Navel-Gazing and Jewelry Shopping for a Milestone Decade

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Deborah White

Aging is not for wimps or whiners.

I’m turning a milestone age next month, a number I practice admitting aloud only to family. To everyone else, I refer to my soon-to-be-age as a “number I can’t believe…” Like I unintentionally did for the last three new-decade ages, I’m indulging in wistful navel-gazing. And wondering when exactly I became an age when teenagers consider a late middle-ager decrepit and close to death’s doorstep.

I had a party at a marvelous Los Angeles restaurant (now closed) to celebrate my 30th birthday. I burst into tears and sobbed in my longtime doctor’s office on my 40th birthday. (He looked bewildered… tried to list all the “cool” things about being 40.) And tended to my three-month-old baby. I cried, ruminated, then bought a pricey new purse to celebrate my 50th birthday.

What astonishes me most about aging isn’t the random mystery aches and pains, or even that inside, I still feel like what I think is a terrific age for women: 35.

What catches me most by surprise about turning this “number I can’t believe…” are telltale pop-culture signs that hilariously point to us as part of the baby boomer old-folks crowd. Here are a few laughable examples…

  • We turned on Wii during a recent weekend evening to maybe play a game. We use Wii to watch old movies and Mad Men reruns on NetFlix, and to entertain our two grandkids. We hit a techno wall: couldn’t easily figure out Wii games without the assistance of our six-year-old granddaughter… so we turned it off.

  • This year, we bought our first new car in a decade. Past new cars included several sporty Jeep Grand Cherokees. Before we married, we both drove semi-sleek singles cars… a Honda and a BMW. In 2011, we selected a sensible, four-door Hyundai Sonata sedan, and feel fabulous about its comfort, reliability, XM radio, and fuel efficiency.

  • We sometimes order off senior menus at restaurants: the smaller entrees suit our diminishing appetites, and the lower prices suit our diminishing budget. (Ron boasts about ordering from senior menus. It embarrasses me slightly… )

  • We doodle at sudoku and crossword puzzles while watching weeknight TV. Anything to keep our memories from diminishing like our appetites and wallets.

  • We find appealing articles in AARP publications: travel, cooking, good deals, smart financial advice, and lots of baby boomer celebrities. (“How Bob Dylan Helped Me Grow Up” by Bono, “Crazy in Love: The Tortured Longing and Red-Hot Triumph of Vince Gill and Amy Grant,” “Jane Lynch is Gleeful about Her New Life.”)

  • Last Saturday night, we finally admitted that we prefer to watch a movie on our 46-inch flat screen, while nestled on the couch and munching homemade kettle corn, rather than contending with busy parking lots, long lines, joyously rowdy teenagers, and over-priced snacks at the local movie theater. (Now, that’s old… )

Aging is not for wimps or tiresome whiners. Aging is suited for people who can laugh and love… laughing with life, and loving themselves as they are: gloriously alive and blessed.

So as I mark the beginning of a new decade, I’m determined to laugh, not cry. To appreciate, not ruminate. To give grateful thanks.

If that doesn’t work, I’m thinking jewelry might do the trick.

Share
Posted in Life, Love & Craziness | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Musings, Meaningful and Mundane, on World Gratitude Day

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Deborah White

Today, September 21st, is the U.N.’s World Gratitude Day, which is described as “a time to celebrate your existence, passions, local hero’s, relatives, friends and all the little things that bring joy into your everyday existence.”

To list all my blessings is impossible: the list must be near infinite. But on this day set aside for gratitude, I can’t resist musing on blessings lately foremost on my mind and active in my life…

I’m grateful to be married to Ron. He’s an understanding, open-minded, kind-hearted man; he understands and loves me and our family; he’s a hardworking person who takes pride in providing for our family. We have fun together and share innumerable interests. (We never tire of each other’s company on long road trips… Seriously!) The best years of my life began in my late 30s when we married.

I’m grateful for our four children and one spouse. They’re a superb lot of interesting, caring individuals and responsible citizens, and we feel fortunate to have good relationships with all of them. Time spent with them is precious to us. Always. Of course, our two young grandchildren are joys. What a privilege to glimpse the future through the eyes of our progeny.

I’m grateful that three of our parents remain alive and semi-healthy for folks in their 80s. It’s a deep, unexpected comfort to still call my mother weekly, and hear her calming words that put into perspective life’s ups and downs. Despite our occasional frustrations, I honestly feel blessed at getting to better know Ron’s father in the five years since his mother passed on. Dad White is an intelligent, funny, generous person who daily struggles alone with the challenges of old age.

On more mundane matters:

  • I’m grateful for online outlets for writing, since my writing skills are light-years more effective than my speaking skills. Writing and cooking are my two gifts, and my two avenues of creativity and expression. Besides, I earn a living (and a small bit of useful notability) via online writing. What’s not to absolutely adore about working in my crummiest, comfy clothes, sans make-up and shoes?

  • I’m grateful to have found a church home, Messiah Lutheran Church, at which the pastors deliver terrific messages week after week, every week. They get it exactly right, even if the message is often more challenging than comfortable. Ron and I admire this church home that loves people and the world, and every single week, translates that love into bold action and active caring.

  • I’m crazy grateful to have discovered Abundant Harvest, which delivers gorgeous produce weekly for an astonishing low price. (No, I’m not on their payroll… ) Now, rather than chips and cookies, the extra food sitting around our home is freshly-picked apples, grapes of all colors, carrots, pears, oranges, bell peppers, lettuce, cantaloupes, squash, and more.

    We actually savor it, believe it or not. I’ve discovered and created all sorts of new recipes. And Ron and I are losing weight without trying. Maybe it’s the farmer in my genes… all four of my grandparents were Central Valley farmers and ranchers… but each week’s delivery feels like a glorious, marvelous bounty.

  • I’m grateful for some things that annoy a few others: political leadership that cares about people over profits; Yale University for its extraordinary generosity in supporting Andrea’s education and aspirations; environmentalism, which means caring for God’s creation.

Above all, I am grateful for a gracious God who has blessed me beyond reason and measure.

What are you grateful for on this World Gratitude Day?

Share
Posted in Life, Love & Craziness | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Replace “The Star Spangled Banner” as National Anthem?

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Deborah White

Should “The Star Spangled Banner” be replaced as our national anthem? Are there historic songs or hymns that would more aptly symbolize our great country in the 21st century?

One small-town religious college thinks so. Goshen College, a 1,000-student Mennonite college in Indiana, recently banned the national anthem “at all sporting events because the Mennonite school’s president considers the National Anthem’s words to be too violent.”

“The school’s board of directors told college President Jim Brenneman to ‘find an alternative to playing the National Anthem that fits with sports tradition, that honors country and that resonates with Goshen College’s core values and respects the views of diverse constituencies,’ “ per NBC News.

I believe that the upstanding Americans at Goshen College make a good, arguable, defensible point.

Adopted as the U.S. national anthem in 1931 by President Hoover, this secular war-anthem celebrates military battle victory, glorying in and glorifying “rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,” and clearly worships (idolizes?) the American flag. Composer Key wrote the lyrics in 1814, two years after being inspired by the 15-stripe, 15-star American flag flying triumphantly in 1812 over Fort McHenry after U.S. victory over British troops. The complex melody was borrowed from an 18th-century tune written by a London gentlemen’s club.

Per Wikipedia, “Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom. ‘Hail, Columbia”‘served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century. ‘My Country, ‘Tis of Thee’… also served as a de facto anthem before the adoption of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ “

“My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” lyrics were penned in 1831 by Rev. Samuel Francis Smith while an Andover Theological Seminary student, and publicly performed first on on July 4, 1831 in Boston. Again harkening to our country’s British roots, Smith borrowed the melody of English national anthem “God Save the Queen.”

In contrast to the muscular, near-haughty lyrics of “The Star Spangled Banner,” the words of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” celebrate the history and universal values of the United States of America, and freely acknowledge God’s role as protector of our nation. Savor the original four stanzas:

  • My country, ’tis of thee,
  • Sweet land of liberty,
  • Of thee I sing;
  • Land where my fathers died,
  • Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
  • From ev’ry mountainside
  • Let freedom ring!
  • My native country, thee,
  • Land of the noble free,
  • Thy name I love;
  • Thy woods and templed hills;
  • My heart with rapture thrills,
    Like that above.
  • Let music swell the breeze,
  • And ring from all the trees
  • Sweet freedom’s song;
  • Let mortal tongues awake;
  • Let all that breathe partake;
  • Let rocks their silence break,
  • The sound prolong.
  • Our fathers’ God to Thee,
  • Author of liberty,
  • To Thee we sing.
  • Long may our land be bright,
  • With freedom’s holy light,
  • Protect us by Thy might,
  • Great God our King.

As one whose ancestors, both maternal and paternal, sailed to the fledgling United States in the 1600s seeking religious freedom… as one whose ancestors shed blood and life fighting for the American Revolution… as one who fervently believes that the freedoms and liberties offered by our great country are second to none… I believe that the sentiments and imagery in “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” more eloquently express American values and the American experience than does our presently designated national anthem.

As a Christian, I believe that the lyrics of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” are more in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, than that of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

I fully understand and support the principled stance of Goshen College, which describes itself as aspiring to “Christ centered core values: global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking, servant leadership and passionate learning.”

That’s my viewpoint. What’s yours?
Share

Posted in Life, Love & Craziness, Places, People & Cool Stuff | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Blackout America: Feeling “Lucky” as U.S. Infrastructure Crumbles

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Deborah White

I showered by flashlight yesterday in our windowless master bathroom. I combed my hair and dabbed on minimal make-up by peering into a small mirror propped up in our sunny kitchen. I recharged my Blackberry in the car while watching a neighbor do the same in his truck.

No, we don’t live in the path of Hurricane Irene. No catastrophic earthquakes shook Southern California environs yesterday.

The aging electrical grid in our 40-year-old neighborhood failed at 2 am, as have many other public utilities across our nation. I’d retired late, and was lightly snoozing when the power crashed with a flash and loud boom. A peek out our bedroom window revealed the next street over was immersed in blackness.

Southern California Edison crews replaced the frayed, original underground cable after 12 hours, and power was restored to 48 1970s-era homes on four streets. We were lucky, a lead crewman told me. They didn’t have to dig up our street, which would have meant several days with no power.

I suppose we were lucky, despite the inconvenience, summer heat and spoiled food (milk, mayo, leftover tuna fish, banana popsicles, frozen chicken) in the refrigerator. After all, it could have been much worse.

Take suburban San Bruno, California, for instance. On September 9, 2010, a 50-year-old natural gas pipeline at Earl Avenue and Glenview Drive ruptured at 6:11 am, killing eight adults and children as they slept or got ready for the day. The powerful explosion caused a 1.1 seismic tremor and spewed a wall of fire 1,000 feet high. Thirty-eight homes were destroyed. Per the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Federal investigators pinned blame today squarely on Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for the natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno nearly a year ago, citing the company’s ‘litany of failures’ that led to a neighborhood’s destruction and the deaths of eight people…

“At the rupture site… PG&E cobbled together six short pipe pieces, or pups, allowing the line to negotiate the curve of the canyon… safety board investigators said none of the pipe pieces, which were made by bending steel plates around cylinders, met PG&E or industry standards.

“Investigators said PG&E had been running gas through those pups at unsafe pressures for decades, until one finally gave way. The use of the defective pipe ‘was compounded over the years by a litany of failures, including poor record-keeping, inadequate inspection programs, and an integrity management program without integrity.’

“Ravi Chhatre, the investigator in charge of the federal agency’s probe, called the disaster that destroyed 38 homes ‘an organizational accident’ resulting from ‘widespread deficiencies’ in PG & E’s operation.”

In all parts of our country, old water mains are breaking and aging power grids are failing. Roads are crumbling and riddled with potholes, and vast sink holes have swallowed cars, roads and homes.

Giddy with post-World War II optimism and rosy economic prospects under Presidents Truman, Eisenhower (“Father of the Interstate System”) and Kennedy, the U.S. built suburbia, replete with world-class public schools, modern highway systems, and state-of-the-art communications and utility grids linking urban, suburban and rural America.

Today, 60 years later, elected leaders and corporate chieftains no longer boast about investing in America and in America’s future. They no longer prioritize supporting a prosperous middle-class, which was the economic and moral backbone that made America the richest and most admired country in the world.

World-class nations renew and maintain top-quality public services as utilities, roads and schools. Second-rate powers and third-world nations allow infrastructure to erode and deteriorate, as the middle-class drifts downward in influence and prosperity.

U.S. leaders, both in government and industry, must decide if they’re up to task of leading a first-rate nation, and if they care about America’s future. They must decide, now, if America will remain a great nation, or fade into blacked-out oblivion like so many other once-admired countries.

Meanwhile, I guess I’m supposed to feel “lucky” when Southern California Edison, a 15,500-employee public utility conglomerate serving 14 million customers, deigns to replace old, now-dead electrical cabling in our smallish corner of the community.

After all, it could have been much worse. Like the residents of San Bruno, we might have foregone power for weeks. Or had our home destroyed. Or be dead.

Share
Posted in Life, Love & Craziness | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Drowning in Plastic: Small Ways to Turn Back the Clock

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Deborah White

I’m haunted by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as I wrote about in Drowning In Plastic: Birds, Fish and Humans. Threats posed by the swirling, 90-foot-deep dervish of plastic tonnage are not just about mankind’s health or mankind fouling earth’s mighty oceans.

Dangers posed to wildlife by plastic refuse are shocking and lethal. We’re literally drowning in our squalid trash, and drowning (and choking) our world, too.

We want to do our part, of course. Presumably like yours, my household has done a mediocre job of minimizing plastics we dump and of reducing our weekly garbage pile.

We sometimes tote reusable shopping bags to the market. When we don’t, we usually carry groceries home in paper, not plastic, bags. Our weekly farm-share service organic fruits and veggies are delivered in a recycled crate.

But far too often, our wastebaskets are crammed with food and cosmetic bottles, boxes, tubes, cartons, wrappings, utensils, and whatnot. All of our homes teem with plastic refuse from kitchens, bathrooms, medicine cabinets, even garages.

So what’s a well-intentioned household to do? I have a couple suggestions, some of them innovative.

First, shop at farmers’ markets whenever possible. If not feasible, deliberately choose grocery stores that minimize disposables. And bring your own reusable shopping bags. (Please!)

In my neighborhood, Henry’s Markets and Sprouts Markets, which are merging soon, offer many foods in bulk bins, sans packaging, although you still scoop purchases into thin plastic or brown paper bags. Some conventional supermarkets, such as Stater Brothers, have made genuinely commendable efforts to reduce packaged produce and expand use of bulk bins for candies and snacks. These options are a decent start.

I’m hoping that an intriguing new market innovation, in.gredients, plans to open a Southern California location. Expectations are helium-high for “the first package-free and zero waste grocery store in the United States” even before it debuts in Austin, Texas this fall. Briefly, you provide your own containers for everything you buy, or use their free, compostable containers. Click HERE to learn more.

Second, consciously adopt a more plastic-free lifestyle. It’s not easy, certainly. But if each and every U.S. household reduced plastic waste by merely five percent, the results would be revolutionary.

Take plastic wrap and plastic sandwich and food bags. Can you instead use permanent containers? Or toys and games for your kids or grandkids. Can you buy wooden rather than plastic? Can you buy leather rather than plastic balls? Better yet, can you entice them outdoors with gleaming new bikes rather more plastic junk destined to break?

Beth Terry of Oakland, California is my personal hero because of her quest since 2007 to live a plastic-free life, which she cheerfully blogs at MyPlasticFreeLife.com. ” I looked at my own life and realized that through my unconscious overconsumption, I was personally contributing the the suffering of creatures I hadn’t even known existed,” writes Ms. Terry.

Since she began her personal no-plastics crusade, she’s eliminated 2,054 plastic objects from her home. While few of us have stamina or persistence of Beth Terry’s caliber, we can all gain some terrific new plastic-freeing ideas from her journey. Here are a few:

Here’s what I find sweetly odd about Beth Terry’s plastic-free suggestions: she’s advocating the pre-plastics lifestyle my grandparents lived in the 1930s and 1940s. Gauze for bandages, metal razors, glass containers, paper folders, pretty crocheted goods. Nothing new under the sun, I guess. Solomon was right…

Third, live with less. Less house. Less car. A lot less stuff. You’ll save money. You’ll save time and aggravation. And you’ll use a heck of a lot less plastic.

Sunset magazine recently featured a story about the four-person Johnson family of Mill Valley, California who maintain a “zero waste” home. “How does a family manage to produce only two handfuls of trash per year?” asked Sunset. My honest answer: I have no earthly idea.

They look like nice people, these Johnsons. Not holier-than-thou recycling types. Look like they’d be pleasant neighbors. But Ron and I couldn’t live the stripped-down, no-frills lifestyle that is their wont.

The Johnsons have an interesting story, though, that provides teachable moments for us. Reports Sunset:

“Garbage… is something that happens rarely in this modern, minimalistically decorated house. That’s by day-to-day intention—to live simpler and lighter on the planet. Their quest started three years ago when Béa and husband Scott downsized from a 3,000-square-foot home to their current 1,400 square feet…

“If the boys outgrow something, it’s donated, sold, or re-gifted. Béa and Scott encourage friends and family to give gifts of expe­rience rather than things. This year, their 10-year-old’s birthday gifts included a weekend of skiing and gift certificates to a climbing gym and the local ice cream shop…

“The family uses no Q-tips, cotton balls, or tissue (handkerchiefs sub in here). Toilet paper rolls come wrapped in paper, not plastic. Books all come from the library.” Click HERE for Sunset’s 9-page slide show of “The zero-waste home.”

Despite these terrific ideas, I still feel overwhelmed by the destruction mankind has thoughtlessly wrought with garbage, especially plastics refuse. I hate that we could eventually snuff out our beautiful world, no matter the reason. But that we could hoard our world to death is humiliating for our species. Or it should be humiliating.

Please do your part to reverse the damage wrought over the past five decades by the astonishing proliferation of plastics. Minimize plastics used in your home, and reduce your weekly trash pile. Take proud responsibility for your part.

Share
Posted in Places, People & Cool Stuff | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Drowning In Plastic: Birds, Fish and Humans

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Deborah White

I’m haunted by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And I feel shame that a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles choke to death each year on human garbage found in the world’s oceans.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, was created in a naturally-occurring gyre in the North Pacific Ocean located between the U.S. and the Asian continent.

In a tranche roughly double the size of Texas and 90-feet deep, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a nightmarish whirl of millions of tons of human garbage apparently accumulated over the past 75 years. About 90% of the garbage is made of plastic and plastic pellets. The UK Telegraph describes the Patch as “not a solid mass, as is sometimes imagined, but a kind of marine soup whose main ingredient is floating plastic debris. Oceanographer Charles J. Moore, who discovered the Patch in 1997, estimates its ever-growing garbage vortex to weigh up to 100 million tons.

Commonly found garbage includes “plastic bags, balloons, buoys, rope, medical waste, glass bottles and plastic bottles, cigarette lighters, beverage cans, styrofoam, lost fishing line and nets, and various wastes from cruise ships and oil rigs are among the items commonly found to have washed ashore. Six-pack rings, in particular, are considered a poster child of the damage that garbage can do to the marine environment,” per Wikipedia.

Up to 80% of Patch garbage was originally trashed on land, while 20% was discarded directly into oceans, per a United Nations scientific group.

“Some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, and their young… Besides the particles’ danger to wildlife, the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs…

“These toxin-containing plastic pieces are also eaten by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish. Many of these fish are then consumed by humans, resulting in their ingestion of toxic chemicals,” explains Wikipedia.

Threats posed by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are not just about mankind’s health or mankind fouling earth’s mighty oceans. Threats posed to wildlife are shocking and lethal.

Reported the UK Telegraph in Drowning in Plastic:

“Worldwide, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, plastic is killing a million seabirds a year, and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles. It kills by entanglement, most commonly in discarded synthetic fishing lines and nets.

“It kills by choking throats and gullets and clogging up digestive tracts, leading to fatal constipation. Bottle caps, pocket combs, cigarette lighters, tampon applicators, cottonbud shafts, toothbrushes, toys, syringes and plastic shopping bags are routinely found in the stomachs of dead seabirds and turtles.

“A study of fulmar carcases that washed up on North Sea coastlines found that 95 per cent had plastic in their stomachs – an average of 45 pieces per bird…

“Plastic has been found inside zooplankton and filter-feeders such as mussels and barnacles… We do know that whales are ingesting plenty of plastic along with their plankton, and that whales have high concentrations of DDT, PCBs and mercury in their flesh… A dead albatross was found recently with a piece of plastic from the 1940s in its stomach.”

I feel overwhelmed by the destruction mankind has thoughtlessly wrought with garbage, especially plastics refuse. We’re literally drowning in our trash, and drowning our world, too.

There are innovative solutions and brand-new ideas… steps, small and large… that we can all take to start responsibly doing our part to reduce plastics trash for our households. In Part Two of this article, I’ll share a few of those ideas and solutions.

Share
Posted in Places, People & Cool Stuff | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment