Spring is for Cycling

Now that it's warm out, I'm hauling out the road bike again! Training has been under full swing for a month, so I tested my progress with the longest bike ride I've ever been on.
It was a sunny day, and a little chilly, but that's what layers are for.

It's striking how pretty howard county is when you get out to the farms - 30 years ago, it must have all been like this! But beneficiaries of suburban sprawl couldn't care less. Horses? no thanks. Homegoods and Home Depot, that sounds about right.

Interesting things seen along on the ride: Silky black cows a-grazing, a former corn field covered in a dusty purple wildflower, bushes full of loud birds, two Hooters girls posing next to a toolshed, and LOTS of trash. Yuck.

I also spotted a wicked-looking hill that I remember deciding to ride up last fall when I was tired -- I thought it would be a good place to take a short-cut home. What's worse was I managed to get a bee stuck in my bra so I was stung a couple of times on my way up the "wall."

Check out my 37mi ride on bikely.

Constituent does not equal Consumer

Every morning I wake up to C-SPAN radio, before it even gets light outside. For some reason, it's easier for my brain to come to waking when political speakers are demanding my attention, asking for Change, insisting Yes We Can or trying to drum up some party unity.

This morning I noticed that, when addressing all manner of issues (from health care, investment and the economy, environment, education), decision-makers tend refer to their constituents primarily as consumers - as if the only factor that matters in any of these issues is money.

Excuse me for being picky, but I truly see myself as a citizen first and a consumer at least third or fourth, maybe even last. This way of thinking - the long shadow that "economics" casts - seems to be entrenched in the minds of those who should be thinking of their constituents' needs, not their wallets.

I don't want a politican to look at me and see dollar signs. But how to fix that unless the ubiquitous stakeholder companies are taken out of the legislative, judicial, and executive equation? I read a lot about that problem (and have a few posts on it), but I wonder what other major patterns in American society are contributing to the current myopic focus on money. We should be shaking our politicians out of their avarice and demanding they re-focus on what really sustains people -- health, shelter, family, and an occupation by which to contribute to society.

Making it New

I find that a greater sense of gratitude has helped me become a happier, friendly, more engaging person in the past year. Practicing gratefulness is a conscious decision, not unlike the Buddhist's eschewing desire, that leads to a greater fullness (gratefulness = "great fullness") and sense of being at peace with the world.

The practice is at home in many contexts that we find ourselves in, and I want to share one such anecdote that links gratitude and relationships.

I once went to a conference on relationships. Most of the presenters were therapists who had all kinds of elaborate theories about what made good relationships. Then a Buddhist lama got up and said, "I know the secret to keeping love alive. It's simple. All you have to do it act as if you have just met this person and are falling in love. When you meet someone you are interested in, everything they do is wonderful. You love looking at them, hearing what they have to say. Even when they play you country western music, which you might dislike, you think, 'Well, maybe Tammy Wynette isn't so bad after all.' As time goes on, however, you take the person for granted and fight over Tammy Wynette. So the solution is to see your loved one new again."

The therapists were up in arms, prolaiming that such a task was too hard. "Oh," said the lama, "I said it was simple. I didn't say it was easy."

The lama is right. The secret to love -- and a sense of joy and gratitude toward all things living -- is to see, feel, and hear as if for the First Time. Before the scales of the habitual clouded the brilliant blue sky outside your office window, the tangy juiciness of an orange, or the smooth softness of your loved one's hands. Before you got used to her kind words, or his musical laughter, that they became invisible to you.

Recently, my husband Don had vividly brought home to us the truth of how easy it is to get blinded to the miracles around us. When we first adopted Ana, we couldn't sleep -- we were too busy looking into her peaceful face and crying tears of gratitude. Now, a mere four months later, Don, who is home all day with her, finds himself taking her presence for granted, already losing that overwhelming sense of appreciation that she was sent to us.

"I get bored, he says, "because it is so much the same, day after day. But her spirit, her presence, is no less a miracle today than it was four months ago, or than it will be four or forty years from now. And when I can remember that, I catch myself 'falling asleep' to the miracle, and the awareness wakes me again and my heart once again fills with joy."

When we can live our lives as if it is always the first time -- the first time we made love, the first time we gazed upon the face of our beloved, the first time we tasted ice cream, the first time we saw a bird-- we won't have to try to experience a sense of gratitude. It will be there automatically, as a natural response to the beauty and the bounty around us.

TOSRV, here we come!

I'm officially signed up for the 2008 Tour of the Scioto River Valley - America's largest bike touring weekend!

It's going to be two days of back to back century bike rides in flat Ohio between Columbus and Portsmouth. Me and my Pops are setting out in the second weekend in May for some serious bike 'n bonding. That's perfect, because the ride started out as a father and son event in the 60s, evolving to appeal to feminist and not so feminist female riders.

Training started for me on March 1, but will amp up when the weather gets warmer. For now, I'm keeping my butt in shape by pedaling on my bike-stand in the basement a few times a week. Thank the lawd for portable music players!

Profile of Ronald McDonald, The Psychopath

My latest reading list epiphany is from Drutman and Cray's "The People's Business." Some related thoughts:

Corporations are being awarded more and more rights and privileges traditionally reserved for individual citizens. These privileges were originally established to protect you and I from the powerful. Everyone knows of someone whose house has been taken for "justifiable use" whether they wanted to sell it or not, but how inappropriate current corporate law is might be better highlighted by comparison to the psyche of one very scary type of individual: the psychopath.

According to Dr. Robert Hare, a renown expert on psychopathy, a corporation fits the following checklist for an individual who is psychopathic:

1. Irresponsible: In an attempt to satisfy the corporate goal, everybody else is put at risk.
2. Manipulative: They try to manipulate everything, including public opinion.
3. Grandiose: Every company insists they are the best, number one, above their competitors.
4. Lack of Empathy and
5. Asocial Tendencies: Corporations' behavior indicates they don't identify with or care about their victims.
6. Refusal to accept responsibility for their actions: If caught breaking the law, they pay big fines and continue doing just what they did before.
7. Unable to feel remorse: Rarely does behavior change after settling a lawsuit due to wrongs perpetrated on innocents.
8. Superficial: The corporations' goal is to have an appealing public image but that often does not represent what the corporation and its operations are really like.

So what do we do with psychopaths in society, danger that they are? Apparently, we have decided to let them control everything, from our schoolyards to our politics to our homes.

But what should we do with psychopathic corporations? Get them into reform school, at the very least. And that does mean shutting down sales during the rehabilitation period - which most corporations refuse to do even while in court. The thought process behind that: Why lose profits during long-winded litigation, even if a company's means be ruled responsible for harming the public?

Vegan tummy yummies: molasses raisin cookie

It's a humbling experience to try to bake using an ingredient set you've never been stuck with before - evinced by a series of catastrophic failures! Sugar cookies that were too crumbly to cut into shapes, brownies that resembled a molten tar pit.. but I finally had a success.

Here's the recipe!

Molasses Raisin Cookies
(from Ener-G)

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
Preheat oven to 325 deg F.

Ingredients:
2C + 2T Whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose)
1 t Ground ginger
1 t Cinnamon
1/4 t salt
2 t Baking Soda
1 t Ener-G egg replacer
1/2C Soft shortening, eg. Crisco
1/2C Granulated sugar, eg. Evaporated cane sugar or Turbinado
1/2C Molasses
1/4C + 2T Water
1/2C Packed raisins

Directions:
- Sift or mix flour, spices, salt, and baking soda together.
- In a mixer or with your [beastly] hand-power, cream together the shortening, sugar, molasses, and egg replacer.
- Stir flour mixture into shortening mixture, a little flour at a time. No flour clouds!
- Stir in the water and raisins until absorbed and well-distributed.
- Grease cookie sheets and drop Tablespoons of batter 2" apart or more. Aim for 12 or less per sheet.
- Optional: flatten cookie balls with a spatula and put some festive sprinkles on [green for St. Paddy's Day!].
- Bake 13-15 mins.
- Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks [heat transfer via air] for 5-10 mins.
- Enjoy!