Weekend Long Reads
Jan. 18th, 2020 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pshaw_raven Seeking the Lost Art of Growing Old With Intention - This is an older piece from Outside Magazine on Bernd Heinrich, who is not only a record-holding ultra-runner but a naturalist who has published some fascinating and highly readable pieces on Raven behavior. Obviously I am not in any way biased about this, wink wink. And obviously, he lives the dream in his rural cabin, surrounded by the natural world. I always aspired to a Thoreau-like existence as well. I mean, not camping out in Emerson's backyard, but settling into a quiet, routine observation of nature, season to season, until I'm able to read clearly the story being told in every ditch, thicket, and field. I feel like I'm beginning to develop that kind of observational ability, too. I know which trees change when fall approaches, even if in Florida we have precious little between "roasting" and "freezing." Which birds will migrate, which will stay year-round, which flowers will begin blooming first when spring approaches, and which bear is going to shit in my driveway.
To Feel the Awe of Living, Learn to Live With Terror and Wonder - This may be a bit of an over-simplification of this essay's point, but it brings to mind something I was reading a couple of years ago that's become basically a guideline for life for me. "Be willing to do what other people won't, and you'll be able to live how other people can't." In other words, do hard stuff, be willing to put in the work, show up every day, and you'll do epic shit. And there's going to be incredibly difficult things that happen, whatever it is you're pursuing. You'll be scared, you'll feel deeply alone, even depressed, angry, and like none of it's worth it. And I think, in the "transformation stories" we see so often now, those realities get glossed over in favor of The Change itself, cue the lights and music. So it's easy to believe that someone became the person they are without the blood, sweat, and tears. But that does a huge disservice to how life really goes. Shit hurts, but it's necessary. Ever met someone who never really had any hard or scary times in their lives? Didn't you want to just punch them in the face? Yeah.
How Energy Bars Became America's Favorite Snack Food - I'm certainly not above eating an energy bar as a meal replacement. Typically I make my own at home, mainly because I can, and also because I can control the amount of sugar, and because it's sometimes not easy to find good vegan ones. That's becoming less of a problem, though, as I start seeing more openly vegan (as opposed to accidentally vegan) snacks in grocery stores and such. My only problem with my homemade bars is that I can't take them out on a run. I haven't figured out how to pack them, and I assume if I'm going to take a stab at ultrarunning I'm going to have to figure this out. I guess I could buy something, but I like my little recipe - it tastes pretty good, and depending on whether I use vanilla extract or almond, it can be "just chocolatey" or have a more sophisticated, amaretto like flavor. But I've got the nutrition dialed in - fats, complex carbs, simple sugars, etc. Fiber, but not too much. Even for me - someone who routinely eats a very high-fiber diet - too much fiber on race day can lead to ... predicaments. But then, towards the end of long races I'm shoveling stuff in my mouth without being too critical of what it is. Which is how I've ended up chugging beer and shooting vodka, LOL.
To Feel the Awe of Living, Learn to Live With Terror and Wonder - This may be a bit of an over-simplification of this essay's point, but it brings to mind something I was reading a couple of years ago that's become basically a guideline for life for me. "Be willing to do what other people won't, and you'll be able to live how other people can't." In other words, do hard stuff, be willing to put in the work, show up every day, and you'll do epic shit. And there's going to be incredibly difficult things that happen, whatever it is you're pursuing. You'll be scared, you'll feel deeply alone, even depressed, angry, and like none of it's worth it. And I think, in the "transformation stories" we see so often now, those realities get glossed over in favor of The Change itself, cue the lights and music. So it's easy to believe that someone became the person they are without the blood, sweat, and tears. But that does a huge disservice to how life really goes. Shit hurts, but it's necessary. Ever met someone who never really had any hard or scary times in their lives? Didn't you want to just punch them in the face? Yeah.
How Energy Bars Became America's Favorite Snack Food - I'm certainly not above eating an energy bar as a meal replacement. Typically I make my own at home, mainly because I can, and also because I can control the amount of sugar, and because it's sometimes not easy to find good vegan ones. That's becoming less of a problem, though, as I start seeing more openly vegan (as opposed to accidentally vegan) snacks in grocery stores and such. My only problem with my homemade bars is that I can't take them out on a run. I haven't figured out how to pack them, and I assume if I'm going to take a stab at ultrarunning I'm going to have to figure this out. I guess I could buy something, but I like my little recipe - it tastes pretty good, and depending on whether I use vanilla extract or almond, it can be "just chocolatey" or have a more sophisticated, amaretto like flavor. But I've got the nutrition dialed in - fats, complex carbs, simple sugars, etc. Fiber, but not too much. Even for me - someone who routinely eats a very high-fiber diet - too much fiber on race day can lead to ... predicaments. But then, towards the end of long races I'm shoveling stuff in my mouth without being too critical of what it is. Which is how I've ended up chugging beer and shooting vodka, LOL.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-18 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-21 05:27 pm (UTC)...is this based on a true story?
That comment in the bar article about the "the snackification of the way we eat" is a bit dystopian. It reminds me of an article I read about mail ingredient services like Blue Apron showing that Americans really do want to cook and sit around a table together and have family dinners. The problem isn't lack of desire or lack of cooking ability--it's lack of time due to incompatible work schedule, overtime, and everything else.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-24 07:46 pm (UTC)There was another article I read but didn't link to talking about free time and the lack thereof. It cited Parkinson's Law - that work expands to fill the time available - and was questioning why, when we have so much technology that could potentially free us to do other things, do we continue 'working' so much? Many people in America still work a 40-hour week, despite only accomplishing maybe 3 hours of actual work each day. Housewives put in 52-hour weeks when they don't really need to. No actual conclusions were drawn, it was more to point out that we seem to occupy a lot of our time with busy-ness. So it sort of made me think that in the face of that work load, and the pressure some people may be under due to family or social obligations, maybe they feel like energy bars are a good time-saver. I don't know exactly where I'm going with this.
But I do think if people had more time to cook, they would. I don't think everyone needs to be putting multiple course meals requiring hours of prep on the table every night, but it's satisfying to stir up a few ingredients and make something tasty, and not everyone gets to experience that.