You’re looking at the 37 ingredients that make up a Twinkie, photographed by Dwight Eschliman, who grew up in a vegan home but has since loosened up a bit. Try to match the ingredient list to the individual images!
OK, everybody can guess which plate contains Red 40, but the others all look rather the same. A lot of the additives here are various chemicals in powder form.
Something to picture in your mind the next time you bite into a chemistry lab experiment turned “food”.
I really wish that I cared more about sports -- any sport! I think I tried to fake it throughout college, somehow feeling subliminally forced to 'care' because I went to an SECschool (w/ a Ntl. Championship hx), but the reality is that I just am not too sporty. So, all of this World Cup & Wimbledon madness going on in the world just really skims right over my head. However, this video makes me smile, knowing he will be one of my friends very soon.
All in a day's work...
The community I live in is surrounded by a million acre cattle farm.
Guys who work with the cattle come in all the time with injuries from the work.
this is my favorite. Cow vs. gate vs. Man. Cow won.
….in a place that is pretty prominent; I’m shocked it has taken me this long to notice. And my hair is really dark; I can’t believe I have never known. But, then again, I’ve typically spent every morning my last 31 years brushing and blow-drying, straightening, or curling and certainly doing my damndest with colored shampoo, sunblock for the hair and 6-weekly-appointments to the hairdresser to maintain my perfect set of highlights. (“perfect” is the new term for “expensive as hell”, I might add)
So, after years of talking about it, a thwarted plan to “do it when I moved to Africa”, and an awe-inspiring moment of clarity at a Buddhist Retreat in Queensland 2 months ago, I finally took the plunge and did what very few white women in my culture seem to do : Shaved** my head!
**(In all fairness, I’ve been corrected by many that a Level 1 on the clippers is (which is what I did), in fact, not a ‘shave’. However, for me, I call it shaved. Level 0 or Level 1 – there was no hair.)
So, you might ask, as many before you have, “What in the hell were you thinking?” And the best answer that I can give looks something like this:
“It’s Just a Haircut”, I like to start with. (Mainly because it is the most relaxed summation of my actions from anyone to date. Thanks, EJH!)
But then I usually follow it with: Because I wanted to! I suddenly was really calm about the idea and in every way, it felt right. Just like my tattoo, I was just waiting for the right time to hit me. But, more than that, I wanted to know that I could. I wanted to know that I was more than a sum of my looks and that I was no longer a slave to dead cells on my head. To know that I had the balls to follow through with my plan and break the ridiculous mold that most white women I know adhere to. To know what it felt like and how it would look and to enjoy the redeeming liberation that men enjoy their entire lives! Because I ran out of excuses, while simultaneously realizing?/accepting? that all my excuses were entirely too vain for me to continue to live with, I did it. And, to face my fears – all of them. Because for a long time, I was scared …. Scared that I would feel utterly unattractive, or look like a lesbian, or regret it immediately, or not be cute for the wedding I had coming up or having to let everyone I know actually see me (vs. growing it out in some hidden corner of Africa!).. or…or…my list went on and on.
All to say, this was not a spontaneous decision and, like most things in my life, somehow I connected it to a larger lesson and derived some meaning that I was meant to gain: my own mini-lesson from the Universe. I’m pretty confident that no one else puts this much thought into it! However, this was a big personal moment for me and through it, I proved alot to myself.
(If it is any wonder, take notice of all the hairstyles represented by the people who helped me get rid of mine!)
And, now, you might ask...How do I feel?
Amazing! Proud of myself! Wishing I did 10 years ago! Loving the haircut! It is wonderfully easy and I love that. And, weekly I receive some form of acknowledgement from strangers all over the world. (Most recently being from a drunk patient last night who suddenly in the middle of his drunken state, out of the blue, looked at me and said: “Hey. Nice haircut!” It was very funny. And from a group of kids today asking me if I was a boy or a girl. "But then we saw your milk", they said. i.e. my breasts)
I secretly love that I am often told how beautiful my head is (what?) and that I have a horrible cowlick in the dead center in the front that I must learn to love and that somehow I resemble my father’s childhood pictures now (they did always want a boy first….). And in my own way, I feel like it is quite beautiful, sexy, suave and sheik. Or at least I’d like to think so.
So, despite some of the emphatic responses I’ve gotten (i.e. my Mother literally squealing “What HAVE you done?!” when picking me up at the airport, to my father’s business partner’s incorrect summation that I would now “have a real problem with my love life”, to the innocent lady in the mall who stopped me to ask if I was sick – Yes, I’ve gotten them all. ), I still love it and hope that secretly I’m inspiring all of the many, many women who stop me to share how “they’ve also always wanted to do it”, that they easily can, too.
My very first picture taken with my roommate, Sammy: The Nun who did her best to talk me out of it!
Made especially for my feet by a talented little cobbler in Ubud....Despite me dribbling water on them, I love the uniqueness of my new shoes. Is there ever any room for boring ones?
Complete with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flax seeds, and fennel seeds...this screams fiber to me! And, for those who know me best...I heart fiber.
...if only I had a stocked kitchen (& natural grocery for spelt flour!) I would be making this today. Mom, make it in my honor? (i left some pumpkin seeds in the freezer & some flax seeds near the coffee cups!)
After a very quick departure from Bali, I am now sitting in Darwin Airport (It's about 4 a.m. here) -- What a crazy change of reality! After clearing customs and justifying all my 'declared' objects, i.e. REAL vanilla pods given to me personally by a small farmer from his fields, a handwoven palm leaf hat, kopi luwak and other fun treasures, I am now waiting for my crazy travel day to begin.
I've come back for work in another Aboriginal community, Kalkarindji, this time more in the "Top End" of the Northern Territory (local lingo). The community is a long, long way from anything else requiring me to Greyhound (verb) it to Katherine, go shopping for my food for the next 6 weeks and then take a small prop plane to the community. I believe the community is currently cut off by any road access due to flood waters...
Loving Bali! Great place, Great vibe and very cheap!
The wedding is now officially over with today being a chill out day on the beach at the resort before everyone goes home. 7 Natonalities were represented here, so there is alot of long distance hauls ahead for most everyone but the Australians. 2 other Americans represented.
We spent one long day bike riding through small villages and countryside of rice paddy fields, watching local activity in the fields, dodging chickens, dogs, and small children on the laneways through the many villages we went through. This is probably the best thing I've done in Bali so far. Rain met us in the middle of the ride, which left me drenched and loving the au natural feel of biking in the storm.
I stayed on in Ubud for 2 days soaking in the spiritual and healing center of Bali. More tales to come...
And I'm heading out tom. to an Eco Lodge about 2 hours from here which I'm very excited about. My plans are to take some permaculture classes, swim in natural rock pools, eat organic food, play with monkeys and live with a Balinese family for a few days while I wait out a work contract in Australia.
Potentially, if time is on my side, I plan to go diving on one of the world's best ship wrecks, Tulamben, in the North East!
Life is good. More pictures, stories and tales to come when I have better access to technology.
What I'm thinking about currently: “Sit like a mountain, flow like the river, and shine like the sun.” - Chelsey
I have not forgotten you and from the many gentle "why aren't you blogging anymore?" questions I've received from more of you than I ever expected, I trust that you haven't forgotten me. It seems inevitable that each blogger reaches this point, or so called break. So, without further adieu and no apologies, I commence with commentary with what filters through SJ's life --
I've just come off a glorious month spent in MI-SS-I-SS-I-PP-I, i.e. home. I left 2 days ago on a long 24 hour journey to Bali, which is where I am now. I am sitting in the tropical garden of the Balinese hut I'm lodged at for the next week, enjoying the sounds and smells and activities of this tropical paradise. It always blows my mind how quickly reality changes after boarding a flight; this time is certainly no different. And, as lame as it might sound to those of you who just "don't get it", I can't help but think of Elizabeth Gilbert while I'm here, now totally understanding many of her quips and experiences of this place. Bali is already fantastic in my opinion, and so far, I've only experienced the taxi ride to my small, quaint hut and a run through the meandering lanes near here this morning. It didn't take much to entice my interests for all things Bali.
There is so much to recount, so much to muse on after everything new that has and is going on with me these days. I will certainly get to it all. But, in the meantime, I want to highlight a film that is coming out very soon. I can't believe that I won't be in the US at all to see any of the openings! Living in Emergency is a new film that tells the stories of life and work with Doctors Without Borders. Working with them is one of my longest and biggest personal goals. I urge each of you to see the show.
Hi there, my name is Stephanie ( + Jane, to some) and Collected Consciousness is where I write about what intersects with my life, travels and everyday interests. Often this takes the form of stories or photographs, recipes or projects. However, I am not committed to only these categories, as I’m quite open and expectant of unforeseen inspiration. I like the fact that this site is where my friends and family can easily connect with me when I am “away”, which is most of the time. Thank you for the support and enjoy!
Where In the World is SJ?
In Atiak, Uganda working at a Birth Center as a Midwife until October 2013.
