In Defense of Death

Quite literally. 

This is most recognizably a piece of procrastination artwork. 

It all started while I was reviewing my ethics notes on the subject of cloning...

It seems that some people want to use cloning as a way to defeat aging and to gain immortality. 

C'mon humanity!

Part of what defines us as human beings is the fact that we die. This is a good thing. We need a healthy relationship with death. Alas, our Enlightenment movement away from the mystery in our lives has caught us in a net of fear of dying. We are both fascinated by death, as portrayed by our television shows and our movies. Yet, we shun the idea of death in our own lives, believing that it will not come to us, that it will quietly pass us by as simply as we fail to acknowledge death in our language of people passing away...

Death brings us a lot of pain and sorrow. Death brings us face to face with our experience of time. We would not be so worried about time if we weren't so busy trying to cram everything in before we die. But death also allows us to acknowledge how much we love someone by how much we miss them when they are not in our lives anymore. Death clears space in our lives for new things. We would not get spring without death. We would not get new friendships without death. (By estimate of William Least Heat Moon, a human being meets another 100,000 human beings in their life. How could we keep track of all those human beings if we didn't experience some kind of death in relationships?) each day we shed almost a million dead cells making way for new, energized, cells keeping our lives going. Death keeps our love and laughter in perspective. 

Plenty of novels have been written where immortal characters wish for the change of death, the release, the relief. Plenty of novels have explored the possibility of a culture of immortal beings. The ones I have read seem to show that in such a situation, culture stagnates. Those beings lose any sense of urgency which would motivate them to change. Death rejuvenates us. 

Without death, as a Christian, I have no hope of being united with God. I do not long for death, but I do want to have a healthy appreciation for what it has done for me and this world. 

Without death, we could not be part of the circle of life.

I Don't Think That Word Means What You Think It Means...

Recently, I came across a list claiming to describe successful people. I agreed with most of the items listed and they were things that I am continuously trying to be and achieve, so I wrote them down as a reminder. A few days after, in a conversation with Yoda, I brought up this list. While she agreed that the items on the list were good things to live by, she didn't agree with the "success" label put on them.

Before that conversation, I've never officially looked up success in the dictionary. To me, it was one of those words that could be defined on an individual basis. However, I've never really thought about the implications of this concept of words being defined on an individual basis. It could be chaos! Or at least lead to confusion and misunderstanding.

Of course we looked up success in the dictionary, and I can tell you, I didn't like what I read:

suc·cess [suhk-ses]
noun
1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one's goals.
2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. a performance or achievement that is marked by success, as by the attainment of honors
4. a person or thing that has had success, as measured by attainment of goals, wealth, etc.

First off, I suppose I should say (and I would hope that at least a few people agree so that I don't feel so silly), that while I felt the definition of success varied from person to person, the connotation that the word exudes was always positive. More than positive, like an adjective that everyone (or close to it) works towards their whole lives to define themselves as. So when I read the definition of success with the feeling of what the word implies, it saddened me because it does not describe at all what I work towards in my everyday life. It also worried me that this was the definition for many people and would end up being what they felt most important.

Therefore, we have decided to begin a campaign to change the definition of success. We are still in the planning stages, but we will keep you informed here. Let us know what you think the definition of success should be and what the word means to you.

Soft, White, Fluffy, Sugary, Delightful, Delectable...

Marshmallows!
I made mint flavored marshmallows.
I am going to have a sugar high all week.
I used Alton Brown's homemade marshmallow recipe with peppermint extract instead of vanilla. (I ran out of vanilla while making peanut butter cookies last week. Darn.)

In other news,
Phew!
We have started our fall break.
Thank God!
I need to breathe.
And do a lot of work.

To offer some follow up on the last few blog posts: The first batch of pickles did not turn out so well. However, I was given a recipe from my grandmother which turned out wonderfully! The pickled beet making went deliciously well also, but I didn't make enough and I am already down to one jar left. The half marathon was kicked and while I did not complete it under my goal time, I was really close.

Some things are changing around this blog. I have decided not to yoke my fair friend Sonic with the eclectic Episcopalian leader that I am on the verge of becoming and am starting a new site where such things as sermons, communion wafers, and other spiritual things will be found. I hope this will work out for the best for both of us. Never fear! I will still be old enough to know better but too young to care. ;)

Pickled Beets, Lentil Flour, and a Half Marathon

I have to thank a friend for introducing me to her pickled beets this week. They were so delicious. Sweet, spicy, and melt in your mouth, even somewhat nutritious! Unfortunately, she opened their last jar for me to taste them. Which just means there will be pickled beet canning coming up. I am looking forward to adding them to my meals.

In other kitchen news, I bought eight pounds of lentil flour without having a single recipe which uses lentil flour. Its terribly saddening that I am going to have to spend a good amount of time looking through cook books and cooking websites to find recipes which use lentil flour - not! I relish the challenge!

Ooo, lentil bread, lentil crackers... whoa! peanut butter cookies! I will have to try those. Whoa, whoa! Even a 5-min chocolate mug cake recipe with lentil flour, jackpot!

Lastly, I am running 13.1 miles this weekend. For some annoying reason, if you tell people you are running a half marathon or a 10k or whatever, they think you are running a race far away with hundreds of people.

However, since there are no races of that distance in my area this weekend or any near by weekends, I'm running 13.1 miles myself and counting it as if I am doing a half marathon,
which technically I am.
So there.
After this run, I'm going to diversify my workouts and try something easier... like a sprint triathlon!

Anyway, I'm starting at 10am CDT and should finish around noon, so if you would like to cheer me on, please let me know. I'll give you the start/finish line and the route.

Perhaps someone can stand before the finish line and play the Rocky theme or Eye of the Tiger :)

Coping Mechanisms, Or How to Stay Afloat When Your Boat is Upside Down

Emotional upheaval sucks.

Whether a death, a break up, a move, an accident, or just some strong emotional event or change, coping with yourself and daily life afterwards can be a seriously hard endeavor. 

One of the things that I learned while working in a behavioral health unit at a hospital is that using negative coping methods after experiencing large life events can get you in a lot of trouble. (We all know what negative coping methods look like, but just in case you are playing dumb, drinking large amounts of alcohol after bad days is a negative coping method.)

So, now that my boat seems to have flipped upside down far out to sea, I've been looking into coping methods so that I don't just tread water near the site of the accident but get back to shore and start rebuilding. 

Here are a bunch of ones I have learned and some of which I am currently doing:

• Exercising regularly
• Eating regularly 
• Sleeping - which is sometimes really hard
• Praying - After all, I am an Episcopal seminarian
• Writing - pain seems to make me into a poet, and writing out how you honestly feel is cathartic 
• Replacement therapy - which is usually used for those addicted to nicotine, but in my case involves holding a rock instead of my phone
• Art therapy - working on art projects 
• Treating yourself with kindness and gentleness
• Setting straight what you can control in your life
• Baking - I usually do a lot of this one. And speaking of which, the pickles from the last post worked, but they do not quite taste as I was expecting them to taste. I think I am going to make another batch with a different recipe.

While looking up some new ways to keep swimming instead of treading water, I found the University of Minnesota's 101 Strategies For Coping With Stress page. 

Swimming in deep waters is not a new sport. Humans have been dealing with being thrown in the deep end for ages. While swimming in deep water really only means you can't touch the ground, it don't mean you can't enjoy the waters. It just takes a little more effort. 

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...