What it has done – to date – is instilled a new sense of gratitude for the food I do eat, as well as a new consciousness about where the food I eat comes from. Naturally, this past Wednesday morning I decided to explore the local farmer’s market. All the farmers stalls proclaimed the word “organic” and the two egg sellers had “happy” chickens. Why do you call your chickens happy I asked. They have a barn and access to an outdoor yard they can go to if they want he said – groan.

The trip did yield a couple of large beets, a dozen eggs from “happy” chickens, a pound of wax beans, and a handful of basil. Last nights dinner was raw beet salad with scrambled eggs. Tonight the beans will make it to the table with basil pesto…and some sausage from some very unhappy pigs that I bought at the big box supermarket.

www.michaelpollan.com
www.polyfacefarms.com

White: Guilty by Association

(I removed the essay because I felt it was here long enough)

Anyway, back to the class. Another student thought she would help her fellow student and try to explain how it works for her (designating something as Art or Not Art) and said …”that you’re still at that place where it is Art or Not Art.”  (emphasis mine) What The …?

There that was cathartic.

For example, during the last course I took titled, Modernist Visions: Form and Utopian Narratives, (not the one I am currently enrolled in), we discussed the image by Guy Debord, Couple stretched out on a sofa, Watches television (1968). Invoking Baudrillard’s theories about Simulacra we noted how the couple is dressed in yachting clothes and watching a program about boating on the television set, yet they are sitting on a sofa – not actually sailing or boating themselves. What we discussed was that the couple’s experience of boating is simulated, or fake, in-authentic. As viewers of the work by Debord, we could also say that we have a simulated experience of watching the couple, watch the television program of boating.

If Baudrillard’s Simulacra implies that there is no such thing as reality, then what is it?

In giving this some thought, I would argue that the couple is indeed having a real experience of sitting on a sofa and watching television, and engaging with Debord, as photographer, directing their movements on the set in the studio. Can we really say that their experience is simulated?

Hmmm, I wondered if that was accurate.

At the earliest time of the universe’s existence, scientists believe that only four elements were in play, deuterium, two heliums, and lithium. Other elements, including carbon, exist because they have their origins in the furnaces of stars. So humans are made from elements and energy that is not infinite.

Scientists can estimate that the universe is 13.7 billion years old. Space and time originated at the Big Bang. So, if we say that the universe had a beginning, then it is not infinite.

Then there are two theories for the end of the universe. The Big Crunch and The Big Freeze. Either way life ends and everything, including energy disappears.

Unless I misunderstood what I was reading.

However, I do have a personal beef. There is not enough time in the class to really digest points or opinions that are brought up during the class time. I have decided that I am going to post my own responses here…after they have been rolling around in my head, keeping me awake half the night.

What makes me the most happy about this is that my son seems to have chosen the thing that he is good at and will find fulfillment in…even if it does not make him bags of money in the end.

This brought to mind an experience I had as a 20 year old working my way through college a number of years ago. I had, as one of my part-time jobs, a position as a “dietary aide” in a hospital kitchen. As each of us were busy with our required tasks the supervisors would periodically wander through the kitchen to ensure that we were busy and working, rather than slacking off (or sneaking off to the washroom with an ice cream cup for a snack). I remember that I was turning from sorting cutlery and folding paper napkins to put some items aside, or something. I noticed a supervisor stopping and looking at a napkin that had fallen on the floor. She stood over it for a few seconds and as I walked by, she held out her hand and told me to pick it up. The first thought in my head was, why don’t you pick it up, but I picked it up, as she stood there, and placed it in her hand.

The fact that I remember this experience all these years later, I think, says something. Looking back I would say she was asking me to do it in order to assert her authority over me. I wonder…

As the days pass I am constantly writing tiny notes to myself, in various notebooks, about topics I would like to blog about. Later when I am home (because I never think while I am at home) I forget all about my little notes and the things that concerned me earlier in the day.  Throw in a tad of disdain for the computer and what it is doing to my body and you have a pretty sad blogging situation.

I suppose it is all about will-power then. That ever elusive thing that will also help me to go out for walks, close my mouth when someone offers their fries, and spend ten minutes writing and posting blog post. A considered blog post will naturally suck up an hour.

However, here is the thing that bugged me this week. I am in a class with adults. Older ones. The whi …[edited to protect the gulity]… mbarrassing.

I wonder how I can seperate myself from the pack.