All We Need is Love?
More Musings on Protests, Needs and Happiness
What are the things we need? With animals and plants, it’s much simpler. Instincts and needs dictate behavior, adaptation, specialization and development. But with us human beings, things are much more complex.
So what do we really need? Love?Nourishment?Offspring?A home?Security?Health? Hope? And how do we acquire all of above? Via inner perception, self-acceptance, and a great deal of meditation and peace of mind? Or is it by hard work, material and intellectual acquisitions, success and financial security?
The social protests that are still ongoing and vocal make me very happy, for I see that people still harbor hope, good will, and faith in our ability to influence and change—and our right to do so. During my years in California, I was struck by the powerful difference between the American sense that opportunities abound, as opposed to the pervading Israeli sense of “it’s impossible.” I established Chubeza a few short months after my return to Israel, and I think that if I’d waited much longer I’d have lost my stamina. Perhaps hesitation and cynicism would have overcome me and I’d have given up the idea and the dream. But now, suddenly I feel that the airis filled with the sense that change is possible, that we want to change, and that we will change.
What formthe actual change will take is an altogether different question, no less important. There are those who demand political change, others a change in the government’s economic policy, priorities or budget allocation. But other voices I hear around me are calling for our own change of values. Among these voices, one of my favorite beautiful, authentic voices belongs to LiatTaub. Liat is one of the pioneers of Bustania, a lovely community garden between the Jerusalem neighborhoods of KiryatHaYovel and KiryatMenachem. She was also one of the founders of the KiryatMenachem food co-op. In recent years, she moved north and initiated two projects to promote local Galil-grown food, “tafrit mekomi” (local menu). And here’s what she wrote me:
The eating person
Eats
And eats
And eats
Three meals a day
At least
He eats
And when he closes his mouth
And doesn’t eat
What will he do?
Pay rent
Or a mortgage
Pay an electric bill
And city taxes
And the phone bill
And a parking ticket
Or income tax
Or pay back a loan
For his motorbike
For his trip
For his daughter’s ballet lessons
And then when he finishes paying
What will he do?
Search his pocket for a penny
Add it to a dime
Hop over to the pharmacy
And buy a pill
That will stop the aching
Of his head and belly
Or he will go out to pick
Nettles
And lash himself
Or prepare soup
As a sign that he’s had
enough
Of the loan
And the rent
And the parking tickets
And all the rest
A tent on the boulevard?
What’s wrong with the boulevard?
A longing or a desire
Or just a latching onto
The latest vogue
The eating person
Eats
And eats
And eats
And would like to spit out one helping
To clear his mouthful
He’s full and not full
And perhaps the person
Will ask a different question
That has no answer
And he won’t give up till he finds
A better answer
And when he does
He maynot wish to return
To the flat
To the motorbike
To the ballet class
He may want to look for something
That won’t cause his head or belly to ache
The eating person
Will remain the eating person
For he has no choice
But he will choose to be
The eating and choosing person
And the chooser within the person
Will elect to choose
Without ballots
Without reality TV shows
Without a wide screen
Without millennium
And even without a cell phone
To live well
Really well
The eating person
Who reads
Will ask
What is the meaning of
The expression “to live well”
And he’d best choose to ask
A difficult question
With no answer
Without giving up till he finds
A better answer
At Chubeza, one of our answers for the good life is the edamame, the green soy we’ve been sending you over the past few weeks. Maybe I’ll succeed in writing about it before its season ends. But in the meantime, check out this past Newsletter. You’ll find simple directions for preparation and more complex recipe suggestions. Bon appetite!
Wishing you all a week of good thoughts and deeds. May summer continue to be kind to us!
Alon, Bat Ami and the Chubeza team
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What’s in This Week’s Boxes?
Monday: edamame (green soy) or cowpea (lubia) ,yard-long beans or okra, lemon verbena (Louisa), eggplant , butternut squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, sweet red peppers, beets, lettuce
In the large box, in addition: potatoes, pumpkin, leeks
Wednesday: butternut squash, okra or yard long beans, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, corn, cherry tomatoes, eggplants, cilantro, red bell peppers
In the large box, in addition: pumpkin, leeks, red beets
And there’s more! You can add to your basket a wide, delectable range of additional products from fine small producers of these organic products: granola and cookies, flour, sprouts, goat dairies, fruits, honey, crackers, probiotic foods and sesame butter too! You can learn more about each producer on the Chubeza website. The attached order form includes a detailed listing of the products and their cost. Fill it out, and send it back to us soon.