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The Waking
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I cannot go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree, but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
--Theodore Roethke
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Joy's Updates - Straight from the Horse's Mouth.
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Friday, June 27, 2003
New Food Fears
My cousin Sally and I were banned from cooking sausage for the family Christmas breakfast after one time. We have a big, traditional Southern breakfast of good-tasting fat and cholesterol - country ham, red-eye gravy, biscuits, smoked sausage, eggs, rice, and homemade strawberry preserves (by Mother). Then a year later we do it again. The reason they won't let Sally and me cook the sausage is that one of the lessons we learned in elementary school was branded into our brains. We might not have paid attention to many things going on around us or retained knowledge that would have helped us out later on, but we did learn about trichinosis and learned to fear it forever. We were convinced that any atom of undercooked pork would kill us in a slow, lingering, and painful death. The horror of it all! So we cooked the sausage patties to hard pellets resembling the consistency and taste of hockey pucks. We were nothing if not thorough and only reinforced overcooking by being in charge of it together. Our minds immediately went to the worst case scenario without passing GO or collecting $200.
Later on I added fear of salmonella to my list. I didn't learn much about it in school (or was drawing or trying to talk to someone during that lesson), so it didn't have the impact that trichinosis did. I vaguely recall hearing something about it but would never have eaten snow cream, licked the cake batter from the beaters, savored raw cookie dough, or cooked eggs-over-medium into adulthood if I'd known much about it. All it took was an off-hand remark by a co-worker to cause me check labels to see if real raw eggs are in bought chocolate chip cookie dough or not because I still like it. Then I started worrying about the effects those raw eggs might have had and wondered about those body builders who drank concoctions with raw eggs and all kinds of strange ingredients added to them. Sometimes they just put raw eggs in a glass and drank them. Ugh! That always grossed me out to think of it. I've always hated milk and could barely watch people drink it - still makes me shudder and cringe.
Now I have a new food fear. On that food show on NPR last weekend (Talking About Food?) someone called in to ask about green potatoes. This was totally new information for me. It happens from exposure to sunlight and is toxic. Apparently the solanine is stored and builds up in the body. I don't store my potatoes in the direct sunlight and they do get air; however, they are not stored in ideal conditions.
This leads me to wonder how many toxins I've ingested over a lifetime from all kinds of sources. I've decided that depending on who or what we pay attention to, nothing is good for us - water, air, food, everything! So many worries, so little time!
11:21:00 AM
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