Why The World Is A Mess:

Yes, we are in dire straits BUT, (and what saddens me) is that the USA at least, we are in the middle of all the resources for change and growth and happiness any species could possibly ask for but we are soooooooooooooo slow to process ideas that it will be over before we “get it”. I fear that by the time we see what is right to do the inertia of our habits and erroneous beliefs will be too ingrained to overcome.

The majority of us can’t even remember to bring our own cloth bags to the store much less stop watching TV long enough to meet our neighbors and clean up our local environments. It is overwhelming new behavior that is beyond our comfort zone. So instead of getting started, many of us do nothing. We watch the news and get even sadder and our immune systems get even more compromised.

We are like the frog being boiled alive, you know the analogy, you put the frog in boiling water and it jumps out. But if you put the frog in a nice pot of warm water it will stay and not notice the gradually heat increase until it is way too late to jump out, and so that is how you make frog soup.

Dietary Madness

A“Frog soup” example of human behavior is how fat we are getting. We are creating diabetes or heart disease in our bodies. We cannot see the connection between the package of cookies eaten today and every day for the next 20 years in front of the TV with the inevitable hundred pound weight gain and the numbness in our feet due to compromised circulation. The doctor tells us “Well, diabetes, heart disease, fill-in-the-blank-disease, is a hereditary disease. Yes, I agree with the doc. all primates as well as all other creatures get sick if they over eat on chronically on high fat, denatured meat and dairy based diets. That is indeed “hereditary”.

I speak from experience having only just now gone vegan last year at the age of 49 after years of not getting the connection between dairy and damage to the environment by factory farming. I was a semi-veggie-raw-foodist-want-to-to-be who rarely ate chicken or fish. My diet was extreme enough as it was, right?

Wrong!! Somehow, liberal and educated and informed as I am I did not get that it takes thousands of gallons of water to produce one measly gallon of milk when you connect all the grain that has be planted, watered and fed to the cow that produces the milk. I did not know that factory farming is subsidized by the government by giant agri-corporations.

I did not choose to realize that the meat or dairy we buy for 3 dollars a pound actually costs twice that much to create. I was lulled by all the beliefs around me just like everyone else is. They were all eating without questioning it so I was eating it too. As a matter of fact  we all began eating this way before we could talk or question anything. We are told that we need tons of protein.  We are told that vegans are weird and crazy and unhealthy while the standard American diet is normal wholesome and “good for you”. These ideas are is implied at every meal.

Even though 20 years of research by Ivy league universities has proved otherwise I was confused by the “Got Milk”  and “beef, its what’s for dinner” ads  I kept seeing all around me. Take a look at The China Study by T Collin Campell for starts or check out my book list for proof that a low meat diet is actually healthier than our SAD diet.

We cannot see that driving the car to work every day for 20 years instead of making the drastic change to get a job closer to home or to taking public transportation or biking or walking is truly making a huge difference over time. I know intimately from experience because I dumped my car 6 months ago and changed jobs and moved 1000 miles to a place that has public transit. I am so much happier than I ever thought possible and have 500 dollars less in bills each month. Plus I am finally getting a normal amount of exercise.

The time I used to spend at the gym for cardio and in traffic is spent seeing humming birds up close on daily basis and get to eat low hanging fresh sun ripened fruit wherever I go. I slow down now and plan ahead and get more done. I realize that I never needed the car to begin with.

My ex husband suggested I get a car at the age of 28 when we lived in Boston. I had never needed a car there because the subway system was so inclusive. He grew up in a normal, middle class American family in the suburbs were people drove everywhere. I grew up with a mom who did not drive. We took buses, trains, planes, subways and bicycles and used our feet all our lives with no undo restriction or hardship. We moved large objects with the help of friends or rented trucks on occasion and we socialized with friends and saw plays and operas and went to museums as much or more than families with cars.

To my well-meaning ex-husband and to our society it was a rite of passage for me to get a car, finally at the age of 28. To be a respected, mature adult meant having a car and paying off a car note. But I realize now that those values are simply ignorant and misplaced. Had I been more educated and forward thinking about environmental issues and connectedness I would have forgone the car and urged my ex-husband and I to relocate to a city and jobs with public transportation when we moved from Boston to California instead of wasting all that gas and money and gaining 20 pounds from being so much more sedentary from the age of 28 to 49!