Salute from Michigan

Hey friends,

Sorry about my absence… not a very interesting story… but I’ve been on the road in Michigan since Sunday afternoon, and before that I was just trying to get a few minutes of QT with the love of my life (no, not my Coach patchwork handbag sillies… Daniel Garth Mangum. Sheesh!)

So the Midwest is a trip, eh?

I’m out here in Ford Country researching story ideas for my SkyWest Magazine column (now that it’s transitioned from the best SLC has to offer… more to the best the Midwest has to offer.)
Michigan has a rocking art scene I knew nothing about… but was really quite surprised to learn what a vibrant artisan community this place houses.

Although the food reminds me of eating in England… in that it pretty much sucks. (That’s about the only similarity.) Don’t these people know that vegetables are your friends?!?!

But seriously, it hasn’t all been bad… but I have sworn off fried foods for pretty much the rest of my life because I don’t think my intestines can handle it… I mean, all I crave is salad… and everyone wants to offer me filet, polish sausage/fried potato hash.

I’m taking a breaking from eating things with souls for a while. I had salmon the other night – but I had pretty much been eating yard-bird every other day of the week… so as of a couple of days ago, I gave up chicken too. ;)

Speaking of yard bird ….Did you know that some of the original members of Led Zeppelin were members of a band called The Yardbirds. OK, well at least some famous guitarists and one member of Led: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, respectively.

So here’s what I’ve learned on this trip:

Nature kills trees, so we should protect them. With all of the devastation to the Midwest wit the thunderstorms, tornadoes and flooding… we need to do everything we can do to protect our environment, because mother nature is as devastating to herself as we are… though some might say WE are the reason mother nature is having so many issues… with the whole climate change thing and all… I’m just saying…

“What am I saying?” you ask. Oh, well thanks for asking… I’m just saying that just because you don’t believe in global warming, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

And what do we risk by taking care of the environment anyway? That’s right….a few inconveniences.

Yeah, and then what again is that we risk by not taking care of the environment?
Oh, well…there’s the lack of a sustainable and healthy environment for our posterity… lack of suitable parks and forests for them to see…clean air, clean water… not to mention the wrath of GOD for not taking care of his creation… but those are just off the top of my head. ;)

The other things I learned on this trip were that:

a) I’d rather have quality than quantity. e.g. I’d rather have one fresh tomato that’s organic and pesticide free that tastes like it’s just been picked from a garden that can be eaten plain… well, I’d rather have that than a bucket of tomatoes that taste like the kind that are on burgers at fast food joints.

I’d rather have one night in a great hotel room for a couple hundred dollars with 800 thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets and down comforters and pillows that you sink into like clouds… than 3 or 4 nights in a best western with 100 count brillo pads for linens that scratch against my skin while I try to get rest on a lumpy mattress with a comforter that should be named “uncomforter” because it’s merely a blanket… but not even that.

I’d rather have a small breakfast with yogurt and fruit and maybe a glass of fresh squeezed OJ that makes my cells dance for $15 than pay $4.99 for all you can eat grease sausage, a 12 pack of “hotcakes,” watered down juice from concentrate and some hashbrowns that were cooked in lard because CISCO was having a discount on breakfast taters.

So this is my new mantra for 2008… (I know I said the mantra was “procreate in 2008” but people started asking me about it and I felt funny in my tummy about it… not because I’m preggers or anything, but that is officially my own personal beeswax, right? Well, at least my husband reminded me it should be our own personal beezewax.)

Anyway, the new mantra is “quality not quantity.”

And there was a part “b” to this story… but I am going to leave you all with a yogic parable. (wade, if you're reading this.. you can quit now so it doesn't seem as long.) This doesn't have much to do with my post, except that I think it's a good story about "seeing your own blind spots" and personal resposibility... but I guess, from that perspective it may have everything in the world to do with the post.

There once was a young yogi who worked in marketing and communications. One day, after straining at her computer screen for hours, she raised her voice to the cubicle universe and asked for help.

“Can someone fix my computer screen? It’s all blurry and I can’t focus when it’s broken like this!”

There was no one that could supply an answer to her problem.

She continued in her frustration and finally called some I.T. Brahman and asked them for a solution to her problem.

“Can you please fix my computer so that I might be able to do my work better? The screen is all blurry and it’s hard to focus…”

“I’m sorry,” said the computer Brahman. “There is nothing we can do.”

The young yogi was upset that the Brahman were so unwilling to help. She screamed (internally) at the gods, felt frustration in her self and thought about contracting her work’s “employee assistance program” for counseling.

“How does anyone expect me to work under these conditions when my computer screen is blurry?” the little yogi pondered.

And just before the yogi was contemplating throwing her shoe at the computer screen, a young intern suggested that to fix her the problem with her PC, maybe she should try getting glasses.

And the yogi never complained about her blurry computer screen again.