Kale, Sex, Brains, and Rock-and-Roll

[helwen]

Kale is one of the best veggies to grow, best suited to temperate climes but if you have a partly shady place (esp. 12noon - 3pm), you might be able to grow it in hotter climes. Some info on growing kale, here. It's a very easy, low maintenance plant. There is the possibility of cabbage worms, which baronessmartha had to contend with last year. We only had a couple of them ourselves, thank goodness. They're quite small things, in a light green color. They can survive winter quite well, and in fact like a good frost (can make the leaves tastier). If you can get to them in the snow, you can harvest leaves from them in the middle of winter for supper.

This little article has some nutritional info on kale, and also some recipes and links to recipes. Kale is apparently a great veggie for fighting off cancer too!

***
The Slow Sex Moment is an interesting article, inspired by the Slow Food Movement. It has both its amusing and more serious elements.

Excerpts:

...Cutting edge groups like Canada’s Adbusters have been promoting Slow Week to encourage SLOW as means to enjoy and prioritize all aspects of life.

Add to that the explosive popularity of the Slow Food Movement. It gently reminds us that by slowing down we can truly savor and honor the celebration of the harvest, the smells and joy of sharing and preparing food with a like-minded community that challenges the Super-Size-Me dogma.

...

So, with this same gustatory excitement, let’s start a Slow Sex Movement. Using the slow food movement’s template and their snail icon-who happens conveniently to display an extraordinarily elaborate sexual dance to inch us forward-slowly. Slow Sex expresses a progressive and more humane view of sexuality. Membership is open and would include people of all sexual orientations.

...

Slow Sex would not deplete but nurture the individual. If sex is to be sustainable one would seek to build lasting relationships with other humans just as the food movement does with the land and soil. Relations would be cultivated over time rather than on a “mere grab and go” basis.

Fast sex is often cold, impersonal and can leave one feeling empty, angry or both. Slowing sex emphasizes the human connection rather than the mere surface, quickie sensations. Slow Sex is hot, engaging, satisfying and celebratory. It could promote passionate kissing, foreplay for all, hand holding and deep soul gazing all of which could increase intimacy.

...

Schools teach youth abstinence-only, which is known not to reduce STDs or pregnancy, while the media simultaneously shoves pornographic images onto our youth long before they have even considered engaging in sexual intercourse. Our culture promotes the idea that young “beautiful” females who spread in Playboy or strip their way through college represent empowered, enviable role models. Men and boys experience a separate difficulty. In Men and Sex, author Ron Levant defines nonrelational sex as being rooted within a normal North American male upbringing. This rearing discourages any emotional display, equates emotional intimacy with a loss of autonomy and sexual desire is experienced primarily as lust with no requirements for intimacy or emotional attachment. It is, Levant states, “a narcissistic way of experiencing sexuality, exemplified by a sometimes startling lack of empathy.” Slow Sex could offer a model of a more intimate and engaged sexuality that confronts the fundamental ways in which culture defines masculinity and femininity.

Slow Sex celebrates the idea that no one should be forced to choose between just two available gender boxes. The intersexual snail icon with its ambiguous genitalia could lead the way. Progressives wanting to challenge the constraints of a restrictive gender binary system could use Slow Sex to promote gender less not gender more. Who decided everyone must check their genitals before choosing a partner, playing a sport, running for office or expressing an emotion? After all, humans exist within a broad range of chromosomal possibilities. The Slow Sex movement would honor this diverse range and help dispel the myth of binary madness.

And of course, more interesting thoughts and ideas in the article itself.

I can't say I've given huge amounts of thought to 'fast sex' or the pornography industry myself, being in a very happy, long-term relationship. But the typical handling of relationships in television shows and movies seem to follow along those lines, where people who 'fall in love' necessarily also 'fall in lust', and if any couple is together for too long, it has to be broken up by a third person or work or.... because apparently being in a happy relationship is boring. Or your character has to be a minister or old... Funny, I certainly don't feel bored in my relationship, in any aspect of it. Not that I'll be sharing any of the 'naughty' bits here, thanks. But life is always interesting, living with L, and that's a good thing :)

***
From a couple of other studies....

Apparently people are willing to spend more money after experiencing something sad (like a sad movie or when they're sad/depressed). Watch out for ads while you're watching dramas... people in the study who watched the sad video clip were willing to spend 300 percent more on the same item than the people who watched a neutral nature video clip: Article on study by team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Pittsburgh

And in a study by researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University, they tested 5 different wines on people, with prices ranging from $5 to $90. Except that in fact they only used 3 wines, with two of them being used both for higher and lower prices. They were measuring responses in the cortex, and could see that people were consistently enjoying the 'more expensive' wines than the lesser ones.

From the Article:

...Professor Rangel said that the pleasure we take from something “seems to depend on our beliefs about our experience of that thing.” It’s interesting that the study also suggests we aren’t always aware of these beliefs - even though we end up paying for them.

***
Sorry, no music here. Just a few thoughts on the studies above. In the western culture there seems to be an expectation that anytime there's an apparent lack in one's life, it can be solved by buying something, changing one's style, getting the latest techno gizmo or game, getting _something_. Some folks aren't happy unless they can have what "everyone else" has. And it can't wait! Have to have it now!

This is not to say that I don't enjoy getting something new (or at least new to me) -- I write about the books we've bought, fabric or yarn for projects, things we'd like to get for gardening, camping, etc. But we try to do it thoughtfully, not out of depression or stress (keeping up with the Joneses has never been an issue for me).

Studies are coming out that people with a supposedly lower standard of living, which is to say they don't have tons of stuff and money, are generally happier than those with a higher standard of living. Well, I can't say that I wouldn't like to have enough cash in the bank to just go out and buy a farm and all the equipment and stuff that I'd like, but I also don't really miss the corporate world either. Some of the folks I worked with, yes. But not the job.

Of course, being truly dirt poor wouldn't be great, and I'm very blessed to be in my current situation! But I don't miss the headaches and stress that went with trying to get higher and higher paying jobs at all, and I certainly don't miss the constant travel. I discovered somewhere along the way that I loved driving, but only if I wasn't in a hurry to get somewhere. I like my life that way too -- things to do, with some general time schedule in mind, but not as many things in a day as there used to be.

I should probably stop rambling now, got things to do. As my massage therapy instructor Mr. F used to say, "Time to rock and roll!"

Comments

[calygrey.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I should try Kale this year. The ducks would eat the worms, but they might eat the Kale too.

All my Lavender finally died (lasted 14 years - first plant I grew for this house), I just got some new seed to start a whole new batch.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Hey, I've never tried lavendar from seed. Is it difficult? Some of mine are getting on in years, and I'm wondering if they'll make it through their first year in Ashfield.

Will be interested to hear if the ducks eat the Kale.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Studies are coming out that people with a supposedly lower standard of living, which is to say they don't have tons of stuff and money, are generally happier than those with a higher standard of living.

What was their definition of "lower standard of living," I wonder? Because I've been poor and I've been well off, and not having to worry about paying one's bills is A Good Thing.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I don't have the citation at hand, but there were studies that showed after a certain point (the # of dollars is not something I remember), more money did not add happiness. There had to be a certain level first, though - food and shelter and security taken care of.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yup, those would be the studies. And no, I don't have them on hand either. It's come up a few times over the past year at least.