We Take Communion in Plastic
& actually eat far too much of it
One thing that reporters do on Election Day is ask people waiting in line why they’re voting, and this week I heard a very strange response. The voters were standing in line in Macon, Georgia, and the reporter was from Georgia Public Broadcasting.
This man was voting because he believed in capitalism, he said, and Democrats were trying to destroy capitalism.
I’ve thought a lot since Tuesday about that reason for voting. Mainly I think about how we, the gentleman and I, have come to sit in such vastly different camps. The very thing that I believe is destroying everything we love is the one thing this man believes will save us.
Let me say first that I’m not opposed to capitalism. I am opposed to unregulated national and multi-national corporations that operate without ethics, especially land ethics, and without policy restraints; and sadly, that is most of them.
The motto of capitalism is more, more, more. Its model is an uphill line. Stakeholders want more and more return on their investments, and in order to attain bigger profits corporations have to extract more natural resources, burn more fossil fuels, take shortcuts if they can find them, use cheaper labor, and buy politicians to pass policies that favor their missions.
Lordy, we’ve had a good run with capitalism. I love our amenities, I love our longer lifespans, I love not having to work so hard. But we are surrounded by destruction.
A mile down the road from my home is a cotton field operated by Georgia Department of Corrections as a prison farm. The cotton is grown with chemical fertilizers, and then, just before a cotton harvester buzzes through the field, it is sprayed with herbicide to defoliate the plants. If I am walking on my road, which I do every morning, and I smell chemicals being sprayed with one of the prison farm’s enormous tractors, I turn around and go the other way. If at all possible, I want to limit my exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. I’m thin-skinned, after all, and I had a good friend die from Agent Orange following exposure in Vietnam.
I can’t help but think of the butterflies and birds and toads and snakes and everything else that unknowing flit and fly and hop and crawl among this toxicity.
Not caring about the creatures is capitalism. Not caring about the destruction of topsoil is capitalism. Not caring about human life is capitalism. I cannot vote for capitalism, knowing that it is a system that supports senseless, careless, irreparable, permanent destruction.
When I am asked why I am voting, I answer: Because a democracy depends on it, and a good democracy means a better life for more people.
Great egret at Old Camp Landing on the Ohoopee River, by @crumbstarz, Silas Ray-Burns.
What’s Really on My Mind
The real reason I’m talking about capitalism is that I have a huge problem. I don’t think anything can fix it, not for a long, long time—definitely not in my lifetime. My problem is that I am blind with rage about plastics. I think of a continent of plastic floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—1 percent is visible at the surface—and I can barely move. When I admit to you how angry I am, I start to cry, right at this point.
Plastics are made from oil.
Human-created plastics are not biodegradable, at least not easily. As Alan Weisman said, “Polymers are forever.”
Almost everything manufactured is made of or contains plastic.
Almost everything manufactured has a limited lifespan. Most is single-use. The rest has planned obsolescence. That means we plan on trashing trillions of plastic objects now being manufactured.
Plastic recycling is a myth.
And plastic is dangerous to life on earth.
Every human on Earth is ingesting nearly 2,000 particles of plastic a week. These tiny pieces enter our unwitting bodies from tap water, food, and even the air, according to an alarming academic study sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, dosing us with five grams of plastic, many cut with chemicals linked to cancers, hormone disruption, and developmental delays.”
Tim Dickinson, “Planet Plastic,” ROLLING STONE
Trying Not to Feel Crazy
I walk through the supermarket, noticing that almost all the items for sale are made of plastic or wrapped in plastic or labeled with plastic. Almost everyone I pass in the aisles rolls along with multi-pack yokes of plastic soda or water bottles hanging from their grocery cart.
The problem is not just the supermarket. Last week I gave a lecture at an incredibly erudite venue in a major American city. The food at the reception was crazily good. The only option, however, for serving yourself was small plastic plates. A plastic cup was the only option for drinking.
Let me get even closer to home. I attend services in my community at a one-room church that was built in 1868. I have partaken many times of communion. Pre-pandemic, my neighbor would supply homemade, gluten-free crackers that we would dip in grape juice (although I think juice is farcical.) For the past two meetings, we’ve used these:
It’s a plastic goblet about 1 1/4 inches tall. A bit of cracker is sealed in one end and a dab of grape juice in the other. How did we replace a homemade cracker dipped in wine with a single-use plastic that may kill some sea-turtle? (The lipstick is here for comparison.)
The medical industry produces a truly staggering amount of plastic waste, including loads of single-use gloves. I contracted Lyme disease some years ago, and I took a lot of antibiotics to get in control of it, only to find that the one protocol that works for me is Stephen Buhner’s herbal remedy. All these medicine bottles have my name on them.
Rid Your Life of Plastics
I have set about to rid my home and barn and yard of plastics. Luckily, now we have more non-plastic options, things like cloth shower curtains and cloth shopping bags and metal waste bins.
Is a cloth shower curtain more expensive than a plastic one? In the short run, yes. In the long run, no.
Is a cloth shopping bag more expensive? In the short run, most definitely. In the long run, most definitely not.
I no longer use Tupperware or any kind of plastic for storing leftover food in the refrigerator. Glass canning jars took care of that.
Plastic still lives in my life, far too much of it. But my mission is
not to accept a plastic bag
not to bring plastic in any form into my home
to choose metal, wood, and cloth (organic cotton!) over plastic
What Tip Will You Offer?
I’m sure you’re worried about plastics too and trying to move away from them. I’d love to hear what you do to control the unfettered manufacture of plastics in your life. I want to compile all these in a document to share.
#noplastic #zerowaste #ecofriendly #gogreen #plasticfree #savetheplanet #sustainable
Renaming the Full Moons
November’s will be Moon of the Killdeer Returning. A few days before the full moon, a flock of killdeer landed in one of our pastures. A few dozen birds circled in the flock. A few of them will stay here with us for the winter. Here in #souega we could also call this moon Kestrel’s Return Moon or Sweet Gum Glory Moon or Redbud’s Yellow Heart Moon.
A Writing Prompt
Engage the World With Language
Write for 5 minutes about an item that you remember from your grandmother or grandfather’s home. What did it look like? What was it made of? What was its purpose? Why was it memorable to you?
~
Please share your writing if you’re willing. You may drop it into your social media feeds and tag me or use the hashtags #writingwithjanisse #writingthetracklesswild.
Because You Loved Last Week’s Recipes
I wanted to share another recipe with you that involves citrus, beautiful citrus, in season. This one is a cake. It comes from The New York Times. I know that we’re supposed to avoid processed sugar, but, oh my word, life is beautiful and full of goodness.
Upside-Down Blood Orange Cake
2 sticks plus 3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
about ⅔ cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 medium-sized blood oranges
about 1 cup fine cornmeal
about ½ cup all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
about 1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
⅓ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons butter. Add the brown sugar and lemon juice; stir until sugar melts, about 3 minutes. Scrape mixture into bottom of prepared pan.
Grate ½ teaspoon zest from one of the oranges, then slice off the tops and bottoms of both oranges. Slice away the rind and pith, top to bottom, following the curve of the fruit. Slice each orange crosswise into ¼-inch-thick wheels; discard any seeds. Arrange orange wheels on top of brown sugar mixture in a single, tight layer.
In a large (not plastic) bowl, whisk together orange zest, cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together remaining butter with sugar. Beat in eggs, one a time, then beat in sour cream and vanilla. Fold in the dry mixture by hand.
Scrape batter into pan over oranges. Transfer to oven and bake until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes, then run a knife along pan’s edges to loosen it; invert onto a platter and cool completely before serving.
Exploring the Mysteries of the Swamp
The coastal plains are not known for fall color, but the last two weekends tell a different story. I’ve done a cypress swamp paddle the last two Saturdays. Both were fundraisers, one for the restoration of Cedar Grove School & Church and the other for Holly Haworth’s book project, A Field Guide to Listening. This photo was taken by our guide, the Paddling Poet, Wesley Hendley.
The photo below was taken by photographer Elizabeth George of Tallahassee, Florida.
Morning Y’all,
One of the realizations of getting older is one discovers how slap-happy one has been with one’s own health while growing older. Then, sadly, you discover that there are often no do-overs. But unless you deny reality, you can try. Here’s my vegan conversion tale.
In 2015, a cardiologist discovered that I had five serious blockages in my heart. The docs wanted to begin bypass surgery the next day. I wanted some time to think about having my chest cut open and my heart plumbing rerouted. So, I read - a lot. I won’t bore you with what I read and who, but I postponed the bypass surgery for a long time, and in November 2015 following our last turkey dinner, I became a full fledged vegan. My wife committed to doing the same thing. Without her commitment and partnership, life together would have been close to impossible.
This conversion meant saying goodbye to meats, all fish products including our lovely Cedar Key oysters, crabs, and mullet. Gone were eggs, butter, milk, and all dairy products including cheeses and for my cardiac survival, all cooking oils. Try cooking without any oil for awhile and see what a challenge that can become. My goal was not to add anymore cholesterol to the walls of my vascular plumbing. I had already lost a lot of heart functioning from my ingestion of animal protein, so if I wanted any chance of surviving, I needed to take some drastic measures. No more food with a face.
I postponed interventional cardiac surgery until 2021, and when your non-interventional cardiologist tells you that you’ve done everything you could do to stop the progression of your coronary artery disease, but you were not able to reverse it, and gravely says, “Jeff, I can make you comfortable with the time you have left, or we can arrange for quintuple cardiac by-pass surgery.” For me, that was an easy decision. They cracked open my chest at the Shapiro Cardiac Care Hospital at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, and twelve days later, I walked out of intensive care unit under my own power with my heart restored to normal functioning. But, I was still and I remain today a confirmed vegan. There is no point of return. I only eat plants based products.
Do I miss Stilton cheese, steak tartar, duck confit, a rare rib-eye, an omelette, a grilled cheese sandwich, fried oysters and mullet, fried clams, wonderful butter rich desert pies and cakes? Of course, I do? I’d be more of a bullshitter if I didn’t admit this. But strangely the cravings for animal protein went away in a few months much like I’m told the craving for tobacco and alcohol can if you have the will power to not use those products. It is much easier when you know that not to stop will kill you. That fact focuses your decision making quickly.
We became more interested in the welfare of animals bred to be killed and eaten. We became advocates against factory farming and farm animal welfare. We began donating money to the groups trying to reduce factory farming and supporting those groups’ efforts to stop killing animals in order to eat them. We didn’t join PETA because I dislike their incessant fund raising. They become pests even if their cause is righteous. I read recipes and pass them along to my wife. She’ll say, “Hey, didn’t you see the butter, eggs and oil in that recipe?” I have to admit that I didn’t read the recipe closely.
Is it harder socializing with friends and attending their dinner parties? Yes. Often, we’re the skunks at the dinner party. So, we host more than attending dinners as guests if we want to see our friends. Have we converted many friends into become vegans? A few. We gave away probably a hundred copies of Dr. Michael Greger’s book, HOW NOT TO DIE as our way of supporting his efforts when a friend tells us about needing to take statins.
Nothing about doing the difficult things for yourself and the environment is easy. If it was, everybody would do it without question. There isn’t any money to be made by Big Potato, but a lot of money is made by the meat, dairy, poultry and fishing industry and their lobbyists. Capitalism infects everything. It has infected the medical industry. Democracy isn’t easy to maintain, and capitalism is a product of democracy that requires oversight. But that is another subject for another day.
Thus ends today’s rant. Try a plant based diet and give your vascular system a rest.
Jeff
Oh, as a by the way, if anyone has any doubts, we recommend getting a CT calcium scan of your heart. That is where you start. A CT calcium scan is not usually covered by health insurance, but it should not cost more than $150-$200 out-of-pocket. If anyplace wants you to pay more than that, look someplace else. Elizabeth had a calcium scan, and she had moderate calcium build-up. She paid $200 at Brigham & Women’s hospital in Boston. If the results of the calcium scan are reduced flows and possibly moderate to severe blockages, then it’s time for an more invasive investigation. This is the best advice that our cardiologist ever gave us. This is a test that should be done before you are placed on a statin drug. We both take a statin to minimize our cholesterol build-up on our vascular walls.