Rachel Marie Stone's Blog, page 15

The ‘Best’ Healthcare In The World (Or, “At Those Prices, It Should Be!”)

A number of folks have pointed me to this article in the New York Times: “American Way of Birth, Costliest in the World.” If you’re the kind of person who scrolls through the comments section–not an activity I recommend!–you’ll see that I commented twice in response to the clever little embedded questions in the article. […]

What Anxiety Feels Like (For Me, and, Maybe, For You. With Cartoons.)

I often think that anxiety probably has some helpful prehistoric function, like sensing that a large, hungry carnivore is on the prowl and being the one to let the rest of the group know. But in the absence of large, hungry carnivores (or other clearly perilous situations) anxiety sometimes feels as useful as the appendix, […]

Friday Cat

Kitties and doggies being friends in the shade together. This makes me smile.

The Peace of Wild Things (with photos of animals seen on a recent safari)

For me, there is nothing quite like being outdoors, and, especially, seeing wild creatures, as an antidote to anxiety. I don’t think there is anything particularly unusual or strange in that. God’s strangely comforting words to Job involved proclaiming himself as involved and caring in the lives of the wildest and remotest creatures, Psalm 104 […]

How NOT To Help Someone Who Is Hurting (comic strips included!)

We all have times like this, don’t we? And they are never easy. I happen to have a strong tendency (whether owing to my genes, my God-given personality and inclination, or who knows what) toward anxiety, much, MUCH more of it than is helpful and much more than I care to admit. Because it can […]

Is That Bikini Video–and the ‘modesty’ movement–really about nostalgia?

Nostalgia is big right now. From Michael Pollan’s new panegyric on “traditional” food preparation, Cooked, to ModCloth.com, all things Mad Men (or previous) seem to be ‘in,’ down to hula hoops, bright red lipstick, ‘vintage’-style, well, everything, and grave suspicion of some of the best that modern science has had to offer, like vaccines and […]

Nostalgia Requires Selective Memory

Nostalgia is big right now. From Michael Pollan’s new panegyric on “traditional” food preparation, Cooked, to ModCloth.com, all things Mad Men (or previous) seem to be ‘in,’ down to hula hoops, bright red lipstick, ‘vintage’-style, well, everything, and grave suspicion of some of the best that modern science has had to offer, like vaccines and […]

Vegan? Vegetarian? Flexitarian? Compassionate Carnivory?

Recently I came across this quotation from the novelist and essayist (and, I believe, genius) Marilynne Robinson, given in a 2008 interview with the Paris Review: “I’m generally a vegetarian of the ovo-lacto type, minus the ovo, yet I’m keenly aware of the fact that Hitler was a vegetarian. When he visited Mussolini in Italy […]

Friday Cat

I think there are 13 cats. And I think this photo is simply incredible {Have a great weekend.}

No Bitterness Or Guilt-Tripping (A Review of Eat With Joy + a Reading List)

I’d like to point you to this lovely review of my book, Eat With Joy, by blogger Cara Strickland. Here’s a taste: “This book is layered and diverse [...] and the scope was part of why I was so excited to read it. But Rachel is more than her topics, and she approaches all of […]