Camping at Cape Paterson

Our first Australian camping experience did not disappoint. We went to Cape Paterson Beach, 138 kilometers southeast of Melbourne. The sun shone brightly in a cloudless sky. The water temperature was quite cold, so, with the exception of a few jumps in off the rocks, we mostly waded, explored, and soaked up some serious rays. Mom, you will be happy to know that we did a very good job of keeping sunscreen on. Therefore, I am only mildly sunburned. And Jason, of course, is just tan. We saw some really cool looking rocks, shells, and seaweed. We didn't see any sharks, just one dead jelly fish, a rat, some fish, and lots of crazy looking and sounding birds. At night back at the tent, by the light of my headlamp, we took turns reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami to each other, which by the way, is a tremendously compelling novel so far. Though we're only about a third of the way into it, we both would like to go ahead and highly recommend it.

We had a swell time. Check out the slideshow with music by The Swell Season. The song is Feeling the Pull from their new album, Strict Joy

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A Quite Possibly Silly Question and The Human Domino Effect

I do not believe in a distant God who exists outside, out of reach, looking down at all of His creation. I think when one, even God, creates something, it remains forever a part of Him. I like to think of EVERYTHING as existing within God. Which, for me, reconciles the question of why God allows bad things to happen in this world. Those things are happening to God, not just to us. When a child is in pain, does not the pain happen to the Mother and Father as well? Maybe God allows us to effect His own evolution. After all, does not Love involve trust? Or is God the one thing which stays the same in a universe which is always changing? I know this is not an easy question and it's probably silly to even ask such questions, but I really want to know, what do you think? Sometimes, I like to think of humans as being a small part of the "body" of God. Maybe I am a single cell and you are a thought in His consciousness. If this is true, then everything we do and think and are is of consequence. If this is true, then certainly we are all connected, one part of an amazing, unfathomable whole. Just think of all the chain reactions... I want my life to be the stimulus that triggers a reaction that results in a smile on the face of God.

One day, through the window, I watched the reflection of our neighbor on her deck as she folded the laundry she had hung out to dry. After she finished folding the last crisp white linen sheet, I watched her watch the passersby below. Though I kept my eyes on her, I tried to imagine what she was seeing. A lonely man in a suit, briefcase in hand, steadily walks to work, while his mind is muddled with a million meandering thoughts. Suddenly in front of him, like a cool breeze, passes a beautiful woman in a red polka dot dress, like something from the 1960's. She's the kind of woman who strolls with confidence and obliviously turns heads while thoughts of the chocolate cake she will later bake and eat smother her head like the cream cheese frosting she will top it with. Her eyes meet sad Mr. Suit's as they pass, she slides him a slow and genuine smile, the way a card dealer slides a winning card across the table, and in that moment his mind is clear, except for the small spark of inspiration lighting up the clarity. Feeling refreshed in the way that a beautiful woman smiling sincerely at a lonely man can make him feel refreshed, he is at once attentive to his surroundings. He notices the old lady who everyday sets up her cheap plastic keyboard and butchers classic pieces of music as passersby pass by. Today, for the first time, he stops and listens. As she plays the worst version of Debussy's Claire de Lune he has ever heard, he smiles, drops a dollar into her cup, and continues his walk to work. Beside my neighbor's reflection is another reflection, that of a television screen inside her apartment. On it is a faint, but distinguishable image of a human domino effect, the people falling into each other, one by one. My neighbor smiles and turns to walk inside. I smile, too.

(from the Upanishads)

Keep it Classy, Australia

Yesterday was the Melbourne Cup. For those of you who don't know about it (I for one had never heard of it before coming here) it's a horse race. In fact, it's the richest and most prestigious two mile handicap in the world. It's billed as "the race that stops a nation." It's a big deal around here. It's even a public holiday in Melbourne. It would seem, after a few months now of careful observation, that there are a lot of Melbournites who will jump at any opportunity to drink excessive amounts of alcohol, gamble and yell. Actually, most of the time they don't seem to worry about coming up with an excuse. They just do it anyway. Well, with all this hype about the Cup, we were curious to see what all the fuss was about. We didn't have the money to actually attend the race, so we decided instead (because it was free) to attend what was advertised as "Melbourne's most glamorous riverside garden party" at the Crown Casino with our friends, Dave and Allison. Well, what can I say, it was in Melbourne and it was riverside, and if by glamour they meant white spandex mini dresses, and if by garden they meant astro turf, then I guess it was Melbourne's most glamorous riverside garden party. There was a square of astro turf on which sat a tent in which were crammed heaps of drunken Aussies in skanky clothes. On one side, there was a bar and a long line of mostly men waiting to place their bets. On the other side of the tent was another bar (of course) and another long line of mostly women waiting to get free make-up from Loreal. And let me just tell you that the last thing Australian women need is more make-up. Trust me, they've got plenty already. Totally lame. There weren't even any cool hats. The highlight of our day, besides the couple minutes of the actual race which were a little exciting, was trying to guess which of the boobs pressed against us were fake and which were real. We realize that's tacky, but sometimes tacky times call for tacky measures. Apparently, we missed the Real party. Check out these pictures I saw on Australian yahoo this morning of the aftermath:

That's right, folks, this is where we live.

Speaking of keeping it classy, the other major news story on Australian Yahoo this morning was: Britney lands in Australia. Yep, Britney Spears is here for her first Australian tour. We can hardly wait til she hits up Melbourne. For a mere $250-$15oo we can go to her show!! So, if you were wondering what to get us for Christmas, wonder no more!! I'm sure she'll do well here. We think Australia and Britney Spears go together like peas and carrots. They both like to keep it classy.

Shared Joy

Images, Words, Music.

These three things bring me great joy.

And I believe, "The joy that isn't shared dies young." -Anne Sexton

Music: The First Days of Spring by Noah & the Whale

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Halloween

I've never been all that into Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely into eating candy, but it's just not one of my favorite holidays. This might have something to do with growing up in a conservative Christian city where, for the most part, bobbing for apples at Church festivals is the extent of the celebration of Halloween. Growing up, we didn't talk too much about "the dark side." After all, it was the Christians who started All Saints Day, a day for celebrating saints and martyrs, a "holier" holiday than its predecessor, the pagan-rooted Samhain. Samhain, an ancient harvest festival with roots in Celtic paganism, marked the transition from the light time of year to the dark time of year. It was believed that the line between the living and dead worlds became thin on this day and that the spirits of the dead came to the living world on Samhain to destroy crops and spook the living. Well, we all know what Halloween is today, a 5 billion dollar (in the US alone) celebration of candy and costumes, the second highest grossing holiday after Christmas. Don't get me wrong, that's all well and good, but this year, I've been thinking about the roots of Halloween, the idea of light and dark and the fact that neither one can exist without the other. Though it's tempting to do so, I think it's dangerous to deny the dark side of humanity. It exists within us all. I don't believe that people are born inherently good or evil. That just seems unfair.

"Man is a demon. Man is a god. Both true."

(from Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love)

We are born with and live our whole lives with a heart that has equal potential to expand and to contract. This year, for me, Halloween is a time to reflect on that, to admit and accept it as Truth. For me, the beauty of THE GOOD IN YOU is that being Good, doing Good, is a choice, the way Love is a decision and an action. And now I'll leave it to a real writer, Barry Lopez, to say exactly what I mean:

"No culture has yet solved the dilemma each has faced with the growth of a conscious mind: how to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in all life, when one finds darkness not only in one's own culture but within oneself. It there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of a leaning into the light."

I love the way our houseplant friend, Lilydale

leans into the light.

And I love the way you all, my dear friends and family,

lean into the light, too.

But, enough about the good in you. What about your dark side? I had heaps of fun with Picnik's Halloween features turning some of my favorite people into frightening creatures of the dark. I would hereby like to issue my formal apology to the following people/dog for turning your beautiful faces into ugly ones. So, to Chrissy, Tara, Manders, Yuki, Jason, and Mom & Dad, I'm sorry.

from a not-so-lovely ME:

World Vegan Day or Eat a Kangaroo Day, You Decide.

Just wanted to inform/remind everybody that November 1st is World Vegan Day. And November is World Vegan Month. In response to this, Jason and I have decided to attempt to go vegan for the month of November, which is no easy quest given our love for cheese. I want to challenge you to do the same, if not for the whole month, then at least for the one day? And if not vegan, then maybe just vegetarian? Many of you already know the facts about the connection between factory farm production and the environment. But just in case you don't or you'd like to be reminded, and most of all because I'm trying to motivate myself to lay off the cheese, ( I mean dairy cows are fartin' up the atmosphere too, right?) here are some cold hard facts:

This snippet is taken from Good: http://www.good.is/post/meats_multiplier_effect/

Since 1961 the world’s total meat supply has quadrupled from 71 million tons to 284 tons, and per capita consumption has more than doubled—rising twice as fast in the developing world, according to The New York Times. While American consumption is steady (about eight ounces per day, roughly twice the global average), there is growing concern about the fact that we process—that is grow and kill—10 billion animals a year, accounting for 15 percent of the world’s total. The catch is this: Processing animals is connected to energy use, and reducing meat-eating by 20 percent would have the comparable effect of everyone switching from a standard sedan to a Prius. It all comes back to the carbon footprint, doesn’t it?

Speaking of Priuses and meat, you may have heard about Michael Pollan's comment at the Pop!Tech conference recently. He said, "“A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius.” This comment may be catchy, but it's not exactly true. Adam Pasick (http://blogs.reuters.com/adam-pasick/2009/10/26/crunching-the-numbers-on-a-vegan-in-a-hummer/ did some fact checking and it turns out, according to a published paper written by Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin of the University of Chicago, which looked at the relative carbon footprints of plant-based and red-meat diets, that the difference between a heavy meat-eating diet and a vegan diet was about 2 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per person per year. The difference between a Prius and an SUV (they used a Suburban, which gets about the same mileage as a Hummer) was 4.76 tons per year.

Here's another interesting fact: Did you know that the livestock population is expanding at a faster rate than the human population? According to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, livestock now outnumber people by more than 3 to 1. http://www.fao.org/ Given how overabundant the human population is, that's a scary thought. I mean I love cows and pigs just as much as the next guy, but I don't love them that much.

But this post is not all doom and gloom. If you think it would just be too hard to give up meat, have no fear! The Australians are here to save the day! Check this out from http://www.popsci.com.au/jaya-jiwatram/article/2008-10/ecological-leap:

Professor Ross Garnaut, a government adviser on climate change, is urging his fellow Aussies to serve kangaroo meat in place of beef or lamb, because the marsupials produce negligible amounts of environmentally damaging methane gas. On the other hand, cattle and sheep, according to Garnaut's 620-page study, produce a considerable amount of methane gas through belching and flatulence, and are among the millions of livestock responsible for approximately 67 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. In order to help the environment, he proposes that Australia, which is one of the world's largest per-capita producers of greenhouse gas emissions, should decrease its cattle and sheep populations by seven million and 36 million respectively, and increase its kangaroo numbers from 34 million to 240 million by 2020. The study cites other benefits, too: kangaroo meat is low in fat and high in protein levels, and the animals survive better in times of drought.

So, now that we all have the facts, the choice is yours: what's it going to be, kale or kangaroo? I'm going with the kale. For one, I've already committed to a vegetarian diet which I am quite satisfied with. In fact, I just had my 5 year Vegetarian anniversary! which I celebrated by eating a double patty burger topped with chili and bacon. No. I didn't.

And the other reason I'm going with Kale?

Why would I want to eat Skippy, the most bad-ass, crime fighting kangaroo of all time?

Not to mention Kanga or Roo!

No. It's a perfect day for a PEARfect day.

Not that anyone necessarily cares

but for what it's worth

I decided I like pears.

When I first met Jason, he did not particularly care for mushrooms. He didn't despise them or anything, but he really didn't like them either. But one day, shortly after we started dating, he announced to me that he was going to start liking mushrooms. And just like that, without making a big fuss about it, he did just that, he started liking mushrooms and has been happily eating them ever since. Now though I was probably already head over heels at that point, I fell in love with him even more that day. I am inspired by people who aren't afraid to challenge their own notions. Like my friend Sarahreed, who used to HATE running, but for whatever reason started running anyway and is now a dedicated runner who competes in marathons for crying out loud! That's a beautiful thing. Who we are is not set in stone. We have these amazing capacities for change, adaptation, evolution. But we don't always utilize these abilities. We form many opinions about things when we're young and then we rarely challenge those ideas again. Which leads me to pears. I have felt my whole life about pears the way Jason felt about mushrooms. I never thought they were totally disgusting, but simply that I'd rather not eat them, what with the texture being a little creepy and all. I tried them maybe a few times when I was young and didn't really like them, so, for the last however many years I've simply avoided them. But, when I stop and think about it, pears are beautiful things. I love their shape and color, and maybe most of all, their cute little freckles. They are rich in fiber, vitamin c, k and copper. Homer, in The Odyssey, referred to them as the gift of the gods. What's not to like, right? So, I decided the other day when Jason and I bought some pears, that I was going to like them. I've been anxiously waiting for them and my love for them to ripen. Well, I am happy to announce that not only did I just eat, but also ENJOYED! a delicious pear, and I'm pretty excited about it. It's exciting to open yourself up to new things. Last year, I started liking canteloupe, this year, it's pears. Next year, I think I'll tackle my disdain for watermelon. But I don't care what anyone says, I will never, not ever like lima beans. Not in a box, not with a fox, nor in a house or with a mouse! So, to anyone who reads this, I present a challenge: Renew your mind. Think of some thing, person, place or idea that you have negative energy towards and try to change that conception into something positive. Or maybe try something new you've always been closed off to. Maybe you'll find you do like green eggs and ham after all. And now, for a tribute to my newfound friend, THE PEAR! A picture and a poem:

poem by Linda Paston