to be fixed by a diet that includes iron. My solution? I’m trying the Eat Great Food Diet. Food Diet. So far it’s been pretty amazing.

Where stuff came from:

1.       http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diet