Summer Skin Care

June 27, 2021June 27, 2021Leave a comment

Fake Medical Cures Abound Then as Now

One can only imagine what “physical culture applied to facial muscles” might be. When I had braces, I also had four teeth removed, since I had the right number of teeth but too small of a mouth. This left me with “floppy lips,” so I had to drink all my liquids through a straw. I suppose it worked, for I’m usually smiling in all my photos, unlike this poor, distressed person.

What will give you a glowing face? The Physical Culture Movement, which persists in Pilates exercises today, incorporated what we call “clean living/eating” and hygiene. This was a big part of the Physical Culture Movement, which began in the 1870’s as a response to the presence of tuberculosis hygiene and was taught in German schools. These classes covered topics such as the importance of breathing fresh air, good sleep habits, nutrition and bathing.

Some people believe the skin should be left totally bare so it can “breathe,” but this is a misguided notion. The top layer of the skin is dead, so it doesn’t ‘breathe.’ When people talk about skin ‘breathing,’ they’re usually referring to whether the skin is occluded or not. Occluding,or blocking up the skin, can cause pimples, whiteheads, or blackheads. It can also cause skin to look dull—especially if a heavy amount of makeup is applied and not removed. The lower, living layers of skin get their oxygen and nutrients from the blood supply, or from what you put in your body.

This is why what you eat and drink is at least as important as what you’re putting on your face. This is also a good reason to clean your face before bed and in the morning once again. Also, wearing a moisturizing sunscreen daily is important for good health and quality skin tone. That’s why a Kitchen blog doesn’t just concentrate on recipes, but speaks to the health consequences of the foods we eat and the whole body experiences of our food environment.

Summary of Physical Culture

The summary points of Physical Culture show this practice has influenced current wellness and self-care thinking:

1. Pure air and sunlight whenever obtainable; through ventilation of living rooms.

2. Wholesome diet of ‘Vital foods, well masticated, eaten only at the dictates of a normal appetite,’ plus frequent fasting of a day or two if need.

3. Reasonably regular use of the muscular system throughout the entire body in work, in the gymnasium, on the athletic field or otherwise.

4. Thorough cleanliness, which requires frequent baths – cold baths for a tonic, hot baths for cleanliness – thorough dry friction with the open hands, brush or towel is also valuable.

5. Right mental attitude; thinking is a powerful factor in maintaining vital health and can be constructive or destructive. The mind can build you up or tear you down.

Critique of Self Care and Wellness Movement

We need to ask if these goals are attainable only by a select few who have the time and leisure to make them a priority, or the social location to organize their lives make them happen. Modern wellness and self care regimens often require expensive and rarified ingredients, such as the extravagantly priced $1,618.26 LUNAR 28 Anti-aging and lightening treatment by 111 Skin. Someone must be buying this, since it’s sold out on their website. Looking on Amazon only gets hits for acne products and composting toilets, neither of which promise “to repair and protect the skin in future lunar phases.”

My guess is the Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers that earn a median pay of $22,140 aren’t buying this product either. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they are lowest-paid people in the employment supply chain and this is the main reason why fast food and restaurant workers are always at the center of higher living wage debates. With an hourly rate of about $10 (and even less in some states), this category of workers are the lowest paid in the country.

This intensive skin care routine is spread out over a period of 28 days, during which the skin should return to brilliance. First, the enzyme serum corrects the texture of the outer dermis. Week two begins the lightening serum, to brighten and enrich the skin by fighting stains and minimizing pores. During week three, the face welcomes a daily dose of intensive lightening serum. The last phase is marked by the repairing and protective serums, which “places a seal over the treatment applied during the prior weeks, protecting the epidermis from future skin issues during the coming lunar phases.”

If you read carefully, that last sentence is a dead giveaway as to the spurious claim of this product. Just as in the first newspaper advertisement, which is an appeal to “secret esoteric knowledge known only to a few, but can be shared for a request (and a small cash contribution),” this description mixes scientific jargon and our modern desire for ease to blow smoke in our eyes. My Mother always said, “Smoke follows beauty,” but Daddy would follow with “And a con man blows smoke with his many words to befuddle your thinking.” Or as the one hit wonder song went, “She blinded me with science.”

Warning: Science Ahead!

In the first place, humans shed their epidermis (entire outer layer of skin) every 2-4 weeks at the rate of 0.001 – 0.003 ounces of skin flakes every hour. Those flakes contain skin oils, including cholesterol and “squalene,” and are a major constituent of the dust that accumulates on tables and other surfaces in our homes and offices. And you thought an ill wind blew all that dust in from the cotton fields from out beyond your latest parsonage or suburban home. If you also spent $1600 to “seal your epidermis from future harm,” a fool and his money were soon parted.

Gendered Difference in the Outer Microbiome

In a scientific study of the microbiome dynamics of the human epidermis following skin barrier disruption, there were pronounced differences between males and females. Several physiological and anatomical gender differences that influence skin properties, such as hormone production, sweat rate, sebum production, surface pH, skin thickness and hair growth could account for the microbial differences observed between genders. This is the fancy pants way of saying women’s and men’s bodies have different microbiomes, both in size, quality, and quantity.

Women showed a significantly greater bacterial diversity than men, even when controlling for hand hygiene (women tend to wash hands more often), and these differences between genders become more apparent with time following hand washing. Given the observation that men generally have a more acidic skin surface than women, it’s thought that differences in skin pH may be influential, since microbial diversity is often lower in more acidic environments.

Makeup is another gendered topic, for most people today. Men had higher bacterial diversity from forehead samples compared to women, but when samples from women using make-up were excluded, these gender differences fell away. The conclusion is the use of make-up strongly interferes with the microbiota composition of the forehead epidermis. This is a good reason for cleansing daily, but not for spending exorbitant amounts of money. We may also want to investigate the health benefits of less makeup over the cultural expectation of full face makeup expected for professional women.

In the meantime, keeping good facial hygiene and other simple practices can give us both renewal, refreshment, and help us lead a healthy lifestyle.

Skin Brightening and Acne Fighter Scrub

Prevent (and treat) pimples with this fruity acne-fighting, yet soothing, face scrub. If you’re bothered by persistent breakouts, or dull, oily skin, this scrub will help brighten, clear and reduce surface bacteria. Mix all ingredients and lightly buff the blend onto on skin. Leave on for 15 minutes, then rinse with warm water. Use twice a week, with a few days rest in between.

Recipe:
1/2 cup plain yogurt

½ cup mashed strawberries

½ cup almond meal (flour)

A splash of raw apple cider vinegar

Brightening Oatmeal Face Scrub

Radiance, revealed! This rich, creamy face scrub is perfect for dull, tired skin, as it softens, calms redness and gives skin a much-needed boost. Combine all ingredients and mix until you achieve a thick, yet grainy texture. Using your fingertips, buff gently onto your face, then rinse. Twice a week should be enough, for you don’t want to look younger than your grandchildren.

Recipe:
1/4 cup honey

1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup cooked oatmeal

Food

To improve your skin naturally, start with your food plate. Our bodies need a wide array of nutrients to be able to function at their best. If your diet is lacking major food groups, your body won’t have the energy and reserves it needs to continue to make collagen, bone, or skin, not to mention have the energy to lead a very busy rabbit life.

A poor diet can lead to premature skin aging and sagging, not to mention disease and lack of energy to ward off the bad bacteria that come our way. Eat a wide range of foods, prepared simply, and with the least amount of processing possible. Learn to cook ahead and reheat. Life comes at you fast sometimes, so it’s good to be able to pull a quick meal out of the fridge.

Exercise

Investing in a regular time to exercise, even if you’re walking around the block, is good for the body, mind, and spirit. People who exercise have less stress or they can handle the stress that does come their way more easily. Exercise lowers the heart rate, the blood pressure, keeps the blood sugar steady, and helps us lose weight if we don’t stop by the local doughnut shop every time as a reward for good behavior.

Hydration

Sometimes our skin looks dull and dry because we’re parched like a desert. If we’re fully hydrated, we’ll glow. Maybe you don’t want to be looking for a restroom too often, or you think you’ll look fat in your clothes, so you don’t drink enough water to stay fully hydrated. Then you get constipated and feel worse. Now your face needs “physical culture applied to the facial muscles.” I know you, I went to school with you. I was you. We’re grownup now and we can take responsibility for our needs without shame. Drink another glass of water, or make it decaf tea. I just discovered the delights of decaffeinated watermelon strawberry tea.

Sunscreen Year Round

The wind and sun can age our protective outer skin, especially in the summertime, but also all year long. Wearing sunscreen with a moisturizer is a beneficial act for recovering our skin health. If we’re out on the lake or by the pool this summer, we need a high number sunscreen applied after every dip in the water. The vacation I spent in the cabin on the beach while everyone else had fun in the ocean should be a lesson for you smarter folks that sunscreen is a necessity and not an option.

As I write the close of this note to my Kitchen peeps, I have on my heart the twin coasts of our nation—from sea to shining sea—as the old song goes. The Northwest and California are under extreme heat advisories with the possibility of wildfires. An eleven story condominium in Miami built in 1981 has collapsed with many people unaccounted for. Rubble now sits where once people shared food, companionship, and the activities of daily life. In a moment’s time, the tower came tumbling down.

Sunset View, Historic High Rise built by Kemin Wilson, the founder of the Holiday Inns

Perhaps I feel close to this disaster, since I also live in an historic ten story condominium built in 1963. The only difference is I don’t live anywhere near the destructive forces of the ocean’s salty air and rising seas, which can affect the aging concrete, iron rebar, and steel beams of high rise buildings.

The adherents of Physical Culture back in the early 20th century were just beginning to tease out a noble idea, one borrowed from the ancient Greeks. Pilates wrote, “These people were nature lovers. They preferred to commune with the very elements of nature itself—the woods, the streams, the rivers, the winds and the sea. All these were natural music, poems and dramas to these Greeks who were so fond of outdoor life.”

These trees were cut down to level a lot for development

I am blessed to live in a National Park, in a place set aside and reserved to be at the intersection of both nature and civilization. Here in Hot Springs, we’ve learned to live in harmony with our human history as well as our natural beauty. We sometimes have to go to bat for one or the other, to keep the balance, but we seem to work it out. This requires us to remember to speak for the voiceless and the unseen, and for us to see visions of a future with everyone at the table.

My hope is one day we can all be moved by the tragedies of others, lay down our swords, and everyone will pick up our shovels and buckets to bring home both the survivors and the dead to their families. We can have both a celebration and a wake at the same time, for everyone will be crying and laughing together.

Votive relief of the funerary banquet type from Eleusis (4th cent. B.C.) at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens

“I’m glad for you,” the bereaved will say, and “I’m sad for you,” the glad will say.

“It doesn’t matter, we have each other now.”

Stay healthy, my friends.

Never miss an opportunity to tell someone you love them.

Love,

Cornie

Physical Culture Movement

https://www.movementhealth.com.au/news/joseph-pilates-and-the-physical-culture-movement/

Does Your Skin Need to Breathe?

https://www.allure.com/story/does-your-skin-need-to-breathe

American Chemical Society

The skinny on how shed skin reduces indoor air pollution

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2011/may/the-skinny-on-how-shed-skin-reduces-indoor-air-pollution.html

Microbiome dynamics of human epidermis following skin barrier disruption

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3580493/

8 Best DIY Face Scrubs – Homemade Natural Facial Scrubs

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/anti-aging/g32711085/diy-face-scrubs/

What Is the Average American Income in 2021? – PolicyAdvice

(Source: Go Banking Rates)

https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/average-american-income/

Regular as Clockwork

June 19, 2021June 19, 2021Leave a comment

My granddaddy was a conductor on the railroad. I’ve kept his old lantern as a memory of his occupation. In the daytime, he could hang out of the caboose to wave his hand so the engineer at the head of the train knew all was good to go. At night he’d wave the lantern up and down so the train could leave the station.

O. Winston Link:
Y6 #2122 sitting at the water tanks in Buena Vista, Virginia.

Trains have to run on fixed schedules because there’s more trains than tracks. An old cartoon from the 1930’s has two trains colliding, as the observer says, “What a way to run a railroad.” Irony was a thing back in the day, and not a recent invention lost on the dull of today. Running trains on time before we had GPS communications was a feat of excellence, and on time performance meant goods and people were transported in the most efficient and economical manner then as now. The railroads instituted standard time in time zones in the U.S. and Canada on November 18, 1883. Prior to that, time of day was a local matter, for most cities and towns used some form of local solar time, maintained by a well-known clock (on a church steeple, for example, or in a jeweler’s window).

The use of standard time gradually increased because of its obvious practical advantages for communication and travel. Standard time in time zones was established by U.S. law with the Standard Time Act of 1918, enacted on March 19. Congress adopted standard time zones based on those set up by the railroads, and gave the responsibility to make any changes in the time zones to the Interstate Commerce Commission, the only federal transportation regulatory agency at the time.

Title: The Hand of Man
Artist: Alfred Stieglitz (American, Hoboken, New Jersey 1864–1946 New York)
Date: 1902, printed 1910

When Congress created the Department of Transportation in 1966, it transferred the responsibility for the time laws to this new department. Today we now have Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time, which leaves some of us wondering biannually is do we save or lose sleep, and if the change is really worth it. My daddy used to say the old folks thought the “extra hour of sunshine was burning up their gardens.” Of course, only the clock changed, not the hours of available daylight.

The railroads had a schedule for every train and every stop along its route to its destination. They were originally printed as broadsheets in newspaper or magazine form, but now they’re found on the internet, like most everything else.

When I lived in the center of my state and I turned out the lights for bed at night, I could count on hearing the train pass through the crossing a mile down from my parsonage. It was always on schedule, just as I had a set bedtime for getting my best snooze times. Maybe you’re wondering why a cooking and health blog cares about trains, but being regular is important, just as having a schedule is for the trains.

Sunsweet Prune Juice Jar was used for ice water in the summer months.

My mother’s side of the family came from farming folk, so they appreciated the rhythms of nature. If I spent the day with my nannie, I was sure to be treated with a dose of prune juice from the dark green glass jar in her ice box. If that didn’t produce the desired result by the next morning, I got another dose to make sure I produced the much anticipated “bowel movement.” My people kept track of such things, and while a daily result wasn’t required, at least five of the seven days were deemed necessary for good health, or the dreaded fleet’s enema made its appearance. My people didn’t want to be “stove up,” as they called constipation.

Often this happened in the hot summer when we didn’t drink enough liquids to stay properly hydrated when playing outside. “Drink from the garden hose before you get thirsty,” mom always said. Usually we sprayed water on each other at the same time, but it was so hot, we’d be dry in no time.

So how can we keep regular year round, and especially in the hot summer months? This June has been unseasonably hot in many parts of the country due to climate change and the extreme weather events it brings. The Texans who froze in the winter are now experiencing brown outs as their electric grid attempts to handle their state’s larger population’s increased demand for air conditioning in the higher temperatures.

Up north, the midwest hasn’t seen heat this early in the year before. The average temperature in June at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (all the daily highs and lows combined) for the first 13 days was a toasty 81.4 degrees (the highs were 90-99F). That’s a full 14 degrees warmer than average. It also smashes the previous record from 1976 by a full 5 degrees. The Western states are experiencing a “heat dome,” with a significant drought and heat in an early and extreme summer heat wave, with the possibility of fires.

Those of us who live in the south know some real tricks to staying cool in a hot, humid summer: keep the window shades drawn until the sun passes by, keep the lights dim since they throw off heat, drink cool non alcoholic beverages hourly, eat light foods, cook outside if possible, limit traffic in and out of the home (every time the door opens, cool air escapes and hot air enters), wear cotton not polyester, and rest in the afternoon heat. Beyond this, keep a fan going to stir the air and maintain a positive attitude. Cooler days will come soon enough.

Eating raw veggies such as carrots, cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, and broccoli in a slaw with greek yogurt and apple vinegar and chopped fresh mint is very refreshing. You can also add feta cheese to it if you like. Also consider peas, lentils, and beans. We make soups in the winter, but these same ingredients will make good cold dishes in the summer. Three bean salad doesn’t have to swim in an olympic size pool of French dressing. Instead, make your own olive oil and vinegar dressing with garlic, parsley, oregano, cayenne pepper, a dash of salt, and basil if you like. Chill and serve.

For good gut health, aim to get 25 grams of fiber a day if you’re a woman, or 30 grams if you’re a man. If you’re still short after incorporating more veggies into your food plan, remember raspberries have a high fiber content with 8 grams per cup, 65 calories, 15 grams of carbs, and 5 grams of sugar. One kiwi twice a day (140 grams) has 5 grams of fiber, 90 calories, 21 g of carbohydrates and 15 g of sugar.

While my nanny recommended 4 ounces of prune juice as the “dose of salts” to keep me regular, it has 2 grams of fiber, 22 grams of carbs, and 13 grams of sugar with 83 calories. Another way to get the benefit of the laxative effect of prunes is to eat 1 ounce of the dried plums. This contains 67 calories, 18 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, and 11 grams of sugar.

Calories and sugar intake are important to everyone, especially to older people and to those who have diabetes. If we approach our life as a whole, rather than cut it into parts, we’ll also feel more whole. Too often we exclude foods in a diet mentality, living in an “either/or” mindset, until we crack. Then we fall into “all or nothing” thinking, until we’re worse off than we were before, and we try the same scenario again.

Healthy body, healthy mind, and healthy spiritual life make for a whole person.

The plain, unvarnished truth is there’s no quick weight loss scheme that leads to long term weight loss, but adopting a long term lifestyle approach to new habits will bring the desired results. Try adopting “Life’s Simple 7” concept, developed by the American Heart Association, which recommends activity, healthy diet, weight loss; the management of cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar; and stopping smoking for a healthy lifestyle.

If we were gentler with our selves and offered more grace to our embodied souls, no matter what shape they are in, we might live with more joy and peace. We only need to be “going on to perfection” in love of God and neighbor, not trying to perfect our BMI or our housekeeping. If it’s too hot to cook, remember fresh spinach, tiny tomatoes, and chopped summer squash are three veggie sides to add to 4 ounces of rotisserie chicken. Breathe and relax. Don’t add any sweat to the heat. It’s hot enough already.

Stay cool, I’m drinking decaf green tea by the pitcher full.

Love,

Cornie

Standard Time Began With the Railroads
http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/d.html

Steamy summer of ’21: Hottest June on record so far
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/06/15/steamy-summer-of-21-hottest-june-on-record-so-far

Health Benefits of Kiwi
https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-kiwi#1

Title: The Hand of Man
Artist: Alfred Stieglitz (American, Hoboken, New Jersey 1864–1946 New York)
Date: 1902, printed 1910
Medium: Photogravure
Dimensions: 24.2 x 31.9 cm (9 1/2 x 12 9/16 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
Accession Number: 49.55.9. The title alludes to this modern transformation of the landscape and also perhaps to photography itself as a mechanical process. Stieglitz believed that a mechanical instrument such as the camera could be transformed into a tool for creating art when guided by the hand and sensibility of an artist.

Y6 #2122 sitting at the water tanks in Buena Vista, Virginia.
Creator: Link, O. Winston
Class Y6, No. 2122
Collection O. Winston Link Museum Archives Collection
Imagefile 039\200905082.JPG
Number of images 1
Object Name Print, Photographic
Object ID OWL2009.05.082
Extent of Description 1-photographic print, size 8″ x 10

MEMORIAL DAY MEMORIES

May 29, 2021May 29, 20211 Comment

Memorial Day weekend is the beginning of summer cook outs, beach parties, lake visits, backyard slip and slides, and fireworks. For some, it’s a mini vacation, while for others, it’s a time of solemn remembrance. For the vaccinated in this COVID pandemic era, it will be the first major holiday in which we’ll be able to gather unmasked. It’s a celebration of life, even as much as it’s a memorial to those who gave their lives defending our nation. For my daddy, a veteran of World War II, it was an opportunity to binge watch old war movies on tv, and cook steaks for the family on the barbecue on the patio. I remember he called me on my birthday when I first went away to college.

“Guess what we got for your birthday?”

I was hoping for a stereo set, but I just said, “I have no idea. What?”

“We bought a gas barbecue pit! Now I can grill you a steak just the way you like it!”

He was so excited and pleased, I couldn’t let him know how much I really wanted that stereo, so I said, “Wow, that’s great. Spring break is going to be wonderful!”

History often isn’t the actual facts, but the story we tell ourselves, often to show ourselves in the best light. We want to put our best foot forward, for we don’t want to acknowledge the shadow sides of our personalities. While today we celebrate all who died in the service to our country, the first Memorial Day had its roots in a ceremony in which formerly enslaved people buried Union soldiers to give them an honored burial. Later, both former Union and Confederate veterans would meet together to honor their sacred dead, as a means to heal the wounds of the great Civil War.

In the Jim Crow era, the Lost Cause myth took hold among southerners. Memorial Day became for them a time to claim a new “history” of the causes of the war: states rights, rather than slavery, because the proximate cause for the so called War of Northern Aggression (although the south fired on Fort Sumpter first). We can rewrite our memories if we want to, as recent news events have proved.

While several sites claim the honor of “first to celebrate decoration day,” as it was once called, the old country club at Charleston, South Carolina may have a new claim. In the late stages of the Civil War, the Confederate army transformed the formerly posh Washington Race Course and Jockey Club into a makeshift prison for Union captives. More than 260 Union soldiers died from disease and exposure while being held in the race track’s open-air infield. Their bodies were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstands.

When Charleston fell and Confederate troops evacuated the badly damaged city, those freed from enslavement remained. One of the first things those emancipated men and women did was to give the fallen Union prisoners a proper burial. They exhumed the mass grave and reinterred the bodies in a new cemetery with a tall whitewashed fence inscribed with the words: “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

And then on May 1, 1865, something even more extraordinary happened. Pulitzer Prize winning historian David W. Blight found two reports in The New York Tribune and The Charleston Courier: a crowd of 10,000 people, mostly freed slaves with some white missionaries, staged a parade around the race track. Three thousand Black schoolchildren carried bouquets of flowers and sang “John Brown’s Body.” Members of the famed 54th Massachusetts and other Black Union regiments were in attendance and performed double-time marches. Black ministers recited verses from the Bible.

If the news reports are accurate, the 1865 gathering at the Charleston race track would be the earliest Memorial Day commemoration on record. However, in 1996, the federal government recognized Waterloo, New York, which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866, because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

For over half a century, or almost three generations, Memorial Day was a time to honor the dead who spilled their blood in the great internecine conflict which split our one nation into two: one free and one enslaved. That my ancestors fought to deny persons made in the image of God the same freedom which they themselves possessed is unthinkable to me today. While I can’t undo their past, I don’t have to perpetuate it.

So, I have to ask, “Why Does the Myth of the Confederate Lost Cause Persist?” The Atlantic has a fascinating article written by Clint Smith, which has been adapted from his new book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America. It appears in the June 2021 print edition with the headline “The War on Nostalgia.”

Included is a description of Louisiana’s Whitney Plantation, the only antebellum site dedicated to the life of enslaved persons. Most plantations give short shrift to the enslaved persons and focus on the owners’ lives. Today we have remnants of the old bifurcated plantation system still in existence. In rural areas, sharecropping persists. In cities , persons of color and immigrants often live “on the wrong side of the tracks” in substandard housing and attend low achieving schools, not because they are inherently less smart or talented, but because fewer resources and experienced staff are sent to their schools.

Field of Angels, Whitney Plantation, Louisiana.

One would almost think there was a systematic program of oppression to continue to deny the descendants of formerly enslaved persons the opportunity to have a full participation in American society, even as blacks take a greater role in our nation’s defense.

Pray for the fallen and for others to dedicate their lives to service.

Today there are about 1.3 million active-duty personnel, or less than one-half of 1 percent of the U.S. population, due to the all volunteer military. The US ended the military draft back in 1973. During the Civil War, the North enlisted about 14% of its population, and the South at its peak had a little over 22% of its white population in the military. While black soldiers fought for the Union, none fought for the confederacy, no matter how much their names are praised. They were body servants attached to their masters or camp cooks. They may have given loyal service, but not as soldiers. After all, if slaves could fight as equals alongside their white masters, this act alone would destroy the very reason the south seceded from the Union: slavery was their “righteous cause.”

This entitlement, attested in scripture, allowed them to break away from the anti slavery church in these years, leading many Southern white Protestant churches to form their own organizations, some of which still exist today. The Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844 split into a slave and a free branch, not reuniting until 1968. The Baptists split in 1845 and the Presbyterians split in 1861 to form southern slave holding denominations. The Presbyterians reunited in 1983, but the Southern Baptist Convention and the northern American Baptists have remained separated.

This Lost Cause myth persists today in those who insist on rewriting history and revisioning our common heritage, such as Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who told an Orlando rally on this Memorial Day weekend: “The Second Amendment is about maintaining, within the citizenry, the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government, if that becomes necessary. I hope it never does, but it sure is important to recognize the founding principles of this nation, and to make sure that they are fully understood.”

Of course, this is a perversion of the meaning of this constitutional amendment, but it gets applause from fellow travelers of the insurrection, but not from patriots and defenders of the nation. The way we honor those who died for country and freedom, for one and for all, is to recognize We are One Nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for all.

Pull up a chair. Reflect on the gifts others died to secure for all of us.

May your fireworks be bright and your barbecue be spicy,

Joy and peace,

Cornie

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/06/confederate-lost-cause-myth/618711/

One of the Earliest Memorial Day Ceremonies Was Held by Freed African Americans – HISTORY

https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston

Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, by David W. Blight, Winner of the Bancroft Prize, the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, the Merle Curti award, and the Frederick Douglass Prize. 9780674008199: Amazon.com: Books.

https://www.amazon.com/Race-Reunion-Civil-American-Memory/dp/0674008197

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight (Simon & Schuster) – The Pulitzer Prizes

https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/david-w-blight

Demographics of the U.S. Military | Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military

Facts – The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/facts.htm

The Whitney Plantation self guided tours
https://www.whitneyplantation.org/

Florida Rep. Gaetz says Americans have obligation to use 2nd Amendment

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/state/florida-rep-gaetz-says-americans-have-obligation-to-use-2nd-amendment

A Quick Meal for a Cool Evening

May 14, 2021May 13, 2021Leave a comment

We’ve had a recent cool spell here in the Kitchen. I’m thinking about soup today. Last night I cooked chicken breasts in the oven. I’ll use these in several different ways this week for mealtime variety.

On the menu last night was 4 ounces fresh cooked chicken, 72 grams brown rice and quinoa mixed (yes, it comes in a bag!), and 1/2 cup of frozen okra with 3 ounces of small tomatoes.

One of my friends asked me how I cook okra, since most Southern people either fry it in breading or boil it into unrecognizable a mush, which results from the gelatinous or gummy substance called mucilage. This “slime” actually helps the liver function. Okra also contains soluble fiber, which dissolves in water and swells like a sponge in the stomach, giving food a jellylike bulk. It combines with fat in the intestines and pulls it out of the body before it can enter the bloodstream. It’s soluble fiber that may help lower blood cholesterol, slow the absorption of carbohydrates from foods and help stabilize blood sugar levels.

Okra and Tomatoes with Chicken and Brown Rice and Quinoa

The secret to cooking okra is time. Like pasta, okra is best eaten “al dente” or “to the tooth.” I think the reason many traditional Southern foods were overcooked was due to our forebears having poor dental care. During the Civil War, many soldiers lost their teeth due to the lack of available nutritious foods, Which had a direct effect on the health of their teeth. Scurvy was the disease responsible for claiming the teeth of multitudes of soldiers during this time.

Scurvy is caused by a lack of Vitamin C. Without Vitamin C, gums become spongy and the teeth become loose and fall out. The Union Army had no dental corps, and the South only impressed dentists in 1864, so the development of scurvy went on to have devastating effects on the oral cavities of those stricken with the illness. As the old, sad joke goes, everyone wanted their sweetheart to have all their own teeth.

Lack of dental care and poor nutrition during the early part of my pregnancy caused an upper molar to fall out. I’ve had a bridge for over 40 years. Good dental care ought to be available to all. Today, only babies, the very old, and the extremely ill get their food in liquid or mush form.

As visitors to the Kitchen realize, I believe food is more than fuel. It should be a joy to cook for yourself or others, the results should please the eye as well as the tastebuds, and the portions should be appropriate for our bodily needs, with nothing to excess.

This is Kroger frozen sliced okra. I dumped it straight out of the bag into a small saucepan, cut up the small tomatoes, and added dried onion flakes, parsley, cayenne pepper, and oregano. I stirred the pot until the juices of the tomatoes released and the okra heated through, but before the “slime” effect hit.

I’ve taken to eating out of my grandparents’ old chinaware and washing in the dishwasher also. It was well worn when I got it years ago, so there’s no use saving it for a special occasion. Every day is special, for it’s another day we get to love one another, make a difference for good in the world, and thank God for this gift of the present.

Tell somebody you love them today, and wherever you are, find

Joy and Peace,

Cornie

Okra: Slimy, But Healthy

https://www.phlabs.com/okra-slimy-but-healthy

Time is a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

December 23, 2020December 21, 2020Leave a comment

Every good cook knows a grilled cheese sandwich can’t be hurried. Some say if you pick a particular type of cheese, your sandwich will be ready more quickly because the cheese has a superior melting quality. These folks speak of the quasi food like concoction known as American Cheese Food Product or Cheese Spread. We know it by the brand names of Kraft American Singles and Velveeta. This is a whole ‘nother entity, which differs from actual American Cheese, which is a food, not a “food product.”

The sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro draped Twiggy in Cheese Whiz
as a comment on the ephemeral nature of fashion
(Credit: Cosimo Cavallaro)

What distinguishes a food product from a food? One is processed and the other is food made the traditional way. For instance, the Velveeta block of cheese from my childhood was an invention to use up the odds and ends of old cheeses. It was invented right before World War I by J.L. Kraft, who was trying to get rid of some of his older cheeses, so he mixed it with some of his newer cheeses. He ground them up and added an emulsifier so that it held together, and then processed it in a way so it melted easily.This is how we got Kraft American Cheese. I’ll bet you didn’t know those individually wrapped cellophane slices were the leftover bits and pieces folks used to feed the hogs.

Cheeses are made with pasteurized milk and starter cultures of good bacterias to cause lactic acid to form, much like making sour dough bread. After the starter culture, a few other ingredients are added including rennet and, depending on the type of cheese, coloring, which is why Cheddar can be various shades of color from pale yellow to bright orange. Rennet causes the milk to gel, similar to yogurt, before the solid curds separate from the liquid whey. After it gels, the cheesemakers cut it, which allows the whey to come out. Drier cheeses are often cut more to form smaller curds, so more of the moisture comes out, while the curds which are cut less are larger and moister. Once the curds are cut, they’re stirred and heated to release even more whey. At this point, the curds separate from the whey, and the cheese is on the way to look more like cheese.

Little Miss Muffet ate her Curds and Whey

Depending on the type of cheese, this next step happens one of two ways:

The curd is salted, and then it’s pressed in a form. This is the case for Cheddar and Colby cheeses.
The curd is pressed into a hoop, which is brined. This occurs with mozzarella and Swiss cheeses.
While the cheese is pressed, more whey comes out, so it eventually becomes the shape and consistency of cheeses we know. Once the cheese is shaped, it may be aged a while before its ready to eat.

How did this ubiquitous cheese product become a household staple? It was a comfort food for soldiers during the First World War. By the end of 1916, the Kraft company was selling the processed cheese in 4-ounce cans, principally to the U.S. military for use in the war effort. As is often the case with food products introduced to the military, the soldiers, having grown used to the processed cheese during the war, returned home and became processed cheese customers, helping to popularize the product. It was not until much later, however, that American processed cheese came in individual slices.

The quintessential Kraft product, individual slices of processed cheese that could be plunked down on a sandwich with no mess or fuss, was introduced in 1950. They were called Kraft Deluxe Process Slices or just Kraft Deluxe Slices. We see these even today on deli trays around the holidays or during the bowl season or in the summer cookout time for those of us Americans of a certain age. Our children, however, won’t touch them with a ten foot pole, preferring instead a “real cheese.” I don’t blame them, for I prefer a sharper tasting cheese, as well as a more substantial bread for my grilled cheese sandwich.

For a gourmet sandwich, place herbs, lemon zest, and any other seasonings as desired *directly* on the cheese. This will ensure that those ingredients stick!

Younger, high-moisture cheeses like mozzarella, Taleggio, brie, Gruyère, Emmental, and Jack are such reliable melters, while drier grating cheeses like Parmesan or Pecorino-Romano which have already lost much of their moisture to evaporation, often separate into clumps or even break if used in a grilled cheese sandwich. Those aged cheeses have a further disadvantage, for as a cheese ages, its proteins tend to form tighter and tighter clumps, making them less effective at binding fat and water together in a smooth matrix. That’s why even some cheeses aged in a water-tight barrier (like gouda that’s aged in a wax shell or some types of waxed aged cheddar) will have a tough time melting smoothly, despite their high moisture content.

What determines a good melting cheese from a bad one has a lot to do with how well it can maintain its emulsion when that protein network begins to collapse, which in turn has to do with the ratio of water to fat, as well as the strength of that protein network. First and foremost, the balance of water and fat has to be more or less maintained—otherwise the fat molecules will slip free and draw together. Technically speaking, cheese is an emulsion of dairy fat and water, held together by a network of proteins. In cooler temperatures, that dairy fat remains a solid; let it warm to around 90°F and the fat reaches a liquid state and the cheese becomes more pliable. Perhaps you’ve noticed some cheeses get “sweat beads” if they’re left out at room temperature for too long. Raise the temperature by another 40 to 90 degrees and all the bonds that joined your caseins together start to break, allowing the entire protein structure to sag and stretch into an ooey-gooey, lava-like puddle.

A watched pot never boils means you can’t hurry anything to its appointed conclusion. I was a week overdue with my child when I painted her bedroom. My husband was sure I’d have her right in the middle of the floor. When I was two weeks overdue, I dug up the front yard to level it out, so the garden would look nice up against the wall of our old Victorian duplex. I thought he’d have a cow there in the middle of our front yard. She finally came with the doctor’s help, as if she were in no hurry to arrive in this world.

Too often we rush our activities and end up ruining them. I remember too many mornings my mother burned the bacon because she was trying to do everything for everyone and get us all a good breakfast before we left for school. Milk and cereal would have been good enough, or even a hard boiled egg, but mother only had so many eyes and hands, while we children raced about madly most mornings. I think “screaming hellions” were our best descriptions until the signs of Christmas began to appear. If she felt inadequate, my daddy would kiss her, look her in the eye, and remind her, “You’re the best mama in the whole world and the prettiest gal I’ve ever known.”

When I say time is a grilled cheese sandwich, I mean we are meant to experience some events in slow motion, while others are meant to fade away into the fog of memory. Every recipe for grilled cheese sandwich calls for a heavy skillet on the stove top at medium low heat. This is also the setting at which I cook my bacon. I use soft butter on the outside of each bread slice and cover the bottom slice with about one and a half ounces of cheese. Other people swear by mayonnaise on the outside, but I’ve never used it. This takes six to eight minutes all total for the bread to brown and the cheese to melt.

If you remember the earlier science lesson, we keep the heat low and let the time pass slow so we don’t damage the emulsion and protein network that bonds the cheese molecules together. We want them to melt, but not get stringy and tough. This is why we don’t hurry the sandwich either with heat or time. Just as too high a heat will burn the bacon and make the grease smoke, so too high a heat will ruin your tender grilled cheese sandwich. The same goes for the eggs you cook in that same pan. Lower the heat and take some more time. Some things aren’t meant to be rushed. Love and forgiveness are two which come to mind.

Salvador Dalí was inspired by an unctuous Camembert to create the clocks in Persistence of Memory

If I were to live 80 years, I would live 42,075,936 minutes. Forty two million minutes and then some. Yet some days waiting in the checkout line at Kroger seems forever! If I were home, I probably couldn’t get a grilled cheese sandwich prepared, much less cooked, before I checked out and walked to my car. Every time I cooked a grilled cheese sandwich, these eight minutes would be a very tiny fraction of my entire life span. Of all the precious moments in life, I could stop for a mere eight minutes per day to be amazed at the various animals which produce cheese, the many recipes around the world which use cheese, and the humbleness of this food which I’m about to eat.

In the eight minutes I’ve waited for my tasty treat, I also realize the average working person spends less than 2 minutes per day in meaningful communication with their spouse or “significant other.” Moreover, the average working person spends less than 30 seconds a day in meaningful communication with their children. As the experts say, “Time Management is not doing the wrong things quicker. That just gets us nowhere faster. Time Management is doing the right things.”

Bread and cheese are minimally processed foods, while fruits and nuts are whole foods

In Cornie’s Kitchen, I encourage people to eat fewer processed foods and more whole or less manufactured foods. While my parents were sold on Wonder Bread because it “built strong bodies 12 ways,” and the processed food cheese slices because they were the modern foods of my childhood, my mother still made her own pimento cheese spread from scratch. If you have a choice, buy the food that has the fewest ingredients, especially the ones you can’t pronounce. These are usually found around the outer perimeter of the grocery store. Actual food has less added salt and sugars, two ingredients most of us don’t need anyway. We can get these from fruits and veggies with fibers.

If you were to take the eight minutes of waiting for the sandwich to be ready to share your “one good thing about today,” with the people in your household, perhaps one good word would lead to another. Then the dinner time could be a conversation instead of a media moment. If the hopes and dreams of our future are to come true, then the time we spend waiting in anticipation for the pleasure of a dripping, hot, grilled cheese sandwich becomes timelessness instead of a time that never ends.

Oh, and I included a link for sheet pan grilled cheese sandwiches, so if you have many hungry mouths or hollow legs to fill, you can get the job done. We made these in seminary to feed our student body. I can attest they were quite popular, especially on rainy and cold days.

I hope your holiday, however you celebrate it, is a season of peace and joy,

Love, Cornie

How Is Cheese Made?
https://www.usdairy.com/news-articles/how-is-cheese-made

When Were Kraft Singles Introduced?
https://culinarylore.com/food-history:when-were-kraft-singles-introduced/

Dairy Good: Watch Cheese Being Made
https://youtu.be/uQZk8J1Q9bc

The Science of Melting Cheese
https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/08/the-science-of-melting-cheese.html

Time Management Facts and Figures
By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
https://www.balancetime.com/2018/12/time-management-facts-and-figures/

The Cheese that Inspired Dali
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170503-why-cheese-is-arts-greatest-muse

The Chowline—this master’s candidate collects vintage military food containers as well as makes reproductions for museum displays. https://m.facebook.com/TheChowLine/

Sheet Pan Grilled Cheese for the Hollow Legs in Your Family https://unsophisticook.com/grilled-cheese-in-the-oven/

Remembering the Dead

November 1, 2020November 3, 2020Leave a comment

We’ve just put the Halloween decorations back up in the closet, and now we’re pulling out harvest or Thanksgiving decor. Some of us will blow right past a significant opportunity to remember our loved ones as we celebrate all the ghoulish activities of Halloween. We might forget this word is a contraction for All Hallows’ Eve, or the night before All Saints Day.

Pope Boniface IV formally started what would later be known as All Saints Day on May 13 in 609 AD when he dedicated the Pantheon in Rome as a church in honor of the Virgin Mary and all martyrs. The Pantheon was a temple dedicated to all the Roman gods (Pan + Theos). The current Pantheon is actually the third temple on the same site. The first was built by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC but later burned down, it was reconstructed by Emperor Domition, but was struck by lightning and subsequently burned down again. The present version, which has survived almost 2000 years, was built by Hadrian between 118-128 AD. Hadrian reused the original inscription attributing the building to Agrippa, a choice which for a while led to confusion over the exact date of construction.

When the Pantheon was built, the only source of light was the oculus in the centre of the dome. The opening measures 8.2m in diameter and is also referred to as ‘The Eye of the Pantheon’. A clever lighting trick is played out on 21 April, the founding date of Rome. At midday the sunlight hits the metal grille above the door, filling the entrance way with light. This would have illuminated the emperor in ancient times, reflecting his perceived status as a god on earth.

Worship in the Roman Empire before the Emperor Constantine’s conversion in the early 4th century AD, was devoted to ritual offerings to the gods and civic devotion to the ruler, who was considered to be a god. The early Roman rulers had the corner on the cult of personality and obedience, as well as the power of life or death over their subjects. Every citizen had to make an annual offering for the emperor’s good health and fortune, for his well-being was equated to the good fortunes of the state. When the early Christians refused to make these offerings, they were accused of treason to the Emperor.

Paul spoke of his life’s work in the context of these poured offerings or libations in Philippians 2:17-18:

“But even if I am being poured out as a libation
over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith,
I am glad and rejoice with all of you—
and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me.”

Other problems of worshiping the pagan gods involved the feasts and celebrations at the local temples. There foods sacrificed to the gods showed up on the banquet menu. In 1 Corinthians 8:10-11, Paul spoke to the problem the Corinthian church had when some wanted to continue their old ways:

“For if others see you, who possess knowledge,
eating in the temple of an idol, might they not,
since their conscience is weak,
be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?
So by your knowledge those weak believers
for whom Christ died are destroyed.”

The first recorded Christmas celebration was in Rome on December 25, 336. In the 3rd century, the date of the nativity was the subject of great interest. Of course, Christmas celebrations have fallen in and out of favor over the centuries, with some eras focused so much on drunken revelry that the Puritans abandoned Christmas as a proper holiday altogether. The upside down Lord of Misrule is the center of this show. Later it was redeemed as a family centered holiday with an emphasis on assisting the poor to enjoy the benefits of the season.

Of all the real or imaginary signs and wonders in the history of Christianity, one of the most celebrated is the ‘Vision of Constantine’— a vision or dream in which the future emperor, meditating an attack on his rival Maxentius in AD 312, was instructed to entrust his fortunes to the Christian God and the sign of the cross. This is the experience which is said to have converted the emperor to the Christian faith. The vision was a shining shield in the sky, with a cross upon it, and a voice saying, “In hoc signo vinces.” Constantine heard god say to him, “In this sign, you will conquer.”

As new forces become powerful in a region, they take over the religious sites of the former gods and supplant them with their own. This is called syncretism. After all, people are used to worshiping in a holy place, so let them come to a familiar place and worship the new faith in town. This is how the new god supplants the old, or the old ones become incorporated into the worship of the new faith. The ancient Roman circus, the site of gladiator battles and the deaths of Christian martyrs, became the location of St. Peter’s Basilica.

As the years passed, Pope Gregory III established the current date of November 1 for All Saints Day during his reign (731-741 AD) when he dedicated a chapel in Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica in honor of all the saints. While this celebration was originally limited to Rome, in 837 Pope Gregory IV ordered the official observance of All Saints Day every November 1 and extended its celebration to the entire Church.

Moving a celebration from the spring to the autumn isn’t so unusual in religious institutions. Just because “we’ve always done it that way before” doesn’t mean we have to continue to do it the same way in the future. If the need changes, we can change the calendar, especially if our calendar gets out of whack, as the ancient Mesoamerican calendar did. The Mayan calendar was divided into 20 day periods, and 13 or 18 periods (there were multiple calendars, once the learned priests realized the seasons weren’t lining up with their original calendar). At some point in time, sticking to the calendar’s schedule for a harvest festival before the seeds are planted doesn’t make much sense.

Sculpture of the Aztec God of Death, Mictlantecuhtli. The terracotta sculpture is tall and almost life-sized. 14-16th century CE. (Melbourne Museum, Melbourne)

The Aztec god of death was Mictlantecuhtli (pron. Mict-lan-te-cuht-li) or ‘Lord of the Land of the Dead.’ He was worshipped across Mesoamerica and ruled the underworld (Mictlán) with his wife Mictecacíhuatl. This god was the ruler of the 10th day Itzcuintli (Dog), the 5th Lord of the Night, and the 6th (or 11th) Lord of the Day, or in the Mexica calendar it was the god who ruled the tenth day of the month and the fifth night hour. He was the equivalent of the Maya god Yum Cimil, the Zapotec god Kedo and the Tarascan god Tihuime. Mictlantecuhtli was closely associated with owls, spiders and bats and the direction south.

Mictlantecuhtli was such an important god in the Aztec pantheon because, as ruler of Mictlán, all souls would one day meet him face to face. The Aztecs didn’t believe in a special paradise reserved only for the righteous, but instead all people shared the same destiny after death, regardless of the kind of life they’d led. Souls would descend the nine layers of the underworld in an arduous four-year journey until they eventually reached extinction in the deepest part— Mictlan Opochcalocan. Mictlantecuhtli was particularly worshipped in the Aztec month of Tititl where, at the temple of Tlalxicco, an impersonator of the god was sacrificed each year and incense was burned in his honor.

Those who died heroic deaths, such as women in childbirth or warriors in battle, didn’t remain in the underworld, but went on to accompany the Sun on its travels in the sky until midday. Then they were changed into many colored birds who flocked around in a paradise, Tlalocan, on the moon. Everyone returned to Mictlan at night, with the heroic dead appearing as stars in the sky.

OFRENDA: An Offering of Sacrifice

During the wars between the tribes, the losing warriors were sacrificed as food for the gods. This was an honorable means of death, in their culture. At the great handball games, one team was also sacrificed to the gods at the end. Historians differ on whether the losers or the victors got the honor of giving their lives for the gods through ritual sacrifice. After both these events, the priests collected the skulls on wooden platforms.

Eventually, after months or years in the sun and rain, a skull would begin to fall to pieces, losing teeth and perhaps even its jaw. The priests would remove it to be fashioned into a mask and placed in an offering, or use mortar to add it to two towers of skulls that flanked the tzompantli. Later, sculptured images became permanent replacements in front of the temples.

For the Aztecs—the larger cultural group to which the Mexica belonged—those skulls were the seeds that would ensure the continued existence of humanity. They were a sign of life and regeneration, like the first flowers of spring. Human sacrifice occupied a particularly important place in Mesoamerica. Many of the region’s cultures, including the Maya and the Mexica, believed that human sacrifice nourished the gods. Without it, the sun would cease to rise and the world would end. Therefore, sacrificial victims earned a special, honored place in the afterlife.

Sacrifice was a common theme in the Aztec culture. In the Aztec “Legend of the Five Suns,” all the gods sacrificed themselves so mankind could live. The ancient festival covered three days and began with the people going up onto the roofs of their homes, facing north, and calling out to their ancestors: “Come quickly, for we’re waiting for you.” This was originally a festival of the spring equinox, when the day and night were equal, and the dry season gave way to the rainy season. A time of fallow or resting became a time of growth and harvest.

A tall pole erected in a central space had ropes from which young men dropped from the heights and intertwined around it. The colorfully dressed flyers represented birds flying, or the deceased ancestors on their afternoon journeys with the midday sun. Today the Ritual Ceremony of the Voladores (Flying) of Papantla has been recognized as an intangible cultural heritage (ICH) by UNESCO since 2009. This is the second Mexican event recognized as such, with the first being the Indigenous Festival of the Dead in 2008.

Some years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, a body of the Franciscans confronted the remaining Aztec priesthood and demanded, under threat of death, that they desist from this traditional practice of human sacrifice. The Aztec priests defended themselves as follows:

Life is because of the gods;
with their sacrifice, they gave us life. …
They produce our sustenance … which nourishes life.

What the Aztec priests were referring to was a central Mesoamerican belief: that a great, continuing sacrifice of the gods sustains the Universe. A strong sense of indebtedness was connected with this worldview. Indeed, nextlahualli (debt-payment) was a commonly used metaphor for human sacrifice, and, as Bernardino de Sahagún reported, it was said that the victim was someone who “gave his service”.

The Tzompantli, or Skull Platform (Plataforma de los Cráneos), shows the clear cultural influence of the central Mexican Plateau. Unlike the tzompantli of the highlands, however, the skulls were impaled vertically rather than horizontally as at Tenochtitlan. Chichen Itza, Mexico.

Imagine how the sacrificial offering of God’s Son for the redemption of humanity was viewed by the people of the time, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24–

“For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews
and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Even today, this death and resurrection story is a stumbling block to those who abhor violence in all forms, even if God means it for good. What was a common event in first century AD seems barbaric to modern ears today, just as annual human sacrifice seemed barbaric to the Spanish priests who came to Mexico.

The sacrifices at the ancient temples around the world were continuous in order to please whatever gods the priests served. Once Jesus offered himself, there wasn’t a need for continuing offerings any longer. We make our sacrifices today by our gifts of love, faithfulness, service, and trust. The Psalms (51:17) remind us:

“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Although the Day of the Dead holiday revolves around death, it’s still full of color instead of being gloomy and gray, for we celebrate the lives led by those who are now gone. It’s not simply a day to mourn our loved ones and to tell their stories around their tombstones in the cemetery and at our home altars; it’s also a day about remembering their lives and the impact they had upon us. We also keep in mind that even though they’re no longer with us, it doesn’t mean they’re entirely gone, for we keep them alive in our hearts and memories.

The intersection of time and space is liminal as we advance toward the end of the days of the year. We stand on the threshold of both yesterday passing away and a tomorrow which is yet to come. As the days wind down to a precious few, daylight becomes precious, the darkness falls upon the land, and we yearn for bright colors and the joys of a life well lived. If we can call to mind our own family’s heroes, their strengths, and courage, we too can share in the joys of the well lived life.

A codex written after the conquest by a Spanish priest depicts Tenochtitlan’s enormous skull rack, or tzompantli. 1587 AZTEC MANUSCRIPT, THE CODEX TOVAR/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Contemporary Day of the Dead Art Expressions

The artistic products for the contemporary Day of the Dead ceremonies are all humorous, seasonal, secular, and designed for we, the living. They’re also ephemeral and funny. Most of the art is small, light, and transportable. Bakeries make the Dead Breads, and vendors sell the small, decorative skulls made of meringue powder, water, and white sugar. Both urban and rural areas make Day of the Dead art, but they interpret the themes differently.

In some rural areas, families adorn grave sites with candles, marigolds, and the favorite foods of deceased relatives in an attempt to persuade the loved ones to return for a family reunion. This is most like our Memorial Day grave decorating and dinner on the grounds tradition. In urban areas, people take to the street for festive celebrations and indulge in the consumption of food and alcohol. Some wear wooden skull masks known as calacas. Many families build altars, called ofrendas, in their homes, using photos, candles, flowers, and food. The festivities are often characterized by black humor. Toys and food, including breads and candies, are created in the shape of symbols of death such as skulls and skeletons. The Carnival and Mardi Gras traditions have much of the mixed joy and sadness of this intersection of the living and the dead.

Many seem to be made for Instagram, especially the food and drink creations, but all originally began as part of family altar traditions when the Spanish conquered Mexico in the 16th century and replaced the worship of the old gods with the Christian god. The Spanish replaced the real skulls with skulls made from sugar paste, a technique that originated in the Middle East before coming to Spain, and then Mexico. Skulls and other sugar figures made with this technique are called alfeñiques. Sometimes, clay is used instead. Spanish invaders also changed the celebrations from a monthlong summer festival to a shorter festival that synchronized with Catholic holidays.

I made the skull cookies the night before from a boxed sugar cookie mix I bought at Walmart. Because it wasn’t going to make many cookies, I added an additional sugar cookie mix that uses whole wheat flour and almond flour plus a mix of brown sugar and Splenda. It also has vanilla, eggs and butter, of course, as well as a touch of salt, baking powder, and baking soda. These have to be baked beforehand at 350F, and then cool sufficiently to get the base white icing to stick. Melted skulls are gross.

In art class, we put our fingers and toothpicks into the royal icing of many colors. Between Mike’s bonus colors and my basic colors, we had an entire palette. After looking at some examples, we let our imaginations run wild. Or the sugar may have caused this. Since anything goes, there’s no wrong answer. This is the most fun part, next to eating a sugar rush cookie.

Vampires, bearded creatures, and family members showed up in Lori Li’s decorations. I think she had a good time creating the cookies, which is the whole purpose the process.

I could be confused, but this is normal for me these days. It’s about time for me to go on vacation and find my brain again. I think these are Gail’s cookies, for they’re detailed and precise. She even turned one skull upside down and made a snowman.

Mike colored in some of the faces completely because More Color is More Better. It’s the Tim Allen Rule in Sugar Cookie decorating. I like the energy and the personality the skulls get. They’re all different. The dough spread out a little too much, so some came out looking like Mr. Potato Head. I should have put the dough back in the ice box. If you do this project, chill the dough in between rolling it out.

My cookies have a haunted look to them, but I knew the imagery and history from which these sugar skulls derived. I won’t need to watch any scary movies on Halloween, but I’ll eat one of these cookies instead while I read one of the poems written for the honored dead:

In this special month,
In which everything is party and dance,
We remember with love
Traditions and praises.

It is necessary to remember
That even with faith,
That we will meet again,
We remember his adventures.

For our loved ones
We build an altar,
For their souls and heart beats
We sense coming back!

So we celebrate them
With large pieces of bread,
Placed on altars
With flowers candles, mezcal!

These exquisite breads,
That are Colorful,
Of horn and bone shapes
We will leave for them.

To make them happy
In their fleeting visit,
In this land of love
The memories that leave.

For me it is a great gift
To be able to find them,
On such special days
And be able to enjoy them.

If my dead ones knew
How much I miss them,
They would come every day
And would be very pleasant!

I wait for them sitting down
For I know we’ll converse
These two nights full
With atoles and cookies.

Dear happy souls,
Knowing that we love you,
We remember your love,
And await your return!

Remembering your Saints feasting at the great banquet table, I wish you

Joy and Peace,
Cornelia

Ancient History Encyclopedia: Mictlantecuhtli
https://www.ancient.eu/Mictlantecuhtli/

Tzompantli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzompantli

Feeding the Gods
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/feeding-gods-hundreds-skulls-reveal-massive-scale-human-sacrifice-aztec-capital

Sacrifice in MesoAmerica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Aztec_culture

Recipe for Sugar Skulls in Molds
https://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/how-to-make-sugar-skulls-calavera-de-azucar/c12860df-02bc-4901-a2e4-46efbf570322

History of All Saints Day
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/01/world/all-saints-day-trnd/index.html

How the Mayan Calendar Works
https://people.howstuffworks.com/mayan-calendar.htm

Date of First Christmas
Christmas and its cycle”. New Catholic Encyclopedia. 3 (2nd ed.). Catholic University of America Press. 2002. pp. 550–557.

Pantheon: Interesting Facts
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-pantheon-rome/

Day of the Dead Poems
Translated by Patty Gorena Morales
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/poetry/these-wicked-day-of-the-dead-poems-dont-spare-anyone

History’s of St. Peter’s Basilica. http://stpetersbasilica.info/Docs/eguides-brief.htm

Brandes, Stanley. “Iconography in Mexico’s Day of the Dead: Origins and Meaning.”
Ethnohistory, vol. 45, no. 2, 1998, pp. 181–218. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/483058. Accessed 31 Oct. 2020.

Price, Richard M. “In Hoc Signo Vinces: The Original Context of the Vision of Constantine.” Studies in Church History, vol. 41, 2005, pp. 1–10., doi:10.1017/S0424208400000073.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-church-history/article/in-hoc-signo-vinces-the-original-context-of-the-vision-of-constantine/C0D983D17673B1ECE61D21C97036A301

Rabbit! Rabbit! Welcome to November

October 31, 2020October 28, 20202 Comments

We rabbits in this brutal year of 2020 have seen our share of suffering and death from not only the novel coronavirus, but also the impact of job losses, business failures, and isolation from friends and family. We rabbits and humans both are eager to put all this behind us, even if our minds tell us we’re still in the thick woods of the Pandemic. We want to gather inside our cozy hutches, eat a traditional meal, and love our kith and kin, for we might not see them next year. Not since the great flu pandemic of 1918-19 has planning a family gathering been so fraught.

During World War I, an outbreak of flu began that lasted for about two years and affected the whole world, infecting an estimated 500 million people, nearly one-third of the world’s population, and eventually claiming more than 50 million lives. The 1918 flu killed 675,000 Americans. “That’s equivalent to 225 to 450 million people today,” said John Barry, a scholar at Tulane University and author of “The Great Influenza.” “The numbers are staggering.”

Convalescent Influenza patients, Eberts Field, Lonoke, Arkansas, 1919,
in isolation due to overflow at hospital

The same frustrations with masks and shutdown rules hit society hard, with the same groups choosing the same sides as we have today. The virus didn’t care in 1918 and it doesn’t care today, so it takes down any rabbit who gets too close to the infection for too long. The same cytokine storm is thought to have been responsible for the deaths of the young due to the over reaction of their immune system back in 1918 as today.

Today we’re like the first American settlers who ate a thanksgiving meal in 1621, and celebrated their joy of surviving the brutal first year in their new home. Four hundred years later, we rabbits are still celebrating Thanksgiving. Although we like consistency, for we find comfort in unchanging rituals, Thanksgiving itself has changed over the years. This is because America has changed from an agrarian, self sufficient society to an urban, interdependent community.

The first Thanksgiving celebrated the colonists surviving a very rough first year in the New World. Seventy-eight percent of the eighteen women who had traveled on the Mayflower had perished over the first winter, leaving only around 50 colonists to attend the first Thanksgiving. According to eyewitness accounts, among the pilgrims, there were 22 men, just four women and over 25 children and teenagers.

Edward Winslow noted in his diary how William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colonies, sent hunters out to bring in provisions for the feast.

“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week.”

Other items appearing on the first festival table were locavore vegetables, such as onions, beans, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, carrots and perhaps peas. The Native Americans taught these early settlers to grow corn, which early records show was plentiful at the first harvest. It most likely wasn’t served on the cob or as kernels. Instead it was turned into cornmeal, boiled, and pounded into a thick corn mush or porridge. They ate it sweetened with any dried or fresh fruits indigenous to the region, which included plums, blueberries, grapes, gooseberries, raspberries and, of course cranberries, which the Native Americans ate and used as a natural dye. Sugar, an imported luxury, most likely wasn’t on the table Orin the recipes. Also the pilgrims put all the food out at once, so if you wanted to express your thankfulness by eating dessert first, no one would stop you.

Cranberry gelatin, a ubiquitous and wobbly dish on our contemporary tables, wasn’t invented until 1912, when Ocean Spray began canning ready-to-serve cranberry jelly. Mechanically harvesting cranberries from flooded fields, a modern invention, came with with a caveat: the berries are often too imperfect to sell as a fresh product. Before wet harvesting, cranberries were dry harvested by hand, a time consuming and labor intensive activity.

Lewis Hine: Jennie Camillo, 8 Years,
Cranberry Picker,
Pemberton, New Jersey, 1910

Because cranberries are high in vitamin C, they became the American substitute for limes on sea voyages to help prevent scurvy when it was common among sailors and pirates.

Americans today consume 400 million pounds of cranberries each year, with 20 percent eaten during Thanksgiving week alone. Massachusetts-based Ocean Spray, the largest producer of cranberry products in the U.S., produces about 79 million cans of jellied cranberry sauce each year, 85 percent of which are sold during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Consumers prefer the jellied cranberry sauce from a can (the log), which totals 75% of overall cranberry sauce sales. It takes about 200 cranberries to make one can of cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce in a can became a Thanksgiving staple across the country by 1941.

Of course, I grew up on the gelled in the can cranberry sauce. I was fascinated by the ridges and my mother’s secret gnostic wisdom, known only to the initiated few, for releasing the whole product intact onto the jelly plate. Then she carefully presliced each serving along the ridges produced by the interior of the can. My depression era mother made sure everyone had a serving and no one would be left out. Once I had my own table to set and my own menu to prepare, I began to make my own fresh cranberry and orange sauce with nuts. I took the time to make the cranberry sauce early, since it benefited from a day’s rest. I was of the fresh food generation, but then that was our little rebellion.

Neither potatoes or sweet potatoes were on the first Thanksgiving menu, nor was pie, since the colonists had no flour for the pastry. My menu in my early married days had the canned mushroom soup and canned green bean casserole topped with canned onion rings. These were renegade 1950’s era recipes that were my family traditions. They were due to the early burst of modern processed foods, which my parents adopted to show their connections with the era.

The Green Giant Mixing Gigantic Casserole

The world’s largest serving of green bean casserole weighed 1,009 pounds, a record certified by Guinness in 2019. The casserole, a larger-than-life version of the classic Thanksgiving side dish, clocked in at 637 pounds and was cooked up by Green Giant and Stella 34 Trattoria chefs at Macy’s Herald Square. After it was weighed and measured, the record-setting casserole was immediately donated to New York City’s City Meals on Wheels program and will help feed nearly 2,000 elderly residents who are unable to leave their homes. The Green Giant himself mixed up 780 cans of Green Giant Cut Green Beans, 53 cans of cream of mushroom soup, 32 quarts of milk and 65 pounds of French fried onions. That’s one gigantic casserole.

Campbell’s Green bean casserole was first created by a recipe supervisor at the soup company in Camden, New Jersey, in 1955. According to Today, the beloved dish can be found on dinner tables in 30 million households across the country during the holiday season. As my food tastes and health needs have changed, I moved away from the “dump a can of this and add a can of that” recipes I inherited as the family traditions. Not everyone likes fresh green beans al dente with pan fried crispy bacon bits seasoned with rosemary and garlic, but I like the variety of flavors and textures.

My parents grew up during the time when live poultry were sold at the corner market to carry home for slaughter, singeing, and butchering. When daddy would tell us kids tales about those bygone days, we’d all howl and scream as if we were the poor turkeys being sacrificed on the altar of thanksgiving. The tradition of gifting turkeys to U.S. presidents has existed since the late 1800s, but when George H.W. Bush took office, in 1989 he began the now-annual ceremony in which the turkeys are pardoned and sent to a farm to live out their lives. President John F. Kennedy pardoned a small turkey in 1963, compared to the 39-pound bird named Peas that President Donald Trump pardoned 55 years later in 2018. At 39 pounds, roasting in the oven takes about eight hours at 325F unstuffed. Cooking breast side down for the first several hours helps keep the white meat from drying out.

G. H. W. Bush Pardons a Turkey,
the first since the 1800’s to secure its freedom

Every year I was away from home, I’d call my mother to ask how she roasted the Thanksgiving Turkey in an oiled paper bag. Every year she’d remind me, “NEVER do this, honey! Paper bags have toxic chemicals that would leech into your turkey. If you must use a bag, get a food-safe plastic bag intended for oven use, like the ones from Reynolds.” Then she would tell me once again how to baste and roast the prize bird. I just needed the sound of my mama on Thanksgiving if I couldn’t be with her. If your parent doesn’t know how to cook a turkey, the Butterball Help Line is available by phone or chat. They even have recipes for the leftovers beyond sandwiches and pasta dishes. I always freeze some, since I don’t do turkey hash on toast. I draw the line in the sand there.

Butterball Ladies can be found at
https://www.butterball.com/contact-us

Other odd ways to roast the star of the feast suggest wrapping the turkey breasts in multiple food safe cooking bags, and using the family dishwasher for one full dishwasher cycle for every 2 pounds of turkey in order to get up to the recommended internal temperature of 145°F to 165°F. And hold the soap. A dishwasher runs its main cycle at about 65-70C/150-160F, which is hot enough to ensure that the detergent dissolves and is activated, and also that left on food and grease is dislodged and washed away. During the rinse phase the water is heated to slightly higher temperatures of around 80C/180F that make sure the dishes are properly sanitised. For a 16 pound bird unfrozen, this is about 2 hours per cycle, and you should run at least three cycles. Then put the breasts under the stove broiler for a crisp finish. This is a restaurant technique using a low, slow cooking style known as sous-vide.

Other Tim Allen hacks are smoking your turkey in a brand new garbage can. I know you’d never use an old dirty one! However, galvanized steel cans or other materials not intended for cooking can contaminate your food with chemical residues. This is just the testosterone version of my grocery bag solution for the bird. NEVER! EVER! This calls for a trip to the hardware store, guys. Buy a real smoker, and do the meat thing any week of the year.

Today young people want their gluten-free Thanksgiving meals, so no rolls, no Mac and cheese, and no dressing, unless it’s quinoa or lentils. I don’t eat all those carbohydrates either, unless they are pie. I must save room for pie. Of course, I cut the sugar in half and put more fruit into the pie, but fruit is a better sweetness than straight sugar.

Speaking of more pie, this dessert seems to call out the heroic efforts of bakers everywhere. A group of giant pumpkin growers in New Bremen, Ohio, banded together at their local pumpkinfest to bake a Thanksgiving dessert of mass proportions. They got a Guinness World Record award for the largest pumpkin pie, which weighed in at 3,699 pounds. It was made up of 440 sheets of pie dough, plus huge quantities of canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, and seasonings.

Other pies often make an appearance on the Thanksgiving table, such as sweet potato pie, apple pie, and icebox pies. The enormous world record pecan pie prepared at Cohen Stadium in El Paso, Texas, on May 22, 1999, contained 1,500 pounds of pecans, 13,350 pounds of sugar, 850 pounds of margarine, 200 pounds of salt, 6,700 pounds of eggs, and 9,700 pounds of corn syrup. This is the heavy champion of the world, weighing in at 41,586 pounds. Muhammad Ali might float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, but once you have a slice of this pie, you’re going down for the count.

Consumer research from both Butterball and Hormel Foods, which together sell most of the more than 40 million whole turkeys we Americans eat for Thanksgiving, suggests in 2020 big gatherings will be broken into several smaller ones, most of which will still center on turkey. A third of the respondents to the Butterball survey said they were considering serving dinner outdoors, while the number of people who plan to host only their immediate family has jumped to 30 percent, from 18 percent last year. In fact, nearly 70% of Americans plan to celebrate the holiday differently because of the Pandemic.

My memories of Thanksgiving are centered among the parents’ families, both of whom lived in my home town. We ate Thanksgiving lunch with mother’s family and supper with daddy’s family. The next year we switched the time. We tried to eat as light as possible at each place, or we’d be overstuffed and too sleepy. One year I fell asleep at the big table with the turkey leg in my hand. I had just been promoted from the children’s table, but I was on my second dinner and hadn’t yet learned to pace my eating. The grownups looked at my face plant, decided I was in no danger of suffocating because I’d already cleaned my plate, and they let me sleep.

I slept through dessert that year, but I’d had more than enough to eat that Thanksgiving and most likely more than enough excitement for one small child. I might have been old enough to sit at the big table with the grownups, but I didn’t have the experience or wisdom to practice deferred gratification. We may want something intensely, but if we settle for a short term good, we’ll ruin our chances for a long term good. One of the saddest seasons to remember the anniversary of a death is the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas because people place such importance on togetherness. Yet, if this year we gather together, we risk the health or life of our loved ones. I personally haven’t been with my family since this Pandemic began, since I have health concerns and my family is in the health care business. Zoom and FaceTime will be better choices than in person gatherings.

The seasonal holidays of the later part of this year, such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Halloween, Día de los Muertos, Navratri, Diwali, Thanksgiving, Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and New Year’s, typically include large gatherings of families and friends, crowded parties, and travel. These may put people at increased risk for COVID-19. Some suggestions for a safer holiday season:

Host outdoor activities rather than indoor activities as much as possible. If hosting an outdoor event is not possible, and you choose to host an indoor event, avoid crowded, poorly ventilated, or fully enclosed indoor spaces.
Increase ventilation by opening windows and doors to the extent that is safe and feasible based on the weather.
Host activities with only people from your local area as much as possible.
Limit numbers of attendees as much as possible.
Provide updated information to your guests about any COVID-19 safety guidelines and steps in place to prevent the spread of the virus.
Provide or encourage attendees to bring supplies to help you and others stay healthy. For example, extra masks (do not share or swap with others), hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, and tissues.
If you are planning in-person holiday gatherings with people outside of your household, consider asking all guests to strictly avoid contact with people outside of their households for 14 days before the gathering (quarantine).

In 1943, Norman Rockwell’s painting “Freedom From Want,” created as part of a successful war bond campaign, became a symbol of Thanksgiving. The piece illustrated FDR’s ideal of peace and economic stability: one of the four freedoms outlined in his State of the Union address years before. The others included Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, and Freedom from Fear. This isn’t the first difficult Thanksgiving we Americans have been through. Certainly the great Flu Pandemic and the World Wars were together more difficult than circumstances today. At least today we have antibiotics to fight the secondary infections of the milder cases of Covid. Plus we have flu shots. This is your friendly reminder “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

The Pandemic shows no signs of abating or rounding a corner. The latest estimates are more than a half million people in the United States alone could die from COVID-19 by the end of February 2021, but around 130,000 of those lives could be saved if everybody were to wear masks, according to estimates from a modeling study. The estimates, from a study by researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, show that with few effective COVID-19 treatment options and no vaccines yet available, the U.S. faces “a continued COVID-19 public health challenge through the winter.”

“We are heading into a very substantial fall/winter surge,” said IHME director Chris Murray, who co-led the research. He said the projections, as well as the real-life current evidence of rising infection rates and deaths, showed there is no basis to “the idea that the pandemic is going away,” adding: “We do not believe that is true.”

While this is difficult news, we’re a people who’ve been through a September 11 and come back United. We’ve seen our great leaders assassinated, and come together for the common good. If we think back to 1963, only six days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson delivered a message to the nation on Thanksgiving night: “A great leader is dead; a great nation must move on. Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose.” I remember where I was in the waning days before school vacation began. I was in study hall when a friend brought the news in person because the principal didn’t want to announce it over the intercom. “Kennedy has just been shot in Dallas.” Americans have never shrunk from the hard truth, and they’ve never quit in the face of struggle.

We are a people who have faced adversity, whether we came here in small ships or were born here and were pushed off our native lands. We all live under the same sunshine and breathe the same air. If we can share the funds we would have spent on traveling, decorating, and cooking for a big family feast with our local food pantry this year, the people who used to work in the jobs that haven’t come back won’t go hungry. The economy isn’t going to come back for the service jobs until the Pandemic is over, since many people don’t feel safe going out with unmasked persons.

President Obama at a Food Pantry on Thanksgiving

While “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), we don’t know how soon God will bring this about. Yet we have faith even in the worst of times. As Paul says,
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)

The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is one of my favorite Thanksgiving movies, with sweet lines like, “What if, today, we were grateful for everything?” I always think of my first married year, when we paid for our silver wedding rings and had $17 left in our bank account. I lost my job when we left on short notice to beat an early snow storm that would close Raton Pass between Colorado and New Mexico. Our wedding was the day after Thanksgiving because my friends would all come home. We had an old VW bug and a 552 square foot house on a lot and a half to call our own. Plus two dogs we treated like children. I had grown organic vegetables over the summer and froze the excess. We had deer meat from the fall. It was a simple life, but we didn’t worry. We lived small and enjoyed the blessings of what we had, rather than yearning for that which was out of reach.

I hope all of you wake up every morning with a song of joy on your heart, and thank God for another day to love and serve your neighbors in God’s world.

Joy and Peace to all my rabbit friends,

Cornie

The First Thanksgiving Meal
https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/first-thanksgiving-meal

Dessert at the First Thanksgiving wasn’t Pie
https://www.thekitchn.com/dessert-at-the-first-thanksgiving-think-raisins-not-pie-197426

How Cranberry Jelly Became a Thanksgiving Icon
https://www.thekitchn.com/why-canned-cranberry-jelly-became-a-thanksgiving-icon-food-history-213299

Goat Cheese and Cranberry Topping Tasters
https://www.thekitchn.com/thanksgiving-amusebouche-goat-133294

Americans Consume 400 Million Pounds of Cranberries Per Year
https://southfloridareporter.com/americans-consume-400-million-pounds-of-cranberries-each-year/

A Cautionary Tale from the 1918 Flu Pandemic
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/breaking-point-anti-lockdown-efforts-during-spanish-flu-offer-cautionary-n1202111

Watkins, Kristin, “It Came Across the Plains: the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Rural Nebraska” (2015). Theses & Dissertations. 42.
https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=etd

The Philadelphia 1918 Flu Pandemic Day by Day
https://www.phillyvoice.com/1918-philadelphia-was-grippe-misery-and-suffering/

CBS News Images of the Pandemic
https://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/03/27/a33e6659-252e-4218-a8b7-f8f435bf9f77/thumbnail/1280×1602/81b5cccba3dfa76aa94c0523103c8bef/165-ww-269b-023.jpg

A Disrupted Thanksgiving Leaves the Turkey Business Guessing
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/dining/thanksgiving-turkey-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare

World’s Largest Green Bean Casserole
https://www.today.com/food/world-s-largest-green-bean-casserole-made-green-giant-t118966

Holiday Thanksgiving Ideas
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/thanksgiving-ideas/g4869/100-years-of-thanksgiving/

Holiday Virus Risks
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/holidays.html#thanksgiving

Latest IHME Model Projects 500,000 COVID-19 Deaths By February 2021 | Equities News
https://www.equities.com/news/latest-ihme-model-projects-500-000-covid-19-deaths-by-february-2021

The 3 Worst Ways to Roast a Turkey https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriavonbiel/2011/11/09/the-3-worst-ways-to-roast-a-turkey/

Rabbit! Rabbit!

August 1, 2020Leave a comment

Welcome to August, 2020.

“I celebrate myself, and what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass.”
—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (1892 version)

Those halcyon days are nearly over for the school children of our world. In this Age of Coronavirus, the most excitement many of us have had has been limited to small and nearby experiences. Gone are our vacations to beaches, lakes, amusement parks, or national parks. Instead, we pitched a tent in the living room and web toured famous museums in foreign countries. We may also have picked up art packs to go or done zoom classes, or maybe we did what my mother did with her three rambunctious children on a hot August day: “Go outside and don’t bother me unless one of you is dying. Also, don’t try to kill one another. I really don’t want to see any of you before lunch.”

And outside we went, to find our own entertainment, short of killing ourselves. Of course, it was so hot, none of us had enough energy for this task, even if the thought crossed our minds. Mostly we ended up in the dirt pit, since it had the shade. If our play clothes clothes were dirty, we changed when we came in for lunch. The washing machine was at the back door, so the clothes came off there, we hopped in a cool shower, got clean play clothes, and came to the table. We usually had pimento cheese sandwiches, tuna fish sandwiches, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the menu. We never ate heavy for lunch, since supper was our big meal of the day. After lunch, we napped in the heat of the day, which was always a good choice in the south. If we didn’t sleep, we read quietly, but we stayed put on the bed to rest. Our parents believed in cycles of activity and rest throughout the day and week for our health, but also for theirs.

Summer tends to wear parents’ nerves down to the last frayed thread. This summer has been one of the most difficult in recent memory. The recession of 2008 was bad, as was the contraction after 9/11/01. The earliest recession I can remember came after the Korean War, which was 1953-54. I was still in kindergarten. My parents had just bought a brand new Ford station wagon, but they couldn’t afford the gas except for Sunday to go to church. Dad would bring the day’s receipts home from the office so mom would have money to buy food for the next day. We kids would walk with her up to the grocery store and bring the food home. I recall Dad crying at the supper table because he felt he wasn’t being a good provider for his family. Mom was good to remind him, “If the patients can’t pay you now, we’ll get by. They have a harder time than we do.” Mother went back to teaching that year and stayed in the classroom for another half dozen years or so.

Most of us today feel like we’re in the Lewis Carroll story, Alice in Wonderland:

“The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away!”

We’d like to blame a Certain Knave of Hearts, the villain of the storyline, for all the ills that have befallen us. Some say the Evil Eye has cast its gaze upon us, while others say karma is repaying us for our bad acts in the past. Others claim devils have a hand in our misfortunes or God is meting out punishment for our wrongdoings. I always come back to the book of Job, which is the Bible’s longest argument against retribution theology. Why do the good suffer? Why do the evil prosper? Why does God allow this to happen? If there’s no good answer, the promise of Job is God is still with us and won’t abandon us.

As St. John Chrysostom reminds us, “If there were no tribulation, there would be no rest; if there were no winter, there would be no summer.” If we’re to appreciate springtime, perhaps we need the searing sun of summer. The heat of summer makes us long for hot cocoa near a fireplace. I drink more decaf iced coffees and teas at this time of year. If I get really fancy, I like to make a fruit lemonade with frozen watermelon cubes and sprigs of mint. I add a touch of Splenda if it’s not quite sweet enough. If I give myself over to doom scrolling or waiting with baited breath for the latest breaking bad news or notification from my social media, I will descend into a deep funk for sure. Then I might forget “A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows,” as St. Francis of Assisi noted in the days of old.

Perhaps we modern people have always thought, “If I can dream it, I can achieve it. If you really think small, your world will be small. If you think big, your world will be big. You must do the things you think you cannot do.” There’s nothing wrong with a positive mental attitude, yet we need to realize even though every single person is a miracle from God, not all persons have access to the same resources and support systems. This is where the systemic injustices of generations have handicapped racial minorities and the rural poor, no matter what their color, because of lack of education, health care, quality and affordable food, and access to transportation for employment. As you read “Miracles,” by Walt Whitman, send your mind’s eye into your own city or town, as you flesh out his poem, which was first published a decade before the Civil War began.

Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim-the rocks-the motion of the waves-the ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?

So often we focus on the people, the problems, and the politics of our intersecting lives instead of centering our gaze on the power of God, the person of Christ, and the possibilities of the Spirit filled life. The latter is what brings miracles to life, opens the eyes of the blind and lets the deaf hear the good news once again. If we want to find unity in community again, we need to find pleasure and commonness in the single blade of grass, as well as wonder for the good god who formed every atom inhabiting all of creation. While some of us still annually grieve that lonely Pluto is no longer a planet, but only a dwarf planetary body, it’s still a miracle of creation just the same. You go Pluto, you do you!

Stay safe, wash your hands, practice social distancing, and wear a mask. I’ll see you in September.

Love, Joy and Peace,

Cornie

Should you want to celebrate Food Holidays in August:

Aug. 1 – 7: World Breastfeeding Week
August 2: National Ice Cream Sandwich Day
August 3: National Watermelon Day
August 3: Grab Some Nuts Day
August 4: National White Wine Day
August 5: National Oyster Day
August 6: National Root Beer Float Day
August 7: International Beer Day
August 8: National Zucchini Day

August 10:   National S’Mores Day
August 13:   National Filet Mignon Day
August 14:   National Creamsicle Day
August 16:   National Rum Day
August 16: National Bratwurst Day

August 18: National Soft Ice Cream Day
August 19: National Potato Day
August 20: National Lemonade Day
August 21: National Spumoni Day
August 23: National Sponge Cake Day

August 24: National Waffle Day
August 25: National Banana Split Day
August 25: National Whiskey Sour Day
August 27: Banana Lover’s Day
August 28: Red Wine Day
August 29: Chop Suey Day

August 30: National Toasted Marshmallow Day
August 31: National Trail Mix Day, Eat Outside Day

Other August Holidays on the Calendar:
August 1:   National Girlfriends Day
August 2: National KidsDay, International Forgiveness Day, Friendship Day, Sister’s Day
August 4: National Night Out
August 5:   National Underwear Day
August 7:   National Lighthouse Day
August 8:   National Dollar Day,National Garage Sale Day, World Cat Day
August 9:   Book Lover’s Day, National Polka Day, Betty Boop’s birthday
August 10:   Lazy Day
August 11:   Presidential Joke Day,Son and Daughter Day
August 12:   International Youth Day, National Middle Child’s Day, Vinyl Record Day
August 13:   International Left-Handers’ Day
August 15:   National Relaxation Day, National Failures Day, International Homeless Animals’ Day
August 16:   National Tell a Joke Day
August 17: Black Cat Appreciation Day, National Thrift Shop Day
August 19: National Aviation Day, Orville Wright’s Birthday
August 21: National Senior Citizens Day
August 22: Be an Angel Day
August 24: Pluto Demoted to Dwarf Planet, because Pluto and any other round object that “has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and is not a satellite.” Thank you @plutokiller, aka Mike Brown, astronomer, at California Technology.
August 25: Kiss and Make Up Day
August 26: National Dog Day! Women’s Equality Day
August 27: National Petroleum Day
August 30: Frankenstein Day, National Holistic Pet Day
August 30: National Beach Day
August 31: Princess Diana Memorial Day

Walt Whitman’s complete poem, Ode to Myself, 1892 version
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45477/song-of-myself-1892-version

What happened in every U.S. recession since the Great Depression
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/09/what-happened-in-every-us-recession-since-the-great-depression.html

Walt Whitman, Miracles:
“Miracles” was first published in Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” (Fowler & Wells, 1856) as “Poem of Perfect Miracles.” It appeared in this revised form during his lifetime in the 1881 edition published by James R. Osgood and Company.
https://www.thespectrum.com/story/opinion/blogs/educationitself/2016/03/27/poem–day—miracles-walt-whitman/82312776/

August Holidays
https://www.holidailys.com/august-holidays

For Medicinal Purposes Only

July 16, 2020July 16, 2020Leave a comment

This Pandemic has given rise to all sorts of novel Quarantine behaviors: Zoom cocktail hours, Virtual Pub Chugs, and porch delivery from liquor stores. This latter fascinates me, since I’ve yet to use Grub Hub delivery service for food, and social distancing means I’ve no need for a quantity order from a Pub Hub delivery service. I don’t have a big drinking habit, due to a seizure disorder, but also I don’t like feeling out of control.

Original Physician’s Rx for Medicinal Purposes

My grandparents were part of the prohibition era, but they did keep a pint of whisky in the back of the linen closet for “medicinal purposes.” When granddaddy had a bad cold, he’d be stretched out on top of the creaky brass bed. As he lay there, looking miserable, my short, squat Nannie would approach his long, lean, prone body with a large tablespoon and the whisky bottle in her healing hands. Carefully she’d pour him a heaping spoonful, he would raise his head an inch off the feather pillow as he opened his mouth wide, and she’d pour the medicinal liquid down his throat. Then he’d collapse back and let the “medicine” take effect.

I always thought my granddaddy looked like a baby bird being fed by its mother when he took his medicine. Sometimes I would inspect this dark cabinet to see if the levels were decreasing, but my grandparents weren’t secret drinkers. My Nannie usually acted a bit addled at times, but my dad said she’d been that way as long as he’d known my mother. That was forever, or at least to my young mind it seemed so.

My family were Methodists, so historically, abstention from alcohol has been part of our social witness, ever since our 18th century roots in England began in a outreach to the gin soaked working class. The General Rules of 1743 for the Methodist Societies ruled out buying or drinking ‘spirituous liquors’ except in cases of extreme necessity, meaning medicinal use. It wasn’t total abstinence, but abstinence from the hard stuff, whiskey and gin in particular. Gin was to the 18th century what the opioid scourge is to the present age.

After the Civil War, as Methodism expanded in the United States, Methodists—women especially—began to steer the denomination toward a harder line as the temperance movement gained steam. And by the early 20th century, the church endorsed Prohibition and required Methodist ministers to pledge abstinence from alcohol. It wasn’t until the 1950s and ’60s that the church began to soften that stance.

Today we know alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, so consuming a moderate amount can feel relaxing. One standard drink varies according to the beverage served. The photo below shows the difference. When I watch television, I always know the plot is going downhill for the characters involved by the increasing size of the wine glasses they use. When they start swilling straight from the bottle, their goose is cooked! Nothing good will happen from then on.

This pandemic has stressed us all, for some of us have lost income and now have food insecurity, plus we may lose our housing or transportation too. Moreover, as this virus has persisted, we all seem to know someone who’s been ill or has died from Covid 19. We share the grief of our friends as well as of our beloved community in this ongoing loss. Grief is a major stressor on our systems, not the least because death is an event we can’t control.

Alcohol distributors reported a 50% increase in the sales of alcohol from one week in March of the coronavirus compared to a week the same year ago. Home delivery of alcohol has also increased dramatically, and one report notes a 300% increase in alcohol sales in March compared to January. This quarter’s reports aren’t out yet, but they might show a continuation, since communities opened up only to close again. If folks can’t drink in bars and restaurants, they drink at home.

Why do we talk about this in the Kitchen? It’s because low, moderate drinking is tied to better cognitive function later in life. In Cornie’s Kitchen, we keep our focus on our overall health: physical, mental, and spiritual. Today we need to add communal health, for this pandemic has taught us we don’t live as isolated islands, but are instead an interconnected web of relationships and systems of support.

If we feel alone, it’s because we haven’t reached out and are waiting instead for someone to make the first move. Go ahead, and make the first move yourself. If it’s received, well and good. If not, you did your best, so move on. Some people are very ground down by this ongoing mess and they aren’t in the mood to chat. At least you remembered them, and that is good for them and you too.

In terms of the drinking, “Light drinking may be linked to better cognitive function later in life,” according to research published in JAMA Network Open.

The Health and Retirement Survey was a ten year nationwide representative sample of middle-aged and older adults, who completed cognitive assessments from 1998 through 2008 and participated in at least three biannual surveys that collected health and economic information. A total of 19,887 participants with a mean age of 61.8 years were included in the study.

The researchers categorized participants as never drinkers, current drinkers and former drinkers based on their responses to questions on alcohol consumption. Current drinkers were then categorized as heavy drinkers — women who drank 8 or more drinks per week and men who drank 15 or more drinks per week — and low to moderate drinkers. Of those, 18.9% were former drinkers and 35.5% were current drinkers. Among current drinkers, 85.2% were low to moderate drinkers.

The researchers found that low to moderate drinking was significantly associated with both higher cognitive function trajectory and lower rates of cognitive decline compared with never drinking.

According to the researchers, the dosage of alcohol consumed has a U-shaped association with cognitive function domains among all participants, and the optimal dose ranged from 10 to 14 drinks per week. Dr. Ruiyuan Zhang, the lead researcher, said the benefits of cognitive function don’t outweigh the risks of alcohol consumption, which are an increased risk for cancer and heart disease.

“We found that light drinking was associated with better cognitive outcomes, but heavy drinking was not,” he said. “The U-shaped relationship also showed that after the drinking dosage passed the moderate level (more than 14 drinks for men or 7 drinks for women), the risk of low cognitive function increased very fast. It is widely known and well-studied that excessive alcohol drinking is harmful to multiple organs; our study added more evidence on it.”

Therefore, he recommended that physicians suggest that patients who drink limit their consumption to a moderate or lower level. Ruiyuan Zhang MD, MS, of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Georgia College of Public Health, told Healio Primary Care that the finding “implies that low-to-moderate alcohol drinking is associated with better cognitive function outcomes among middle-aged or older men and women in the United States.”

For those who do not drink, Zhang noted that they should not start drinking for the potential benefits to cognitive function, “because alcohol could affect multiple organs of the human body and have short-term or long-term adverse effects such as motor vehicle crashes, violence and some cancers. There are other ways to prevent cognitive declines, such as exercise and reading.”

Cornie’s Kitchen also recommends exercises to increase cognitive function such as writing your memoirs, taking art lessons, learning a new craft, learning a new language, tutoring a child, or anything else that stretches your brain muscle in a new direction. Even learning new recipes or redoing old recipes as healthy options can be helpful because you have to make changes and adapt to new situations.

The more we reduce our world to the “way we like it,” the less adaptable our minds need to be. On the one hand this relieves our stress, but it also robs our minds of the opportunities to adjust, adapt, and change. Stay sharp my friends, like a tack!

God bless and Happy changes,
Cornie

Moderate Drinking Tied to Better Cognitive Function in Later Life— https://www.healio.com/news/primary-care/20200708/low-moderate-drinking-tied-to-better-cognitive-function-later-in-life?utm_source=selligent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news&m_bt=4338086745559

Methodists: Drinking still a touchy topic
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-03/methodists-shun-bottle-no-one-wants-talk-about

REMEMBERING THE DO-DANG HOURS

April 3, 2020April 1, 2020Leave a comment

When I was young, I had at least one meltdown per week. I’m not talking about my two year old self, who most likely had a temper tantrum daily, but about my teenage self, for I was highly emotional. My mother even made me a needlepoint tiger with the motto, “Leave me alone, I’m having a crisis.” I was a drama queen back in my day. My parents’ eyes rolled so often it’s a wonder they didn’t get dizzy. Their heads’ shaking in wonder most likely brought their brains back on an even keel.

We expect small children to have mood swings, since they don’t have the life experiences to know their hunger pangs aren’t the end of the world as they know it. They also don’t have the self discipline yet to keep calm when they’re tired and fussy. This state of being comes around with regularity every afternoon at about the same time for many children. My family called it the Do-Dang Hour. My daddy would say, “The Do-Dang monster has come to visit,” whenever my daughter changed from her cheerful self into a grumpy, moody, and intractable child. As a young mother, I soon grew attuned to her personality changes and could whip her off to nap time, from which she’d return as her renewed self.

I have no idea why the near nap time grumpy behaviors of small children in my family all participated in this genetic trait, but we did, and dang it, we wouldn’t be denied. We also all had mandatory nap periods, which probably saved our lives. As we got older, we had rest periods or quiet times on our beds, and this may have saved our mother’s life.

I didn’t sit still long enough to get my jacket straight.

“When can we get up?” This was a burning question on our eager minds and active bodies.

“When the clock hands match the colors on the face,” mother said, for she’d colored a blue mark on face at 3:00 for my youngest brother, who hadn’t yet learned how to tell time.

If we read our books, chatted quietly, or closed our eyes, we fulfilled our afternoon rest period. Bouncing from bed to bed or racing from room to room wasn’t allowed. This was a quiet time. My parents were disciplined about these things, but this is how they grew up also. My dad also believed children needed sleep to thrive. As a physician, he believed adequate sleep duration on a regular basis for every age led to improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health. Today we know a lack of sleep each night is associated with an increase in injuries, hypertension, obesity and depression, especially for teens who may experience increased risk of self-harm or suicidal thoughts.

This is the optimal amount of sleep, including naps, we should get on a regular basis to promote optimal health:

Infants 4 months to 12 months should sleep 12 to 16 hours per 24 hours
Children 1 to 2 years of age should sleep 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours
Children 3 to 5 years of age should sleep 10 to 13 hours per 24 hours
Children 6 to 12 years of age should sleep 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours
Teenagers 13 to 17 years of age should sleep 8 to 10 hours per 24 hours
Younger adults (18-25): Sleep range is 7-9 hours (new age category)
Adults (26-64): Sleep range did not change and remains 7-9 hours
Older adults (65+): Sleep range is 7-8 hours (new age category)

As a side note, I was still going to bed at 7 pm in the 7th grade and getting 12 hours of sleep, but all of my classmates went to bed much later. I took a survey of all the people in my classes and discovered about 75% went to bed after 8 pm and the rest later still. My physician father was moved by facts, but not by sentiment. I wanted to have a more adult bedtime than my brothers, who were still in elementary school. Eleven hours of sleep still fell into the optimal window.

Even before this pandemic struck the world, one third of Americans weren’t getting sufficient sleep. We put other things on out priority list as more important, but sleep is foundational. Giving ourselves permission to sleep at night lets our bodies refresh and restore, plus makes us stronger to fight off any illness that comes our way. We can’t “make up for lost sleep” by sleeping more on our days off, since this behavior only throws off our body’s schedule.

In this age of coronavirus, having a structure at home helps to keep our bodies on a schedule. We make a plan for our week, building in free time, rest time, and learning time. We can make our family cooking into math and science projects. We can bake and decorate cookies as art projects. We can read our history stories and make a themed cake or meal for supper. If we’re creative, we can make our learning interdisciplinary and home centered. If we want “extra credit,” we may offer dinner and a show, with a dramatic reading on our day’s studies with the decaf coffee and dessert.

I personally find I’m most creative when I’m at rest and somewhat tired. Then when I’m reading, I lose interest in the black marks of the words on the page and I look at the white spaces in between. In this void, my imagination can travel to far flung places and plumb great depths, none of which I’ve ever before seen. This is how artists dream visions, musicians hear new music, and scientists make intuitive breakthroughs. If our lives are too busy and full, we need a quiet place to bring what’s important into focus.

For me, I’m letting Kroger do my shopping and I’m only going out to pick it up. I forgot to order the decaf coffee, so I guess I’ll have to drink the “hard stuff” this week! I’ll have to be careful how much I swill! And I have green tea, so I won’t lack for a wake up cup. When I went out today, I was so surprised by the beauty of the clear blue sky, the various greens, the purple wisteria, and the bright yellow and red wildflowers along the highway. I would have driven around just to sight see, except I had items needing refrigeration as soon as possible. Also, I overslept and needed some coffee, so home I went.

To keep you from melting down into your very own Do-Dang Hour—we adults call it Hangry now—I’m appending some Self-care Strategies for the Age of COVID-19:

Relinquish control
Revisit your personal history to find memories of joy and success
Establish realistic expectations for this experience
Give yourself a brain break
Unplug from the noise
Find a state of flow
Your body matters, so care for it tenderly
Pay it forward, by doing for others also
Find your tribe

We can make it through this time of Social Distancing. The Great Depression lasted 43 months. Surely we can last for a few months. We can rise to this moment in time, but we first have to realize we’re in a new reality. If life isn’t the way it used to be, we’ll need to live the best life we can in the world the way it is, as we try to bring about a better world for all people. We can do this together, for together we are stronger than we are alone. Find your tribe, find your purpose, do good for others, and share the love.

Remember this word from the Letter to the Hebrews (13:6):
So we can say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?”

Sending you Joy and Peace,

Cornelia

The American Academy of Pediatrics Supports Childhood Sleep Guidelines—

https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/American-Academy-of-Pediatrics-Supports-Childhood-Sleep-Guidelines.aspx

National Sleep Foundation Recommends New Sleep Times—

Press Releases

Help Guides for a Better Night’s Sleep—

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

Cornie's Kitchen

Whole Food for Whole People

Category: Generations

Regular as Clockwork

MEMORIAL DAY MEMORIES

A Quick Meal for a Cool Evening

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For Medicinal Purposes Only