Monday, April 14, 2014

Don't Need No Bloody Cross


One of my very favorite plants- the ash magnolia. She only blooms for a short while and the blossoms are short-lived and smell like heaven. I swear to you- I had lived in North Florida for thirty years before I even know this tree existed. The second I "discovered" it, I bought one for myself, brought it home and planted it and it is taller than I am now.

I wonder what else is living all around me which I do not notice, am not aware of. It boggles the mind.

So many things boggle my mind. Like- a family quits eating added sugar for a year (except for certain specified situations) and the mother's written a book about it and it's all over the media? Jesus. Do we not know by now that eating processed sugar is not really good for us? For fuck's sake.

But you know, it being almost Easter, the thing that I'm really contemplating that I can't wrap my head around is the whole celebration of the crucifixion and resurrection dealio. But you knew this was coming, right?

Well, I'm not going to go dig out my soapbox today. Instead I'll just celebrate the resurrection of my ash magnolia and wait for the hundreds of blooms on the rose bush planted in the little garden beside the kitchen to start to open which will be yet another resurrection (and one which involves thorns!) and maybe work in my garden today which is a constant reminder of life and growth and tonight I'll watch the full-bellied moon rise, another symbol of dying and rebirth, and all of that is wonder and magic enough for me.


12 comments:

  1. Everyone knows that it's bad for us, and we most of us tend to keep doing it anyway. A message that it will get easier and your palate will change in response is no bad thing, imho.

    Most people I know are convinced we need it for glucose, that's it's ok in moderation - while it isn't, and a hell of a lot of people don't eat it in moderation. They know, but they don't really know.

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  2. Now that I've spent the past month living with a "typical American family," I understand how those 3 million tons of sugar per person are eaten. It is mind-boggling how much crap normal people eat in this country.

    And, some of us have a sugar addiction that rivals a drug addiction. So we look to those who quit to hear their tales. Very much like AA.

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  3. I am a sugar addict. No drinking no drugs. Just sugar. Oh, and food in general ;)

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  4. Yeah. That bestseller book about stopping sugar bugs the hell out of me -- the bestseller part.

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  5. Your easter post last year was so good. I remember reading it out loud to my mom, in the car, while I was in KY for the weekend. She nodded the entire time and said YES several times. It was basically a remote prayer service by Reverend Moon.

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  6. I quit eating sugar decades ago though I will put some in my iced tea. don't have much of a sweet tooth anymore but I will eat pie!

    I don't get the icky crucifixion thing with their dead god hanging on the cross. And yeah, he suffered but not that much by certain standards. Not like he had his entrails pulled out while he was still alive, or drawn and quartered. Plenty of plain ole humans have suffered far worse.

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  7. I grew up Lutheran, so not as many crucifixes as the catholics, and Lutherans have this thing about empty crosses without the body being better than the Catholic versions WITH The bloody body. Anyway, I grew up with it everywhere, but now that I've been away from the church for years, it jars me every time I see it. It's just weird.

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  8. I just started watching True Detective (thanks to you, dear Mary, who mentioned it here) and I have to say the Matthew McConaughey (sp?) character's observations about religion and its opiate effects are so profound I sometimes have to stop the action and contemplate what he's just said. Im not so much on religion though I do believe in God, which is in us, really, our best selves maybe, love. I don't ask anyone else to see it my way, but like Matthew's character says, we comfort ourselves however we can and we comfort each other and do the best we can. As for that bloody cross, it is a horrifying symbol if you think about it, which most of us don't. We are numb to it by now, all rote and recitation. But I do like the hymns. Hugs, dear Mary.

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  9. Angella, True Detective! I agree. Some of Matthew's "rantings" were spot on. That show is so intelligent, so well-written.
    Mary, I love your magnolia. I think that's one of my favorite trees. They feel so regal to me.
    And ever since I've become pregnant, I'm really really looking at what I put in my body. Nothing artificial, nothing processed. Or at least, I'm trying. But damn, sometimes you want a peanut butter m&m and why they hell are they putting red dye 40 in food still?! There is no need for it!

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  10. Oh, I have to join in the thanks for True Detective, I adored it. And totally bonded with a wonderful writer-lady over his fatalistic points about the human race and made a new friend.

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  11. Jo- I realize that sugar is a problem. A big one. But I just can't fucking figure out how a family that gave it up for a year is worthy of national media attention.

    NOLA- And yet, if someone wrote a book in this day and time about what it was like to give up alcohol for a year, would it be a best seller? I mean, the evidence has been in for a long time.

    Jill- We are most all of us sugar addicts. It's not a natural substance. And the amount of food available to us is not natural either. Our bodies have evolved to eat all the sugar and fat they can to provide for the periods of starvation which used to occur. It's a very many-layered problem. Meanwhile, we try our best to deal with it.
    And it's not easy.

    Elizabeth- Hello, sister.

    SJ- I need to go look that one up.

    Ellen Abbott- Yes. Exactly. Some one dying of cancer or AIDS can go on in horrible suffering for months. And even years. Don't get me started.

    Ms. Vesuvius- It's more than weird. It's fucked the hell up.

    Angella- My mother attended church very regularly even though she didn't really believe any of it because she loved the hymns and singing in the choir. I get that.
    Isn't MM incredible in that role? Those eyes...

    Rachel- Hell, yes. Sometimes we NEED a peanut butter M&M. I fear ultrasounds more than I fear those small and sweet indulgences. I really do.

    Jo- Awesome!

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  12. It seems that any kind of processed food is crap today. We are getting more and more into avoidance of the crap sold in stores.

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