A Gift from My Mom

On this Mother's Day I find myself thinking about what my mother did for me. As you might suspect, she fed me, bathed, me comforted me, and all that. Further, she kept me alive through infantile pnemonia followed by asthma, the first seeing me in oxygen tents and the second making for midnight runs to the ER some forty minutes from home. All that aside, she taught me some valuable lessons. I think the most valuable meant to make me a good citizen with fulfilling relationships: you are not the center of the universe. 

My mother often pushed back against becoming a martyr to her children. There were nights she slept on my bedroom floor monitoring my breathing (asthma, see above) and plenty of times she went the extra mile to make a day special. Even still, she often refused to suffer in silence for our own stupidity or selfishishness, though she did often suffer or endure unnecessary burdens of her children, like last minute notices of needed school supplies. 

"I'm not your maid," seemed her favorite refrain. My mother cleaned with an uncommon fervor, but she didn't care for our laziness increasing the job. She chose to clean the refrigerator weekly and kitchen cabinet shelves at least once a month, but she balked at us making for more work by being too careless to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher. 

The exchange that sticks out in my mind comes from my first day of work. I came home from the farm tired and a little dusty. As I sat down on the step of our sunken living room she asked me to get up, shower, and put clean clothes on. I had no mud or oil on me and had been working since 7 AM that morning, so I wanted to rest: "I'm tired from work; just let me sit for a minute." Rather than a marytyr's sigh or infantilizing acquiescence she retorted, "And I've been working all day cleaning house, so go shower and change your cloths."

That moment captured my mother's philosophy for her children to learn: yes, you're tired (hurting, scared, or whatever) but so is everyone else; it's not an excuse. Further, from my mom we learned that we give for those we love, but we also have the right and duty to stick up for our limits. She taught us it's ok, even necessary, to tell people how you feel and what you need for your sake and the future of the relationship. Looking back that was a brave lesson but a good one. 

Maybe Don't Take Mom out for Mother's Day

I'm encouraging people to not take their mother out for lunch/brunch on mother's day. Of course, do what you want: maybe going out to that "one place" is really special to your mom and because it is such a drive, so expensive, or whatever, that going to "the place" is a special thing to her. Many times, I dare to opine, going out for Mother's Day is just the lazy way out.

What lucky mom wouldn't feel special?

I admit to not being a huge fan of restaurants and being more of an eat-at-home kind of guy (even as someone who does a considerable amount of cooking in my household, I would often rather eat in). Even still, Mother's Day seems like the time people just shrug their shoulders and say, "I guess I'll just take her some place for lunch." Based only on my own experience, it seems to me that restaurants are crazy busy on Mother's Day but less so on Father's Day? Do fewer people celebrate dads? Maybe. I would venture that also many times they (often read as moms) put on something at home for Dad, serving his favorite food(s), making a real "thing" of his day.

Once while waiting interminably for a table on a Mother's Day (not my idea, thank you), I saw a car pull up and from the backseat a woman hopped out, as her husband and son sat in the front; she checked with the hostess to see about the wait, finding it too long. On her way out she remarked to a friend who happened to be waiting there, something to the effect, "I guess we'll just drive around until we find something else." What a delightful prospect! She shall spend a yet-to-be-determined amount of time in the back seat of the car as her husband and adult son try to figure out where in the hell to take Mom on this special day. Lucky her! Of course, I have only sparse details on the story, but the scenario I spelled out here hardly seems difficult to imagine.

I have heard mothers say—my own, even—how much they enjoy just having their family together (often a reference to having multiple children). That's fair enough, but it seems that for all the talk of moms and how loving, giving, sacrificing they are, a number of people essentially write a check to a restaurant just to get the thing done with. I mean, who wants to go to all the trouble of planning, shopping, cleaning, making, and then cleaning up? Gosh, so much work! Mom does it of course; she's so great; let's just take her out for Mother's Day to show her we appreciate all she does.

It's true, my mother enjoyed going out to eat pretty much any time because she was glad to not have to cook the meal; then again, my mother refused to complain about airline food because "at least I didn't have to make it," so we're talking about a pretty low bar. I also remember comments about dining out in her honor being commended by my mother as saving her from having to clean house after her own party. Again, that just sounds like we ran down the poor woman into being glad she didn't pay for the flowers we gave her (fun fact, we rarely gave her flowers).

Perhaps a person wanting to honor one's mother or the mother of one's child(ren) could, say, put in the effort to plan and put a bit of a day together for mom, maybe a meal, maybe not, but something that requires the kind of forethought and effort that embodies the words of gratitude otherwise said so easily in a greeting card . . . written for you by somebody else.

A Pragmatic Argument for Organics in the Garden

I will make no argument here about the need to buy and eat organic foods. If you can afford it, that's nice; I'm talking about something else, though.

I surprised myself when I made the change to organic chemicals in the yard and garden. Rather than arguments about the bad, bad people who make chemicals (as though organic compounds are not chemicals, somehow), my change to primarily—not entirely, alas—organic products came from pragmatics, less money and work for at least as good an outcome.

Long-term benefit: Feed the soil, not the plant

Fertilizer bags list the ratio of three main components: nitrogen (for big and green), phosphorus (for blooming and root development), and potassium (for overall plant health and endurance). Inorganic fertilizers include those three in larger amounts than organic fertilizers and for cheaper, so organics seem like a total rip—but wait! Those will be the only nutrients found in inorganic fertilizers, with the rest being inert material used to spread out the other stuff easily over a broad area (otherwise you would be putting a teaspoon of fertilizer over a broad area). Giving your plants (including lawn) a straight diet of the three main nutrients seems good enough, but I ask you to consider a broader, longer term game.

Some berries from a bed I rarely fertilize.

Inorganic fertilizers contain a number of micro nutrients. Think of the comparison of inorganic and organic fertilizers to the comparison of a vitamin and fresh fruit: the vitamin has the main element you want (e.g., vitamin C), but you miss the many other nutrients there (e.g., an organge's folate, fiber, copper, etc.). Likewise inorganic fertilizers give your plants a healthy diet of the innumerable nutrients of life.

Paul James (of HGTV's now cancelled Gardening by the Yard) used to say that inorganic fertilizers turn your plants into junkies, looking for their next big fix. I think of it like people who consume energy drinks rather than having a balanced diet, a quick fix over sustained health. Further, those micro nutrients create healthy soil, encouraging beneficial microorganisms to grow that naturally resist disease and keep all organic things in balance. Having healthy soil means plant life has a greater chance of being happy and healthy. It's about a long game.


Also, can we talk about not working against yourself? Inorganic fertilizers have the very bad habit of leaving salt in the soil, which kills off the good bacteria and microorganisms and squelches the other nutrients present. By using an inorganic you create a weakened (though green) plant and destroy the colonies of good stuff in the soil all of which then requires you to add in more fertilizer.

For the lawn, keep an eye out for organic fertilizer with corn gluten: it keeps weed seeds from germinating (actually, all seeds, so don't use it when reseeding). It will cost more than the regular weed and seed products, but you don't have to worry about burning your lawn or applying as often (I find, anyway). Just try spending as much on organic as inorganic fertilizer for a season (probably applying less for the season) and see if you are as happy: seriously, try it!

Cheaper:

First, organic products can be cheaper in the end because as you build up soil and plant health, you need less of them. I have found that my lawn stays green and the plants bloom well even though I fertilize rarely. I add organic fertilizer only occasionally and otherwise leave nature to keep itself in balance. I have few under-performing plants in the yard (only my azaleas come to mind), but even they could easily be improved by a little organic fertilizers I have on hand (there, fish emulsion) if I were to remember.

Also, some organic products are already pretty cheap. My favorite organic cure all is fish emulsion:  it's about as pleasant as it sounds, fish leftovers emulsified into a smelly, thick liquid. Fish emulsion does not cost much off the shelf, and diluted one tablespoon to the gallon it goes a long way. Straw, which can be lovely in your edible garden (especially strawberries) to lighten and enrich soil as it breaks down, comes pretty cheap for a whole bale.

Additionally, you can find some great organic products to get rid of pests that are way cheaper than inorganic. Insecticidal soap, which I buy in concentrate and dilute in a spray bottle every season, works well on some of my regular garden pests (especially earwigs). I found a popular inorganic pesticide stunted and about killed some of my annuals where the organic options never have (replacing plants=more money). Diatomaceous earth, as another example, comes in small cheap bag and got rid of my grub problem, saving me $40 dollars over my neighbor's solution to her infestation—also, I had some leftover (ha!).

Mouth Table Ready

If you are growing edibles, organics give you the greatest joy of gardening, eating the fruit of your labor right there in the yard. I'm sure I risk some serious gastrointestinal illness from eating cherry tomatoes off the vine, but when they are shining red at me, warmed by the sun, which brings out their sweet flavor, golly, I'm powerless—same for strawberries.


In sum, don't think that organic gardening has to be expensive or labor intensive; it can actually be the opposite of that. All your answers to what to use and when are generally just a Google search away.

In Defense of Weeds

I'm not talking about pot. 

I love my yard. I love being able to work in my yard. Perhaps my pleasure in the yard has to do with my heritage of farmers. Regardless, I enjoy the effort to tend a green lawn. 

My mother spent countless hours every week when the weather warmed nurturing and discipline her lawn into an unblemished field of green hybrid bermuda grass. She fertilized the grass, sprayed for disease, and meticulously hand plucked any weeds that squeezed they're way in; my mother's dedication to manually removing lawn intruders with the point of a screwdriver seemed legendary to me as a child, later reminding me of Buddhist monks that make art with colored sand. Our lawns were beautiful green, my mother's verdant masterpiece. 

When I bought my first house the yard was a veritable tabula rasa, nothing but an expanse of dirt covered in straw with grass seed underneath (the common planting method for where I live). Looking at the expanse I proclaimed, "Thick green grass shall I have!" I was wrong, not just because it didn't happen but because that's not a very good goal. 

Having a thick green lawn is fine, but I erred by wanting to replicate what my mother had achieved. Aside from taking hours to achieve that I don't have to spare, her craft, a solid, homogenous sprawl of grass has negative ecological and psychological impact—I might be overstating the latter.

Here's the ecological bit on the perfect, weed-free lawn: Weeds provide biodiversity. Disease spreads fastest where bio homogeneity exists. A fungus, bacteria, or insect will decimate an entire hedge of one shrub species hopping from one plant to the next; so too with grass. A few weeds or even the mix of grass species decreases the likelihood of that happening. Granted, I'm a sort of sloppy gardener, but I have not had disease issues with my lawn whereas my mother often had to watch out for issues. Maybe the reason is related to our grass species, but I'm willing to bet the random blend of grasses caused by my patching efforts and the presence of weeds drastically reduces the chance of a grass disease taking hold.

A flattering view of my lawn

That's a nice science argument for calming down about weeds, but here's the one that means the most to me: Learn to enjoy what you have. Here's this lovely shot of my lawn from just last week. It's an enjoyable rug of green, but there's at least couple types of grass in there along with some weeds and plenty of clover

I should add that I do not consider clover a true weed, rather a beneficial. Clover is a legume (in the family of beans, peas, and peanuts), which means it grabs nitrogen (the element needed for green) from the air and not the ground, so the grass doesn't compete with clover for nutrients. Also, clover fills in and shades bare or thin spots to help young grass seedlings stay shaded and moist, and it keeps back other weeds (a little). Most importantly, it's green.

When I look at my lawn I try to enjoy what I have, something green and soft to look at and walk on. I could obsess over the purity of grass in the lawn, but I choose to enjoy it for being green. The money, stress, and (most importantly) time I could put into making my lawn look like a Scott's commercial would be taken away from other things.

If you stare at it, the patchwork quality comes out. Eh.

"But I want a field of green like you would find in nature!" Then even my lawn is too homogenous; nature has weeds and variation, that's part of its beauty. Here's another view of my lawn, the hodgepodge and weeds stands out a little better. Again, it's green, so I'll take it.

I make peace with the weeds and accept the lawn for what it is. Don't get me wrong, when some neighbors had their lawn sodded last year I was as green with envy as the emerald carpet we stood on. The weeds do sort of annoy me, mocking my hope of green perfection, but through learning to accept their presence I let go of the insistence on things being as I imagine them rather than as life presents them.

For the Mowers

My baby: I admit to being the odd bird who likes

to mow the lawn. The day I got married I rose
early enough to to relax a little by getting one last
cutting in before leaving for a week.

Yesterday I got in the first mow of the year. It felt good. All day, it seemed, you could hear lawn mowers around the neighborhood running, the sounds of warm weather in suburbia, I suppose.

In the spirit of mowing season, here is my advice on lawnmowers (in rank order):

Raise it up!

Absolutely, my number one piece of advice—nay, plea—raise your lawnmower's cutting height. Most of us cut our grass too low. Want to keep down weeds, have the greenest lawn possible, reduce water use, and maintain healthy grass? Cut your lawn higher.

I think the love for low lawns comes from my home state. In southern California, hybrid bermuda grass reigns supreme. Many lawns in that region have common bermuda, but hybrid bermuda, which requires a reel mower rather than rotary, has no equal. You see hyrbrid bermuda on golf greens, cut to within half an inch of the ground, forming a dense, green turf. I think we have come to associate closely shorn lawns with civilization and the utter mastery of nature's wildness. Ecofeminism aside, most grasses should be cut higher than we do or have done by professionals (i.e., random people who own a lawnmower and a truck). Find out what kind of grass you have and cut it to the higher end recommended.

Here's the why for having a taller lawn: 1) research has shown a significant reduction in incidence of weeds (well over half, though I couldn't locate the university study I had seen) by choking out weeds; 2) higher lawn shades the ground more, which reduces the need for water; 3) taller lawn leads to deeper roots, which allows for stronger and more drought tolerant grass with better disease resistance.

4 strokes are better than two

If you should buy a power lawnmower and you're not going electric, about which I know nothing, look for a four-stroke engine, not two. Here's the key difference between them: two stroke engines burn oil and gas at the same time (often with a mix poured right into the gas tank); four stroke engines, like car engines, burn gas and consume very little oil at a time. Mechanics aside—especially since I can't hardly explain it—think about a small canister of oil burning into the air every time you mow the lawn: two stroke engines are that bad. Trashing the environment while you tend to your yard seems like a bad pairing.

Be like a hippie, compost

I'm not talking compost piles/bins, though those are lovely. If at all possible, don't bag your lawn clippings, use the composting mechanism the mower likely came with. When composting, the grass swirls around inside the cutting chamber longer, getting diced into smaller bits than usual and falling back onto the lawn. Why would you care? Two reasons. First, 50% of the nitrogen in the lawn clippings (the element that keeps grass green) will be reabsorbed by the lawn; it's like a self-fertilizing lawn. Second, if your city doesn't have green recycling, then that grass eventually sits under a tarp in a landfill next to cast off cathode ray tube televisions.

I admit, if the grass gets too tall between cuttings, this goes slowly or not at all because it clogs the mower. Just keep up with the mowing and mow half a strip at a time if need be. You, the lawn, and the earth benefit.

Treat your baby right

Maintenance: annual and weekly. Annually, check to see if you need to add or replace the oil. If you don't have much to mow, you may get away with biannual maintenance. I believe that if the oil is just barely brown and not black then you can skip one year (that is based on nothing but me). Also, check your air filter and replace it every year or so. Many times you can buy a kit at your local hardware store that has the oil, air filter, and spark plug in it; just note the make of your engine (not the mower) and look at the general shape of the air filter to figure out which kit you need.

Annually, remove the blade and have it sharpened, if you can't sharpen it yourself. It costs me about $4 a year to have it done. A sharp blade cuts cleaner, which has many benefits such as reducing lawn disease, slowing grass moisture loss, improving the look of the lawn (my mother can spot white tips on badly cut lawn at a glance), and making it easier for your mower to compost the grass without clogging.

After each use, make sure grass isn't stuck on the underside of the deck (the housing for the blade). Use a plastic putty knife, wire brush, or whatever (not a water hose!) to keep the damp lawn clippings from rusting out your lawnmower from the bottom, which I allowed to start happening. It's a simple thing that will prolong the mower's life.

Try to end the mowing season with an empty tank to keep the lines clean and water from ruining the insides. Alternately, buy some fuel stabilizer that you add to the gas to keep the inside from deteriorating while the snow starts falling.

Use a ruler not a calendar

Last, mow the lawn when it reaches mowing height. Rather than just mowing on Saturday—but if Saturday is your only day, then do that, of course—mow when you will only be cutting 1/3 of the height or less. If your lawn has gotten to four inches, and you must cut it, take no more than one and a third inches off. If you have a fescue, as I do, when it gets to four inches, cut it an inch or less, to keep the grass decently tall and to make composting easier. In ideal grass-growing weather I have to mow every four days, when it gets hotter and drier, I only need to mow my cool-weather lawn weekly.

That's it, now go love your lawn!

Happy Easter (Menu)

I began this blog before the holiday, but between cleaning the house for company, preparing a meal, and getting a 55 gallon fish tank set up in our living room (because, why not?) this is more retrospective.


I'm preparing an Easter dinner for my family today, so all I have to share today is the menu:

Appetizers

I staffed it out mostly, because you should try to not worry about at least one course of a meal.

Deviled Eggs

It's on theme and my mother-in-law does a killer job of them. They're simple and tasty; no minced scallions or obscure seasoning, just enhanced eggy goodness.

Dip and Bread

We are those people who buy dry dip mixes at regional festivals, so this seemed a good time to break one out. These usually are mixed with mayo, sour cream, cream cheese, or a combination thereof. The contents of the plastic baggy you mix in are just flavored excuses to eat something smooth and creamy (with a good bit of sodium), so don't over think it. For bread, I sliced a challah loaf toasted a white batard. I consider this staffing it out, because my partner took care of the dip and the bread took me five minutes.

Random Snack

I think appetizers—and maybe dessert, maybe—are the place to embrace hodgepodge. A guest asked what she could bring. I told her we were having dip and deviled eggs and to do what she would from there. Low expectations and no chance of disappointment for anyone; it was yummy!

Salad

I strongly considered a spinach and strawberry salad, but I decided to pass on that. I served iceberg lettuce wedges with a homemade buttermilk ranch dressing that came out more like a homemade buttermilk dill dressing because I never account well for the use of dry herbs instead of fresh; even when I think I'm scaling back I'm heavy handed. Served with a diced tomato garnish it was pretty on crystal dishes, but as I ate it I felt that it looked like I was too lazy to tear lettuce for a salad so I just made a few cuts and stopped. Ah, well: it was easy, and the dressing was made the day before. Good enough, I say!

Main Course

Sugar Cured Ham. Done! I believe in serving them at room temperature to really taste the play of sugar and pork. I was underwhelmed by the brand I used this year, so I'll go back to old reliable next time. Either way, a main course that takes five minutes to plate (and that's it) can't be too bad. I have basted my own ham before, but I found the professionals (aka, a pork factory) does the job just fine. Also, can we just save ourselves the hassle some times? My mother offered to buy a ready to serve ham for me—she didn't know I had already purchased one—just to make my life easier. Seriously folks, these things make the day so much better.

Side Dishes

Scalloped Potatoes

I would usually make Julia Child's Gratin Dauphinois. I made the recipe from America's Test Kitchen instead, which can be easily made the day before (so can Julia's, actually) and makes a thicker casserole that would serve more from a single oven dish. I was uncertain of the choice until I saw the authors' note cautioning substituting half-and-half or milk for the cream; then I realized they took the dish seriously. I made it a little thyme heavy (see note about me and dry herbs), but I liked it.

Oven roasted parsnips and multicolored carrots.

I'm pretty new to parsnips, but this is lovely. Peel, slice, toss with olive oil and salt, and shove them in the oven. They're pretty on the table and tasty.

Green Beans, from a can.

I served blanched haricot vert (thin, French green beans) last year, which I enjoyed. It would have been a little more trouble than I really had time for and only a few of us enjoyed it last time. This year I was just getting a green on the table; leave me alone.

Bread

King's Hawaiin Rolls
Let me explain! They are in a bag. All I have to do is toss them in a bowl to serve. Also, the sweetness works well with the meal and will be lovely for mini-sandwiches the week after. Lastly, a small confession, I care little about bread at meals. A hot baguette and cold butter with a white wine and maybe fruit or strong cheese is one thing, but bread on the side of my plate usually gets little notice from me.

Dessert

Nana Kate's Lemon Cake

Many people call it a poke cake, but I only know it as Nana Katee's Lemon Cake. This, dear reader, is my reward for the meal. It's moist, sweet, lemony, and my breakfast for the next three days. I think it actually fits with the time of year and the meal, but I don't care; this one's for me.

Brownies

I bought what looked like a decent boxed mix that also had the virtue of a middling price. I liked the choice even more as my partner made it the day before. They turned out well, so that's nice (not that I'm a brownie fan).

In short, I am ever trying to put on a meal that makes the day special without killing me in the process. I call today a win.

Skipping Church

Honest, this not a bait-and-switch, I will talk about why I think a person who attends church sometimes should skip it. If you don't usually attend a house of worship (on Sunday), I encourage you to enjoy CBS Sunday Morning; it's a lovely show to watch over a leisurely brunch.

Going to church as a child meant Sunday School. My mother dropped us off, went home for an hour, then came back to get us. Neither of my parents attended church at that time, but they thought it best their children did, largely out of commitment to middleclass values I suppose (something about learn all the basic Christian stuff and then you will fit into our culture as we expect).

Leaving out the journey that got me there, I continue to attend church regularly as an adult. I have moved to three different states since my childhood and have sought out a parish home each time. There are plenty of Sundays I have lots to do or would rather goof around for the morning, but on most occasions I get myself into the shower, clean clothes, my car, and then a pew.

A secret of mine: when I meet someone who describes themselves as an atheist I often think to myself, "Wow, all those free Sundays."

I will refrain from saying much about why I do go other than to say that I find I benefit from the experience in the long run, I enjoy being part of a community of people (which improves my general well being), and I value the regular commitment to something bigger than myself (largely the same reasons others do things having nothing to do with organized religion). I go for other, deeper, theological reasons as well, but the list above captures the most me-centered components.

Why then, if I so value and enjoy going to church on Sundays (and other occasions), do I sometimes skip it? Outside of days when I'm traveling, ill, or finally get some good sleep (this meaning even more to me these days) that takes me through my alarm, I do sometimes skip church for the sake of skipping.

A Tale of Two Truancies

One Sunday, a dozen years ago or so I found myself rushing to get out the door and to church on time. Running nearly late is par for the course with me, but on this day, for reasons I cannot remember and don't really matter, I got stressed about it. I found myself aggravated at the hubbub of trying to get out the door; I became stressed at throwing myself together and worrying about how close I would cut it to being late; then I began to resent "having" to go. At that, turning the deadbolt to my apartment door, I stopped. "Why am I going?," I asked myself. It occurred to me I needed a break. In my insistence to be at church I had worked myself into a lather that became counter productive. Between whatever else was going in my life that day and the anxiety about getting out the door well groomed and on time I had gotten myself to bad place. It seemed the most beneficial experience that morning would be to sit down and put my feet up. Going to church had become a stresser, not exactly the goal of attending.

Another time, about six years ago, I attended the Great Vigil on Holy Saturday (the evening before Easter). For those not familiar, the service lasts about three hours and includes a number of readings and multiple sermons—it's not called the Great Vigil for nothing. The Great Vigil includes a celebration of Christ rising from the tomb (thus ending Lent and beginning Easter). The next morning, contemplating the crowds at church and having been the night before, I skipped Easter Sunday. The morning held out sun and blue skies, so I leashed my dog and took a walk with her. I enjoyed the morning air, felt a sense of relief from the business of the preceding week, and looked forward to a lunch with friends that afternoon. Not going made me happier and grateful for the day.

There are times I would like to stay home from church, but then I go, often being glad I did because of the benefits I find from going. I think it must be much like not wanting to exercise but doing it anyway and then finding you are rather glad you did. Sometimes though, for me, just staying home—giving myself permission to take a break—helps me avoid resenting church for impinging on my life rather than enhancing it. Often, after I missed for missing's sake, I look forward to the next Sunday.

Of course, the recurring theme here comes from my being frazzled, hardly a problem with church. True. The problem is me, and skipping church can be a helpful reset to return being glad to engage. I could go on those cranky days and try to force myself into a better mood, but sometimes, like a child's tantrum, I say you just let it play itself through.

Why I Call My Wife My Partner

[WARNING: This is a love letter involving vomit]

I call the woman I married, "my partner." If you know me, you will know I do refer to her as my "wife" sometimes, but I really prefer to think of and call her my "partner." I suppose many times my decision to refer to her as either one is a matter of code switching. If I find myself in a place and a mood where I can use language however I want without looks or explanations, I call the person I spend my life with my partner; it just seems to make the most sense.

I should add, there are lots of good reasons I use the word "partner" over wife/husband. To be brief about it, lots of people are in a committed relationship with someone they cannot or have chosen not to marry. Given the realities of couples, straight and queer (or however they may define themselves), who build lives together without filing papers at a courthouse or who are in a pretty serious relationship and want a term that sounds less adolescent than boyfriend/girlfriend (which always sounds to me like you are passing notes in class), the term "partner" seems more inclusive; I use it often in my classroom as a way of modeling language choices that respect the broadest range of persons. Good reasons those are, they are not the true reason I call my wife my"partner."

Word choices matter to me, despite my sometimes careless and unfortunate use of them. The importance of word choices explains why I rarely can be heard to use "God" of "Jesus Christ" as an exclamation, owing to issues of my faith, which I will spare you from reading.

I have observed to my partner many times, "we are at our best when we're a team." Some of the moments when I have felt our bond strongest have been those moments when a problematic situation arose and we had to divide and conquer: "You grab the X, and I'll get the Y taken care of"; "OK!" I have always felt life contains such doses of chaos and doubt, a person needs support to get through it (My respect, by the way, to those who disagree). For me that's my partner, the one I experience life with.

http://www.spreadshirt.com

Two nights ago we were woken by our twenty-month old crying. When I went up to her room I found her covered by her own vomit—pretty picture, I know. Taking advantage of the baby monitor in the room I paged for back up: "I'm gong to need your help. She's thrown up." In a minute it was now a two-on-one situation. The child had to be washed and the bed stripped and cleaned, so we divided and conquered. Two hours later and a fussy, sick toddler to tend to, I went back to bed while my partner stayed up to sit with the little one. After three hours, we switched places.

It reminded me of the days of our daughter as a newborn. We worked as partners in shifts through the day, generally doing two feedings and then sleeping through the next two. The work left you exhausted, but, even now, my partner refers to that as some of the happiest days together; we worked together as a family for eight solid weeks, further forging our bond as partners.

Whether it's a sick child or the hectic hour before dinner guests arrive, some of the times I feel most the love between my partner and me, occurs when we work together. Fear not, I'm overcome by the love I have with my partner when we enjoy quiet times together, have the same response to an event or moment, support one another through a difficult spot, or get a good laugh from a silly movie. In the moments of stress, though, when being alone can be the hardest, I find myself feeling the strong connection to the one with whom I want to face the challenges and joys of life, my partner. 

The Time I Gave Up Pepsi for Lent

http://www.prices4antiques.com

I love Pepsi. I just want to get that out of the way. I find it comforting and refreshing. The way some people talk about coffee, which I don't drink, I talk about Pepsi. When I met a woman whose father worked for Pepsi I knew it was kismet: I married her.

Several years ago I decided to test my dependence on Pepsi and my ability to sacrifice for the sake of personal and spiritual growth by going without the elixir of my well being for the season of Lent, all 46 days of it.

I was raised Baptsit, as in the Baptist church was the only Protestant house in town so that's where my mother dropped us off for Sunday school every week—except in summer because nobody goes to school in summer (I make no claims to the soundness of this theological line of thinking). Lent meant nothing. Ash Wednesday meant nothing. Good Friday meant nothing (though it seemed to me all Fridays possessed an inherent goodness by dent of being the end of the school week). 

Long story short, I became an Episcopalean during graduate school. Turns out, my church now had all kinds of fancy days of the week leading up to Easter that I had never heard of: Maundy Thursday, Shrove Tuesday, Holy Saturday, and some others whose names I still forget. 

Father Patrick, the priest under whom I was confirmed, very patiently explained Lent to me. I had expressed my concern that it sounded like sacrifice for its own sake. He explained to me that Lent can be different experiences: giving up a pleasure as a way of dying to the self in a small way (the idea being to focus less on your own wants all the time) or the opportunity to start a new discipline for one to grow spiritually, emotionally, and so forth.

After various Lenten sacrifices, and skipping the practice of Lent sometimes, I decided to give up Pepsi for Lent. I had been asked a couple of times before if I would ever do it, usually a jest meant to mock how much I enjoy the bubbly corn syrup drink.

It seemed to me that an emotional attachment to any substance did not sound particularly good and that to temporarily give up a pleasure in the pursuit of reminding myself life is not all about my own gratification could have some positive impact. Thus, I waved Pepsi bye-bye along with all other sodas, because to drink other sparkling beverages would seem like cheating.

Happily the first weeks (there's six and a half of them in Lent) went pretty well. I had no physical reaction, making me happy to know I did not have a caffeine addiction. I missed a fizzy beverage, especially after a meal, but I got used to it. In the mornings I drank cranberry juice. I drank more water during the day, inviting a healthier lifestyle. I felt temped a few times for sure, but I took great pride in holding strong. Yes, I took on a challenge and proved my mettle. I never discussed it with anyone, yet I felt very smug knowing the depth of my self-discipline. Ha!

Then the day came. I cannot tell you what happened, for I do not remember. I recall the day did not go well. Not a I-dropped-my-lunch-on-the-floor day, more like what-the-hell-am-I-doing sort of day, a day when you question life choices, feel incompetent and overwhelmed, and generally find yourself lost at sea.

With a dollar in my hand I stood before the Pepsi machine in my building. "If I do this," I thought, "I will ruin my perfect record." It occurred to me in that moment I had missed the point of Lent. I made a time for self-reflection and development into a feat of strength.

At that, I slipped the dollar into the machine, pressed PEPSI, and cracked open a cool bottle of fizzy nectar. First, let me say, it was good; it provided the small pleasure to really bouey my day. Second, I learned about myself in that moment. I learned that I thought of myself as somehow stronger than you, which clearly needed some correcting. Further, I saw my feet of clay; I had to face the fact that I needed: I needed help, support, comfort, succor, or whatever else you call being human and struggling. As silly as it sounds, I humbled myself by admitting, "I need."

I suppose the story might be brighter if I said in my moment of distress I found comfort in prayer, meditation, or a close friend. Alas, I took strength from a Pepsi. I did, however, have to face a corrupted view of myself and a spiritual practice. Embracing the weakness of my humanity seemed like an important lesson to learn in that moment. I reflected on the point of my weakness a lot in the remaining weeks of Lent and beyond; I think of it now, though perhaps not often enough. I cannot remember all Lenten disciplines I have attempted, but that year sticks. Thankfully, that year, a season of discipline made the most impact in its failure.

My Daughter Is Cute, but She's Other Things, Too

Baby toes. My friend, Christina, told me to be sure to take

pictures of baby toes. "Why?" I wondered. Then I saw them.

Even her little toes, which I otherwise think are sort of gross,
are adorable. Again, I am totally biased.

I have a very cute little girl. You may disagree, and you certainly do not have to care. Her little smiles, her belly laughs, and the way her already-long hair falls in her face warm my heart in ways surpassing words, but, as her father, what would you expect from me? I have no objectivity when it comes to my daughter's cuteness because I'm her dad. I do wish others would stop commenting on it, though.

Just the other day I took my 20 month old daughter with me to the bank. In the ten minutes we were in the place, with only a handful of employees around, she must have been complimented by the staff about ten times on how cute she is ("cute," "a cutie," "cutest little thing," "adorable," "a doll," etc. [I swear I should conduct a study on personality types represented by the adjective used; I have a large enough subject pool.]). Later that night when my partner and I braved a dinner out with our daughter, our toddler received similar compliments from multiple strangers, helped by her propensity to walk by tables smiling and waving. It's hardly a new experience, but it's also a little troubling for me.

I admit this might all sound like a roundabout way to brag about my daughter; truly, that's not my intent. We welcomed first compliments we received on our daughter's cuteness, which came from her NICU nurse. My partner and I beamed as the compliments continued through her early infancy. The simple sweetness of my daughter literally brought tears to my eyes, and to hear that others saw some joy in her as well swelled my heart even more. With time the charm of "cute" wore off; I often force smiles now to thank people for the compliment.

The "cute" issue has a lot to do with gender. It seems to me that boys stop being "cute" much sooner than girls. For the boys we focus on other adjectives, but with girls we seem to stay in the realm of cute. The research on gender abounds with examples of us all concentrating on women's appearance in ways we don't for men, both interpersonally and in media.

My fear, then, is that from an early age my daughter will learn exactly what she hears, that people appreciate her cuteness most. Between her inclination to be a ham and people telling her how cute she is, my daughter has already learned to be cute to be praised. I have a social child, but I also see her waving and smiling at strangers has to do with the inevitable, "how cute you are!" to which she grins wider and waves some more.

I'm hardly the first person to worry about this. Lisa Bloom mentioned the long term effects of complimenting girls and the need to move to other conversation starters than their dress or curls (she suggests asking about their favorite book). As Bloom admits, we naturally want to speak to a child's cuteness (perhaps more so for a girl), so the change takes some awareness of the issue.

I fully trust every kind word offered comes from a place of kindness to my daughter and me. I also think of my niece and nephews as children. Any picture of them in my hand or in my mind makes me smile; I see how cute they are. There's that cuteness of children that comes from seeing them through the lens of your love for them. We've all experienced that in one context or another, children or not. When my daughter's grandparents or aunts and uncles talk about her cuteness, I don't bristle for a second, because I hear it as an expression of their love for her. My angst comes from the well meaning friends and as well as strangers who, in a spirit of generosity, tell me how cute she is.

Of course, sometimes "cute" as a compliment refers to things other than looks; a small child sweetly waving is cute. Even then, can we be more creative than "cute"?

When my daughter was nine months old I asked a friend, who had raised a child into college, about my concern that people only comment on my daughter's looks. "It's all people really have to say; they can't compliment her math skills," she explained. True, I thought and then, later, how uncreative!

Our daughter's pediatrician has always shown ways to compliment a child without ever once mentioning cuteness. From the time our child was a week old and every visit after, the pediatrician has commented on our daughter's quickness to study a face, her ability to focus and keep attention, or her verbal expressiveness: I trust children unlike my daughter hear about their inquisitiveness, curiosity to see everything, or quiet, reflective nature.

My daughter, like every child, has many wonderful traits having nothing to do with her physical appearance; let's focus on those. Here are some ides for what to say to my, or any, toddler you see out in public that moves away from "cute":

• Wow, you've got lots of energy.
• Aren't you social?
• You like to read? That's great.
• How friendly you are.
• It looks like you take good care of your monkey (or whatever the stuffed animal is).
• What a nice child you are.
• Do you like to talk?
• You play so quietly.

Ok, the list isn't great, but you get the idea; in a given context you can compliment a child saying nothing about appearance.

Please, if you know my child and me, don't feel you have to avoid speaking to her when I'm around or that I am wanting to control your interactions. I'm not angry that you have called her "cute." Instead, know that I am trying to raise a confident, strong daughter in a culture that—from where I sit—makes women check themselves in the mirror three times before they can go out in public (sometimes afraid to not wear make up), that tells women that for all their talents and accomplishments their looks will always be on the table for discussion, and that their bodies are their most important assets if they want to truly succeed socially and professionally.

I am trying to raise a smart, kind, responsible child, and I need all the help I can get.


PS Are you tired of the word "cute" now (I used it 26 times)? Well, if so, join the club.

Don't Hate Thomas Too Much

Tonight, we watch the season finale of Downton Abbey, a show with which I have been quite smitten. There is much to enjoy about the shows' elements: visually sumptuous shots (even in a boot room), engaging—if soap operatic at times—story lines, and writing littered with witty bon mots and lovely turns of phrase. For those familiar with the reference, Downton Abbey offers a nice update to Upstairs, Downstairs, a show created in part of give some voice to the many people who lived a life "in service" before the many social changes in England following the World Wars.

Not only has Downton Abbey presented itself as an aesthetic play land (I say nothing about its depth), it has succeeded as a seductive treatise of privilege. It seems that across the pond Downton has lost its luster even as it continues to do well here in the states. Here, where we never really had the feudal-like system in which people worked, ate, and slept in others' home for grueling hours at little pay: well, we had slavery, but the show helps us forget that, too.

Andrew O'Hehir critiqued films like The Help for helping white audiences to see past racial injustices through a lens of contemporary morality in which we get to say, "Ah, yes, if I were in that place and time, I would have been one of those good white people who saw the system as unfair." Perhaps you/I/we would have; perhaps.

My five year stint in Louisiana taught me the phrase, "just like one of the family." Those words came from a number of my white students when referring to black women who worked in their childhood homes as housekeepers, child care providers, and general "help". The students who repeated the mantra, "just like one of the family," did so with genuine affection for a person that often served as a surrogate mother whom they could talk about things "I could never mention to my parents." The children did love these women, but members of the family they were not; often not educated and with little work experience outside their home raising their own children, who sometimes sat at home alone while their mothers tended to their employers' own, the women received meager pay and could be easily replaced. The employment afforded some women a paying job they may not have found elsewhere, but their ample availability for work spoke to the nature of a social order at play.

The people living in the homes of Downton certainly seem just like members of the family; just recently  Lord Grantham paid for a plaque to honor his head-cook's late nephew. A few seasons ago the whole family—that is, the family with money— rallied to bring William to the manor house following a war injury that he might die at home—again, the manor house where he had worked. The storyline only helped to solidify the idea that the servants lived in a natural orbit around the family, seeing the place where they worked from before sunup to after sundown as home.

The show reminds me sometimes of Gone with the Wind, where Mammy (a woman whose position is also her name) provides the white heroine, Scarlett, a conscience first as a slave then as (presumably) paid help. Mammy's presence as the now-free, ever-loyal, and still-working for her white masters reminds us that she's just like one of the family, so long as that means she gives to her employers' as though they were her family but they never have a place for her at the table as though she were their family.

Often we cannot help ourselves; we always root for the main character. Romantic identification, we call it, wanting to see the protagonist prevail even in conflict with our morals (House of Cards, anyone?). Bertolt Brecht coined the phrase "alienation effect"—well, he called it Verfremdungseffekt—to describe the experience art might create to break audience's romantic identification with the narrative's protagonist. Brecht wanted us to examine the hero more objectively. Alas, Downton Abbey is all romance, no alienation.

Upstairs, Downstairs helped viewers to firmly connect and care for the family of employers and also see their occasional indifference and disrespect to the staff—in the first episode a maid is hired and then renamed in the same breath to something more pleasing to the lady of the house's ear. The tendency to make the employers sometimes unsympathetic, and the staff also flawed, faded with time as the characters lost their third dimension to become more easily likeable from all sides.

At Downton's start there seemed the chance we might get some of the sensibility from Upstairs. As we are introduced to life at Downton we meet servants beginning a day's work, forced to tend to the house without the paying family ever seeing them, saving the moneyed folk from a breakfast spoiled by seeing others work. Anna, a housemaid we have always been charmed by, laments being woken—to be ready to dress someone else—pleading to the universe to be wake on her own accord for once.

Thomas: servant, villain, realist

Quickly, though, we forget about the work, truly back breaking work, that, happily, gets a little better about the time in history Downton opens, with hot running water saving servants from forty trips up back staircases with buckets of hot bath water. We also never feel much of the reality of division created by the stair case you use. Servants care desperately about their employers' well being, and employers look in on the servants just enough to seem like the sort of kind, caring masters and mistresses we imagine we would be with someone who is "just like one of the family" that dresses us, assists with our bath, and combs our hair at night.


The footman-cum-under butler, Thomas, provides the show a somewhat reliable villain. How do we know he's so bad? He keeps questioning everyone in the servant hall living and dieing with the happiness and sorrow of the people whose house they tend. In the first season, especially, Thomas raises the ire of his fellow employees whenever he suggests they care more about the people upstairs than is ever reciprocated. True, Thomas's harsh comment about the lady of the house's miscarriage went a little far, but his point remained that servants wept for their employer's loss when they cannot count on such intense sympathy in return, not in reality at least.

Rather than denying or shaming an in-house employee having concern for other humans, even those they work for, I mean to highlight the fantasy Downton perpetuates that class hierarchies can be filled with mutual love and affection, that life as a servant can be rather nice, and that the system of differences works just fine so long as you look at it from the right side of the green baize door. In recent episodes the cook and head butler, alike, have bemoaned the march of time, signaled by the absence of live-in help and the rise of the labour party. Here the servants worry about a world run a muck, where the class system has broken down, even just a little. You see, it was a good system; everyone agreed.

I do appreciate Downton's attempts at progressiveness. Thomas, the sort-of-openly gay character, gets to keep his job, he even gets a promotion. Another member of staff urges him to accept his sexuality, as does a physician, though with a slightly more realistic (to the time) suggestion he just accept it and forget it. Of course, the script generally elides actual discrimination of the period—hell, this period—in the attempt to make everyone seem always good. (On the plus side for Downton [thinking back to a storyline from Upstairs], the homosexual servant may be sort of sinister, but at least he has avoided being hung for murder, at least so far.)

Tonight I'll watch Downton and probably enjoy it. I won't think about the realities it masks or how it invites me to forget my own history, personal and cultural; I'll just root for Anna to be free, Isobel to find love, Edith to find happiness, and for Lord Grantham to find it somewhere in his generous, thoughtful heart to love his granddaughter(!). I suppose that's the secret to the show's success.