Healthy Living

Went to visit the Coon’s mom, Aldine, today with Juliet. I felt that they would get a lot out of meeting. And I wanted to pay my respects. She now lives in Eugene, Oregon! Hadn't seen her in about ten years. So beautiful and still so smart and curious about everything. she still has all the latest knowledge at her house as always in the form of books and tapes and cds and magazines. Totally up to date on EVERYTHING. and she is now 82 years old. Totally into raw foods now. for lunch we had peppermint tea, dates, raisins, walnuts, avocado, and hemp seeds with hemp oil and lemon paste. That was strange I must say, eating paste for a meal... but you could feel the nutrition seeping into you, which is what attracted me to the natural lifestyle in the beginning, all those years ago. You can feel nutrition. As it enters the body. Unfortunately we do not consume much nutrition in our lives in modern times. you can feel that when you are eating most days, how un-nutritious what you are eating is. and you can plainly see it in the fact that most of us die of cancer or some other horrible disease rather than from natural causes.

[I am not implying by this statement that we are any worse off than times past. I am not. I think we are healthier now as a species than we've ever been. I think most would agree with me. We are certainly living longer than we ever have. I truly believe that we know more about health and nutrition now than we ever have in our short human history. But in general it is not easy to eat healthfully in the modern era. We’re a fast food nation. And we are also a factory food nation. And a processed food nation. None of it bodes well for our health. So no one is too surprised when they learn of themselves or someone close to them having cancer or heart disease or needing bypass surgery or having Alzheimer’s or any other of the hundreds of ailments that stricken the human race still. saddened sure, but surprised no. we think of these diseases as if they are natural causes, because it is just so inbred in us to think this way, because we are all so used to everyone around us dying this way. But I don't think it will be this way forever. I think we’re coming around. More and more, people are coming around. [I say this as I remember the woman in front of me on the airplane today giving her son and daughter a nestle crunch bar and then a plastic bag full of captain crunch... and these kids were no more than 4 and 9 years old. Or the girl sitting next to me swigging her coke and woofing down a half a can of Pringles. I mean, you cant go to the doctor and wonder why he just told you that you had cancer or heart disease or any other disease for that matter when you are filling your body with mostly non-food and thereby having very little room or desire for real food. Its all kind of right in front of our faces. We are still primarily obsessed with curing diseases than preventing them.]]

It was Coon’s mom who started me and our whole group on healthy living and eating back when we were in college. [for the record I am not a healthy eater currently. As any loyal reader of the diaries could easily attest to. being a child of the fast food nation, my taste buds, my being single, and my love of convenience all make it difficult for me to eat healthfully as often as I should or would like to.] But I was amazed when I reflected on how broad her influence was, on all of us, and how it has lasted. Just one person. because of that one health retreat I decided to go on at her house my whole life changed. I showed up and told her I needed to clean up and she said o.k. well you can come stay at my house but you have to do whatever I say. I will teach you about natural living. I was so strung out on everything and anything and was just a mess. I came into the house with just a little suitcase and she escorted me to this guestroom she had made up for me. there was nothing in the room except for a futon on the floor and a pillow, a side table and a lamp. Next to the bed was a towel and a washcloth, a natural fiber dry brush, and a stack of books she suggested I read while I was there. about ten books. Some on yoga, some on detoxing, one on the dangers of sugar, a book or two on fasting, and of course Harvey and Marilyn diamonds classic on health. Can’t remember the name but it revolutionized the way America looked at health and wellness. Fit for life, that's what it was called. Great book. Changed my life. I must have given out twenty of them that year.

For ten days I stayed at her house. didn't do much but sleep, cry, dry brush my body a lot, drank a lot of tea, and some soup. but all it took was a week or so to start feeling the effects of being clean for the first time since I was in my early teens. I had quit smoking cigs, drugs, alcohol, and processed foods and felt better than I had in years. and through that my whole crew started living the natural lifestyle. Madelynne O'Ryan and Mohdie still live that way ten years later. They are still vegans. Precisely because of the influence that Aldine had had on me. that's an amazing thought. I went in and out of it over the years. never went back to drugs or alcohol or cigarettes actually from that point on because I felt so damn good. but my eating habits have been pretty bad the last year or two since not having Cleopatra around. But because of that change in lifestyle and moving over to the natural lifestyle I frequented health food stores a lot and that is where I met Cleo. Again, if it weren't for that health retreat with coons mom I never would have gotten healthy and gotten so into health food stores and I never would have wandered into that health food store all those years ago and met one of the most important people of my life. that's an unbelievable thought. What power we have as individuals to manifest reality for others through our simple day to day actions.  

Last screening: and the band played on. More later. too tired.

Current read: losing my virginity, autobiography of Richard Branson. Great inspiration just reading a few pages each day.