Poison on our Shores

Long before this oil spill became bigger than big news, I mouthed the words, "they hit a volcano". I never dreamed they would use that term countless times hence. My mind wandered to the vision of sub-seabed oil that may be necessary to lubricate the tectonic plates now gushing into our oceans. Mother Earth had been egregiously violated.

We have all watched the horror growing; the crude oil spewing like vomit onto our beaches, onto our babies bodies who frolick in the sea then scream "get it off me!", onto our sea creatures, confused and dazed while petroleum which can penetrate the cells of any living organism toxifies and kills. We have shaken our heads in disbelief that such a dangerous element could be allowed in the first place, as if we let our children play with fire hoping they wouldn't get burned. We shout out at rallies and the government officials. We play the videos and shoot it to everyone on our email list. We hear from our loved ones in the Gulf states who do not fudge on the truth. We look at the tar balls on the beaches once swarming with eager tourists. We study the oceanographer reports, the marine biologists, the experts who are telling a different story or a more expansive story. We hear the cry of many who think this was no accident. We want to trust but thats out the window. Then we are left with a solemn thought.

That pinprick thought sears through our hearts and minds imploding like grenades where our most private emotions reside. We ask the questions we dare not want to know the answers of.

Can this one unspeakable event change the world as we know it?

Can the possibility of a seabed collapse, a tsunami, a tectonic shift affecting the most coveted and talked about Madrid fault, a horrendous spread of disease from toxic oil rain, hurricane sweep take out millions of people who live in that part of the country and what then?

Even the optimists are pissed off and open mouthed about the consequences. This is not going away. This cannot be resolved in our lifetime. Coral reefs are affected that are millions of years old. Viable Plankton is gone -- the major sustenance for all sea creatures. The spread is finding its way to the Caribbean and beyond.

In addition, we have covertness, irresponsibility and mismanagement at the helm. We have our first Amendment rights severed at the Gulf so we have to depend on the few who know and will post. And we don't even have a State of Emergency Announced. Our fishing trade is gone. Our tradespeople have lost their jobs, perhaps their homes. Our workers in the Gulf on the cleanup are sick and hospitalized. Our children are having chemical reactions systemically.

Is this the beginning of the end of our country as we know it?

No Happy Ending

Most of us need a happy ending or at least a resolution to a problem that allows us a choice in the matter. However, this film did not give us either.

The verve that Viggo Mortensen embodied as the Father of his son ( Kodi Smit McPhee) during a post-apocalyptic end-of-the-world destruction was un-namable but I will try. It asks you what moral and iron-clad grit comes out of losing his wife (Charlize Theron)and facing the wilds of man on a walk to somewhere, anywhere during a nuclear winter. The words heard as the Father narrates the perfect descriptives of Pulitzer Prize winning Cormac McCarthy's novel THE ROAD begins to break your heart before much is begun. "If only my heart were stone."

There is no gameness, no strategy, only a dauntless spirit to find food and shelter and a safe haven from those without conscience, who will dip into a place of abyss where no man wants to tread. You may ask, Where is the aliveness? Where is the purpose? Why write a book or film a movie about the destitution of war and its aftermath; an extinction of humanity?

Maybe you have to read the book first and let the author's words wash over you, poking into corners of the core of your being. "He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said, If he is not the word of God, God never spoke." He told the child, "I will not send you into the darkness alone."

So they walked the road along the same road that carried the vagrants, the thieves, the unconscious takers of life, the manic and the forlorn. The child said, "We're carrying the fire because we are the good guys."

The story brings to mind another book written by Octavia Butler before her untimely death, a woman of substance who wrote of the child who walked a road out of post destruction in the undetermined future, called PARABLE OF THE SOWER. Her faith and her diligence to bring a piece of God to her torturous journey and share with her road travelers was extraordinary.

In THE ROAD I was weary as the characters were, compassionate to the highest power and filled with war torn emotion that such a thing could be imagined; that man vs man could come to that nexus point. I settled for the one true message. That this portrayed the bare bones of what humankind feels with survival. How far does one go to survive? You watch those slip into an instinctual grasp for life without a glimmer of hope or renewal. In that survival few things were important: food, shelter, staying alive without armor, struggling with the innate need to be even-spirited in encounters with others, fighting against and weighing the balance of humanitarianism, feeling the importance of closeness and the expression of love, facing the hateful idea of suicide with a half-closed heart, accepting death and aloneness, letting grief fill all the empty spaces when memory floods.

These are the bare bones of our essence and for nothing else, this film forces the hand of looking at the inevitability of such a scourge.

Lotsa Gardening

May 2010. Cold. Windy. Already lost one box of strawberries and bell peppers. Larry was out in the garden, we figured, at least 14 days solid, all day into the sunset pulling knarly weeds, choking mint and rosemary plants and planting a lovely creamy David Austin Ambridge Rose, a climbing Joseph's Coat and flowers that will spread nicely. How many trips to the mega store for more soil and organic fertilizer? Too many to count. Never mind the broken down gloves ripped from thorny bushes.

We added more clay pots to our already eleven Earthboxes filled with vegies and tomatoes and honest to God, those vegies in the clay pots are thriving with zucchini already. We came upon a very natural spray from http://www.spray-n-growgardening.com and ordered what was necessary to reboot the garden. It is already working big time after one week of spray. We plan to do an every 2 week spray during the blooming season.

It isn't over yet. Purple and pink salvia await a planting. I need a bird bath because the birds are bathing in a old Italian bowl I left on the ground. I need an umbrella for the patio table because the winds have ripped huge holes in it over 9 yrs. If you look too hard or too far, there is always something you have to fix or replace.

Hmmmm. I wonder if Mango trees would grow up here in the Sahara?

A Rock and Roll Easter Sunday

A wild and wooley Easter rocked the big house in Laguna Niguel taking the shake from the surprising Baja Earthquake. We thought it was the second round of French 75's cocktails that made us feel like we were a canoe on the open sea. But then the big pool swooshing water overboard. Uh Huh. I watched my sister's eyes get big as we held onto the kitchen island. Did we time it? No, but it felt like a minute of rolling. After that, we went for a third round.

Our 91 year old Dad and 83 year old Mom took the rolling in stride. After all, how many earthquakes have they been through?

The big BBQ was a success and sisters and nieces, nephews and uncles joined in the fun of a beautiful blue sky, an unsettling earthquake and enough food to choke a horse.

Garden Is In

Spring has sprung and soil has been flung. Larry had the bright idea of removing various overgrown lavendars and geraniums and rose bushes that struggled against odds. Once the ground lay bare, trips to the various and sundry nurseries ( count 5)revealed a plan. But what to plant that would withstand the morning sun and the evening shade? Henry Fonda yellow rose tree won the first round followed by our first try at two azaleas. Some Zion daisies filled in along with verbena. I have no idea what else Larry planted. A variegated leafed something with some hopeful flowers blooming. Alot of wood chips and dirty jeans ended that project.

In the backyard for two weekends in a row in between unexpected showers, we planted eleven Earthboxes with pickling cucs, Japanese cucs, zucchini in pots as well, lots and lots of tomatoes, strawberries ( a first - well we'll see with our bird friends), lots of multi colored bell peppers. We had some clay pots around and we filled it with gigante jalapeno plants, green bunching onions, basil, and herbs.

Now the wait until mid June to July . . . .

An Out of this World Black Bean Soup

I have an aversion to bean soups. Or rather they have an aversion to me. I love the taste, but I suffer with digestive aftermath. So I set out to figure a soup that would change the course of those events. People that know me say I modify or "doctor up" every recipe I find. In this case, I took about 5 different variations and made them my own. Trust me, the taste is so heavenly and you won't regret it.

BLACK TURTLE BEAN SOUP

1. 1 Bag of Aromatica Organic Black Turtle Beans ( dry )emptied and soaked overnite in cold water 6-9 hours.
2. Drain the old water and rinse a few times.
3. Pour beans in a big pot with fresh cold water- cover beans. I use a large enameled cast iron pot.
4. Bring to boil- won't take long and then drain again.
5. Pour boiled beans in a bowl and set aside.
6. Olive oil and 1 Tbs. butter in cast iron pot heated up.
7. Saute' 2 cloves of garlic whole, 1 chopped onion,1 finely chopped raw carrot, 4 chopped stalks of celery, 3 dried red chili's, 1 sweet red bell pepper chopped, 1 chopped fresh jalapeno seeds removed, 1 chipotle chili, a healthy dash of ancho powder(achiote), lemon zest and orange zest and juice of 1/4 orange, herbs of choice: I used oregano, basil, coriander, parsely, cilantro, fennel seeds and mustard seeds( found in the East Indian store), about 3/4-1 cup of frozen organic corn. Let all that sweat while sauteeing. If you like cumin, which I don't, go for it.
8. Add 6 cups of water. I added about a cup of homemade chick broth I had as well.
9. Add beans and bring to boil. Make sure water covers beans.
10. Skim off any foam that builds from the boiling. I didn't have much.
11. Now reduce to a simmer, cover the pot and time it. You will be cooking it with occasional stirs for about 2-3 hours.
12. Last 30 min: add 2 Tbs. sherry, 1 Tbs. brown sugar ( optional), juice of one lemon, and if you have handy, some leftover chopped ham. I only used about 1/2 cup.

NOTICE I DID NOT SALT WHICH HARDENS THE BEANS.

I added salt at the end for taste. And I actually simmered it for 4 hours just to make sure the beans were thoroughly cooked down.

Last measure: puree with the hand blender, pour into bowls with a spring of cilantro and a dollop of sour cream if you are not dairy sensitive.

Serve with heated up Trader Joes Spelt rolls ( in freezer) if you are not spelt sensitive. A salad and you are good to go.

A soup to remember.

Our World, Our Universe

Sometimes we have to stop and be in awe of what is greater than our flesh and bones, our things, our little life.

The magnificence of what is encased within our biology, our quantum mind and our consciousness grows into a vastness we cannot comprehend in the here and now. What went before us, will come behind us and what exists in the present that opens the door to all change makes us wonder about what the award winning novelist Octavia E. Butler said in her book of hope and faith in a post apocalyptic world " Parable of the Sower", that God is Change.

So how could any of us stay the same, think the same ol', when change surrounds us every living moment? Change allows us to re-invent ourselves, to experience so we can grow in different dimensions, to see with new eyes and hear with new ears.