Sitting into the Sunset

Readers of this blog may recall that this has not been the easiest year so far. Stephen is very slowly recovering from a hip replacement and bad drug reaction. He is still limping on a cane, and can walk maybe a quarter of a mile, slowly. I thought our vacationing this year would consist of our trips to Tower Grove Park. But a couple of weeks ago, Stephen—in his typical bold and courageous fashion—asked to go to Michigan for a couple of weeks of vacation. I had my doubts about being able to pull this off. But I figured out a way to do it. We would visit our friends in La Crosse for the weekend, and then explore Door County for the following week. At any point, should we need to return home early, it would be relatively easy to terminate the trip.

Stephen at Starved Rock Park

Lighthouse at Algoma, Wisconsin

I finally think I understand

How can people still believe that Barack Obama is not an American Citizen? How can it be that the percentage of Republicans that believe this is so much higher than the percentage of Democrats? How can people believe that a long-overdue attempt to reform a failing health care system—or as Andrew Weil has said, a failing disease-management system—is out to establish a policy of euthanasia for the US Government? How can so many Republican senators think that Sonya Sotomayor, a moderate female hispanic judge with excellent judicial experience, is unfit to sit on the Supreme Court because of one or two sentences in a couple of speeches she made? How could these senators subject the public to weeks of questioning one or two of her phrases, while not discussing the hundreds of cases she has written opinions on? How can conservative talk show hosts not so subtly compare Barack Obama with Hitler? These are questions that have been on my mind. In a flash this morning, the answer leapt into my mind.

Fried Green Tomatoes. Gluten-free!

Fried Green Tomatoes are a definite must on any summer menu, as necessary as corn-on-the-cob or barbecue. I used to make them all the time. But with the discovery that Stephen is gluten intolerant, they hadn’t been even a thought for this summer’s menu. Well, not until my eyes lit on an enormous green tomato at Whole Foods, just the right degree of unripeness. Not only that, it was organic, and as I noted the price for this 2 pound gem ($3.99 a pound), I recalled the sarcastic remark of one of my clever friends: “Some people call it shopping at Whole Paycheck.” Now I knew that if I just went to any of the local vegetable markets in the City, I could get 2 pounds of green tomatoes for 2 bucks. But would I? And that is when the question crossed my mind, “I wonder if it is possible to make gluten-free fried green tomatoes.”

Who is controlling the political process?

I’ve been getting quite a political education lately. I wouldn’t call myself a conservative, and conservatives would call me liberal. For example, being gay, I am for equal rights for gays and lesbians. Not being stupid, I am against stupid wars, such as the one we are ending now in Iraq. I have watched in amazement as year after year, neocon philosophy took over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government. I really didn’t understand how it was happening. For example, I didn’t understand how the Supreme Court could hand a close and disputed election to George W. Bush in 2004. Somewhere along the line, I discovered that there were voices in the media who were not only speaking for my particular political bent, but were exposing how a certain financial/commercial/business power structure is controlling elections to maintain a so-called “free market” economy. The very same economy which recently nearly collapsed due to corporate greed and wasteful military spending.

Don’t forget about the magic

I do make a practice of only putting up new blog entries when I have something I really think is worth sharing. We have facebook, twitter and myspace for casual thoughts and comments and keeping up with the Joneses. But some magic just happened to me, and I feel fired up to share that message with you all: “Don’t forget that there is magic in the world!” Those of you who have read my old blog will know that I had a category called Magic, and periodically wrote about case studies of it in my life. But we have to go back to last night to set the scene for this case I am about to share.