In the weeks prior to starting medical school, my brother-in-law gave me a small card with a calligraphed message: Discipline is remembering what you want. I soon affixed it to the wall of my new study carrel where it remained until, years later, I passed it along to a friend who needed it more than I.
Discipline is remembering what you want. What do you want? What do I want? Continue reading
It’s a conversation that has lasted for more than fifteen years, one month at a time. Two members of our book group, Mo and Netta, have folded themselves comfortably, side by side, into big chairs separated by just a small table. Our host today, Deena, lies nearby on the floor, her head on a large, soft cushion.
Except for Zoe, the rest of us sit on various parts of the couch, facing all our friends and the big chairs opposite, with the coffee table in between. Casual tonight in a t-shirt, jeans, and baseball cap, Zoe has seated herself cross-legged on the floor, halfway between me and a crackling fire.
From what I’ve heard, people tend to divide the diagnosis of diabetes into three categories, two of which they suspect aren’t the real thing. Or at least not worth worrying about. Take, for example, diet-controlled diabetes. They’re not really sure if this is even worth mentioning, but they’ll take a shot anyway. “My sister might have something, I’m not sure, but she doesn’t have to take anything for it, as long as she eats right.” “Okay, so maybe diet-controlled diabetes?,” I ask. “Yeh, I think so,” comes the reply. More on this below.
The second is diabetes controlled by oral medications. They’re not sure if this is the real thing either, but they figure they’ll mention it, just in case. “I think my dad has diabetes,” they might say, “but he just takes a pill for it.” When I reply with “Well, okay, that’s important to know,” they nod, and then look relieved to have done the right thing by bringing it up.
Today I’m thinking about “junk food.” So called junk food, that is. In my mind there’s junk and then there’s food; there’s no such thing as junk food. It it’s junk then it can’t be food. If it’s food, it’s not junk. Junk food? Really? Who put this one over on the American family? Junk food? What a joke. There’s some kind of logic to this. It’s fairly obvious: it’s one or the other, and if it’s junk, then it can’t be food.
Here in my virtual reality corner of the internet, I’m working to create a quiet storm around this concept. I post week in and week out about the differences between real food and manufactured calories. My commitment to this blog is so great that I post even when I’m on vacation, which makes it a working vacation. What’s that? Okay, I’ll cut back on those.
Fennel is a very special bulb of a vegetable, with the faintest sweet taste of…what?…licorice(!)…but very faint, so don’t be put off. To me it’s more like the bergamot in Earl Grey tea than actual licorice. If you’ve never eaten fennel before, these recipes are the perfect introduction. Continue reading