I wrote back to Hy Bender, pointing him to the new posts, warning him three times that they are "insane." "insane." He wrote back, of course, ticked that I had described our exchange in such detail ... though, I should add, very polite about it. Lesson learned, there. "Professional courtesy" is what he called what he wants.
Yes, I'm thrashing around like a fish out of water, trying to pass myself off as a professional. I keep bumping heads with these guys, the people who already are professionals. Every time I step on someone's toes, like this ... even more so, today ... I learn ... because I can actually feel what, before, was an abstract concept. I need to learn to act more carefully ... and smoothly.
But, I'm me. I'm wild. I also need to be wild.
No, Hy, this book is not going to be prepared in secret, it looks like. It's going to be published right here, in public, in a public process. I told one friend about your service, and he said "why do you need that? Publish it yourself." That's making more sense to me, really. I publish as I write. That's how I got this far, breaking out of a mired state in which everything I wrote stayed in notebooks.
This all relevant to health. It's relevant to macrobiotics, which, by the way, I still regard as a very important school ... of philosophy. In a way, and this is just coming to me, macrobiotics is the study of health, where medicine is the study of disease. Certainly, many schools of health have taken and do take this approach ... macrobiotics just came with an urbane sophistication out of the philosophical practices of the ancient East, and an infusion of the profundity of that monastic and dynastic history. It almost immediately went off the rails, really, but its elegance is not in question, and elegance is not for nothing.
This is the way of living a big life, for health ... let the exploration begin.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
crazy macrobiotics
You could also, of course, call this crazy macrobiotics. I long ago I decided to be very accommodating of my craziness ... and of the world's. It's the soft hands principle from tai-chi, as I interpret it.
I figure - and it has seemed to work for me - that, if I'm really causing problems, backing off will be easy. And I do pay attention to the possibility that I'm causing problems, and do things to try to adjust in advance ... without, as much as possible, constraining myself.
I figure - and it has seemed to work for me - that, if I'm really causing problems, backing off will be easy. And I do pay attention to the possibility that I'm causing problems, and do things to try to adjust in advance ... without, as much as possible, constraining myself.
oh, and, terrible!
After I had re-read the whole blog, I suddenly wondered if anyone had maybe commented. And I found the sweetest comment! Two years old, couldn't reach the person, so far. Sweet and terrible! So sorry, reader, and thank you so much.
two years later ...
I stopped updating my blogs. I just wasn't sure where to go next, I guess. Worked and worked trying other media, other approaches. Still, my flaming love for blogger remained. Started thinking again about how to use it to collect notes on assorted topics. Decided to start over, and planned to delete old blogs. But, thought I'd review them, first.
Was completely amazed I had written all this ... these posts on medicine (or "no medicine", as my teachers put it).
Two days later, saw Hy Bender ad on Facebook (go to News Feed or Home (?)). Made a very deliberate point of keeping track of it. Friday evening, sent him an e-mail. Half an hour later, I had a completely personal reply ... supportive and challenging. That's pretty cool.
Hy asked a couple of question: is it just about cancer? Had to think for a minute. After thinking for two days, now, answer is no. It's about health. Second question: what are my credentials. Don't usually think of myself as having any ... which might make my answer sort of interesting.
So, I'll take that up shortly. But first, this: was talking about this with friend Dallas Lynn. "What's macrobiotics?" Answered, in part (muddling around for what to say) ... More specifically, question was, are there foods you're not supposed to eat? Establishment macrobiotics had an endless list of them ... which, I say, is why the movement is so marginalized ... the whole idea of a list of foods to avoid contradicts the whole basic principle of the discipline! What is it about? It's about what to eat ... very broadly speaking.
"Well, what should we eat?"
"Eat foods of extreme quality."
"What's extreme quality? How do we recognize it?"
Here, then, is an example. People think cream is an unhealthy food. Establishment macrobiotic types would probably pale at the very suggestion of including it in a macrobiotic diet (but would recognize its consistency with the original dogma, and try to justify their position, saying, OK, cream might have a place, just not a big one). Well, I think cream is a very healthy food, that should be consumed (if desired) in fair abundance ... IN the right combinations with other foods. AND ... it should be cream of the very highest quality, for regular eating ... for maximum benefit and no side effects.
So, what's the very highest quality cream?
By the way, in the original writings on macrobiotics, George Ohsawa described I think 7 levels of knowledge for a practitioner. The lowest levels would be something like ignoramus ... knows nothing of nutrition, and can't tell what's good and what's bad, perhaps. Anyway, when you get to the highest levels, it's: gourmande, then gourmet, and, finally, "eats anything he or she likes". So, there's a little bit of a stigma on the gourmet, there. About that, I like to point out that, in the i-ching, when you reach the highest level, the next step is right back to the bottom. That means I can (in provocateur fashion) say that gourmet is really the place to be! And, yes, the cream I buy is a product for gourmets.
I buy cream that comes from Sonoma California. The cows graze in pastoral hills, which, in the morning, cannot be seen, because they are enveloped in mists, and I've seen the herd returning from the pastures in the afternoon, for the milking, a herdsman gently encouraging them. It's a family farm, an effort of love, and they ship milk and cream in returnable glass bottles. (Old fashioned is often a sign of extreme quality.)
I should say, here, why I say that cream is such a healthful food. I go so far as to say that cream is a superb food for heart health. The establishment (medical and macrobiotic), according to my theory, has it exactly backward! I should also say that I don't have evidence for this from the literature, or, if I do, it's pretty fragmentary. I do have the evidence of my own experience. I follow my own advice and use cream liberally ... and drinking and eating it feels great ... while I'm doing it, and all day long, every day, day after day, year after year. How's my heart? OK, I'm sort of a shut in, and getting out for exercise is something of a challenge for me. Moreover, I've recently resumed smoking, and more heavily than less so. Was the smoking ... and the cream ... affecting my wind? My theory was that it was really the lack of exercise affecting my wind. I theorized that, if I was going to hike ten miles, I could do so by starting nice and slow. My systems for elevated motility, my internal generators, would need some time to get up and running after a layoff.
Voting day provided an opportunity to test this. I set out for the polling place, four miles away, trudging along (quite happily). In the end, it was a ten mile round trip, and yes, I was a little fatigued, as I made the final push for home ... and rather proud of myself.
(I contend that tobacco is a food, but that's another story.) (I also smoke extreme quality tobacco, identified using the principles I'm working to describe here.)
But back to why cream is good for the heart ... Milk, cheese, butter, and, in a way, especially cream, from lovingly pastured cows, sheep, goat, llamas, camels ... just to be thorough ... are the essence of pasture ... the essence of sun, blue sky, white cloud, sea mist, oak grove, wildflower, mineral earth ... and of slow, gentle, timid herbivorous mammal. They are packed with vitamins. That's what I think. No, I have nothing (except vague impressions) from the literature to confirm this ... but I'm pretty confident it could be confirmed.
But I also said cream should be consumed in the right combination with other foods. Here's an example: I've taken to using cream in my coffee, exclusively. It just tastes so so good ... which is a real sign ... a key sign of real goodness. COFFEE!? I hope this accumulation of horrors for the old school macro-geeks doesn't kill somebody. Coffee was regarded - for no apparent reason, other than prejudice - as an absolute no-no. Oh, they'd indulge occasionally, but to advocate it as a healthy food? Horrors!
Now, of course, I want to drink coffee of the most superb quality. What is it? I go up to the farmer's market, which I reach on foot in ten minutes, and which is small and an effort of love and run by youthful idealists (but in a practical, sensible way) (and which is really a corner grocery - a really neat concept that this guy put into place recently), and buy from a bulk bin, the darkest, charcoaliest roast they have, whole beans, fair trade, locally roasted, which I pack in a paper sack (which I bring myself, and re-use over and over, so it's stained and oily, but actually, it's still clean and lovely). And, every morning, I grind it by hand, in my funky, twenty year old Turkish mill ... 300 turns ... then drip brew it through a brown Melita filter in a clay infuser ... not plastic ... (which I had to shop for in Japan) ... into a clay pitcher (Ikea) ... and put it in one or another of the beautiful cups I've been collecting ...
In review, here are the elements: dark roast, whole beans, paper bag, local store / shop on foot, fair trade, locally roasted, hand ground, funky grinder, old, classic stainless kettle on the burner, tap water (healthiest option), clay pot and infuser, brown filter, beautiful cup, cream ... cigarette.
(To their credit, the macrobiotics are famous for allowing smoking, by the way. I criticize them, but they're family.)
Ah, I meant to add that it isn't necessary or practical to do all of this all the time - nor do I survive on coffee and cream and cigarettes, of course ... or just on food, for that matter ... it's just an illustration of principle, principle that applies to life, all of it. The point is, if you are working on this kind of discipline, you are living macrobiotically, and that, so say I, is healthy.
Was completely amazed I had written all this ... these posts on medicine (or "no medicine", as my teachers put it).
Two days later, saw Hy Bender ad on Facebook (go to News Feed or Home (?)). Made a very deliberate point of keeping track of it. Friday evening, sent him an e-mail. Half an hour later, I had a completely personal reply ... supportive and challenging. That's pretty cool.
Hy asked a couple of question: is it just about cancer? Had to think for a minute. After thinking for two days, now, answer is no. It's about health. Second question: what are my credentials. Don't usually think of myself as having any ... which might make my answer sort of interesting.
So, I'll take that up shortly. But first, this: was talking about this with friend Dallas Lynn. "What's macrobiotics?" Answered, in part (muddling around for what to say) ... More specifically, question was, are there foods you're not supposed to eat? Establishment macrobiotics had an endless list of them ... which, I say, is why the movement is so marginalized ... the whole idea of a list of foods to avoid contradicts the whole basic principle of the discipline! What is it about? It's about what to eat ... very broadly speaking.
"Well, what should we eat?"
"Eat foods of extreme quality."
"What's extreme quality? How do we recognize it?"
Here, then, is an example. People think cream is an unhealthy food. Establishment macrobiotic types would probably pale at the very suggestion of including it in a macrobiotic diet (but would recognize its consistency with the original dogma, and try to justify their position, saying, OK, cream might have a place, just not a big one). Well, I think cream is a very healthy food, that should be consumed (if desired) in fair abundance ... IN the right combinations with other foods. AND ... it should be cream of the very highest quality, for regular eating ... for maximum benefit and no side effects.
So, what's the very highest quality cream?
By the way, in the original writings on macrobiotics, George Ohsawa described I think 7 levels of knowledge for a practitioner. The lowest levels would be something like ignoramus ... knows nothing of nutrition, and can't tell what's good and what's bad, perhaps. Anyway, when you get to the highest levels, it's: gourmande, then gourmet, and, finally, "eats anything he or she likes". So, there's a little bit of a stigma on the gourmet, there. About that, I like to point out that, in the i-ching, when you reach the highest level, the next step is right back to the bottom. That means I can (in provocateur fashion) say that gourmet is really the place to be! And, yes, the cream I buy is a product for gourmets.
I buy cream that comes from Sonoma California. The cows graze in pastoral hills, which, in the morning, cannot be seen, because they are enveloped in mists, and I've seen the herd returning from the pastures in the afternoon, for the milking, a herdsman gently encouraging them. It's a family farm, an effort of love, and they ship milk and cream in returnable glass bottles. (Old fashioned is often a sign of extreme quality.)
I should say, here, why I say that cream is such a healthful food. I go so far as to say that cream is a superb food for heart health. The establishment (medical and macrobiotic), according to my theory, has it exactly backward! I should also say that I don't have evidence for this from the literature, or, if I do, it's pretty fragmentary. I do have the evidence of my own experience. I follow my own advice and use cream liberally ... and drinking and eating it feels great ... while I'm doing it, and all day long, every day, day after day, year after year. How's my heart? OK, I'm sort of a shut in, and getting out for exercise is something of a challenge for me. Moreover, I've recently resumed smoking, and more heavily than less so. Was the smoking ... and the cream ... affecting my wind? My theory was that it was really the lack of exercise affecting my wind. I theorized that, if I was going to hike ten miles, I could do so by starting nice and slow. My systems for elevated motility, my internal generators, would need some time to get up and running after a layoff.
Voting day provided an opportunity to test this. I set out for the polling place, four miles away, trudging along (quite happily). In the end, it was a ten mile round trip, and yes, I was a little fatigued, as I made the final push for home ... and rather proud of myself.
(I contend that tobacco is a food, but that's another story.) (I also smoke extreme quality tobacco, identified using the principles I'm working to describe here.)
But back to why cream is good for the heart ... Milk, cheese, butter, and, in a way, especially cream, from lovingly pastured cows, sheep, goat, llamas, camels ... just to be thorough ... are the essence of pasture ... the essence of sun, blue sky, white cloud, sea mist, oak grove, wildflower, mineral earth ... and of slow, gentle, timid herbivorous mammal. They are packed with vitamins. That's what I think. No, I have nothing (except vague impressions) from the literature to confirm this ... but I'm pretty confident it could be confirmed.
But I also said cream should be consumed in the right combination with other foods. Here's an example: I've taken to using cream in my coffee, exclusively. It just tastes so so good ... which is a real sign ... a key sign of real goodness. COFFEE!? I hope this accumulation of horrors for the old school macro-geeks doesn't kill somebody. Coffee was regarded - for no apparent reason, other than prejudice - as an absolute no-no. Oh, they'd indulge occasionally, but to advocate it as a healthy food? Horrors!
Now, of course, I want to drink coffee of the most superb quality. What is it? I go up to the farmer's market, which I reach on foot in ten minutes, and which is small and an effort of love and run by youthful idealists (but in a practical, sensible way) (and which is really a corner grocery - a really neat concept that this guy put into place recently), and buy from a bulk bin, the darkest, charcoaliest roast they have, whole beans, fair trade, locally roasted, which I pack in a paper sack (which I bring myself, and re-use over and over, so it's stained and oily, but actually, it's still clean and lovely). And, every morning, I grind it by hand, in my funky, twenty year old Turkish mill ... 300 turns ... then drip brew it through a brown Melita filter in a clay infuser ... not plastic ... (which I had to shop for in Japan) ... into a clay pitcher (Ikea) ... and put it in one or another of the beautiful cups I've been collecting ...
In review, here are the elements: dark roast, whole beans, paper bag, local store / shop on foot, fair trade, locally roasted, hand ground, funky grinder, old, classic stainless kettle on the burner, tap water (healthiest option), clay pot and infuser, brown filter, beautiful cup, cream ... cigarette.
(To their credit, the macrobiotics are famous for allowing smoking, by the way. I criticize them, but they're family.)
Ah, I meant to add that it isn't necessary or practical to do all of this all the time - nor do I survive on coffee and cream and cigarettes, of course ... or just on food, for that matter ... it's just an illustration of principle, principle that applies to life, all of it. The point is, if you are working on this kind of discipline, you are living macrobiotically, and that, so say I, is healthy.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
(briefly) on speaking with doctors
I think, if you propose the kind of action I'm recommending, including looking for signs of change as detailed, you can find doctors who will work with you.
What might such a joint effort look like? You would, together, outline a plan of action, then you would carefully record your actions (exercises you complete), and your sensations. The doctors might very well also be able to refer you to experts in these methods (most of them still to be discussed here).
I note that in the medical literature (see link in earlier post), this is called complimentary therapy. That means it has a recognized role. I think there's information on it in the medical resources referred to.
Excuse me, I've been procrastinating. Please stay posted for detailed therapy recommendations.
What might such a joint effort look like? You would, together, outline a plan of action, then you would carefully record your actions (exercises you complete), and your sensations. The doctors might very well also be able to refer you to experts in these methods (most of them still to be discussed here).
I note that in the medical literature (see link in earlier post), this is called complimentary therapy. That means it has a recognized role. I think there's information on it in the medical resources referred to.
Excuse me, I've been procrastinating. Please stay posted for detailed therapy recommendations.
response to questions
Test read by my critical, skeptical (but inquiring) editor. She adamantly insists on certain questions, particularly, is it safe to follow my advice over the medical prescription?
After considerable thought, I arrive at an answer - not to the question of whether it is safe, but how it is safe. It calls for a reassertion, consolidation, and clarification of what I said on the subject earlier.
My prescription calls upon you to perform certain exercises (two already listed, more to follow). Then, each time your perform them, and also throughout the day, pay attention to sensations in relevant areas of body and life. Does the area in question feel refreshed, invigorated, more supple, strengthened, more comfortable, more alive? Those kinds of sensations will tell you that the exercises are working.
Hypothetically, if a part of your body feels comfortable, vigorous, supple, and strong, it is healthy, and disease of any kind in that area is out of the question.
Note that a healthy condition needs maintenance, so a sensation of health is not a recommendation to pay no further attention. Again, the exercises I'm prescribing for disease are really the exact same exercises I prescribe for maintaining good health. By following these prescriptions, you are learning the healthy habits that healthy people practice. Having learned them, keep them up. (Note that using your own senses, instinct, and intellect to decide specifically what you need to do at any particular time is one of those healthy habits.)
Two new questions/ideas:
The approach just described can help you talk to doctors. I'll write about that in the next post.
And, what about the case in question, where there aren't any physical symptoms (discomfort, loss of energy, anything at all)? You are looking for the same sensations of vigour listed above, and the context: you are applying the same prescriptions I have described, and will be describing. Also, the same ideas apply when speaking with your doctors, r.e. the next post.
After considerable thought, I arrive at an answer - not to the question of whether it is safe, but how it is safe. It calls for a reassertion, consolidation, and clarification of what I said on the subject earlier.
My prescription calls upon you to perform certain exercises (two already listed, more to follow). Then, each time your perform them, and also throughout the day, pay attention to sensations in relevant areas of body and life. Does the area in question feel refreshed, invigorated, more supple, strengthened, more comfortable, more alive? Those kinds of sensations will tell you that the exercises are working.
Hypothetically, if a part of your body feels comfortable, vigorous, supple, and strong, it is healthy, and disease of any kind in that area is out of the question.
Note that a healthy condition needs maintenance, so a sensation of health is not a recommendation to pay no further attention. Again, the exercises I'm prescribing for disease are really the exact same exercises I prescribe for maintaining good health. By following these prescriptions, you are learning the healthy habits that healthy people practice. Having learned them, keep them up. (Note that using your own senses, instinct, and intellect to decide specifically what you need to do at any particular time is one of those healthy habits.)
Two new questions/ideas:
The approach just described can help you talk to doctors. I'll write about that in the next post.
And, what about the case in question, where there aren't any physical symptoms (discomfort, loss of energy, anything at all)? You are looking for the same sensations of vigour listed above, and the context: you are applying the same prescriptions I have described, and will be describing. Also, the same ideas apply when speaking with your doctors, r.e. the next post.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
author's status
Since I am my principle test subject, I think it might be best to describe my own condition now.
(to be written ...)
(to be written ...)
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