Initial Post

Welcome to The Disappearing Chef, a blog about food and stuff!

One thing I didn't say in my profile which I will probably edit at some future date: I used to be 297 pounds at my top weight in January 2003, and am now a very proud 183! I have been maintaining this weight loss for 10 months now. During the course of that time, I discovered that food really does have healing properties, so I'll be posting a lot about my observations of living a sugar- and flour-free life.

That's right! I've not knowingly eaten any product where broken white powders were among the first five ingredients. I didn't do this alone, and it's required a huge amount of surrender. I needed to hit bottom first. One day I told a room full of friends that I imagined myself dead. I wasn't sure how I was going to get there, but I saw myself in the casket and mourners filing by saying "Oh, Richard I'm so sorry, I hope you're in a better place," etc. I was tired of hauling my overweight body around everywhere, feeling it in every joint and pushing my lungs and heart to the limit. Climbing a flight of stairs gave me shortness of breath, and forget attracting any boyfriends!

So I was ready to surrender. This is one thing I'll be writing posts about.

Another thing is life after civilization. For the time being, I subscribe to the ideas of Daniel Quinn of Ishmael fame. The idea that our totalitarian-agriculture-based society hasn't worked and furthermore never really worked the way we thought it should. Personally, I feel in my gut that the first person who decided to lock up the food so the rest of humanity would work for her was most likely a flour addict. So much of what I see as civilization's dementia looks like addiction to me. In fact, I've toyed with the idea that perhaps addiction is a synonym for civilization itself, at least as Quinn eloquently describes in his books. (The most successful of his is Beyond Civilization IMHO.) So I'll be posting about this as well.

That can't help but raise a whole host of other issues--religion, spirituality, politics, etc. There's a lot of other stuff out there I will probably link to as well, but one thing at a time--I need to learn how to operate this system. And resist the temptation to post every little idea that comes into my head.

One other area I will hope to publish observations about from time to time is the area of critical thinking. I'm not talking about strictly logic here, though folks. Critical Thinking is a whole-brain approach. The gut is involved in the process too, as are emotions. I'm going from Stephen Brookfield's understanding of the concept. A merely logical approach leaves me feeling undernourished. With merely using logic, it's like I'm looking for Thanksgiving Dinner and all I'm getting is the half cup of potato with a teaspoon of butter. I want the turkey and the veggies and a bit of squapple pudding (my recipe which I will share at a future date), not to mention the nuts and the dressing.

There's more to be sure. My interests are a moving target. I would have never guessed I'd be fascinated by the Mayan Calendar and all things Mayan. I've been writing plays for about 25 years now, and since reading about this Mesoamerican culture I've discovered that in many ways some Mayan wisdom and words are coming through my pen. In a few weeks time I might be on to something else.

I need to treat as an experiment. I don't actually know all of what I will be posting, though I am always having ideas about things that I don't necessarily share. It's difficult for me sometimes too because I work the night shift. Night Shift people are very different from "Day People." For one thing, we have to be a lot more independent. Very few of us on this shift are not self-starters. I can only speak for myself on this score, however--I have an ambivalent relationship to isolation and solitude. I work at a job where we don't have to isolate, but I sense that many of us sort of fall into a sense that the cubicles we sit at have closed doors if on an imaginal level.

So anyway, that's it for the moment. I may post something even later today. I've noticed that people do that. My inspirations for now come from Talking Points Memo, Gay Spirituality and other political, spiritual and astrological blogs. Who knows where this will go? So. This is just a beginning.