Adventures in a North Carolina Quarter Acre Patch of Dirt

While growing a vegetable garden is by no means a hero’s journey of myth and legend, it still contains much of the drama and the insights on perhaps a smaller scale.  Last year was my first year working in a vegetable garden and was more or less a means of spending time with my father who died last January. I was also hoping to take on some of the heavy work for him but at 82, he outpaced me. This year, I am soloing without my dad’s advice but certainly with a sense that he’s looking over my shoulder. It’s as much a tribute to him at this point as it is a means of getting fresh, healthy vegetables on my plate. I recall more conversations with him when hoeing weeds than probably any other time.

And while it’s not a hero’s journey, there’s much to be learned from a garden. Like a journey, you need to be prepared. You need to till the soil, add nutrients, and plan the best location for the plants you want to grow.  Some plants need a lot of room and some plants not so much. Some do better planted next to certain other plants and some can cross-pollinate weirdly in the wrong spot. I’m told you don’t want to grow hot peppers next to sweet peppers. Planning and research reduces the need for “do overs” and the occurrence of failure.

If you don’t weed a lot, you may lose track of your seedlings in the messy meaningless vegetation which are weeds. Weeds also rob the plants that you want to be strong of needed nutrients. Weeding is a matter of focus and attention, as is simplifying life and prioritizing.

Plants must have water whether the heavens provide it or not. If the sky refuses to release the needed moisture onto the garden, you have to respond accordingly. It hasn’t rained here in over three weeks. Railing against the sky does no good. In the garden, as in life, shaking your fist at a turn of events that is out of your control is futile. Hauling buckets of water or setting up hoses and irrigation is the proper response. When the dirt blows like dust, in reality or metaphorically, the only good response is asking “What is the best thing that I can do now?”

When the “stink bugs” destroy your zucchini like they did mine, you have to ask, is it worth trying again or is this not the right place and time for zucchini.  If you decide to persist and that replanting is they way to go, you learn what it takes to eradicate the bugs and restore the area as a safe place to grow zucchini. You learn from your experience. If you decide not to replant, you let it go, perhaps to try again another summer or not at all. Either way, you’ve learned something about zucchini and stink bugs. (I believe persistence pays, so I replanted.)

Timing is, perhaps not everything, but darn important. I planted broccoli in June not knowing that broccoli prefers cooler weather. I’m still watching to see if they will produce even in the record heat of North Carolina this summer. I doubt it will do well because everything has a season and a little research would have informed me that the season for broccoli isn’t June. It’s generally planted very early in the Spring or very late in the Summer to early Fall. Being sensitive to correct timing is usually essential to getting things done. I will be planting broccoli again in September, and it will be a reminder that everything has its time.

Home gardening: vitamins, minerals, and timely reminders about life.

Why Read?

All of us choke down our daily diet of emails, short articles, and joke pieces online, which is, technically, reading.  However, too few of us take the time to consume large, satisfying meals of lengthy, thoughtful articles, novels that capture human nature and extend our imaginations beyond their comfortable little playgrounds, and enough nonfiction to give us facts by which to further inform our perspective on reality.

I just re-watched the film “Auntie Mame” with a couple of friends a few nights ago.  The famous line from the film is “Live! Live! Live! Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.”  This indeed is the motto for the fulfilled life.  But then, I always feel a little undernourished after the film.  Who can afford to travel around the world and be at the right places for meeting the right people?  Who has the time or the luxury of focusing attention to cover such a large variety of hobbies and to master so many  talents to be a true Renaissance Person?  Certainly not me.  Having financial means and adequate time are apparently needed for that brand of fulfillment? But even Mame mentions in the film that she had been weaving a rug which now serves as a bell-ringer by the fireplace. Where does the time go?

A thoughtful, well-written piece is one way to “borrow” from the experiences or imaginings of others.  While you may never have the time, money, or physical energy to climb Kilimanjaro, there certainly have been enough books written about it to help you vicariously experience every nuance of the expedition.  While books will never replace actual experiences, they certainly, to belabor the banquet metaphor, can be great nutritional supplements.  

And there are so many gaps in the time that is actually taken up with the necessities and experiences of real life that can be filled with exploring the larger world through others’ words.  At one point, I took a bus to work in Los Angeles in spite of owning a perfectly good car because I wanted that extra-time each day to read.  The bus was a perfect, low-cost, green solution to getting a daily literary retreat. I was almost glad that the L.A. Metro system was so notoriously slow.  We wait in too many waiting rooms and too many lines not to fill these times with something meaningful.  If you aren’t introducing yourself to everyone around you in a waiting room, you should be reading something other than the two-year-old People Magazine that they generally leave in those rooms. BYOB! Bring Your Own Book!

How much TV do you watch?  How much of that is quality TV versus...say reality shows or cheap joke sitcoms.  Talk about growth-killers.  What if just one or two of these hours a day were spent digging into more in-depth explorations of the world as only the written word can provide it?  (Yes, that’s my opinion. The more proactive act of reading is sturdier than the act of absorbing passively whatever they throw at you on the television. And I can make a great case for it.  Stay tuned.) .

Don’t give up TV entirely for reading...just give up two-thirds of it.  Or start with giving up a third if two-thirds is too much.

If you don’t have a reading habit, start it like any other new habit.  Start slowly, start small, establish goals, and keep at it. Create a reading hour or two everyday and choose your reading material for both entertainment / interest and for what you feel it might contribute to your life.  I recommend switching between fiction and nonfiction, but I would not call that a rule.  Reading either exclusively is better than reading neither at all.

When Movies Go Boom

My favorite source for all things current, The New York Times, had an article last Saturday about the movie business trying to attract older people to movie theaters. It was on the NYT’s Most Emailed List on Sunday so it obviously hit home. The article discussed the obvious love affair between Hollywood and “the young” but, apparently, they are reconsidering this tryst in the light of the Boomers’ current unbalancing of the country’s demographics. In other words, Hollywood, true to form, is going where the money is. According to the article, the industry has courted the young ones because Boomers don’t buy enough popcorn at the theater’s profit center, the concession stand.

The NYT points out that the movie industry is late in exploiting those Boomer dollars when compared to other industries. We’ve all noticed the aging of the characters selling things in television commercials and the type of products changing in same commercials. I think while popcorn may be a legitimate economic issue, there is a larger problem. The Times also mentions that recent films like “True Grit”, The King’s Speech”, “The Fighter” and “The Black Swan” have pulled in a large over 50 audience. These are movies with some kind of actual story and larger themes than “who’s texting whom and why”. Who would have thought it: a story and a universal theme? Why that would almost elevate movie making to an…I don’t know…an art form.

So as not to go too artsy-fartsy here, I concede that movies are also very much entertainment – sometimes exclusively so. Sam Goldwyn took the extreme position when he said, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.” Goldwyn’s dedication to film as entertainment is certainly appreciated by me. A film that is inundated with a heavy and dogmatic message is indeed a drag. There should always be room for humor, slapstick, and plain old fun. My life would be poorer without the Marx Brothers and the first Airplane movie. But there should also be room for a lot more than humor, slapstick, and plain old fun.
How many Vegas road movies do we need? How often should we indulge our inner frat boys? (Wasn’t eight years of Bush enough?) Must we wallow the rest of our lives in teen angst? Current Hollywood movies with adult characters seems to want to extend the zit crowds "coming of age" problems way into middle age. (Perhaps it's all they know after the last three decades.)  And let’s finally stake those cute vampires and make them “so yesterday”.

While in the NYT article it is mentioned that the movie industry seems to be waking up to the idea of better story telling with more depth as an attraction to Boomers, it is also exploring solutions to wooing this crowd back to the movie houses that, like most of its other solutions, are cosmetic. They include things like theaters taking seat reservations, more sophisticated fare at the concession stands, less sticky floors (which, I guess, is better tolerated by the younger crowd), making older actors prominent in today’s films, and so on.

Don’t get me wrong. I think their ideas for fixing this obvious slighting of the Boomers are great. They should keep working them, but, from my perspective, they're no fix. I mean, I like decent food, but I also like greasy movie popcorn. I like knowing that I am not going to get a lousy seat for $12.00 a ticket. Clean floors are always nice. And Helen Mirren as a gun-toting assassin as in “RED” sounds like a hoot. These things might help but that’s not where the problem is. (“The A-Team” with 57 year old Liam Neeson in the lead was the only time in my life I ejected a DVD after 20 minutes because I was embarrassed for the actors.) These fixes don’t always hold their own. These are great improvements to the moving-going experience, but they're not enough. What Hollywood needs is a giant paradigm shift.

The reason I don’t waste much time or money at movie theaters anymore has nothing to do with dirty floors or random seating or an aversion to popcorn. It has a lot to do with the word “okay”.

“How was that movie?”

“It was okay. The usual.”

This is said way too many times by my contemporaries about today’s theater offerings. For just “okay”, we have broadcast television, Blu-Ray, and Netflix Instant. As the Times article points out, Boomers grew up on movies. I can remember the joy of discovering classic films at the retro theaters that were so prevalent in Boston and around most college cities in the 60's and 70's when I was in high school and college. “Citizen Kane”, “All About Eve”, “A Rebel without a Cause” all come to mind but there were literally 100's of solid, story-telling movies from before I was born. I also consider myself fortunate to see first-run movies that came out at time.  They were bold, imaginative, experimental, and controversial as they rode the wave of cultural change. We may have been bell-bottomed hippies, but we knew movies. As a consequence of that time, Boomers now know story-telling, and we know film as a medium capable of more than just pandering to the box office receipts. Then, I was frequently in a theater. Now, I can’t imagine putting down a dime for majority of what I find on my movie app.

The MTV and post-MTV guys have missed out on most of what’s great about film. They are seen as a demographic to be exploited rather than a generation with whom to hold an intelligent conversation – through film or otherwise. I’ve worked with kids all my life. They are always predominantly sharp and they deserve better.

By contrast, the other night my 82 year old father sat with my Boomer sister and me and watched Clint Eastwood’s “The Changeling”. Now my dad is hard to please. He doesn’t like much in modern film. If it doesn't have John Wayne in it, he's not sure why it exists.  But as this interesting, well-told story unfolded, there was nothing but intense silence in the TV room. The lack of ongoing critique or flipping through magazines while sort of watching the movie with one eye was very telling. It was a film that was a throwback to the days when a movie was simply a story of substance being told. I would have actually paid for a ticket at the theater to see “The Changeling” had I known the quality of the story telling in this film. While not perfect, it was a pleasant surprise. We need more like that.

So what will it take to bring the Boomers home to Hollywood? The film industry needs to present well-crafted and intelligent stories. Hollywood needs stories with fleshed-out and genuine characters, well-considered conflicts, thoughtful plot and sub-plots, and more universal themes. They need fewer films that are simply surface treatments meant to cater to any particular set of demographic darlings. Until this happens, the film industry will probably get as much attention from the Baby Boomers as they themselves have paid to the Boomers over the last 20 years.

We don’t need gun-toting grannies. We need good stories. And if there happens to be good stories that include gun-toting grannies, all the better.

Winter Plans: Move It or Lose It

The best, the quickest, the easiest way to improve your life is to move.   It's a magic elixir which can change a tired, depressed, listless life.  Instead, with just a little moving, one can feel vibrant and enjoy a sense of well-being and accomplishment.  While toning and muscle building movement has some benefits, getting the oxygen moving through your brain, muscles, and other organs with aerobic exercise is best.

Where there is life, there is moving.  Even plants have movement as they absorb nutrients and bend toward the light.  The simple amoeba moves by wiggling and undulating, divides to reproduce, and wraps themselves around their dinners.  So, if it's good enough for the single cells, why should a member of the most complex species on record get away with surviving as a couch potato?  The answer: they can't, at least not very well.

Some of the benefits of aerobic exercise include:

- Regulates appetite
- Blood pressures, stroke, heart disease, and other circulatory problems are improved.
- Oxygen to the brain seems to increase people's ability to think, reason, and remember
- Makes muscles stronger and bones denser
- Helps alleviate depression and improves mood
- Thought to be beneficial for preventing alzheimers up to 50%
- Improves the immune system
- Decreases risk of diabetes and cancer.

Life is movement and as necessary as the need for sleeping, eating, and breathing.  Without exercise things begin to slowly fall apart.  Atrophy becomes the enemy.  And it doesn't take a lot of exercise or hard work to battle atrophy.

Does this mean that you have to go and run on the tread mill at the gym or go to some hardcore boot camp workout?  By the time you finish your work day, complete your commute, and do what needs to be done around your house, you and most people don't feel like going to a gym or to a program.   Most research indicates that moderate aerobic exercise for 30 minutes twice a week does the trick.  This might include something as simple as a brisk walk.  It might be a square dancing class.  There are countless ways to include an easy aerobic workout into your day.  It should be uncomplicated.  It should be fun.  And it should be something that you will do regularly.

Could you do more if you wanted to?  Absolutely!  Just be careful not to overdo it or to make it such a burden that you don't feel like starting or once you start you want to quit.  If you're like most people you may even find well considered exercise addictive.

It doesn't hurt to supplement this with short "incidental" workouts throughout the day.  Walk to the local stores.  Park at the end of the parking lot.  Take the stairs. Shake your leg as though you're nervous while you're sitting at your desk.  The principle is to move when you can.

Life is movement, but hibernation feels natural in the winter.  This season above all may be the best time to be creative and figure out how to move.  Walk around inside the mall.  Relearn to ice skate - you don't have to be good at it.  Just move.int

Technology and Brain Drain

There has been a lot of noise about our neurophysiology / behaviors and the use of smart phones and computers. As the arguments go, we are being rewired by our use of these devices. We are more easily distracted, unable to make decisions due to too much information, and are never alone to develop our thoughts. Shutting down the devices is the prescribed treatment for this social malady.

Something about this reminds me of the ongoing coffee argument. One month the news is filled with facts about the damage coffee does to a person: It raises blood pressure, it creates stress, and it disrupts our sleep. Next month, they tell us that coffee is great: It fights fatigue, it helps us think clearer, and it preserves short-term memory. The negatives of coffee are presented with great alarm. The positives are presented in an “Aw Shucks! Who knew?” fashion probably to counterbalance the alarms sounded the month before.

Pop Quiz. Which is correct?

Coffee
    a. raises our blood pressure.
    b. can cause people to feel stressed.
    c. can disrupt sleep.
    d. helps fight fatigue.
    e. helps us think clearer.
    f. helps with short-term memory.
    g. all of the above.

If you picked “g.”, you understand that coffee is neutral. It means that as a thinking, deciding human being, you get that there is no such thing as “evil coffee” or “good coffee”. There are good things and  bad things about coffee. And remarkably enough, it is both good and bad all at the same time. (I did get some purely evil coffee at Hardee’s the other day, but that was about the flavor.) What coffee drinking is all about is your own distinct physical ability to process coffee, the time you drink it, and the amount you drink. In other words, you’ve got some responsibility and some decisions to make before you perk that pot and fill that cup.

It’s the same thing with technology. There is no evil smart phone or good smart phone. It’s all about the user. Is the cell a constant? Can you turn off the texting and the email and not panic? These and similar questions determine whether you are a “problem” technology user or not. There is no evil technology, It’s just new.

Somewhat ironically, I see a lot of neighborhood “unplug” programs advertised on the Internet. The latest item of this sort was seeking volunteers for an “unplug night” on Volunteermatch.com. I suppose the volunteers serve as sort of monitor monitors.. I read an article somewhere about a family who took a year off from computers and cell phones.

That’s fine, but it’s really an artificial response to adjusting to the technology which, like it or not, is like “The Man Who Came to Dinner”. It’s not going anywhere. If you want a vacation from technology, I encouraged to follow your bliss. Just don’t confuse it with anything more profound. It’s just a vacation and like all vacations most certainly will end unless you are Amish – in which case you’re probably not reading this.

If you are Amish and reading this, you probably want to check in with your elders who will help you find your way back to the straight and narrow.

We needs a consistent, everyday response to the question: How shall we use technology? We need some realistic non-alarmist answers to that.

When reading became encouraged for all members of a society, I wonder if they worried about the way that those lines of words would affect the way people thought. Were they concerned that people were starting to think too linearly following those lines of symbols? Were they missing things that were not what we today would call “right-brained”? Did they have a “No Page Turning” event for the whole neighborhood in a reaction against all this reading? Probably not. You can bet that reading rewired and rewire the synapses and they start firing a little funny in those who can read when compared to those who can't.

 AND BIFOCALS! That evil Ben Franklin not only created that dangerous haven for book readers, the public library, but also invented the cure for its horrendous side effects; the bifocals. He had them coming and going! Was there a cause and effect? More people started noticing they needed bifocals once they started reading. I’m guessing the more mature readers could hardly wait for Ben to invent them.

Sound the alarms! Close the books!

And let’s not get started on cars. Should we really turn in our car keys? Remember that moment when you realized you didn’t have to consciously decide what to do next when you were driving – when you started driving by reflex. That was your brain…your brain completing a rewire.

Evil cars! The sky is falling! Get a horse! Oh wait! You have to learn how to ride a horse. More rewiring!

I say, the Chicken Littles of researchers would better spend their time finding ways to adapt to the inevitability of digital technology and providing some real suggestions for a healthy use.

In the last article I read, these researchers basically suggested just “Saying No” and turning off the “digital weapons of mass destruction” – my phrase, but their sentiment. Instead of a walk down Ludicrous Lane with its red flashing lights all around, how about working on some best practices for adults and parents. Instead of setting off some futile alarms about our brains and technology, let’s build some individual critical thinking skills in ourselves and in our children. Let’s create a workable system to organize and prioritize information…and some serious digital time-management models that balances work and the rest of life. Let’s take some time to systematically develop our own deep inner life – enjoy nature and pray or meditate. How about beefing up our face-to-face relationships? Then the technology and our brains will take care of themselves.

Just say no to Chicken Little.

And don’t worry. Keep texting.

Monkey Mind Monday

Monkey Mind is the chatter that goes on in all of our heads.  The phrase is used mostly to describe the unquiet mind for which meditation is the solution.  However, there are many other ways to conquer the distractions we all experience.  Monkey Mind Monday is about taking a minute at the beginning of your work week to quiet the swinging little chatterer in your head.   Any topic about focus and goal setting or anything to improve your chances of getting something important done is fair game on Monkey Mind Monday.

The way you start the week may very well influence the way you finish the week.  
One way to increase the probability of a good finish is to set just one simple but important mini-goal for the week.  It may be a small but final complete goal, or it may be a step toward a larger goal.  It should, as all goals should be, measurable and concrete.  Another objective person should not only be able to understand the goal but then be able to say with a certainty that it was completed.   

Caution: not all short term outcomes are within your control.  Only behavioral goals have a degree of certainty.   For example if your goal is to lose 2 pounds of weight in a week, you cannot control how your body may respond to your eating patterns. Anything may interfere with the actual weight that shows on your scale.  But if you say, "I'm going to restrict my food intact to 1400 calories" or "...walk 60 minutes everyday after work", you will probably lose necessary weight in due time.  To avoid discouragement, keep it behavioral.   If you're doing the right behaviors, the results will eventually catch up anyway.

Make sure that the goal is small enough to be doable and large enough to be significant.  If it is not significant enough, why should you care?  Keep it small and keep in mind that if you do just one step every week you will have done 52 steps in a year.  That easily will translate into progress toward anything or a bunch of anythings.  Pick a project that has been stubbornly difficult to start or to make progress on.   

Write your weekly goal on something in big and bold letters and stick it where you will see it all day every day.  Post-its are great for posting it.  Keep it constantly out in front of your vision and high on your mental "to do" list.

What happens if the week passes and you haven't accomplished your mini-goal?  Make sure that the goal fits all the rules mentioned above and, if it has, try it again the next week.  If it doesn't fit those standards, it's time for a revision.  But it's important that you keep at it until you've succeeded.

So, what is your goal for this week?

Moonwalking with Einstein Review

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer is an accessible guide to all things memory. The author is quick to point out that this is not a self-help book. However, there is enough practical information in the book that the interested reader will easily find usable tips for enhancing memory skills.

Initially, Foer becomes involved in the eccentric world of mental athletics. Mental athletes participate in what amounts to memorization track meets. They compete by memorizing the order of playing cards, recalling long lists of random words, and so on.  This soon becomes Foer’s obsession.

While Foer is immersing himself in this culture, this journalist is also doing some impressive research into what memory is and how it has served mankind. With this blend of science, history, and autobiographical experience, there is something here for everybody. Foer constantly changes the focus throughout the book so that the reader never has a chance to feel bogged down in either history, science, or the author's personal experiences. He spices things up with both amazing case studies and face-to-face meetings with those who have memory abnormalities such as the famous Kim Peek who inspired the title character in the movie, Rain Man.

One of the most practical parts of the book is the description of the “memory palace”. The memory palace is a technique that is the central method of memory athletes. Foer explains that the mind is more likely to retain things that are spatial, concrete, and unusual. A “palace” is a familiar place where one can “hang” memories. For example, to remember a shopping list of eggs, butter, and milk, someone who spends a lot of time at the Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh might imagine memorable people in absurd situations in locations throughout the mall. He might have Governor Perdue outside of Belks pulling eggs out of her mouth like a magician, Coach K outside of Ambercrombe and Fitch carving model ships out of butter, and Lady Gaga pouring milk from a hiking book over her head in front of The Limited.  In the grocery store, the shopper just has to walk through the mall in his mind and he remembers.  In the book, Foer provides many better and more bizarre examples along with the reasons that this works.

As a bonus, Foer includes some valuable insight into performance psychology. He explores research concerning plateaus and how to overcome them. This includes a very quirky study of the Japanese art of chicken sexing in the context of acquiring proficiency.

Memory is an issue throughout life. It matters to a student learning in school. It matters to a senior citizen remembering which medicines to take. On a wider scale, it helps us define our very being. Memory is essential to who we are. We are made up of our history and memory is the constant recorder of that history. As E.M. Forster said, “Unless we remember we cannot understand.” Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer is an outstanding tribute and guide to this amazing function of the mind.

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer, Penguin Press HC, 2011, 320 pages. Available at bookstores throughout the Raleigh Area.