Lydia Schoch

Recently I saw this commercial at the home of the relatives we’re staying with while we look for a place of our own. (Photo credit – Miss Karen.)

The premise: a woman stands in front of a fridge, stares at a raspberry cheesecake and desperately tries to justify why she should be allowed to have a slice of it.

(This in and of itself was really weird. Unless you have medical restrictions on your diet or are wanting to sample a portion of someone else’s food, why would the concept of being allowed to do something ever be attached to what an adult chooses for his or her afternoon snack? )

Her friend walks up, mentions that she has been craving raspberry cheesecake and grabs a container of raspberry cheesecake flavoured yogurt. It ends with a voice-over announcing that this line of yogurts only have about a hundred calories per serving.

The commercial has been pulled off the air but I’m wondering how it was ever approved in the first place. No, it wouldn’t be advisable to eat a large piece of cheesecake every single day but food is not the enemy. It isn’t intrinsically good or bad, a reward or punishment, it’s fuel for growth, healing and everyday activities. If we don’t eat enough of it we will eventually die.

When others share unsolicited opinions on what I do (or do not) eat it doesn’t make me want to change my habits. If anything it makes me want to hide what I am eating, whether a salad or a handful of cookies. Shame and guilt aren’t good methods for changing behaviours.

Respond

Had you heard of this commercial before reading this post? Why do you think some people have such fractured relationships with what they think they ought to eat versus what they actually eat?

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, poetry, art, songs and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

The Teacher. Once while driving home from a funeral my father compared the life of the person who had died to a book. For better or for worse the last chapter had been written and I wished that there was a way for us to read everything that individual had known.

Am I Delusional? Why do some people – theist and non-theist alike –  become so militant about their beliefs? Click on the link for an engaging discussion of this question.

Viruses as Glass. It takes a highly creative individual to find the art in disease. Most of us can only see the suffering.

10 Ways to Show Yourself Some Love. I love this list!

In the Year 2525. Futurology and a smattering of philosophy set to music.  This is why I adore baby boomer music. 😉

What have you been reading?

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, poems and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

The Bridge Poem. What would we be like if we didn’t need human bridges?

From Your Body is Beautiful. My only critique: I wish it had acknowledged that not every body is healthy. The core message is fantastic, though.

Realize that beauty is just a concept. Keep it in perspective. Meditate on the miraculousness of your body, the cohesiveness of your insides. Those are the things that truly matter.

Your body is beautiful, perfect, outstanding the way it is.

Sperm Grown in a Test  Tube. How long will it be before human sperm is manufactured the same way? I also wonder what other applications this will have in the medicine of the future. Will it pave the way for us to create vital organs? Limbs? Entire new bodies?

Lessons We’re Learning Riding Mass Transit. The advantages of using mass transit. If only every community had buses, streetcars or a well-designed subway system!

The Case of the Missing Phone Call. Of compassion, medical appointments and crossed wires. I liked this post because it’s a good reminder of how hard it can be to step into someone else’s shoes.

This week I’m reading Peace Pilgrim. What have you been reading?

Earlier this year Drew and I watched Star Trek: Voyager. In the fifth season one of the characters invents Ancestor’s Eve, a spring holiday honouring some of the crew’s ancestors.

On April 22 I celebrated Ancestor’s Eve by re-telling stories from both of our families of origin. Some were silly, others serious and even though we have nine months to go before this holiday comes around again I’ve already begun to collect new stories. Next year we’ll expand the traditional definitions of ancestor and kin for this project- wisdom does not always come with age and there is far more to being a family than sharing DNA or bumping names in a genealogy.

Sermons – religious or otherwise – are a dime a dozen and morality tales only work if one already agrees with their underlying assumptions. A story without strings is different, though. (By that I mean a tale told without painting the moral of it in neon green letters across the exposition.) Yes, some mistakes we do have to muddle through ourselves order to grok a particular lesson but others can be learned from through observation.

One of my favourite things to do growing up was to sit with the adults and listen to their stories about engagements, abuse, comical misunderstandings about moist towelettes, the harrowing effects of untreated physical and mental illnesses, summer droughts, death, new babies, and conflicting opinions about that new restaurant in town.

As a PK (preacher’s kid) I probably heard more about the dark side of life than most kids who grow up in loving families. Occasionally mom and dad would gloss over certain details or clarify particularly troubling situations later on with us but I was never frightened by what I overheard. It was just part of pastoring. I’d like to recreate this experience here at On the Other Hand.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to begin gathering your own stories for Ancestor’s Eve next spring. Anything that has taught you or someone you know is eligible. I’ll mention it here sporadically over the next ten months and am hoping to share some of your stories along with my own at the end of April 2012.

Are you in? 🙂

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, photographs and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

The explanation for the figure on this tree is something I haven’t figured out yet. (Photo credit – Usien.)

Oprah and Zoe. How do you respond to people who assume that you share their religious beliefs and are dismissive when they discover the truth?

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. – Susan B. Anthony in an address to the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1896). If only she and I had been born into the same generation. We would have so much to discuss!

Torches on the Earth. There’s something soul-soothing about watching a day unfold into night.

You Can Talk to Me. I hope this catches on. Sometimes it’s nice when friendly extroverts start up a conversation.

From Let Love:

You too are enough, you too are perfect in your imperfection.

That knowledge is all the momentum you’re ever going to need. If you’re looking for answers, for meaning or purpose, for a way to change or to gather hope, for a bit of peace or a little faith, then look in the mirror. The answer is you. You are what you’ve been looking for. You are where change, hope and faith live and breathe.

That Ringing Sound. Is this the future of story-telling?  It reminds me of stories I grew up hearing from other kids.

A Post-Apocalyptic Society and How it Can Save Us. My brother, Aaron, sent this to me. Read it even if you have no interest in this genre. The yearnings it describes are, if not universal, then at least extremely common.

I haven’t read any new books in the last week or two. What have you been reading?