February 2011
"Didion began writing The Year of Magical Thinking on October 4, 2004, and finished 88 days later on New Year's Eve. She went on a book tour following the release of this memoir, doing many readings and interviews to promote it. She has said that she found the process very "therapeutic" during her period of mourning."
I just finished reading the above book by Joan Didion. Her husband died very suddenly and she wrote about the first year without him. I googled her name and this came up in the Wikipedia entry.
It just confirms, yet again, the importance of getting on this site and writing, engaging and feeling.
H
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February 2011
so lets not get put off by the spam...we can deal with cancer, spam is a minor irritant
what a fascinating story borderline, and what a good comment sailor.
Whatever narrative surrounds eating, we do need to eat well. The extraordinary incidence of kidney disease in the indigenous population says something about the impact of a foreign diet. But I don't extrapolate from that to a broader point about what's good or bad food. Not without data.
Anyway, I prefer to make things up.
H
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February 2011
I agree it is more a cultural issue than anythng else.
I did a consumer interview for a research team looking into building new online fora for professionals and patients to share and more widely shared medical records was one of the (long term!) objectives of that project, I recall.
It amazes me that after four years of needles, out of pocket payments and waiting rooms I still have absolutely no access to my own medical records. Crazy as.
The defence of privacy is usually a front for another argument...fear, threat, loss of control, etc...ref Wikileaks!
H
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February 2011
The 'you look well' comment is interesting. I have tended to say 'gee, thanks' - or at least think that it is a 'nice' thing for someone to say - but now I wonder what I am thanking someone for.
I don't doubt that people mean to be encouraging when they say 'you look really well'. But encouraging me is kind of beside the point. I am not playing a tennis match and there is no score I can achieve with the right encouragement. It is a comment that seems to hang around with nowhere to sit. So, as usual, the cancer survivor makes space somewhere for everyone and their comments to have a nice comfy seat.
'Thank you' has been easier than a no reply but I think I agree with your approach more and more, diannep52.
I find Saturday morning is a great time to sit and post here. It is a very centering activity for me and is usually followed by making bread, other writing, cooking and snoozing.
I like Saturdays.
H
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February 2011
Hi Allicat
This is an interesting discussion, isn't it.
I am glad you secretly feel brave. I do too, but I don't share that with anyone as it is only my self image and is really not anyone else's business. It is a different thing altogether from someone else calling me brave.
Someone else calling me brave suggests they have an image of me that they want me to adhere to. And that is not fair, especially as you point out it leaves the impression that things might get worse for the brave one.
This all leaves me thinking:
I am already aware of how bad things are, thanks very much. Don't tell me I am brave to make yourself feel better and more comfortable with the reality of my position. You might feel inspired by me, but that is nothing to do with me - it is your choice and does not place me in a role of being inspiring - so keep it to yourself and let's talk about something else if we can.
And:
I might feel brave but I will keep that to myself - that is nothing to do with you. I do not feel brave as a way of avoiding what is actually going on. I am extremely aware of what is going on in my body and bravery is completely irrelevant to that...so let's talk about something else...if we can.
H
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February 2011
Foxtel is good, too, especially all the food shows. I used to cue up the cooking shows and watch them end on end in between chemo and getting the PICC line dressed. I liked the aura that surrounded healthy food prepared well. It made me feel better and cooking was something I could do without overstretching.
Good luck with it, Vicki Anne.
H
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February 2011
welcome to the club...of migrants who call Australia home...there are so many places we have come from...and there is so much to learn from those who were here first...
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January 2011
Well I am back.
After six months or so of chemotherapy and other interventions I developed an urge to cook, cure, preserve and share food. I started to read about food for the first time in my life. Some of the good food writers like Stephanie Alexander and Marcella Hazan have a way with words as well as with ingredients. I liked reading them very much.
I did classes on making tomato sauce and sausages. I learned how to cure olives and how to turn extremely fatty belly pork into pancetta. Quince paste was next and then lemons. The pantry is now full of my jars of all this preserved food. Why do I do it?
I talkeed about this with a therapist a couple fo years ago and we agreed that I was fascinated by the very idea of preserving nutrition for later use. At the time I had no immune system and little sense of being healthy at all. Cooking and preserving was a way for me to feel healthy.
I read about food science and the sociology of food. A wonderful text is Feast: Why People Share Food by Martin Jones. He is an archaeologist who has turned his skills to exploring the nature of human eating. For example, he points out that humans are the only species that will eat with strangers and the only species that will make eye contact when eating. This suggest to Jones that sharing food is a social ritual as much as a biological one.
I also read Michael Pollan and Paul Roberts about the changing nature of food production. Pollan says we should eat food, not things that are manufactured to look like food.
I love being in a kitchen and starting off on something. It is an activity that makes me feel healthy. I relax immediately and zone off from other preoccupations.
I am looking forward to 'tomato day' with my daughters because it is a busy, fun day with lots of food and lots of bottles of passata stacked away for the next year. I still have about twenty jars from last year's preserving and the next lot will be done in March. Better get going on Italian.
When I did the tomato sauce class the mama who instructed us made a point of saying to us: "Don't fold your arms when you are cooking, it blocks the love". How good is that. That comment is one reason I have a soft spot for Italian cooking.
Similarly, Marcella Hazan says that Italian food is built from the bottom up, ie. olive oil, onion, carrot, celery, then the tomato, wine, stock, etc on top. The sauces tend to come from within the dish and are not made separately as much as, for example, in French food. That is partly why I love Italian so much. It is a gut feel replicated in a pot, warming and communicating. It screams to be shared.
Beats the hell out thinking about cancer.
H
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January 2011
In the four years I have been accommodating the diagnosis, treatment, recovery, recurrence, collateral damage, relationship changes, financial collapse and changed identity associated with cancer, I have thought a lot about the position I have given food in my life.
I have some observations to make based on some wide reading and my own experience of cooking, sharing and eating food. So I have asked the question "Why is food so important?" because I want to give my answer. Fair enough? And the topic of 'food' always gets peoples' attention. Doesn't it?
I have to stop now because it has just been made clear to me - in subtle ways designed for me alone - that it is my turn to do the shopping, and domestic harmony is crucial. See what I mean? I will be back later on today. If there are replies by then that would be great as the topic is one we all share regardless of what I write. Don't we?
H
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