Thou Shall Prepare for the Soap Box

I just thought that I should forewarn those of you who read regularly, a really bad star alignment just occurred...I got the book on CD "Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver... and I am feeling very uneasy with my life direction.

I told my sister the other day that my life was feeling like a pair of jeans that was too tight. I can't exactly explain that in words necessarily, but if you are a woman reading this, I know that you are going "OH YEAH... I Totally get what she is talking about"

You know, they look good, and when you put them on to go out, they fit all fine, and feel good, you turn around in the mirror all: "Damn I look HOT in these." THEN you add one bite of an appetizer and a beer, and then you are about to bust out of them. Excusing yourself to the bathroom about every other minute just to unbutton them and reassure your belly that you promise to set it free later if it will just be agreeable for the next hour or so? As you are returning home, and your butt is having the prickles from the lack of circulation, you are making all sorts of deals with yourself about exercise and eating right if you can just make it home before something falls off.

When you finally return home and look at yourself in these jeans, that seemed all neat and perfect when you put them on…you are NOT impressed. You have rolls coming out from every space that the pants aren't, and they are making you gassy. This is not to say that I blame my gassiness on my life...but rather, somehow I think that my life fit me perfect at one point, and now...well now, I have muffin top, and my ass is asleep...literally and figuratively.*

So you wonder, "What is the nutcase talking about now?" Well let me fill you in a little. I can be a fairly laid back sort of person... (My sister is choking on her coffee right about now) But seriously, don't listen to her, I can be, I really can be. For the most part, I look at most things and confuse the hell out myself with my own ability to vacillate. Being so indecisive, and putting myself in the shoes at every angle, making picking a direction for my life nearly impossible, and it ends up looking like that sign I posted a few days ago. This is, until I become passionate about something.

It is the moments when my face lights up, I look at Jamie and I say things like "Let’s move back to New England," that even he knows, just to go with it until I come down from my soapbox. Sometimes I do, and other times? Well, we are living in Maine, so I guess you can see where I am going with this.

I am passionate about Agriculture. I am fanatical in the idea that every child, whether they live in the Bronx or in North Country Vermont, should have an education in Agriculture. I believe that it is as important as all the other things that we are force fed in our early education...I believe that it is more important in fact, than many things that we are learning. I believe that this is even more important in this generation with a Very Real food crisis approaching our country and our world.

And now, my passion for Agriculture has been combined with Barbara Kingsolver’s writing in “Animal Vegetable Miracle.” I love Barbara Kingsolver. I think I would totally be her stalker if I had it in me. Her writing is like poetry, and listening to her read it? Just as good... (This is why I read all her books, and then tried to find them on tape so that I could hear her read them too.) I have read everything she has written in Fiction, and am now working on Nonfiction. When this book passed through my radar I had to jump…with this long ass post written…please look forward to more of my Agricultural soap-boxing soon…Just a warning.

So rock on my fellow gardeners, and enjoy the long soaking rain…my beans really needed it.

*Yes I really DID put that much thought into that analogy BEFORE I even said it, and yes I am pretty clear on the fact that I have a lot of strange things going on in this head of mine, and I probably shouldn't be telling the world about it!