waking up from a long, too long, sleep.

Has anyone noticed the Corn Refiners Association ads lately, touting that "High Fructose Corn Syrup" is okay in moderation?

THEY MADE ME FURIOUS. as i'm sure you can imagine.

All you have to do is read the Omnivore's Dilemma to find out why. Or watch a documentary like Future of Food. I've also heard King Corn is good but have yet to see it. I think these ads have been out for a while now, but as I don't even have cable television because it's garbage, it took me over a month to see it elsewhere.

Ads like this make me even more afraid for the state of our country, but at least our governmental corruption is becoming more and more transparent. Am I paranoid, or preparing? I'd like to think ... preparing.

I want to do all I can to help introduce seasonal, local eating not only more to myself (though I have zero percent HFCS in my diet, admitting to the once or twice a year can of coke), but to low-income communities where fresh organic fruits and vegetables are scarce to nil, but where fast food restaurants abound by the baker's dozen. and, as michael pollan will tell you, that 99 cent mcdonald's hamburger is not cheap when you get under the bun and really look at the chain behind that pretty yellow wrapper. This is why I've signed up to volunteer at a local sustainable farm that teaches all children, even inner-city/underprivileged youth, about growing their own food. It's an excuse for me to learn, too. I mean, I was a "food comes from the supermarket" kid during the 1980s. In the microwave era. The era of margarine and mcdonald's. Enough is enough. I'm hoping to join a co-op for my year-round fruits and veggies, as I can't at this time have my own garden. The food will be produced locally.

These ads have really stuck in my craw for a while now, and I've been itching to write about all my thoughts that have stemmed from seeing such blatant lies being frosted onto the general american consciousness. literally, frosted. like all the fake icings we see in aisle after aisle of our mass supermarket fluorescent wastelands. I feel like I'm in a hospital in that place ... all the bright lights, waxed floors, waxed foods, sick-looking people, and the beeping ... ugh scary. In fact, I was in there tonight for oats, organic cans of tomatoes and beans ($5 total), and it's like Mission Impossible to me: get in and out alive, and don't make the mistake of looking into people's carts to see how much farther they're miring themselves in misery.

I won't go on forever, as I have a natural bent to be positive, and a real goal to try and accept that I can only control my own small corner of existence. I'm privileged, through rhonda's new brainchild, the frugal co-op, to have made the acquaintance of a young British gal my age whose goals for frugality ... i believe she called it downsizing or something like that ... ah. downshifting. ... helped remind me that i've only just begun scraping the surface of what i could, and should be doing for the world in that very small corner i do inhabit. here, below, are some of my near-future goals:

*cancel ultra expensive for no reason cell phone and buy a prepaid phone for occasional calls and emergencies.

*reuse bread and veggie bags for putting cat crap into.

*save glass jars

*join community farm coop for fresh, organic fruits and vegetables

*go car-free once a week to start, walking or bussing it instead (buses here are hybrid-electric, awesome).

*really use "spare money" (i.e. money that would be otherwise spent on frivolous, "oh, that's cute!" purchases, or silly things like "i'm craving a bagel today") toward paying off debt. I HATE THE FACT THAT I HAVE DEBT. AND WOULD LOVE TO BE DEBT FREE BY 32.

*invest in a good yoga video to avoid high class prices ($15/class is really ridiculous, and this is very unfortunate, as i do love the whole environment). maybe even find good yoga vids. through freecycle.

*use the library as an information/entertainment resource far more regularly.

Obviously, there are more. I just can't think of them all right now. But I was just feeling inspired today, I guess ...

... and on an ending note for now I must say that a small part of me in my very soul is kind of "happy" (though that's not the right word) all this stuff here in the U.S. is coming to a head so quickly ... it's time people woke up to what their greed/convenience/great need for hurrying up and ??? has done. and i feel that a HUGE shift is going to happen... BACK to the local economy. local food. local people depending on EACH OTHER for their basic needs, not china. not hollywood. not television. i hope, i hope, i hope this for our humanity. we need it so much. we need a leveling. here we go. i'm getting ready .... and so glad all of you are, too. we need to be, to help some others teetering off the cliff.

thanks for listening.

love and peace to you all,

karen