Greed Eats Love

Outside wall of a local bakery in Ann Arbor



We are driving south in Ohio….At the same moment I am starting this blog posting called Greed Eats Love we pass exit 57 north of Dayton…the name of the road is Needmore. I hope the next exit is for a road called HaveEnough.

After 2 months in Ann Arbor, we pulled out of Adena’s driveway with our little home on wheels. We still haven’t named our home….so please send any ideas our way. It is our peacefull little home with everything we need…so a name related to that or something as simple as Sylvia or Ernie is fine. We will know when we hear the right name. For awhile we just called it HOME. But that got confusing when we were staying next to other people’s homes. We heard it was bad luck to not name a travel trailer. If this is bad luck, I can’t wait to see good luck. Must be from great to greater.

Ann Arbor was fantastic. If it had big wilderness and mountains nearby and more sunlight we would want to be there for part of every year. There is a big beautiful coop run by quirky people and a library I would like to find everywhere we go. I still think all libraries are the best human invention. It is a magical place where you can go and find any book (or get it through inter-library loan) and music and movies. When I got my Ann Arbor library card I announced to the person at the desk that it was a very special day…and she understood why I was so excited. OK, can I just say one more thing about that library: ULIMITED NUMBER OF DVDs that you can have for a week or renew on line! One of my Ann Arbor mantras “I LOVE my library.” (When I was living in Sweden I got teased for my 12 library cards…I wanted one for every library near where we lived) I know it sounds greedy…but I used them all. And library collecting is not the kind of greed that eats love.

Ann Arbor has a bunch of Fairy Doors (http://urban-fairies.com/). Little doors around town that are at ground level. I took this last night while lying on the floor of the Crazy Wisdom Bookstore


I am starting to think that the utility poles in a community are a good indicator of how creative and loving a community is. Remember the blog about Yellow Springs Ohio and its knitted covers and peace messages on the utility poles? That is another community I could spend a lot of time in. Every day that I road my speedy bike up Miller St. in Ann Arbor, I rode by these two poles that say it all about that town



In our two short months there we got to be around some of the most open minded and kind people I have ever met. I will miss Aaron and his partner Dwayne, Ellen Livingston’s yoga class with raw foods treat at the end, M.A James the sock tester for Maggie’s Sox, and the many dogs and their people who have entertained us in the woods and schoolyard. We will miss the farmers at the farmers market who have kept us in greens and cabbage and corn. We will really miss Earthen Jar delicious Indian veg buffet with great food and terrible feng shui and dirty floors that make it authentic Indian. Most of all, we will miss Adena and Taylor and Crystal…but not for long. They will be leaving Michigan and joining our little caravan in three weeks!

We saw Michael Moore’s new movie last night, Capitolism, A Love Story. (Reminds me of a story I wrote a few years back called I Hate People, A Love Story..I love oxymoron titles.) The film was great. My favorite part was when he wrapped AIG, Citibank and other financial institutions run by criminals with bright yellow CRIME SCENE tape. I hope he continues his journey to expose those who get rich at the expense of others, the environment and all life on the planet. I cannot wait until he gets the animal agriculture piece. When he makes that film, I will be celebrating BIG.

About three weeks ago we saw the soon to be released Peaceable Kingdom. If greed eats love, then does love destroy greed? If so, this film will be at the top of the love warriors list. The people in the film exude love. It is one of the few films I have seen that expose the reality of our relationship with animals without making me hate people. That is no easy task.

Greed Eats Love, Love Eats Greed and Love Eats Hate…
Jimi Hendrix said it all:
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

Spring Rolls or Marine Mammals?

I am not a cookbook writing kind of person….but when I find a great, easy recipe, I am going to share it here.

This week we made spring rolls. I am including the rolling instructions. If you try to wing it, you may end up with the equivalent of small baby beluga’s with stuff oozing out each end.

Vegan Spring Rolls

Everybody knows that when you find a place that makes good spring rolls, you go back again and again. What most people don’t know is that they are one of the easiest and most fun dishes to prepare at home!

(You could use basil or mint or just about any fresh herb that you like instead of cilantro…shredded lettuce is great in them too)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 container firm or extra firm tofu, well pressed
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1 cup cooked bean thread noodles or rice vermicelli
• one bunch fresh cilantro leaves
• spring roll wrappers
• water

Preparation:

Slice the pressed tofu into thin strips. Heat the soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil and ginger in a skillet and saute the tofu for 5-7 minutes, until crispy.

In a large bowl, toss together the carrots and noodles.

Submerge 2-3 wrappers at a time in hot (not boiling) water until completely pliable, about 15 seconds. Wrappers will become fragile, so I recommend using your hands for this. Remove from water and lay one wrapper on a flat surface, setting others aside. If your wet wrappers have small holes in them, place the holes closest towards yourself on your flat surface. For larger holes, use a double layer of wrappers.

Place 2 to 3 tablespoons of the veggie mixture in wrappers just below the middle. Place cilantro leaves and a strip of crispy tofu along the top of the filling.

Fold the bottom of the wrapper up over the filling and gently press down. Fold in both of the sides of the wrapper and gently press to seal. Continue rolling the spring roll up towards the top of the wrapper. If your wrapper won’t seal closed, sprinkle the top with a bit of water or make a roux of one part water and one part arrowroot to use as a sealant.

Serve with a dipping sauce.

Easy Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup organic peanut butter, softened
• 3 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• juice from 2 limes
• 1 tbsp fresh minced ginger
• 1/2 tsp maple syrup
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
• salt to taste

Preparation:

Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl.

I believe in synchronicity. It happens all the time in my life. I probably notice it about 1% of the time…if that.

We left Ann Arbor with the camper and the dogs yesterday to find a little wild space to hang out in for a few days. Less than an hour from Adena’s place in Ann Arbor we found a state recreation area that is pretty much deserted because it is not a weekend. When we arrived, no one was camping here. We saw signs of the holiday weekend that just ended…beer bottles and other trash tossed on the ground at some sites. We found our sweet quiet place near the lake and JC leaped over the hand rails on the long pier to swim in the lake that had a NO SWIMMING sign. I love watching a 58 year old vegan guy run along the pier and shoot his whole body over the 3 foot railing.

Within an hour of being here, I could feel my mind clear and the stress I have been feeling melt away. Instead of our usual movie, we read books to the sound of crickets and geese or soft classical music on the stereo. The dogs hung out in the mud outside the door, happy for the freedom of no fence and all the possibilities out there.

In this kind of slow quiet, I can notice synchronicity.

In the evening a Westfalia van came driving through. The guy waived as he passed and camped on the far end of the loop where we cant hear or see each other.

After a quiet long night of sleep, the dogs and I walked to the outhouse and pump and met the Westfalia guy there. The only other person in the whole place and within 5 minutes we figured out we have mutual friends and familiar spots in Wisconsin, Minnesota and New Mexico. Byron is a potter in Detroit and seems to be “our tribe”…our kind of people.

He started talking about a place for sale near Silver City in the Gila. Faywood Hotsprings. Hundreds of acres and a hot springs in the one area of New Mexico that both JC and I can get excited about. Here is where synchronicity enters. The chances of us being here: slim. There were lots of camping places we could have gone. The chances of Byron coming to the water pump right when I was going by it: slim. I had to have my morning poo at just the right time and it had to end at just the right time and Bean had to scratch on the door of the outhouse and delay me a bit because she wanted me to open the door so she could sit at my feet in the stinky outhouse. Byron had to sleep just the right amount of time and then decide to get water at just the right time.

Synchronicity works like this: I am going to research the possibility of Faywood Hot Springs being purchased by a group of people wanting to start Vegan Village. I may find out that it is not perfect for our needs, but in the process I may come across something else that is perfect for that or I may come across a place that would just be great for backpacking or who knows what else.

It is a bit like the “hint hunts” I used to have with the girls (Sanna and Saga) in Sweden when I lived there. I would write out clues on little slips of paper. One paper slip might say: “A place where they call a friend a mate”. They would then think of Australia and hopefully think to go to the next clue taped to the Australia drawing on the glass globe of the world.

That is how this synchronicity thing works. I trust that Byron has just given me a clue that will take me to the next clue. The trick is to trust and be present. In everyday life, a major clue can pass by unnoticed. I trust that I am supposed to research Faywood Hot Springs. It may be that the minute I sit down to research it, the next clue appears. Or I may have to wait until we go research New Mexico spots and then the next clue will appear as we head toward Faywood Hot Springs. It may be that we discover something on that outing that makes us both want to take Silver City off of our HOME radar or leads us to an even better option than Faywood. That is where the trust comes in. You cannot tell how the dots connect until you look back at a bunch of them. I think this is why I love movies like Sliding Doors or Happenstance or Run Lola Run. I love how life can take turns based on the smallest details and our noticing or not noticing them.

I also love how things that seem like negatives are part of the puzzle and end up being positives. The places or situations or people we want to get away from, take us to the next place. I thought that my feeling stressed in Ann Arbor the last few days was a negative. My wrists were hurting from too much computer work for Vegfund and I was tired of highway noise and endless tasks. Ideally, I would have just been happy to be there and accept it all, right? Like the book I am reading now “How to Want What You Have” (found at a garage sale in Ann Arbor)….I should just want things as they are, right? Well, yes and no. Things as they were a few days ago also included my body and mind yelling at me to get to a slower quieter place for a few days. Part of what I had was the situation I was in and part of what I had was the choice to be somewhere else….so why not go with the choice to be in quiet wild space. That is not the same as longing for what I don’t have when it was in fact an easy choice in front of me..

Maybe a year from now I will be living in a place and be able to look back to the day in Ann Arbor when I was stressed and wanted out of there and feel grateful for it because it pushed me here which opened up the possibility of talking with Byron, which led me to research a place which led me to another place and on and on for an entire year, until I ended up standing in Utah (who knows) wondering how a bad day in Michigan got me there.

It is this kind of synchronicity that got me to visit New Mexico for the first time in the early seventies. Years earlier I was in an international dance group and would drive to the weekly dances with the same couple every time. I cannot even tell you their names right now. On one of those short drives to the dance, the woman turned to me and said, “You would love Taos New Mexico.” I had never heard of Taos and had never thought of visiting New Mexico. Years later, when a relationship ended in disaster and I wanted to leave town, I could not think of where to go. Then I remembered what that woman had said to me. I packed my little rucksack and hitchhiked to Taos with my cat. When I got there it was 2 am. I slept in a field outside town. In the morning I woke up and walked into town and noticed a flier stuck on a utility pole for a dance class that morning at 10 am. I found the community center, set my rucksack in the corner, pulled out my sleeping bag and let the cat settle in there. After the dance class people made local announcements. The class had about 15 people. Two of the people made announcements that got me a place to live and a place to work within one hour of landing in town. Years earlier, one women turning around and telling me I would like a town led me to a place I will always call home.

Otherwise Caring and Intelligent People....The Two Gap Theory

Can someone help me figure out the logic in why otherwise caring and intelligent people would buy purebred dogs from petshops or breeders when there are millions of homeless dogs languishing in shelters and waiting in rescue foster homes? And while you are at it can you also help me understand why people refuse to spay and neuter their companion animals?

I can understand why billions of people care about dogs and cats, but do not care about other beings when they are labeled as food. This is an agreed upon cultural violence norm that people can feel good about because it goes mostly unquestioned. But, dogs and cats and other companion animals? We LIVE with them. How can we not make the best choices for those we live with?

This photo is dogs waiting to be slaughtered for human consumption in Asia.

Many people find this difficult to see. (This is one of the easier photos to look at of this industry)

But, why is it not equally disturbing to see other species kept like this for eggs or other foods? Chickens, sheep, cows, pigs and other species feel pain, have relationships and can also connect with humans given the chance.

And why is it not equally disturbing to think of dogs and cats right here in North America being kept in cages for their entire lives so they can be breeding machines for a greedy industry?


I really do want to understand it. I am welcoming any feedback about this from my blog readers.


I have a two gap theory. There is one gap between what the reality of an industry is and what people know. There is a second gap between what people know and what they act on.
I don't know anyone who acts on what they know 100%. I sure don't. The gap between what we know and what we act on may be the one that is at the core of the purebred/overpopulation/breeder problem in the world.

I have been thinking about this issue more lately because I have been walking in a forest everyday here in Ann Arbor Michigan that is full of highly educated university people walking their dogs. There are lots of people walking rescue dogs, but there are also many people walking purebred dogs they got at breeders or pet stores and male dogs with intact balls and unspayed female dogs in heat.

So, here is what I want to know: Do people not know the horrors of the breeding facilites (even after Oprah highlighted it)? or Do people know about the suffering that goes on in these places but choose to ignore it?

I know that denial can run deep. I have been stubborn to act on some things that I know. (I act immediately on those things that are very little effort on my part. If something requires a major change in the way I do things, I can be a bit slower. But, adopting a companion animal from a shelter or rescue does NOT require a huge leap in daily lifestyle. It is one choice. A very easy choice. 9 out of 10 of these shelter animals is killed because of lack of homes. Many people choose to only support no-kill shelters, but these are just the feel good places. When those shelters are full, people are forced to take their animals to the shelters that euthanize or they dump them on the side of the road. All shelters will be no kill shelters when we stop supporting breeding of any kind. (I am talking about companion animal breeding here, we can talk about human breeding in another cheery blog).

I have a friend who is a graduate of Harvard Business school. He is not a stupid person. But all logic seems to escape him on the issue of spaying and neutering. He thinks that it is "unnatural" to spay and neuter. He thinks that we should just release all companion animals into the wild and let nature have her way with them. Hmmm, imagine the world with all companion animals released. If it were a movie, the title would be "War on Wildlife". Not to mention the billions who would simply starve or freeze. The current situation with companion animals is not "natural" and the solution is not going to be "natural". We created a situation that we need to take responsibility for.

There are times, like now, when I can feel no hope for the human race to wake up and take care of who and what is around us. Here I am, in my work, asking the humans to please consider that other species have feelings and deserve to live their lives fully. I am asking this of a species (humans) who are still unable to even accept that all people are deserving of this. We are still abusing children, other races, other cultures and ourselves. We knowingly make choices that destroy our own health and the planet. So, how do I expect a species who cannot even care for its own kind or its own home (earth) to see beyond the differences to embrace all other life? We assume we are the most intelligent species, when in fact, most other species are far beyond us in their ability to care for self and others. Take rats, for instance. They will always choose the healthiest foods when given a choice. They will pick fruits and veggies over junk "food" everytime. We have not even got those basics figured out.

OK, back to the dog and cat issue. I am asking people to be logical about this choice. Even if you are set on a particular "must have" breed, find a rescue group on line. Or, visit a local shelter where you will often find purebreds who, like their mutt shelter mates, are surrendered because the "intelligent" human who originally adopted them did not realize that this living being actually requires some attention.

Aside from all that, I am still hoping that someone can enlighten me on why this basic companion animal choice is so difficult for people. In terms of our awareness of other species and how our lifestyle choices affect them, the companion animal issues should be a no brainer. This is kindergarten in the school of animal welfare/rights. As I sit in this room at Adena's with four rescued dogs, I look around at their individual faces and the personalities that each one has. One of them was rescued from a facility that was about to sell him to a lab to be experimented on. He is looking at me right now. Those same eyes could have been pleading with a vivisector to please not do anymore painful experiments or to please give him something to ease the pain of the previous experiment. I do not want to put difficult images here on the blog. But for those willing to witness what we are doing to dogs in labs, go to this link: http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/dog-res-01.html




I have been working on these issues for so long. Sometimes I just want to quit it all and go be in a beautiful place and do nothing but notice the stars or the sunrise or the wind on my face. And then I remember all I have seen and heard and smelled in the world of these voiceless beings who live in hellish conditions everyday of their lives. I have no choice but to speak up for them when I can.....
This is not such a cheery blog posting. Life's not always so cheery.

And Don't Forget the GRATITUDE!!!!

JC and Adena rode with me to the farmers market yesterday. We cannot resist stopping at every garage sale along the way. We are on the hunt for lightweight perfect storage for campers. And the occasional useless tchotchke (yiddish), knickknack (english), pootie nootie (swedish), kikorokoro (swahili).
I found the jiggling hula man for someone's dashboard.
He is already in the mail heading to my friend Wendy for her outdoor mosaic heavenly gardens.

At one sale, it seemed that everything in the house was up for grabs. When we pedaled up to the front porch, there were about 5 people (including a smiling dark haired man in his forties in a wheelchair) who greeted us. Inside the house was everything from decades of old Mother Earth News mags to canning and gardening supplies. The whole porch had great tools. Everything was perfectly organized. I asked a guy in the kitchen if the sale was a benefit for some organization. "Nope, it is actually our friend Steve's house and he had an accident and can't live here anymore. He fell down some stairs in February and is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life now. He was a great carpenter...and gardener..and cook. But there is no way to make this house accessible and he moved to an apartment." I started looking at everything through new eyes....I pictured the smiling man I had seen out on the lawn walking through the house and canning veggies and fixing up the place with those tools.
I didn't bother doing my usual haggling for the best prices. I just paid the asking price.
We stood next to the wheelchair, straddling our bikes and got to know Steve a little. 7 months after his accident, he was sitting in his tall wheelchair unable to use his arms or legs or open his hands. He proudly showed us the one finger he could move. He was so positive and warm. Even while telling us that he lost his job and had to leave his favorite house and gardens because of the accident, he was smiling and hopeful looking about what he might be able to do with some more time and work in physical therapy.
As the three of us said goodbye to him and lifted our healthy feet onto the pedals of our bikes, I was aware of every easy movement I usually take for granted. I cried as we left the yard sale. I wasn't crying because I felt sorry for Steve. I was crying because life can change on a dime. One minute you are running and the next minute you're horizontal and being told you will not walk again. And I wasn't even crying because of that. I was crying because I can forget to be grateful. Everyday I forget. Not all the time, but most of the time. I forget to be grateful for this healthy body, my loving partner, my loving friends and family, my unlimited choices, my lack of hardship. I actually think that I have hardship sometimes....but I don't. I have such ease. I have everything a sane person would want. I cried at the way I can be so blind to how lucky I am to be able to put one foot in front of the other and walk the dogs for hours or type these words on this machine or cook up great meals. I complain about this and that....the weather, the computer "taking my time", my fuzzy hair, my poofer belly, my wrinkles, and blah blah blah.....
All I can think right now as my fingers fly on this keyboard is "I am so fucking blessed. I hope I never forget it." And I know I will. And I know that some Steve or some other person or thing will end up right in front of me to remind me that I have EVERYTHING I need...and lots of pootie nootie I don't need.

Busy Bees with Vegfund.....

Here is an article in Vegnews Online about Vegfund.
check it out!
We are incredibly busy with this project.
Rewarding and wild.



http://vegnews.com/web/articles/page.do?pageId=504&catId=7

Consistency Ahhhhhhhhhhh

For years my dogs were veg. I figured that it was crazy to care about them by causing suffering to the animals used for dogfood.
Then came a dog who did not want to eat that veggie food. Combine that with my Jewish upbringing and things definitely went in a backward direction. I am happiest when everyone is full and "wanting for nothing" as my family says. The idea that my dog or anyone in my life would go hungry for even an hour makes me sad. When my various dogs have had surgery and they say "no food after midnight on the day before the surgery, my heart sinks. I set the alarm and give them their "last supper" at five minutes to midnight. I do the same with myself. I am a chow hound. If I weren't a vegan who loves healthy food, I would weigh about 200 pounds.
OK, back to the dogfood issue. I slipped into feeding not just one, but both dogs, meat based dog food. I went into that sleepy denial that lets us forget about decades of knowing about, seeing and teaching about the horrors and violence in the animal agriculture industries. I turned my back on what I know to be true: The animals used for human and non-human food suffer in ways that would shock most consumers. If slaughterhouses, factory farms, trucking companies who ship animals, and stockyards all had glass walls, the meat industry would go belly up. It is amazing what we can deny. I have seen all the images. Not just a few times. Hundreds of times. I have shown the films and slide images of the violence in factory farming to children and adults in education programs for years. And yet, somehow, I pushed this information aside and went back to feeding meat to the dogs.
Then, just last week, JC and Adena and I went to see Food Inc.


We leafleted with the Vegan Outreach Compassionate Choices booklet before and after the film and everyone took one on the way out. This is not a vegan film by any means. It is a film about how our food is becoming less and less food and more and more product. The film did include footage of animal agriculture. Mostly footage I had seen before, but for some reason it grabbed me this time. It may be because is came on the heels of a discussion about what I feed the dogs. The three of us had this discussion. This makes realize the power of not only a well made film, but of a well timed, unthreatening, open discussion with friends and family.
After the film I announced that I would no longer buy animal products for the dogs. JC is delighted. He has been wanting this for three years. Bean and Tikvah were not happy at first. But they did not have to go hungry for long. They scarf down the veggie food almost as fast as they did the meat food. As a little side benefit, it seems to be changing Beans preferences and she is taking part in Tikvah's nightly raw cabbage feed in (his favorite treat).
Having this consistency back in my life feels wonderful.
I was feeling very hypocritical when leading programs on compassionate living and feeding my dogs tortured beings.

(Downed cow being dragged onto truck by chain-What we no longer support)

I am breathing a sigh of relief. We all are. Me, JC, Tikvah (who has been prone to tumors and should not be eating any meat), Bean (who is young and will hopefully be healthier with this way of eating), and the thousands of animals who will not be raised, trucked and slaughtered for any of us.