traffic melee in the grocery store

After twenty-six days in Obsolescence Management 2008, I feel unimpressed with my challenge. The struggle has been minimal and the change less drastic than some would imagine. Yet. Although nothing new has been under the influence of my otherwise naturally greedy hands, I still sense a disconnect with money and my (lack of) understanding of it. The paper volume of (in)visible greenbacks from my hands, either electronic or anatomic, to the tills of coffee places, eateries and automatic bill deduction services, is outrageous. I find little authority in the arguments around economic recessions and patriotic duty to buy! buy! buy!. If I am about to receive a large amount of cash from the government for no apparent reason than to stimulate a corrupt system of take and take, I would rather not, thank you very much. And who or what are we stimulating with such tax cuts? The coffers of prodigious businessmen? Some have called them "Wal-Mart Gift Certificates" or have used the fascinating, and oddly applicable, term of "Clitoral Economics" . Under the influence of my simple understanding of how our country's economic wheels turn, I imagine financial decisions like these are meant to be uppers for the lowers of our society, ones already on benders from the poor treatment that probably helped get them where they are today . This, undoubtedly, is just a stratagem employed by powerful hands desperate to keep their gold-plated lifestyle. Sounds similar to the politics of the woman's pleasure. Is it really ever about the woman? Or just a flashy style of vernacular geared towards the needs of man? Perhaps, the clitoral economics is all shame, too. We speak with big words of how deeply invested we are in the neediest lives of our brothers and sisters, yet we act unaware most of the time when faced with the reality of their poverty. Here's to looking out for Number One, huh, political demigods? Radix malorum est cupiditas

As for me, I am looking out for a way out - a break from unintentional, mindless existences. I am charting and coursing what it would take for me to see the cable cars to the divine with in and out of my mortal body. I figure by taping into this transportation my transformation, although piecemeal and belabored, will have sustainability as its core protein. At my current station, I am attending to the delicacies of market flow within one of our larger (and contrived) ecosystems - the supermarket. Although I am generally turned off by warfare metaphors, I feel liberated in saying that the boxed and processed isles of SuperMarket USA are like another cold war (re: corn war). There are many small battles that are desperate for some personal diplomacy in the land of the shopping cart. The largest benefactor in this effort? Time, really. To take a helping of intention and attend to the unspoken handcuffs between our hands and our food requires time. Unfortunately, the peak of traffic in your local Hy-Vee is roughly half way through rush hour time, as people propel there hurried bodies to the ready-made section to find something edible to done tonight's dinner table. Edible doesn't (always) mean credible, however. It would be nice to put things in my body that were closer in recognition and appearance to Panicum virgatum than Formula 409 All Purpose Cleaner. This process of mindful shopping is challenging, for I was not brought up in society to look at anything besides price and fat content. So I am imperfect with the cold handle of cart beneath my hands but I am attempting to feel and recognize that cold metal as the vessel of modern day imperialism in my (and many other's) lives. So taking price and fat content, what else must I take an owl's eye towards? Here's a few

1. Social Responsibility. It was a dark day when I realized Athenos Hummus was owned and operated by Phillip Morris. And how come only the Post cereals are ever on sale? Why does it seem that the lowest ticket prices are affiliated with some of the most scandalous companies? After I discovered the Better World Handbook back in 2004, I knew I had involuntarily and irreversibly signed myself up for a new level of conscious thought. By purchasing Nabisco crackers, I was saying to the world " I don't care, Altria, if you are involved with some of the most egregious acts of greenwashing and public deception. Give me your Triscuits!!". Who would have thought that Minute Maid had many human rights allegations against them or that Hormel supports inhumane factory farming? It doesn't say these things on the boxes, just the fat content and some gargantuan picture of a cereal flake looking ever so delectable. The hard part? I will not see an immediate reaction after not buying a Kraft product. My $3.89, now going to another company that pays its workers a living wage, doesn't seem to even nick the paint on the trailer's bumper of that monstrous company car of Corporate America (insert CEO of any major food supplier on our shelves). Maybe my pocketbook is even injured because of this revelation. That is why responsible shopping takes time and planning. I would rather buy nothing than buy something that forced a 12 year old into a sweatshop.

2. Corn content. Recent time has been the parental figure of this discovery. Jumping on the Omnivore's Dilemma bus, I am repeatedly amazed at the amount of things I leave unnoticed everyday. I was shocked by how corn is the dictator of our kitchen. Michael Pollan calls us "corn chips with legs". He is disturbingly correct. We are an artificially sweetened culture (aside: even in the way we show love and appreciation for each other). My Fiber One bars, those large bowel aphrodisiacs, are a log of high fructose corn syrup. Many processed food products are infused and filled with corn-based fillers. This end result is the driving force behind some unfortunate farming practices that have left the farmer's plate practically devoid of anything but animal feed, a hard swallow for a family with complex body needs. Because we are a soda-saturated society, we need a cash crop that will feed such an addiction. Because we are a meat-eating people, we need a cash crop that will fatten our calves faster than we can slaughter them. Because we are fossil-fuel fanatics, we need misleading alternative energy sources that are heavily based in corn (and thus still enslaved to those nonrenewable resources). Our bodies are screaming at us, admonishing us to listen to them and their inherent wisdom. We suffocate that pledge by plunging down our food hole another product caked in a corn-derived sugar source. Oh, how deeply we are afflicted against our need for intimate connection to our bodies.

3. Location, location, location. I never thought about the distance my food travels to get to me, shiny and ready for immediate consumption until recently. Of course there is the gold standard in this effort: the 100-mile diet. Here is another quadrant that requires our clock's freedom. Look next time at the place of production of your boxed food. Or that banana. I admit my struggle. I want that orange that traveled hundreds of miles (or when I wasn't a vegetarian, I wanted that delicious sea creature that I knew wasn't coming from Lake Calhoun). What am I supposed to do when farmer's markets are out of style for the winter in my midwestern home? It is very easy to belittle our efforts and quit altogether due to extreme fatigue and consumerism depression. I know there exists, betwixt mindless and maxed out, an appropriate middle-ground where we press on with our efforts but have mercy on each other. This in one area I need it the most. Here is a website, a pretty good one too, that reminds us when fruits and veggies are in season and thus are best for buying. It may be a small penance but it is, in the very least, putting attention to a necessary detail.

But a few. Others to the list include: eating a more vegetarian/vegan friendly diet, buying organic when possible (and sensible, i.e. organic from Chile?), and using this for a budget friendly way to approach our shopping waves.

It all comes back to mindful living. What are you putting in your body? Who are you surrounding that body with? And what is that body doing to be connected to the reality of each other?