I Cook Because I Eat: Why Can’t Heroines Cook?

 Olivia Benson of Law & Order SVU prepares 

Salade Nicoise for herself and her son. He won't like the olives.  

I don’t understand why liberated heroines can’t cook. We need to eat, therefore, we need to cook. Eating fast food is not the answer. The more time you and your family spend in the kitchen cooking real food, the less time you and your family will spend at the doctor’s office and the hospital.

I'm a 50 year macro, wife and mother who cooks from scratch at least three times a day and has over 80 articles and 7 books to her name, plus I ran my own PR business for 10 years. (I started late in life.) I make it work. Why can't strong women heroines face up to the challenge of feeding themselves and their families?

I’m tired of that old feminist chestnut of “Oh! I can’t cook!” I get it, Simone de Beauvoir! It can be perceived as “endless drudgery and domestic slavery.” Wake up! Every person who told me that they couldn’t cook is - guess what? Dead! One woman, a minister, told me she wouldn’t even butter bread because it was too much like cooking. What do you think happened to her? She dropped dead in her driveway on her way to teach an aerobics class to heart patients.

Wake up! Every person who told me that they "couldn’t cook" is - guess what? Dead! 

Often, I’ll be watching - or trying to watch - a TV show about a female detective when suddenly her kid asks for breakfast or dinner and there’s no food in the house. “What?” she calls from gruesome files of dead victims, “What?” “There’s no food!” the child repeats. “I’ll go shopping after work.” Somehow, we know that’s not going to happen. I lose interest in the show.

Another one asks her son if his girlfriend’s fake breasts can make coffee. I’m thinking, are you seriously telling me you can’t make a cup of coffee for yourself - by yourself? You can solve crimes but you can’t boil water? Again, not going to watch it.

I tried to find one. I Googled TV detectives that cook. Lots of TV detectives. None cooking. I did get The Gourmet Detective. My heart skipped a beat. But, no, she’s the detective, he’s the professional gourmet come to lend a hand in the investigation.

Eliminating those fictional heroines who actually are chefs like Jane Adler (played by Meryl Streep) in It’s Complicated and Kate (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) in No Reservations, I found two who cook - one, Erica Barry, playwright, (played by Diane Keaton) in, aptly named, Something’s Gotta Give. She’s not intimidated by the kitchen. She can whip up breakfast, dinner, snacks, picnics at will or romantic midnight scrambled eggs for two when the electricity goes out. The other is Olivia Benson (played by Mariska Hartigay) of Law & Order Special Victims Unit. Olivia does not consider herself to be a very proficient cook, but she takes time out of her busy crime-solving, victim-soothing job, to bravely go where most TV detectives don’t dare to go, into the kitchen to make dinner when she and her son, Noah are hungry! Wow, what a concept!

I have found a few in real life.

Thinking back over literary history, I realized Emily Dickinson was the family baker. Her father insisted on only eating her bread because he liked it better than any other. Emily loved baking. She made cakes, cookies, candies and puddings. She often made treats for the local children, and because she was so reclusive, she would lower a basket full of cakes from her window to the children. Emily became quite famous in town for her baked goods. It was only after she died that her sister, Lavinia, found almost 2,000 poems that Emily had written, some of them started on the backs of recipes or random kitchen wrapping papers. Emily once said, “People must have puddings” and “Love’s oven is warm.”

Emily Dickinson

“I am going to learn to make bread to-morrow. So you may imagine me with my sleeves rolled up, mixing flour, milk, salaratus, etc., with a great deal of grace. I advise you if you don’t know how to make the staff of life to learn with dispatch.” 

                                                                    – Emily Dickinson to Abiah Root, September 25, 1845 (L8)

Emily Brontë

writer, poet, baker

Also, the Brontës - Charlotte was challenged by the kitchen, but Emily was something of a kitchen goddess, it seems. The village prized her bread over that of any other baker. She also cooked mutton as a common staple, turnips, potatoes and apple pudding. Oh, and she gave us the incomparable Wuthering Heights among other works, including lots of poetry. 

Jane Austen knew food.

Jane Austen’s household was humble and crowded with sisters, cousins, nephews, neighbors and friends. Many hands pitched in and Jane displays an intimate knowledge of many dishes in her work, often ascribing certain dishes to certain characters to make a point: “a pyramid of fruit which confronted Elizabeth Bennet at Pemberley…Or of the cold beef eaten by Willoughby on his journey of repentance to see Marianne.” (Maggie Lane) 

Okay, so I found some heroines that cooked and somehow managed at the same time to be superhuman in their work. If artists in real life can feed themselves and their families, why can’t fictional ones?

We all need to cook! Our health and the health of our families and our future as human beings depends on our ability to feed ourselves and keep ourselves well.

Even if you hate to cook, you still need to find a way to make meals successfully. I find that planning meals around brown rice really works for me - brown rice and broiled salmon with broccoli; brown rice and pinto beans with guacamole, tortillas and salad; brown rice and broiled chicken with potatoes and green beans, you get the idea. It’s quick, simple, tasty and nutritious.

Give me heroines who can feed themselves and their families good quality food! Do we have to go all the way back to Nancy Drew? She not only stopped the investigation for meals - she did the dishes too! And, might I add, still got her perp!

P.S. Laura of Garden Answer is a busy, professional gardener, mother and wife who stops work to cook meals for herself and her family; she tries to make a new recipe every week. 

Laura and her son making chicken curry with ingredients from her garden.

Here’s a list of busy professionals who love to cook - stars who cook!

 Also Gwyneth Paltrow and Emily Blunt (stars love her roasted potatoes!)

©Patricia Goodwin, 2022

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, about Marblehead legends and true crime and its sequel, Dreamwater, about the Salem witch trials and the vicious 11-year-old pirate Ned Low. Holy Days is her third novel, about the sexual, psychological seduction of Gloria Wisher and her subsequent transformation. Her latest novel is Low Flying, about two women suffering psychologically abusive marriages who find and nurture each other. Her newest poetry books are Telling Time By Apples, And Other Poems About Life On The Remnants of Olde Humphrey Farme, illustrated by the author, and Java Love: Poems of a Coffeehouse.

Within this blog, Patricia writes often about non-fiction subjects that inspire or disturb her, hopefully informing and inspiring people to be happy, healthy and free.

***Disclaimer: The information on this blog is not meant to substitute for medical care. Please consult your physician before beginning any new dietary guidelines. 

Pre-Pre Natal Care for Women and Men - Get Ready For Your Baby!

 

Did you know that childbirth is supposed to be an orgasm? No pain. Only ecstasy. 

This body that we nurture every day nurtures us back. We are stuck in it. And sometimes, it’s scary. But it doesn’t have to be.

I’ve written about health many times and it all boils down to something we all learned in school. Again, I’m saying it - it seems to me there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who paid attention in school and those who didn’t. Maybe you had a loser for a teacher and you coasted but you missed out on a lot that could be useful to you now. That loser had a lot to teach you.

In all of the pandemic, I only heard the WGBH Boston journalist, Adam Reilly* say what we all learned or should have learned in school (I’m paraphrasing) - “All you really need to do to strengthen your immune system and be healthy is to eat real nutritious food, get enough sleep and exercise.” 

That’s three things.

And, nobody does it.

I was lucky. I was brought up Italian, eating only whole foods from the Italian market in Haymarket Square, Boston. My grandfather and my uncle used to go every week and come home with wheels of cheese and hunks of prosciutto that the family shared. Every day was a fresh loaf of bread. Fresh fruits were abundant. My mother even foraged for dandelion greens. My grandmother grew her own arugula, tomatoes and red pepper in a tiny backyard garden in East Boston. 

My mother cautioned us to never eat anything from a factory! Candy was kept on a top shelf. Anything packaged was suspect.

I was thirty-one years old and eight years macrobiotic when my daughter was born. She popped out after only four hours of labor; she was pissing, pooping and screaming! I won’t say it was painless, it wasn’t. I did it without drugs and there comes a point, where, like Catholic saints, you pass the pain and drift into nothingness. 

Ecstasy.

But it’s not about pain or no pain. It’s about health.

A friend of mine delivered her ninth child herself behind the counter of her natural food store. Health.

Every time I see a commercial for children in a cancer ward, I shudder, because NO CHILD SHOULD HAVE CANCER! No, nor any other degenerative disease.

It is my opinion, and you can take it or leave it, that eating junk food as food causes cancer. “White bucket” fast food restaurants, where the ingredients come out of white plastic buckets instead of out of the garden or from the farm. Anything made in a factory - artificial “food-like substances” (Michael Pollan*, author, nutritionist and chef) that we eat as our daily food.

Feed yourself and your children real nutritious food! Everyone must learn how to cook! Every man, woman and, yes, every child as soon as they are able! 

Cooking is not an inconvenience. It is an opportunity. A chance to get better, to be better, to feel better!

NYC Mayor Eric Adams healed his diabetes and the blindness in his left eye 

by changing his diet 

What is good nutritious food? Here is the Food Pyramid we learned in school. It changes sometimes, but the basics remain the same. In macrobiotics, we lean more toward whole grains and vegetables with occasional servings of chicken, fish, dairy and eggs.

Here’s what to do for good pre-prenatal care and it’s the same for everyone’s everyday health. You don't have to be macrobiotic to be healthy! Get as close to this as you can!

Pre Pre Natal Care For Women and Men: Get Ready For Your Baby!

1. Learn to cook real whole foods. When you are a young adult (think high school!) stop all junk food as food. Junk food is a cheat meal, only for fun, not for food. Children cannot develop properly on a diet of sugary breakfast cereal, pizza and hot dogs. Not in life or in the womb - you must pre prepare for pregnancy to give your baby the best chance at health! 
2. No drugs, limit alcohol. 
3. Cut your sugar intake in half - or more!
4. Get enough sleep. This can be hard when you work and commute. But you must try.
5. Exercise. Keep your body as strong as possible. Keep your blood circulation pumping! Your own good quality blood made from good quality food is the best healing medicine for you!
6. Drink plenty of water! Water is the only drink that can truly hydrate you! Dehydration can sneak up on you.  It has many, many symptoms that can be dangerous!

Drugs, alcohol and sugar take from the body. Obviously, no hard drugs which can take your life as well as your baby’s life. Use other medications in moderation at all times. (Check with your doctor.) Nowadays women do not drink alcohol when pregnant. Many women also stop coffee. My mother never heard of these restrictions. I did drink coffee and everything was fine. I was advised by my European macro friends that European women drank good quality beer while pregnant to ensure plenty of breast milk. So, I drank the best beer I could find at the time, Pilsner Urquell. I had lots and lots of milk! I was also advised to eat a fermented soy product called natto for skin health. “No stretch marks,” commented the intern who cared for me. The doctor wouldn’t come down to the delivery. He said since it was my first, there was plenty of time. An intern and several nurses attended me. Initially, I had planned to use a mid-wife with doctor/hospital back-up. However, the doctor felt my hematocrit (number of red blood cells) was too low for mid-wife conditions. I studied what that meant and adjusted my diet to change my condition - I reduced my coffee intake and I made a hearty miso soup for my lunch everyday, bringing my hematocrit up to an acceptable level. The doctor couldn’t believe I had done it.

Be advised - 

Pre-Prenatal care also applies to boys and men! When they eat, young men are preparing the quality of their sperm which contains the program of their good or bad health. When they eat, they are creating the quality of their health which they are passing to their child! How many young men do I see leaving the convenience store at lunch time with a huge bag of chips and a huge bottle of Coke! Not a nutritious lunch for a working man! We could go into the eating habits of our mothers and fathers which also influence the quality of our health. Again, I was lucky. My parents’ generation did not have a lot of junk food around and most of it was too expensive for them to buy. That’s no longer true.

We are further and further away from that naturally healthy generation. Possibly four generations removed. In many cases, we could go back to great-great-grandmothers before we reach someone who cooked real nutritious food every day. And THAT effects our health, our children’s health and our future children’s health! The good news is, the body reacts quickly and powerfully to good food and good habits; we can reverse most damage that has been done.

This body that we were given. This body that we nurture will nurture us back.

If we don’t take good care of our body, it will seem to attack us one day when we least expect it.

But, it’s not an attack, it’s our body reacting to what we gave it.

Give your body goodness. Get ready for your baby!

©Patricia Goodwin, 2022

• I am not affiliated with journalist Adam Reilly, nutritionist Michael Pollan, or Mayor Eric Adams, and they have not endorsed me in any way. 

• I am not a doctor, nor a medical professional. I’m just a person who has enjoyed the benefits of a macrobiotic diet and lifestyle for nearly 50 years. I’m 70 years old and not on any medications. When something goes wrong, I am able to consider what caused it, make adjustments and watch things heal. However, by law, I am required to say that any advice you see in my blog is not meant to be followed without first checking with your doctor.

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, about Marblehead legends and true crime and its sequel, Dreamwater, about the Salem witch trials and the vicious 11-year-old pirate Ned Low. Holy Days is her third novel, about the sexual, psychological seduction of Gloria Wisher and her subsequent transformation. Her latest novel is Low Flying, about two women suffering psychologically abusive marriages who find and nurture each other. Her newest poetry books are Telling Time By Apples, And Other Poems About Life On The Remnants of Olde Humphrey Farme, illustrated by the author, and Java Love: Poems of a Coffeehouse.

Within this blog, Patricia writes often about non-fiction subjects that inspire or disturb her, hopefully informing and inspiring people to be happy, healthy and free.

***Disclaimer: The information on this blog is not meant to substitute for medical care. Please consult your physician before beginning any new dietary guidelines. 

HOLY DAYS – Faith, Devotion, Freedom – It’s Not What You Think

I was doing the dishes one evening, my husband standing by my side drying, when he remarked, “You really love getting the dishes clean.” Or I was cooking something and he said, “You’re always cooking something good.” I don’t remember exactly what I was doing, but I do remember what I answered, without thinking, I said, “Of course, it’s my faith.”
What is my faith? What is my devotion?
In Holy Days, Gloria Wisher loved to turn to the end of the chapters in her History book where the art, literature and music of the period were depicted. There, she was introduced to the paintings of Vermeer, Renoir, Degas, Matisse and Monet, to name a few. In one scene, she remarks to her friend, June that she has decided the subject of the paintings – women and the work of women – is the most important thing otherwise artists would not go so far out of their way to paint women washing clothes, women cooking, women taking care of babies. Women are beautiful, she says, but the work of women is also beautiful. Gloria realizes that what we have been taught to consider an interruption of life, what we must get through in order to get to our enjoyment of life, our relaxation, our play – the chores we must do in order to survive – the feeding and washing of our bodies and our children’s’ - are not an interruption of life, but life itself, beautiful, God-given expressions of our love and care.  As Gloria says about life, "Every day is a holy day." Because each day makes us who we are. But, if it were not for the Old Italians, her grandmother and her mother, who came home from work and started cooking dinner in her coat, showing Gloria every day what devotion was, and the art, music and literature in the back of her History book, showing her what beauty was, I don't think she would have made it.

Faith and devotion. To get up every morning and begin work, even as you rise, the turning of the bed covers to air them before making the bed, the opening of the windows, the turning off of the night light, opening the shades, turning on the coffee, throwing water on your face, putting up your hair, rolling up your sleeves. To continue work all day into the night, whatever is needed until your head hits the pillow at night – and even then – rising in the middle of night if need be.
What is in your mind and heart as you reach to do the task, as your hand touches the task? Anger? Frustration? Resentment? Feminists have taught women that housework is drudgery, that women are meant for so much more. The old post WWII suburban angst. Now that we’ve won the war, now what? Why am so unhappy, so unsatisfied? Could it be because women – and men, who also must contribute to the tasks - have lost the mission of their housework – which is to take care of life? I used the word housework because it is the least glamorous word I can use. But, let’s change that and say, instead - care of life. In fact, that is Gloria’s definition of a man; she has the same definition for a woman – “Someone who loves and takes care of their loved ones.”
       What is in your mind and heart as you reach to do something, as your hand touches the task? Anger? Frustration? Resentment?
Why not reach for the task with love? With care? With devotion? With faith?
That is true power.
I’ve watched as women who’ve entered the work force leave their true power at home. Women have been taught by feminists that cooking dinner is beneath them. They bring home take-out or buy microwave meals in boxes for their kids to heat up on their own. This kind of fake food only leads to illness, emergencies and long, horrific battles with degenerative disease, drug-use and other problems. But, I can tell you from experience of my own and many other families that cooking good, wholesome dinners with love and intention is your greatest freedom, your greatest power. You will create love and appreciation as well as health. Sitting down with your children, looking them in the face and truly listening to them. That is power. That is freedom. For you and your child. Many people use the phrase, “I would die for my children!” But would you live for them?
       I remember the woman who answered feminists when asked what she did, “I make future citizens of America, it’s an important job, I’m proud of what I do and it’s a full time job.” Full time being 24/7/365. Joni Mitchell, when asked if she was a feminist said she had a problem with feminists because they didn’t respect domestic women and she had a lot of respect for domestic women. Her own mother had been domestic, she said. Not to be confused with a domestic. Not someone who goes out to take care of someone else’s home – usually before and after she has taken care of her own – but someone who loves to take care of their own home. Patti Smith also commented about domesticity: "I’m not a celebrity, I’m a worker. I’ve always worked. I was working before people read anything about me, and the day they stopped reading about me, I was doing even more work. And the idea that if you’re a mother, you’re not doing anything—it’s the hardest job there is, being a mother or father requires great sacrifice, discipline, selflessness, and to think that we weren’t doing anything while we were raising a son or daughter is appalling. It makes me understand why some human beings question their worth if they’re not making a huge amount of money or aren’t famous, and that’s not right."
I recently saw a short video on Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop site of a young couple who, in an almost choreographed dance, made real food breakfast and packed lunches for their kids and themselves before taking the kids to school and going to their jobs. My own daughter does what she calls “food prep” every weekend to create healthy lunches for the week. She takes these portions to work and is able to stay well and not waste her time trying to find a meal every day.
This kind of faith and devotion may be what the Catholic Church or any other religion preaches, but it does not need a religion to back it up. Atheists may have this kind of faith, this kind of devotion. Atheists may also reach for their tasks with love. Mostly, however, one thinks of God. One honors God, one is grateful to God each and every minute. One feels a higher cause to the placing of the food on the table, to the ironing, to the gardening. It’s not only about one’s needs, or one’s family’s needs – it’s about taking care of life itself in every movement. This kind of care spreads into the community, and, subsequently, into the world in the form of caring people. The creation of people. People who were taught by example at home to respect life. That is quality. That is power.
        Quality of life. Many people have told me that I can keep a clean house because I’m always home. I don’t work outside the house. I don’t spend eight hours a day at an office or a factory or a store and I don’t need to commute or pick up kids or shop. But, I did do those things and I still kept faith. When I was a young mother, I did errands and laundry and picked up my kid from school and took her to painting class or her job at the toy store. For several years, I had a string of part-time jobs. Now, I’m retired from a small publicity business I ran for ten years. Of course, many nights while I worked, as I took out the clean pans to make dinner, I would think, “I’m so tired right now, I’d like to go to bed, not start cooking. Why don’t I?” The answer was so obvious, I didn’t bother with it, I just kept moving.
         I would like to add that my decision to be home came first. I am home so that I can take care of the home. I ordered my life to be as simple as possible so that I could live as well as possible. Some people may call that a sacrifice, but it was not a sacrifice. I don’t own a house or a condo or a car. I had only one child. I never wanted a career outside the home. I wanted to write and take care of my home. I wanted to do both well. That simple. I love nothing better than, after doing my daily chores, to put on a pot of beans or soup that will become our dinner and sit down to my writing.
Quality of life. Think of it this way – would you rather be stuck in traffic for two hours a day or caring for your home? Would you prefer to be bending over for an unreasonable boss just so you can buy that new grill or go on a vacation you’re dreading? Or keeping things simple so you can have more freedom?
I don’t expect everyone to do the same things the same way. I hate the word  “should” and I don’t use it. And, I’m not preaching a perfect, clean home. I get it that lots of parents want more than one kid and they want to play with them and help them with their homework and read to them and sometimes leave the dishes or the laundry. And maybe the dog hides the dirty socks or throws up on the rug. I think, maybe that’s a different faith, a different devotion, or a different expression of the same faith and devotion. I do think people would be happier if they approached their homes with love and care rather than impatience or disgust. What do you feel when you look at the mess? Is it endearing? Cute? Frustrating? Exhausting? Do you wish you had the energy to clean up? Or do you truly like the house messy?
I love a clean home. I need a clean home. I need the kind of serenity I can only receive from clean, shining, uncluttered surfaces. Wood floors, wood surfaces shining, clean windows sparkling. Sunlight. I need to have the time to really stop and admire the sunlight in my home. Lots of books, paintings, music, happy plants and most of all - happy child, happy husband. I remember a visitor coming into our home after we’d had a birthday party the day before. The balloons were still tied to the chandelier and she laughed, “This is a happy house!” Indeed.
If everything changed tomorrow and I had to go back out to work, or start up the business again, I would still try to keep as much of this quality and freedom as possible.
That is my faith and my devotion: to create happiness and beauty. To love and take care of my loved ones.


©Patricia Goodwin, 2015

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, about Marblehead legends and true crime and its sequel, Dreamwater, about the Salem witch trials and the vicious 11-year-old pirate Ned Low. Holy Days, her third novel, is about the seduction and transformation of Gloria Wisher.

Why I Want to Vote for Michelle

         

       You know how it is: your friends work on you. They say, “You can’t not vote for Obama. Not voting for Obama is a vote for Mitt Romney. Ouch. I saw Ann Romney on Jay Leno a few nights ago. I think she raided Adele’s closet. I know that shiny black outfit was not Mrs. Romney’s personal outfit, which is a lot like lying. (Someone has already compared it to David Spade’s Members Only jacket. Ann also made #1 on the "What Were They Thinking?" slide show on Yahoo’s OMG.) I know the dark Goth nail polish on her fingertips was not her own choice for nail polish. The fact that she was wearing such a trying-to-be-hip outfit says to me that she thinks Leno is the place to reach the young, hip crowd. Once again, out of touch. Seth MacFarlane, who is hip anywhere, was on Leno too. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in the Green Room! (read with the voice of Stewie Griffin)

         I have nothing against Mitt and Ann – oh, wait, yes I do. Bush-era policies, that’s what. Everywhere you go, from veterans suffering from Agent Orange or Haliburton-supplied water to supermarkets where shoppers can purchase their cancer; from being dropped from your health insurance for pre-existing conditions to higher taxes for the 99%; from no jobs to being let go just before your pension. No one will believe me, but I think we live in a Republican monarchy. It’s all beginning to sound a lot like Versailles. There’s even been some talk about certain banks contributing to both campaigns. Reminds me of Al Gore saying, “Do you still think both candidates are the same?” Hmm. Just a minute, no matter which side, aren’t both Presidential candidates potentially working for the same boss – the American people?

         That’s why I want to vote for Michelle Obama. 

         Unlike Barack, Michelle is free to operate. Her hands are not tied by politics. Initially, Michelle took up the cause of caring for our veterans’ needs with her “Joining Forces” movement. It was a daunting struggle already being undertaken by several overwhelmed government agencies. 

        Ironically, the only true way to help veterans is to end war, a task tantamount to ending bullying or greed. Michelle is not a miracle worker. However, she does have clout. She can go out and ask people to respond to her requests, which currently are elimination of food deserts, organic gardening and freedom to vote for all Americans. 

Let’s talk about food deserts. In a previous blog post, I complained about lack of any real action on this front. I was wrong and I posted that correction. Click here to read more. When I was a young macro in my twenties, just starting to look around me, I noticed that convenience stores that dispensed junk food were mostly located in the poorest and most desperate parts of cities. (Now, of course, these fake food dispensers are also located in the suburbs where rich kids as well as poor can be unhealthy anytime they want.) I recalled President Lyndon Johnson weeping about the riots in Watts, in despair over poor people’s reaction to the poverty program, which was working. I couldn’t help thinking there might have been a conspiracy to start those riots to end the poverty program. I don’t know. But, food deserts and deserts of other kinds – education, safety, cleanliness, beauty, hope - are the result. 

A business article in the Bloomberg News recently stated some of the reasons why food stores fail in poor neighborhoods. Here area few of the things stores in poor neighborhoods are up against: people will only spend a few dollars each visit; people will shoplift; security costs will be too high; people will scam you with fake “fall down” insurance scams and lastly, the store will be burned to the ground.

This last reason struck me as ironic, since our local store was burned down by an arsonist in 1994 and rebuilt overnight as a “Pantry,” a tiny hole-in-the-wall outlet of groceries, fresh produce and household necessities to serve the community until another store could be constructed. 

A food store doesn’t have to be elaborate.

Apparently, Walgreen and Walmart have responded to Michelle’s challenge. Here’s an excerpt from the same Bloomberg article – 

Food Oasis: Last July, Walgreen pledged to open or convert at least 1,000 so-called food oasis stores over the next five years in the U.S. It has so far opened nearly two dozen, according to Robert Elfinger, a company spokesman, who added that Walgreen is “on pace” to meets its goal. The Deerfield, Illinois-based company’s “urban oasis” project includes stores that carry about 750 more food items, including fresh fruits and vegetables. Customers now see Walgreen stores as a “destination for meal solutions,” said John Grant, market vice president for Chicago and Northwest Indiana. In food oasis locations, submarine sandwiches and fruit are selling well…Walmart, in June, 2010, vowed to open “several dozen stores” to “help eradicate food deserts and stimulate local economic development.” Since then, Wal-Mart has opened four Chicago stores. It has three more in the works, according to Steve Restivo, a company spokesman. “We will continue to identify sites where residents need jobs and better access to fresh food, while also looking for opportunities to help all Chicagoans save,” Restivo said in an e-mail. This year Wal-Mart will open between 50 and 60 stores in food deserts nationwide, he said. 

      Progress is slow. Michelle needs at least four more years to get these guys moving – Let’s Move! I remember Michelle taking Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack and Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner food shopping. Vilsack did great; he bought some organic yogurt. But Geithner looked at the lettuce as if to say, “So, this is where it comes from!”

            Michelle, we need you now.

            Organic food proponents see the White House organic garden as a decoy to divert our attention away from Bush era agri-business policies and the de-regulation of Genetically Modified Organisms still in operation. I agree. But that little wooden duck is going to bite Monsanto in the ass when all the school children who are learning about organics grow up. Sure, a few of them might be traumatized by the hard work of farming, but most are going to have lots of “a-ha moment” memories of growing their own organic carrots and scallions, watching tiny sprouts turn into sustaining food, not to mention the liberating act of harvesting, cooking and eating for themselves. Everyone should learn to cook, boys and girls. Everyone should know where food comes from and the difference between real food and artificial. Thank you, Michelle. Thanks to you – and folks like Jamie Oliver and Alice Waters, two other proponents of good quality food in schools and schoolyard gardens – not to forget all the forward thinking educators out there who went ahead and did the work and dug their own schoolhouse gardens - hundreds of school children are growing gardens, and in effect, learning how to be healthy and independent.

            Learning how to feed one’s self is not a small thing. Cooking and eating have become lost skills. Also, choosing food in the market. How many times have I been at the checkout where the cashier does not know what green vegetable is in his/her hands? Again, thank you, Michelle. I hope a new generation is coming with more knowledge about simple and basic, life and health sustaining food.

            Recently, there has been a backlash about the government-mandated decrease of calories in school lunches – or, in effect, the decrease in satisfying food in school lunches.  Students are complaining about being hungry soon after eating their school lunches. This video created by Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kansas “We Are Hungry” has gone viral. In order for there to be such a video, and in order for such a video to go viral, there has to be many very hungry students. Why shouldn’t school lunches be healthy and satisfying? Limiting calories isn’t necessarily healthy. Maybe these schools are trying to save money along with saving calories. I am reminded of the movie Diabolique in which the murderer’s first act after killing the evil headmaster was to feed the children hefty portions of fried chicken, corn bread, gravy and greens. What’s wrong with a meal like that? Children are growing and they should never be hungry except for their meals. Remember, school lunches used to be generous and they used to be cooked at school with real food ingredients. In the early 70’s, schools nationwide opted for industrially portioned and pre-prepared meals for school children – hence the cold, dry pizza slice. One of the best tasting of these pre-prepared meals. Gruesome. 

       Now, let’s talk about the vote.  We are in America. The country where the Statue of Liberty stands at the harbor for those who are disenfranchised in their native countries, for those who come here for a better life, to be able to make a living and to be able to vote and have a say in their future. I don’t really need to tell you. But, obviously, I need to tell some people - people who are willing to take the right and ability to vote away from Americans. They are at road blocks asking for picture IDs reminiscent of Nazis asking for papers. Remember the 2008 election when actor and activist Tim Robbins was NOT on the voter list when he went to his polling place?  Robbins was quoted by TMZ as saying, "This is what you have to do to vote... I had to go down to see a judge... My name was not on the roll, and I'm not the only one. According to workers, 30 people in 5 hours had been taking off the rolls. You can do the math on that. 6 per hour, per district across America..."  

       And, how about the 93-year-old lady, Vivienne Applewhite who was intimidated about not having a picture ID? Vivienne Applewhite filed a lawsuit with the ACLU and NAACP challenging the new law in Pennsylvania requiring a picture ID. Applewhite marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, but this might be the first election since 1960 in which she won’t be able to vote.    

       Voting restrictions usually target students, poor people, black people and activists, anyone who is likely to vote Democrat. In Florida, early voting on Sunday morning before the election was eliminated. Called “Souls to polls” this movement made it possible for up to 30% of black voters in Florida to cast their vote after church services. New Voter Photo ID laws in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, to name a few states, caused many people who are on the voter list to be turned away from voting in the primaries; many of these people are poor and elderly, they do not drive cars, have never driven a car and do not have drivers’ licenses or any other photo ID.  

       In her remarks last week at the Congressional Black Caucus, Michelle Obama has called this fight against voter restrictions "the march or our time" and "the sit in of our day." So far, she has only made a speech making people aware that she is aware, which now-a-days is more honesty than most of our leaders are willing to stand up and claim about anything. That’s why I want to vote for Michelle Obama. 

       Okay, I get it. No one person can be all things. For example, organic proponents have started a new campaign to get Michelle to convince the President to keep his campaign promise to support GMO labeling. They say, “If she has an organic garden, she should be for labeling because Americans have the right to know what’s in their food.” But asking Mrs. Obama to approach her husband is a pathetic approach to the problem. Organic proponents should police organic quality and promote organics in their natural state – bulk and produce. This clinging to packaged and prepared foods with GMOs already in them is a waste of time and a diversion. Obama is simply carrying out Bush-era agri-business. Michelle is working against agri-business by going straight over her husband’s head to his boss – us. Wake up, America! If it’s in a box, it’s probably GMO. Organics are already labeled. Organic produce has a PLU# that begins with a 9. Stop asking Michelle to do all the work for you!

I’m still thinking about it, but I want to vote for Michelle. Hey, at least she knows how to dress herself. There’s something re-assuring about someone who can put clothes on her body in a way that makes sense and looks stylish. And, in contrast, there’s something very frightening about someone who wants to be a leader but can’t even dress herself. Not everyone who votes for Obama can afford J. Crew, the Gap or even Target, but Michelle has shown the world that you can think outside the traditional box and put it together in an awesome new way. Let’s Move! has potential. With the Obamas, there’s still hope. And, I’d love to be a fly on the wall if Michelle were ever in the Green Room with Seth MacFarlane! 

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, a thriller about two women who died and became legends in an historic New England seacoast town.

©Patricia Goodwin, 2012