I wanted to share a list of some of what I think are the coolest, most inspirational books ever, and I don’t think they are commonly read these days. (Correct me if I’m wrong!) I hope folks might find something new here, and if so, let me know! I love to read and to share good books.

1.) Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl is a book by a concentration camp survivor which will really make you think. It will definitely move you, and it may even change your life. It did mine.

2.) The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is also a very inspirational book having to with the author’s experiences during WWII. Well worth reading.

3.) Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person by Hugh Prather. I found this book to be very inspirational and thought provoking, as have all of my friends that have read it. It’s poetic, uplifting, and a relatively quick read.

4.) Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. This tale which on the face of it seems to be about a misfit seagull actually has very important and meaningful overtones which are helpful for the spirituality of humans, too.

5.)Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of The Dalai Lama by H.H. Dalai Lama. Even for those of us who are not buddhist, this book is extremely inspirational and thought provoking. I’d urge everyone to read it, and give thought to what he has to say.

So, I just thought I’d mention these. I’d be interested to know if any of you have read any of them, and if you did, what you thought about them.

He wanted to see what it would be like to live with just one color, apparently. Obviously I can’t put up the photo, or I would, but you can see for yourself here. Apparently his neighbors are not amused. I can’t understand why.

Would you paint your whole home a single color? If so, what color would you choose?

And do you believe the guy when he says he did this just to see what it was like to live with one color?

But really I’m feeling  a bit interested in anyone’s life who wants to share! (So I’m a bit voyeuristic. Sue me.)

And I wonder if any of my imaginings about people in other countries have any truth to them… For example, I have always the idea that people in places like France and the UK go to the grocery (or greengrocer, or supermarket–I don’t even know what people in other countries call it!) nearly every day or every other day. That their food is much fresher than what you get here–which has usually been harvested several weeks before hitting the stores. Is there truth to this?

• I have the idea that most people in England go to a pub at least once a month. (I’m told that pubs are not at all entirely- or even mostly- “just” about drinking alcohol, contrary to the American “pub” styling which is really only a pretentious bar here in the USA.)
• I imagine that people in Germany have in general very clean and organized homes and cars and office spaces. And based on an article I read years ago, I imagine that most employed Germans get at least four weeks of paid vacation a year (vs. the two weeks that Americans get – if they’re lucky.)
• I figure that most people in Mexico and South America and Italy are very close to their extended families and see them often. (Weekly?)
• I wonder if nearly all Italians are into “football” (for the Americans, that’s what we call soccer) and at least have a passing interest. (For instance, can you name the top three teams right now?)
• I’ve been told (frankly, to my surprise) that there is a large number of people in Switzerland who for whatever reason have a gun in their household. Any truth to this?
• My youngest sister told me that some of the friendliest people she ever met anywhere when she was overseas were from Croatia. Would anyone agree?
• I have the idea that most Canadians watch what happens in America fairly closely but aren’t terribly interested in visiting here–much less moving here. Further I’d venture to say that most Canadians (90% or better?)  have never come here for medical treatment  – and have no interest in doing so.
• I am reasonably sure that the number of people born elsewhere who really wish they could be (permanently) Americans (contrary to our occasionally self-important and prideful ideas here in the US) are actually pretty much in the minority, on this planet of seven billion people. Would you snap your fingers and become an American if you could?
• My guess is that a fairly large number of people, who aren’t from the USA, if asked to choose the nationality of a person they would be trapped in an elevator with for a few hours–would NOT choose an American–or Americans would be fairly low on the list. True?

I could go on but really I’m just showing my embarrassing lack of knowledge, I guess, but I really would like to know.

And I know that people are individuals, and that it’s beyond stupid to paint a whole country with a stereotype, which was really not my goal. I guess I’m just trying to incite some discussion/commentary.

Anyway, I’d be interested in what anyone has to say….

YUM!

I wanted to quickly share a meal that a lot of people may not have ever had, (particularly most Americans) which my British friends and family taught me about.

Sometimes, particularly in restaurants, this is served with sausage and tomato. It’s inexpensive and surprisingly good, filling, and with plenty of protein. See ingredients and the simple how-to on the flip.

You will need:

• Approximately 2-3 eggs per adult
• Large can of baked beans if you’re feeding two or more adults (whatever type you like, I think British beans really are better–they seem to have less sugar than the American type–but any kind will do.)
• About 4 pieces of bread per adult
• Butter or margarine (actually optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste (optional)
• Hot sauce if you’re into that kind of thing (optional)
• Other Herbs at your whim (optional)

In the picture attached to this post, It looks to me like the eggs have been scrambled, but you can do them fried and that’s the way it’s generally eaten at my house. We like the eggs over easy, so you can dip your toast in!

How to:

Heat up the beans

Make 1-2 pieces of toast for the base for each person. This can be buttered or not. I never butter mine (adds calories!) Put the toast on the plates. This is usually also served with toast on the side, which is usually buttered.

Once the beans are on the go, do up your eggs in a frying pan if you’re frying them. When they are nearing completion,  toast your bread you’re serving on the side.

Put beans on the toast on the plates. I put the eggs on top, or you can do them like the picture, and put them under the beans, particularly if they’re scrambled.

If serving with tomato and sausage, you may want to cut up the tomato before you start the eggs, and the sausage would go in before the eggs as well,  I would think.

This meal goes from the idea to actually eating in about fifteen minutes tops.  And it’s (at least) marginally healthful, particularly if served with tomato, I would think. It’s certainly inexpensive, and these days–most of us can use that!

I was a little dubious when this meal was first described to me, and it may not be the most appetizing looking thing in the world, but it’s worth a try and can also be a solution when for whatever reason there’s not much food in the house and you don’t feel like going out. (And/or for people like me who maybe are not the most gifted cooks in the world!)

Let me know what you think! How is (or is?) this a common dish in your neck of the woods? I know that it’s served frequently in the UK and I also know it’s eaten in Australia. Other places I’m not so sure.

I have a great deal of respect for military people world-wide; my father was in the National Guard, and my sister and brother-in-law were Marines.  I just stumbled into this relatively new organization made up of retired and currently serving American Military personnel. Called “The Oath Keepers” (which though it might conjure up visions of the promise-keepers who swear to stay virginal until marriage) it seems their role could conceivably be FAR more important to the American people than the latter.  Personally I think these men and women (after a relatively quick examination) have their minds and hearts in the right place.  See why on the flip.

Their point of view seems pretty sane to me, but perhaps it runs counter to the conventional wisdom of those serving, I don’t know. Without further ado, here are the principles that this organization’s leadership are asking American military (past and present) people to swear to do (or not do.)

1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.
2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people.
3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.
4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.
5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.
6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.
7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.
8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control.”
9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.
10. We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

Okay I guess in my naiveté I would have expected all of the foregoing to go without saying, and maybe this is like three guys who are just nervous, but that was NOT the impression I got looking at their website, even if all the above is posted on a “blogspot” blog.  See for yourself here.  Note that this website went up in March 2009.

I would welcome discussion from anyone who cares to give an opinion and/or from the organizers of the organization, if they wish to share (I’m tracking back to them.)

A member of the public might be tempted to think this is all about worry regarding gun control, but, again, it seems to go well beyond  that…)

Curiouser and curiouser, eh? (As Lewis Carroll wrote…)

NOTE: I somehow erased the link to the “oath keepers” site. It’s located here.

Christopher Hayes wrote this piece, and he mentions that Scott is the “leader” of a group called “Conservatives for Patient’s Rights.” {The Republicans never fail to provide an amusing mis-naming of their organizations or bills, e.g. The “No Child Left Behind” act (should be called “Most Children Left Behind” act) or the “Clean Air Act,” which a well known left-wing writer once quipped “Should have been called the ‘No Tree Left Behind’ act.”}

Here’s the meat of Hayes’ piece:

Having Scott lead the charge against healthcare reform is like tapping Bernie Madoff to campaign against tighter securities regulation. You see, the for-profit hospital chain Scott helped found–the one he ran and built his entire reputation on–was discovered to be in the habit of defrauding the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now that’s a serious allegation, indeed, but Hayes goes on to support it:

By 1997 the FBI was investigating Columbia/HCA. Days after agents raided company facilities armed with search warrants, Scott was forced to resign. In 2000 the company pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to pay the government $840 million. Other civil settlements would follow, ultimately totaling a staggering $1.7 billion, making it the largest fraud case in American history.

(Scott was never criminally charged and continues to deny wrongdoing. His spokesperson did not respond to repeated interview requests.)

So the thoughts  in my mind include: “Does the average conservative even KNOW who’s representing them around this kind of stuff?”  and “With ‘advocates’ like this, do patients really need enemies?” and “Why is this guy taken seriously, at all?”

Go read the whole Hayes piece here: Healthcare Enemy Number 1.  I’m not in the habit of reading The Nation,  as (shocker) I tend to gravitate toward more blatantly progressive leaning publications, and the Nation’s founding charter is as follows:

About The Nation

The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred.

– from The Nation’s founding prospectus, 1865

Still as of today, maybe I’ll start reading them.

Oh, and by the way; that same “organization” Scott is heading up has apparently already announced that they plan to produce a MULTI-MILLION dollar ad campaign against universal health care in the US soon. Isn’t that nice? How much health care could that money buy? I guess a lot more people are going to have to be bankrupted (and or killed) by our present day health care “system” before there starts to be any compassion on the conservative side….

I’m tempted to dismiss these people as a bunch of idiots but the reality is they’re far more dangerous than that. Still, the “truth will out,” eventually.

1.) Governments would behave in a transparent way. You know, like the current one promised they would (in the US.)

2.) People would actually take advantage of all the information that is out there on the internet regarding what is happening, what has happened, etc., instead of being self-delusional or delusional a la what the TV news and the newspapers tell them.

3.) No more war, period.  The USA would be such a force for good in the world and so above board that the rest of the world would want to be like them rather than the USA being basically a pariah with the biggest guns.

4.) People including me would be better at communication.

5.) Chocolate would have no calories.

She was also a remarkably practical woman in many more ways than I knew when she was alive. If you had known her, you might have been tempted to dismiss her as a simple country woman who didn’t know much about the world.

One would have been mistaken, to make that assessment.

One of my favorite stories about my Grandmother and her three girls,
involved times that nearly any parent would be familiar with. Most likely in every family, there comes a day, maybe many, in which the child comes home, angry and outraged, over some hurt inflicted by a fellow classmate. I’m sure that sometimes, perhaps often, the child in question really was wronged.

Apparently, at these moments, when one of her daughters came home, angry and complaining over something a classmate or neighborhood child had “done to her,” my Grandmother would listen to her daughter carefully and completely, while the child “spoke her piece.” Then my Grandmother would look her daughter in the eye, and ask the question of questions:

“Yes, but what did MY little girl do?”

The obvious implication there, that my mother, at least, understood
instantly, was that when someone treats us badly, very often we have
contributed to this, in some way. The idea too, I believe, was that we are not to think of ourselves as being victims, but as participants in a
situation, and rather than surrounding ourselves with hurt and resentment, a more productive use of our time and energy would be to
examine ourselves and what WE brought to the situation.

I think my grandmother knew that, and tried to teach it to us all. I wish you could have known her, and that everyone could have a grandmother and mother as wonderful as mine.

I was well into adulthood before I understood fully how lucky I am.
Someday I hope to be a mom, and to have the opportunity to share the
wealth of wisdom I learned from these two strong women, and so many
other interesting people in our family.