Jonathan-David Jackson's Blog, page 4

Eating to Live

For most of us in the developed world, food is always delicious. For my wife and me, I know it certainly is. Everything we eat is a mouthwatering array of flavors, and we make sure of that when we plan our weekly menu. We don’t eat anything we don’t love – ever. For myself, the things I love are savory: spaghetti, curry, meat pies, entire hogs basted in barbecue sauce and their own juices. My wife has an extra love of sweets: chocolate, cake, doughnuts, whole swans dipped in fondant and sprinkled with nibbed sugar. Hardly a day goes by where both of us aren’t having the things we love to put in our mouths, and frankly it’s hard to find that many swans and hogs at this time of year.

We love to eat, and we love to cook. We love for those things we eat and cook to be delicious and varied, and my wife even has a blog where she makes us food from all around the world – Around the World in 196 Recipes. Near the top of the list of things we both enjoy, food is there. Many different kinds of food also would make it onto a list of simple pleasures for us.

 

The delicious sort of thing we won’t be eating this week.

Recently, though, we started to wonder what life would be like if every food you ate wasn’t a taste sensation. How would your body react if the only food you put in it was food to fill you up and power your day, if you were only eating to live? How would your mind react? Will you even want to eat if the food isn’t made extradelicious by a coating of sugar or salt?

I’ve been reading a lot of books about prison, and particularly about the Soviet Gulag. In places like that, the prisoners didn’t get much choice in what they eat. Sometimes they’re lucky to get anything at all. What they do get is usually plain. Unseasoned. And yet, because of hunger, because of what their body needs, they savor each bite of their plain bread or watery gruel. I wanted to experience that. I want to experience the raw, grateful pleasure of a starving man who gets something – anything – to fill his belly.

So for the next week, we’re not going to be eating any delicious food. We’re doing without all seasonings, sauces, and flavorings. That means no salt or pepper, no ketchup, no lemon juice, basically no anything. No fat (Because it’s delicious. Take it from me, the man who once made a sandwich with nothing but pork fat.) means no meat, no butter, and certainly no dairy products. Absolutely no sweet, sweet fruit.

We’ve made a list of about fifteen nutritious foods we’re going to be having, and made sure there was nothing we’d choose to eat on its own. There are plenty of vegetables or relatively plain things that we do love, so we removed them from our initial list. For example, plain sweet potatoes are lovely, so they had to go. Bread on its own? Too tasty. Peas? Too sweet. Lettuce? Gone. It was surprising to realize how many plain things we do love, and how many things really are naturally delicious or have a pleasing texture. The things we’re having this week are the plainest foods we could think of. This morning, we had plain oatmeal made with only water. For dinner, we’ll be having plain kidney beans with boiled kale.

Today’s breakfast.

We both enjoy experimenting with doing things differently, and this is certainly going to be interesting. Will we be able to eat this way for 7 days, 3 meals a day, 21 meals in total? Will we still desire to eat at every meal from hunger, or will we want to skip meals with their unappetizing fare? We’re going to keep track of our thoughts and feelings as we eat this way throughout the week, and at the end of the week we’ll post again to show what it’s like eating this way.

It is enough if you don’t freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don’t claw at your insides. If your back isn’t broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why?

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

(Crossposted at A Family Against the Flow)

Review: Fat

Fat by Rob Grant


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The blurb on the back of the book implies that it’s set in a near-future dystopian society where fat is soon to be illegal. The book teases you early on with the mention of Well Farms, which are (voluntary) camps for fat people to be thinned down, and I’m sure you can imagine the slippery dystopian slope that could slide down. Instead, what the book gives you is three characters who exist in a world which is exactly like the world we actually live in. None of the characters get a satisfying ending, but none of them were likable to begin with so you don’t feel too cheated.

The writing is light and enjoyable to read, and I did feel interested in what’s going on with each character. Enough to keep me going to the end, and enough to earn 3 stars.





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Review: What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today’s Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty

What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today’s Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty by John Brockman


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Out of the hundred or so essays in this book, only about five were thought-provoking. Around half were something like ‘God does not exist’ or ‘string theory is very complicated,’ both of which are things I could probably have predicted these people (psychologists, physicists, etc.) would say anyway.

The most interesting belief presented was that humans are not conscious – that is, we don’t actually make decisions. We act by instinct, in the same complex ways that ants and bees do, but we also happen to be able to think about the way we’re acting, and have convinced ourselves that we’re actually in control of it all.





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Review: The Iron Heel

The Iron Heel by Jack London


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For me, the best dystopian books make me feel sadness because everything is so terrible. 1984 crushed my soul, especially with the twist. This book makes me feel sadness as well, but in a different way – sadness for the way things could have been, how the world could have eventually been a better place if the Brotherhood of Man actually existed.

If you’re looking for a story, though, I advise you to skip this. There’s a little story, but not much. If you’re looking for a political manifesto, also skip it, because again there’s not much. If you’re looking for some sort of combination of both of those, though, then this might be what you’re after.





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The Quest for Juice – Free Everywhere

You want a great book but can’t find 100 pennies? Then today might be the best day ever for you (so far (this month)). To celebrate reaching the quarter-finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, The Quest for Juice ebook is now free (completely free, I won’t break into your house later and steal food as payment) on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and mostly anywhere else you can get an ebook. Download it, read it, print it out and use the back of the pages for stick figure drawings.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DB4DDP6/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DB4DDP6/

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=AdXhAgAAQBAJ

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-quest-for-juice

I Am Not the Arctic Tundra

Although I suppose I can see the resemblance.
(source: WM Commons)

Why does everything need a scent? My shampoo is made from coconuts, apparently. My shower gel1 smells like apples. My conditioner2 wafts around the lovely scent of licorice (I don’t use conditioner, this is just an example). If I brush my teeth then for a week anyone I talk to is going to think I’ve been chewing eucalyptus bark. What’s so wrong with smelling like a human, and why is it somehow better to smell like a dandelion (not that there is any dandelion-scented product as far as I know, but there will be as soon as they read this post and realize the huge untapped market for it)?

It gets even worse if you’re a man (which I am) and you want to buy anything to clean your disgusting body with. In  products made for a man (which function exactly the same as products made for a woman, but come in a black bottle instead of purple) they haven’t even felt it necessary to name them after things that actually have a smell. Oh, sure, occasionally you’ll get Arctic Tundra. What does that smell like, though? You imagine that it smells crisp and clean, a brisk arctic breeze blowing over a massive hunk of shale – that’s what you want to smell like. In fact, the arctic tundra is home to more than nine million reindeer (so says David Attenborough), not to mention the millions of other animals, so what the arctic tundra actually smells like is reindeer poop (not an ingredient you’ll find in your arctic tundra body wash, probably).

Sadly, Arctic Tundra is the best of them. From there, you move on to abstract concepts, like Pure Sport. Jock straps, dirt, and sweat? Blue Power. What does blue even smell like, and how do you get power in a bottle? Caribbean Breeze. Actually what that one smells like is Blue Power, but it’s colored green instead of blue.

All of these products have a mainly ridiculous scent, and you’re apparently supposed to use about ten of them every day, so your coconuts are competing with the apple which is nearly overriding the reindeer poop which is almost but not quite stronger than your peppermint toothpaste or buttermilk nose cream, and on top of that you can put a nice spray of cologne or perfume to drive away any nearby wildlife.

I don’t think I need to smell like any of that, so from now on I’m not using any product that makes me smell like something I’m not. When I’m coming, I don’t want you to think the coconut cart has been overturned. I want you to smell me, like we’re dogs (not the way dogs do, though – from a distance, please), and I want you to go Hey, that dude smells like a dude. I am going to go shake his hand. We’ll shake hands. We’ll smell like we smell.

1 Shower gel is, by the way, essentially the same thing as shampoo. The international shower gel/shampoo conglomerate just want your money twice so they’ve convinced you that you need two things. Shower gel didn’t even exist half a century ago, it was just soap. Soap for every occasion and every part of your body, and now there are twenty different products to do the jobs a cheap bar of soap used to be just fine for.

2 Shampoo makes your hair dry and brittle. Conditioner makes it moist and supple and smooth like a newborn. They sell you one product to undo the damage caused by the other product they sold you. Just live in a hut made from your own hair, save money.

 

Review: F**k It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way

F**k It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way by John C. Parkin


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The message of this book is essentially the same as many other things you’ve probably read or heard. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, parts of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Sane New World, Song of Solomon; it’s all there. Those are all great works, and it doesn’t do the message any harm to hear it again in a different way – rather, it reinforces it. The message, by the way, is be mindful of what you’re doing, breathe slowly, and don’t worry so much about stuff because none of it really matters anyway.

I did get something new from this book, though: a new definition of a selfless act. Anything you do that you get joy from is not selfless, because you’re getting joy from it. There’s nothing wrong with that – Mother Theresa no doubt got joy from saving orphaned children, and that was great, but it wasn’t selfless. It was a win-win situation for both her and the orphans. A selfless act is something you do for someone else when you *don’t* want to do it, and only they get a benefit. Generally, selfless acts are a bad idea, then, because it’s just going to build resentment or anger or perhaps a feeling of unappreciation within you that’s going to come out on that person later, so what seems like a lose-win situation is actually a lose-lose situation. For this reason, you shouldn’t subordinate your desires to someone else’s except in the most exceptional circumstances.





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You Are Three People, and One of Them Needs Forgiveness

Don’t beat yourself up like this guy. (photo by istolethetv)

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.”

- Buddha

I’m very good at forgiving. Use my credit card to buy pizza without my permission – I’ll forgive you*. Poke me in the eye – I’ll forgive you. Steal my prized possession and sell it so you can buy drugs – I’ll forgive you. And not just that I wouldn’t punch you in the face, but I wouldn’t hold a grudge. I’d move completely past it and be your best friend afterwards. I don’t think it’s going too far to say that I am the Gandhi, or perhaps the Jesus, of forgiveness. If someone made a movie of my life, people would say “Why is this movie about Jesus called ‘JD’ instead of ‘JC’?” My point is, I’ve never had any trouble forgiving people, and I certainly wouldn’t have thought I needed any help with it.

A few weeks ago, though, I read a post on Reddit by ryan01 where he gave some advice for life, and the main thing that I took away from it was You Are Three People. You might think you’re only one, but you’re wrong. You’re past you, present you, and future you. Studies show that people think of their selves in the future as being like a stranger. That’s why it’s hard to do something now for a future benefit, because it literally feels like you’re doing that for a stranger. You’re avoiding spending all your money on cake and pies now so you can afford a down payment on a house in 5 years, but a stranger will be living in that house, a stranger that doesn’t even exist now and won’t even appreciate all your hard work not eating cake.

Ryan’s steps for dealing with the fact that you are three people are easy:

1. Do favors for your future self. You are your best friend, you know yourself the best, you’re in the best position to help (future) you out. If you’re laying on the couch drinking melted ice cream and watching Golden Girls when you actually have a report for work due, imagine that future you is another person who is your best friend, and he really needs your help with this report or he’s going to lose his job. Are you going to lay there instead of helping him out now?

2. After you’ve done a favor for your future self, and you’ve reached the future, you (now present you) should thank past you for what you’ve done, just as if past you was a different person and did a favor for you. Because that’s just what he (you) did.

Following these simple steps is a good way to motivate yourself to do things. You do things and you feel good for doing them, then once you’re benefiting from them you thank yourself for them. It creates a cycle of doing things, enjoying them, and thanking yourself so you want to do more things to enjoy them and get your own thanks. There was a third important thing as well, which was:

3. Forgive past you for mistakes.

As I read it, I realized that I never forgave myself for anything. I beat myself up about everything, I was ashamed of myself, I never let past mistakes go. I treated myself more badly than I would treat my worst enemy, and I certainly forgave myself less. And of course, because why would you forgive yourself, anyway? You don’t need to forgive yourself, its absurd! You already know all the circumstances inside your head, why you did things, what went wrong, how you couldn’t have done it differently, etc. etc.

I kept turning the idea over in my head as I read, and I felt a powerful yearning for my own forgiveness. I left the computer, went into the bathroom and stood at the sink. I looked into the mirror, looked myself right in the eye, and said JD, I forgive you. Immediately, I began crying. It was an amazing experience. It was exactly as if someone else was forgiving me. It was like my best friend had forgiven me – which it should be, because I’m my best friend! Deep down, I must have known how much withholding my own forgiveness was hurting me, and I desperately wanted it without even knowing. I stood there for twenty minutes, forgiving myself for everything I could think of. And afterwards, I felt great. It was just as if I had done terrible things and been forgiven for them, truly forgiven without any grudges held.

If someone had told me the day before that I needed my own forgiveness, I probably would have laughed, or just ignored what they said. I probably would have thought they were a little weird. But it turns out that it was one of the things I needed most. That was weeks ago, and I’ve been a lot easier on myself since then. Failure is easier to handle, as well as there being less things that feel like failure because I’m not there to tell myself I’m a failure. Success is also easier to achieve, because I’m not watching myself constantly waiting for me to slip up so I can shout at me that I’m doing it wrong. I was so moved by this advice that I put it as the first entry in my book of advice to myself, JD’s Book of Advice for JD.

If you don’t forgive yourself, if you constantly beat yourself up, or if you’re just harder on yourself than you would be on other people, this is something I can absolutely recommend. Just get to a mirror, look into your own eyes, and forgive yourself like you would a good friend that you know very intimately.

*Don’t actually do this, I’ll have you arrested.

My Book of Advice

For years now, I’ve had a small collection of inspirational, advice, and self-help books. A couple books about parenting, a book of Zen proverbs, books about writing, books about living simply, etc. Every now and then I’d read through one of them to remind myself of the useful or inspiring things I read the first time, to be sure they were always in my mind. 

Lots of self-help books are mostly filler, though, so I might read a hundred pages and only get ten pages of what I want. With the Zen proverbs book, there are only a few I particularly like but I had to keep the whole book for them. And of course, with so many books, I couldn’t stay regularly updated on them all.

About a month ago I got the idea that I’d compile a book of advice/inspiration/help for myself, made of the most useful things from those books and also what’s in my head. It would have famous quotes as well as memorable quotes from my friends and family. There’d also be pictures of things I like, such as pigeons, hot fires, my family, and my wife. If I’m down, the book should bring me up, and it should also keep me constantly mindful of what’s important. If Conan the Barbarian had a book like this, the first section would be What is Best in Life? and there’d be lots of stuff about driving the enemy before him. That kind of thing.

I put it off, as I do with most things, but two weeks ago, I read a post on Reddit that changed my life (I’ll make a post in the future about that) and inspired me to get going with it. I wrote the book in a little over a week, then collected images and inspirational quotes for it. Yesterday, I hit the Publish button, and the first copy of JD’s Book of Advice for JD is on its way to me.

To Be Five Years Old Again

As a child, you can sit naked on people and they’re totally cool with it.

I lay in bed for hours, turning this way and that. Now I’m too cold. Now the pillow is too hot. The LED lights on my computer are simply too bright for me to sleep, so I have to get up and cover them with electrician’s tape. My arm has gone to sleep. My leg has a cramp. Earlier, my 5 year old nephew, Ethan, has gone to sleep after lying in bed for about three minutes and having his back rubbed by me.

Not only has he gone to sleep instantly, but he didn’t even feel tired before. Sure, he was cranky. He cried when I suggested that he watch 30 minutes of TV and then do his homework. He sat for a quarter of an hour and sulked over a spoonful of macaroni & cheese he had to eat. Tired, though? Not him – as far as he knows, anyway. Children don’t know they’re tired. You can see it, you can see how their body rebels against them running around every waking moment. (My body certainly rebels against that kind of thing, so I spend most of the day at a computer chair or on a couch.)

He didn’t want to go to bed, and he fought it as long as he could, only succumbing at last to the back-rubbing. Children don’t want to go to bed. As an adult, I know that if I don’t go to bed, I’ll be tired in the morning. My relationships will suffer, my work will suffer, my health will suffer. So he’s never tired and he doesn’t want to go to bed, but when he does he’s asleep immediately. While I, knowing the value of sleep, am denied it by my body.

As a child, though, you don’t know any of that. Along with not knowing what being tired is, he also doesn’t know when he’s a jerk. If something bad happens, it’s not his fault – it’s mine. Or, probably yours, whoever you are that’s reading this. If you’re tired, everyone else is mean. You’re not being an asshole. As a five year old, everybody else is mean, never you. As an adult, I am forced to acknowledge that sometimes, it is I who am the asshole, and I have to be tired while knowing that. And that’s why I’d like to be five years old again.