The random thoughts & events in the life of an animal-loving, peace-loving vegetarian.
I can't promise to write regularly. And I can't promise that it will be interesting when I do.
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.
We recently saw the movie Rendition with Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, and Alan Arkin. If you haven't seen it I recommend that you do; all Americans should see it. You may think it has an anti-American slant due to a few less than sympathetic U.S. politicians and the viewer's immediate empathy for the man taken and his wife and family, but it really doesn't. The movie portrays several angles of this complicated issue of what to do with someone you think might be a terrorist.
Three points stand out for me: - is it right to sacrifice the rights of one individual for the sake of others? - how far are you willing to go to obtain information that may possibly save the lives of others? (think Milgram experiment) - can you even trust the information you get from someone who was tortured? And assuming you can answer these, how does a country as a whole, a country with citizens with vastly different beliefs about what is 'right' and 'wrong', come to agreement on policies for how to deal with a possible potential terrorist?
For me, the answer lies in the oath doctor's take: "First do no harm." I don't believe that hurting Human A in order to perhaps protect Humans A, B, and C is ethical. What kind of a person can be comfortable with violence of this sort for a possible payoff? Is violence/torture justified for any payoff? How much of a payoff would make it acceptable? I believe it's this domineering, imperialist attitude we have that prompts those less powerful to lash out at us in the first place. Add to that the fact that much of the information obtained through torture is untrue and unhelpful. The bottom line is, this brutal practice is unethical. Our nation likes to think itself kind and good. We are, sometimes, kind and good... we should do more of those things instead.
As a side note, Saeed is teaching a course on emotion and has decided to use this movie with his students. After we watched the movie we listened to the director discuss the issues involved in this story and one of the comments he made was about the complexity of emotions that are experienced by the characters. It'll be a great teaching tool.
After not going to Panera Bread for years, we went again last weekend. We'd actually meant to eat at Earth Fare but arrived too late and the bar was being debarred as we walked in.
What does a vegetarian choose at Panera's? Our choice this time was Black Bean Soup and a Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich.
The sandwich is cucumbers, tomatoes, red peppers, lettuce, red onions, feta cheese, cilantro hummus and vinaigrette on whole rye (I chose that over the tomato basil bread.) Yum.
SOMEBODY likes lemon juice in his soup. He tainted his daughters during their childhood and they like lemon juice in their soups too. My mother always taught me to not say derogatory comments about someone enjoying their food, so I'll keep my mouth shut. :-)
Since April (and my Earth Day posts) I have made an effort to look at the packaging my purchases come in.
As convenient as pump soap is it comes in plastic bottles. Even refilling from larger bottles still involves buying plastic bottles. Below you see the difference between that and the thin plastic wrap in which some bar soap is wrapped. (As a side note Shirin pointed out to me that Bath & Body pump soap has gelatin in it; I try not to buy or eat things with gelatin as an ingredient since it is derived from collagen found in the bones, cartilage, connective tissue, and skin of animals, traditionally cows. Most commercially produced gelatin nowadays is produced from pig skin. That's kind of a yucky thing to smear all over your hands, isn't it?! Needless to say I will not buy this soap again anyway.)
Below is an assortment of laundry products. I've decided to do away with the non-chlorine bleach altogether, so once that's used up I just won't purchase it again. I've used both the Ecos liquid detergent and the Biokleen powdered detergent and found that the Biokleen will be my choice. It washes just as well if not better than the Ecos and the packaging leaves a smaller carbon footprint; both can be recycled but the chip board is better.
Below is my coworker's son with their rescue dog, Chili. This dog has consistently been the most manageable, quirky, lovable, fun dog! One day last winter Chili just sort of showed up, cold and hungry. They kindly brought her in and took good care of her.
A few years ago they purchased (lots of $$$) two chocolate labs with papers from a breeder. These dogs have been destructive and a thorn in her side. Granted, this family was not suited for two huge labs who want to go running around. They've been fenced in and pretty much ignored, so really, it's not the dogs' fault. I think my coworker is finding them a new home with someone who will let them out and run off some of that energy. Kudos to her for that.
I pretty much stay away from politics on my blog. Political wranglings are usually contentious and lead only to anger and bad feelings all 'round, but I think you'll enjoy the following article from the opinion page of The Independent, a newspaper in the UK.
It starts out... Something strange has happened in America in the nine months since Barack Obama was elected. It has best been summarised by the comedian Bill Maher: "The Democrats have moved to the right, and the Republicans have moved to a mental hospital." If you want to read the rest (and I wish you would) here's the link.
For someone who works hard all week the weekends are supposed to provide some respite. The problem is, the weekend is also the only time to catch up on chores too big to get done during the week. DEPRESSING! So, we always try to mix in some fun with the work.
First the work:
Layli watches from the safety of the stairs as Saeed power washes the exterior of the house near the dining room window. It's always interesting to me which cat finds a particular sound frightening. The power washer was very noisy and boomed on the wall. Layli was fine with it but Lupe had to hide. During thunderstorms Lupe is the only 'upstairs cat' to be seen and Layli is hiding. What are they thinking?
It doesn't take long in this rainforest climate to grow some pretty interesting stuff on the siding. Fortunately the power washer got it all off.
Closeup of the flowers on the above bush.
While Saeed cleans outside I clean inside. Before I can vacum I have to put up all the cat toys and furniture. Obi gets excited by the 'new' scratch post up on the coffee table.
After we were done it was time for dinner at the Saigon Bistro in Charlotte, our favorite restaurant. On the drive home we noticed some interesting and beautiful lighting as the sun hid behind the clouds.
At some point during the weekend we also went to Paneras for a meal of black bean soup and Meditaranean veggie sandwiches and reading. Saeed was reading The Human Zoo: A Zoologists's Study of the Urban Animal by Desmond Morris. I was reading Border Passage: From Cairo to America -- A Woman's Journey by Leila Ahmed, my next book for book club.
I guess there's no chance of our culture going to a four-day work week, but I think we'd all be healthier for it. I never feel rested or recreatationed enough before it's time to go back to work again. Saeed starts fall semester tomorrow so his three-month 'weekend' is over too. Oh well... we have jobs we like and that's a good thing.
I will let Maher do all the talking. Hang through the first two-plus minutes; the part I particularly enjoy is the 'New Rule' pertaining to Barack Obama, beginning at about 2 min 11 sec on the video and continuing to the end.
This is what I see when I look out the second floor window at work at the new office:
This area used to be nothing but farmland. I sometimes look at this house and try to imagine the people who dreaded our building going up across the street.
I'm not sure what they use this barn for. I see no animals near it or produce being sold there. Have we interrupted their lives?
Though I ponder the effect of 'progress' from their point of view, I enjoy looking out this window at the pastoral scene. At least if they get sick they can just walk across the street!
Who knew she could write so well?
