threads between thesis

threads between thesis:

the thoughts of leaving and being, the famers' market, sword-fights with clothes hangers, sunshine, birds, walking in my barefeet from church, from class, from about anywhere, air after rain, hugs, the regeneration of toenails, tea and honey, what is happening to the bees?, casa, burritos, stir-fry at 1:30 am, chasing rabbits, hot. muggy. weather.

chocolate and cheese

chocolate and cheese, i don't think they go together.

i like my riches balanced.

tell me if you beg to differ

today

e e cummings XAIPE, 65


i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of allnothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

god loves glasses, too

last night, i was sitting in the upstairs of donkey coffee working on thesis stuff. most of the conversations had petered off, though a few moms were still going strong, and so too, were my two companions with laptops.

for awhile, i just sat and listened and picked up the conversation of two girls in the room across from me. they were talking about some fantasy series, dragons, magic, and whatnot, and looked like the stereotypes associated with people who play dungeons and dragons on a saturday evening. i kind of smiled and shook my head, but then stopped, feeling a bit bad for silently laughing. i then had this dreadful vision of me standing in front of a classroom teaching someday and there is a young girl in the back of my class, blonde hair with glasses, and i constantly ignore her because i don't want the other kids to think i favor the misfit.

but god does.

yea, as i was sitting there, it occurred to me no matter how hard i try, no matter how much self discipline i have or tactics i learn to deal with misfit children (or my misfit self), i will always fall short of loving those two girls.

but god won't.

he loves both of them,
and you,
and me,
perfectly.

and that's pretty amazing.

slugg-ed

yesterday, when i walked out the door of my apartment, i saw a slug, spotted yellow and brown, on the concrete; dried out from the morning sun, guts smashed out the back - picked at by some marauding bird-

i wanted to pour water on it and say: i know how you feel.

a moment in expectation

this morning i wanted to make my coffee with cream and sugar

as if to give the day a heads up that i wanted it to be

rich

but i waited -

and instead of checking my email

or the Times

or my appearance in the mirror,

i went outside

where

the birds greeted me

the air pricked a chill

and a brown leaf stuck to the back of my heel as i walked along the sidewalk still wet with

the morning's dew

or yesterday's rain.

i (don't) feel like chicken tonight

dear all,

something i want to share from my sustainable agriculture class on the treatment of factory farm chickens:

http://www.chickenindustry.com/cfi/videogallery/

i am usually wary of seemingly anti-meat promotions that "tug on the heartstrings" but the sort of treatment towards chickens documented undercover in this film is inhumane and wrong. for example, the film brings up points that chickens are bred now to grow so fast (45 days) that the organs cannot keep up and the chickens die from congestive heart failure. chickens (and chickens for eggs, cattle, hogs, etc.) should not suffer in this manner; it is disrespectful to their existence and, i feel, not a biblical way to treat our fellow creatures.

however, i must say that i disagree with the end of the film promoting only vegetarian options. i am a vegetarian, but buying processed veggie foods is not really 100% great either, for your health (salt, etc) or the environment (transport, packaging, etc). i still feel at this point that killing an animal for meat is not morally wrong in and of itself, as long as it is done humanely and the animal is raised with respect (whether we should eat meat at all is another discussion).

bottom line from me: be mindful about what you eat and from where it comes. if you are in athens, ohio, we are very fortunate to have a great farmers' market that offers not only locally raised (some certified organic) veggies, but also locally raised (sometimes certified organic) meats and eggs. talk to the farmers selling the products you buy, either veggie or not, and think about this before you put the food on the plate.

if you live where locally raised products are not as readily available, there still might be alternatives. the first would be to cut down on meat consumption in general, and then, since we are talking about chicken here, many more stores are carrying "free range" and/or "organic" eggs and meats. as i learned today, the "free range" label is not regulated and could potentially mean several things, but generally, it suggests that the chickens have about 12 square feet each to roam. The USDA Organic seal is regulated. http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Consumers/brochure.html

some food for thought.