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Jan. 19, 2009

How King’s Words Changed My Life

Shortly after I finished graduate school, I began teaching a college writing course and had to select essays for students to read. Among the essays was “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr.

 I sat down and read this letter Dr. King had written, trying to determine what wisdom we might learn.

In the essay King explained, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas, that “an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” “Any law that degrades human personality is unjust,” King wrote.

King used this explanation in his time to show the unjustness of segregation and other actions taken against him and others.

What touched me deeply was King’s explanation of what happens to oppressed people – he explains this more in depth in another essay, “The Ways of Meeting Oppression” – noting the oppressed become either complacent due to acceptance of denigration or insensitive if they benefit from the suffering among them, and another extreme is the oppressed become violent when the bitterness and hatred over their condition become unbearable.

Then, King said the third manner of dealing with oppression is to protest nonviolently.

I then realized that on many different levels I had struggled to overcome various forms of oppression in my life, having gone through some of the ways King explained.

How liberating this felt to read words of someone whose life experiences in no way mirrored mine but whose words could transform my thinking and understanding of the justness and unjustness of life.

King’s message was not about seeking revenge or evening a score. Instead, his message was one of faith in standing up against what’s unjust in a nonviolent, nonabusive manner.

With that said, my hope for everyone is if you have hate, let go of it. If you feel weary and overcome, don’t allow complacency stop you from growing. And if you have ever felt the discomfort of not fitting in, of being demonized for being yourself, let that experience enable you to understand others, even those different from you.

In doing so, you might not receive the same actions in return; in fact, you might even be met with hate, and you might fall back and feel hate, but pick yourself up and try again because it’s your garden. And in the end, you’re only responsible for how you’ve cultivated your garden, not anyone else’s.

Bobbie Whitehead

Jan. 20, 2009

Presidential Inauguration

The presidential inauguration certainly attracted many people. As I watched from my television, I felt as though I were there in Washington, D.C., with all of the unity that appeared to be happening.

Bobbie Whitehead

Jan. 24, 2009

Gardening Movement

The Kitchen Gardeners International wants your signature on a petition that’s seeking an OK from the Obama household for an organic vegetable garden on the First Lawn at the White House. The organization, founded by Roger Doiron, calls this petition the Eat the View campaign, pushing for the old-fashioned victory gardens throughout with the President setting an example. If you’d like to give your support, offer your signature on the organization’s link to the right.  Read more about this at www.EattheView.org.

Bobbie Whitehead

Jan. 2, 2009

Reflecting and Preparing for the New Year

I hope your holidays were all that you wanted them to be and more. Mine certainly were and brought plenty of time for reflection. I suppose that while the gardening season slowed down somewhat, the personal garden’s growth continued and even opened up.

But a new year does just that – gives us time to reflect and make plans for the future, whether or not that’s what we want to do.

My reflection began with thoughts about a grandfather who passed on about 26 years ago. This grandfather suffered with terminal cancer at the time, and in the last few weeks of his life, I didn’t visit him because his suffering overwhelmed and confused me.

Even though my grandfather had asked to see me, I couldn’t bring myself to visit.

For years, I hadn’t been able to forgive myself for not visiting him because I knew that if I had been the one suffering, granddad would have been right there. But a few days before Christmas, I had a dream in which my grandfather and I were walking down a street. The sun shined, and my grandfather looked so young, his skin so smooth. He wanted me to know he understood my feelings and wanted me to forgive myself.

You could say my ghosts of holidays past came by for a visit, and I can’t remember when I felt as frightened as I did after that dream because it seemed so real.

But regret and misunderstanding appear to pop up like unwanted weeds in the garden, sometimes strangling the life out of a plant or stealing its nutrients. Unless a person deals with those feelings, the personal garden just doesn’t seem to want to grow.

I’ve begun the New Year, having made peace with the past. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to look forward to a bright 2009 with plenty of opportunities ahead.

Bobbie Whitehead

bought the larger bags for about $5.

This Handi-Vac is quite helpful. For those who’ve never seen one, the sealer has a small spout on the end to remove the air from the Reynolds Handi-Vac bags. Each bag has a small circle in an upper corner where the sealer spout is placed.

You need to make sure your counter surface is flat with nothing under the bag to ensure that the vac sucks the air properly. But with a push of the button, you’ll see the air being removed, and the food is vacuum-packed.

I did this with my turkey last year (2007 actually) and didn’t experience any freezer burn nearly one year after I placed the meat in the freezer. In fact, about a month ago, I took some of the turkey breast out and made turkey and mushroom soup, and the turkey was fresh and tasty – no bitter or odd taste from it.

I’ve also used the Handi-Vac for freezing vegetables. So far after five months, the vegetables still have great color as if they had just been picked from the garden.

With this little gadget, I’m sold, but if you have found another vacuum sealer that works better for you, e-mail me, so we can share the details. I’ve found vacuum sealing helps keep frozen food longer, and longer storage life means more savings.

Bobbie Whitehead

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