Home Cooking Cited as Cause of Diabetes

Many of you may know that I do food demonstrations for the Fairfax food bank as part of my internship. One of the main reasons that I do this is that I think it changes the atmosphere of the food bank. For some people, the need to ask for help at a food bank brings with it a sense of shame. American society teaches us that asking for help means that we're somehow not good enough. We're expected to be able to take care of ourselves. Sometimes, this idea is enough to keep people away who are in real need.

By having food demonstrations, going to the food bank becomes more like a trip to Trader Joe's or Costco. It adds an element of fun and people really look forward to seeing what's cooking each week. There are practical reasons as well. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what to do with the food that comes every week. I try to cook foods that people wouldn't necessarily think of making, like latkes or roasted cabbage with cream sauce. It's important that people actually use the food that they get or there's no point, and if people are able to create something delicious, I think it also helps with self esteem. People get a real sense of accomplishment when they are successful with a new recipe and that feeling can extend to other areas of their lives.

Sometimes, we get a ton of one thing, say cauliflower, and so I cook something using that ingredient to sort of push the item. People are more likely to take food items if they have an idea of what they can do with them.

The reason I'm telling you all of this is because I had a meeting today in which I was told that I should no longer use sugar in my cooking because of the high rate of diabetes in Fairfax. To give you perspective, the typical amount of sugar in one of my dishes would be something along the lines of 1 tablespoon of sugar to 2 heads of broccoli, 5 carrots and an onion. Ratios like this are not going to cause diabetes in anyone anytime soon. Sugar is an important part of cooking. It's important to have a balance of flavors in dishes in order to make them taste good. If people have the tools to make nutritious food that also tastes good, they will be less likely to eat fast food or processed foods, which are the actual cause of diabetes.

I don't understand this reactionary stance that people take when they think something is a problem. Are a few men drinking away their family's savings? Prohibition is the answer! Unemployment on the rise? Then legislation making illegal to help undocumented people what you need! Diabetes becoming a problem? Make nutritious home-cooked food not taste as good, increasing the allure of foods that are the actual problem.

Does this kind of thinking actually ever solve anything? Maybe we need to go back to electroshock therapy and lobotomies to help people with mental problems.

Why is it always the people with the loudest voices that have the power? Why are we so afraid of logic and reason? Perhaps I have become a victim of the fallout surrounding Paula Dean and her announcement that she has diabetes.

This world is just way too confusing sometimes. We focus so much on petty little things, like our disagreements over whether or not same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, or that 1 tablespoon of sugar in an entire pot of food that we forget that every 4 seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies from poverty. There are wars, murder & rape happening all over the world every day, and the number of people that don't have clean water to drink is mind boggling. Did you know that we as a human race are on schedule to have a severe water shortage in about 50 years?

Wake up, people! There are real problems in the world, and the more we focus on little inconsequential issues, the less effective we are at following Jesus Christ's instructions to heal the sick and feed the hungry. I don't see God acting in these kinds of behaviors, and yet I am forced to deal with them because my voice is too small.

I've decided to start blogging again to be a small voice of reason amidst the cacophony of noise out there in the world, so expect to see one of these about every week or so. It may not make much of a difference, but I think I have a responsibility to try.

In the meantime, I'm going to the store to buy some stevia.

Art & Chapel

We had a great chapel service today that involved using our creativity to worship God. The congregation came together to create art as a way of worshipping, and we ended up with a couple of neat pieces that we'll be able to display at the school.

Here's what the chancel looked like before we started:

Our palate. The projected consisted of gluing scraps of cloth and written prayers to two canvases.

The works in progress.

The chancel after the service.

Finished art piece #1

Finished art piece #2

We did this as part of our weekly Worship Lab series, where we try to explore different ways of worshipping God in chapel on Thursdays. So far, we've had a drum circle...

a serviced based on the Iona community in Scotland, and a service where we sang songs written by one of the students. This Worship Lab idea has really forced us to stretch ourselves when it comes to doing weekly worship services, and It has been really fun! I look forward to seeing what else we will do in the coming semester!

Theological Poetry

I had to write a poem for my UCC History & Theology class today. Part of the readings were a bunch of poems written by Anne Bradstreet, a 17th century poet. I had never written a poem using a bunch of "thee's" and "thou's" before, and I had Anne Bradstreet on the brain, so I decided to give it a shot. Here's what I came up with...

I Hear Thy Calling Whilst I Sleep

I hear thy calling whilst I sleep,

Thy voice so soft it touchest me,

Whilst in a quiet slumber deep,

And lest for thee alone I be.

Thine work wouldst thou to make mine own,

And to make it mine what joy 'twould be,

For on this sphere thine heart was sown,

And grows it well for aught to see.

But covers o'er the commons eye,

And muffled be their ear,

'Tis naught but lace to mask a sigh,

And naught to cover truth but fear.

So call me now, to spread thine love,

To move the cloth from curtain'd eye,

To let shine thy light from high above,

Thy truths upon their heads shall lie.

And swell it must in portion grow,

'Till all the world does see thee true,

And every voice cry high and low,

For thine works of glory all shalt do.

I heard thine call in midst of night,

And 'fore 'twas not thine life for me,

But heedest I thine word of light,

And now have peace and love in thee.

Pour Painting

I started a new monthly art class for kids, as part of my internship at Fairfax Community Church. Our first class was this past Sunday, and we did a "Pour Painting" or "Tall Painting" art project to kick off the program. You basically take different colors of paint and then pour them on top of a pedestal that's been anchored onto some kind of platform.

I saw this first on YouTube and thought it would be a great first project for the class. Here's the video by artist Holton Rower:

It was really fun and the kids had a blast.

Next month will be "The Art of Storytelling," where we'll incorporate visuals and dance in telling the story of the Israelites wandering in the desert.

Abraham Lincoln's Profile in the Mountains

If you ever find yourself on the 23 freeway driving down towards the 101, you may notice the profile of a pretty well-known United States president in the mountain range in front of you. I remember many a morning, driving down this freeway on my way to work, seeing the profile, and saying, "Morning, Abe!" It became a favorite ritual of mine, and I would always try to point it out if there were people in the car with me.

I wondered if other people had ever noticed this before, and so I tried to do a Google search, but I came up empty-handed. So, since I think this profile in the mountain thing is pretty cool, I went for a drive today and tried to find a spot where I could take a good picture of it. Now, a picture cannot compare to the real thing, and I don't have the best camera in the world, but I think the pictures came out okay.

For some reason, the pictures came out kind of flat, so it seems like Abe is turning away from you, but I still think it looks like him.

What do you think?

Liturgical Art

I just finished putting up the liturgical art for the season at Fairfax Community Church, where I'm doing one of my internship. The pastor, Rev. Katharine Harts, wanted some kind of structure that we could hang things off of, sort of like a wooden grid, but not ugly like a grid. As I was perusing the items at Goodwill for inspiration, I had the idea that a large branch would be perfect! But, it had to be the right size and have a pleasing shape. Where to find such a branch?

The next time I ran into Katharine, I told her about my idea, and she told me that a moving van had just hit one of the trees in the parking lot the day before and broken off one of the branches! She took me outside to go look at it, and they were perfect! There was a nice big one that we could hang in the middle of the chancel, and two slightly smaller ones we could hang off to the sides. We figured out when the moving van must have hit the tree, and we realized that it was right when the idea had come to me to use branches! It's one of those weird coincidences that I have a hard time believing is just a coincidence. Sometimes, God has a strange sense of humor.

Anyway, I finished hanging everything up today, and I think it turned out very nice! The pictures don't do that great of a job conveying how the artwork occupies the space, so if you want to see what it really looks like, stop by for a Sunday morning worship service sometime this month!

I'm Looking

I'm looking for you,

But you're hiding.

It would be one thing if you knew you were doing it,

But you don't,

Because you don't know that I'm looking.

You don't know that I'm looking,

Because I haven't told you,

Because when you were there,

I hadn't realized that I'd found you.

You were there,

And then you weren't.

But, for a moment,

You were there.

And, I wish I had known then,

That I was looking for you,

But I didn't,

Because I hadn't told myself,

That I was looking,

Because that would have been too scary.

Not that I'd know what to say if I found you.

"Hi," maybe,

Or, "So nice to see you again."

"Such nice weather we're having today."

Because, it's important that you don't know,

That I've been looking,

Because I'm afraid that is would change somehow.

It's the coward's way out,

It's why you don't know,

And why you may never,

Ever,

Know,

That I've been looking.