Happy 2012: Where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light….

Dear Reader, welcome to a blog that I’ve been writing since January 2005, some years with more dedication than others.  I’m hoping that I’ll keep to a better writing schedule here this year than last, fingers crossed.   Did I make this as a New Year’s Resolution?  Not really. 

I did take the time to count my many blessings as one year passed into another, and thanked God for them.  The big and the small.  One of the things that I thanked God for blessing me with was this blog and the ability to write it, the simple life I’m living, and you, Dear Reader, who sometimes leave comments or sending emails to me.  The internet is amazing, isn’t it?  People connecting who would otherwise never meet.

I’m not Catholic.  However, I do appreciate a lot about the Catholic Church and one of those things is the Catholic observance of the New Year.  Here’s a discussion of how Catholic families all over the world celebrated New Year’s Day yesterday.  Thought I’d share this prayer from St. Francis of Assisi, which I find particularly beautiful.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

R. Amen. —St. Francis of Assisi

God bless you and yours, Dear Reader.

Book Review: Shiny Objects by James A. Roberts

There are those that will shelve Jim Roberts' new book Shiny Objects next to Levitt and Dubner's Freakonomics or Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point, and they wouldn't be wrong -- Roberts is also contributing to a growing number of books being published these days that are looking around at the state of things in America and asking what the heck is going on here.

I think it's good to see these books getting published.  I like the idea that people are buying books to read and consider reevaluating where our society is today, how we got here, and where we're going.

So why bother with this one?  What Shiny Objects brings to the table is something that seems almost like a whistleblower at work: Roberts, as a marketing expert (and professor of consumer behavior at Baylor University), brings a marketing perspective to the table.

The promise of the book's subtitle: to explain "why we spend money we don't have in search of happiness we can't buy."  Roberts does this in a series of chapters that range from consideration of the Christian Megachurches (e.g., Joel Osteen's Lakewood) to the impact of our increasingly cashless society (i.e., using credit or debit cards) and psychological discussions of self-worth and self-control.

It's a fascinating read, and you'll learn a lot here.  I don't know that we'll all learn the same thing, though.

Dr. Roberts covers a lot of territory and asks a lot of hard questions: why are we so materialistic? What amount of  responsibility do home owners have to bear for the housing crisis (as opposed to big banks, mortgage servicers, or slippery appraisers)?  Things like that.

His book has lots of quizzes, fun ones too, and I always consider it as a sign of excellence when a problem is not only identified but a solution (or two) are offered.  Roberts does this.  Roberts guides the reader into contemplating personal goals and implementing change.

For this reason alone, this book is worth your time and I recommend that you read it.  

However, I don't know that consumer behavior alone is sufficient to explain what has happened to America today.  We need to read and understand what Professor Roberts provides us in Shiny Objects, but it's not the whole answer here.

Recognizing the irony of participating in his Word of Mouth marketing campaign in providing this review on a simplicity blog (I did get the book for free, see my earlier post), I don't know that marketing alone gives us the entire answer.

Reminds me of the old poem, one of my favorites, by John Godfrey Saxe about The Blind Men and the Elephant.  Roberts gives us important information here, if we as a country are to change and recover; however, while Shiny Objects reads as if it alone can provide all the change that each of us needs, I don't think this is possible.

As a Christian, I would suggest that only the Holy Bible can do that job.  That's one book too few people are pondering today.
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Plastic and Food Safety: Is It Dangerous to Store Food in Plastic Containers? Are Plastics Poisoning Our Food?

Putting your food in plastic containers to store in the fridge, or to heat (or cook) in the microwave: is it safe?  What about buying food that has been packaged in plastic - has that food been compromised?  Does plastic poison food and make the food toxic or carcinogenic?

1.  Answer:  No One Knows - But Some Are Worried

It's pretty much a given among those in both the food and packaging industries that any food that is put into plastic (wrapped, boxed, whatever) will have some of that plastic "leach" or "migrate" into the food.  It's even got a name:  "inevitable transfer."

Doesn't that make you feel safe already?  


In a quote on WebMD, a researcher from Tufts University is quoted, explaining that "virtually all" food that is put into plastic will have trace amounts of plastic leach or migrate into the food.  Heat the food, and this increases.  Also, put certain types of food in plastic and there will be more transfer than with other types of food:  fats, acids, and salts boost the transfer dance.

When asked how much gets from the plastic to the food to our bodies, the Tufts researcher replied that no one really knows -- no research exists to give us an answer to that question.

It gets better.  According to the senior scientist with the EnvironmentalWorking Group, also quoted by WebMD, when food containers are considered "safe" these days, it's not because they have been proved to be safe, but because they have not been proven to be dangerous.  That's a big difference. 

BPA Is Scary

BPA is found in lots and lots of plastic food packaging, and (surprise) it was considered safe until some folk looked a little deeper into the issue and decided that maybe BPA isn't so safe after all.

Scientists are already warning that BPA may be toxic to humans - and while lots of warnings have gone out about water bottles made with BPA, the bigger issue is the BPA that is found in canned foods.  These days, lots of cans are lined with plastic and then food is put in them.  The BPA in that plastic can lining is already known to leach into the food AND into the human body.  What happens then?  No one knows the whole story yet but it is known that BPA will mess with human hormones, particularly estrogen.

Phthalates Are Scary, Too

Phthalates is a name given to a bunch of chemicals used in all sorts of stuff, and today it's sad but true that these phthalates ("THAL-ates") float around in the indoor dust we breathe.  Already, most Americans have phthalates in their bodies according to research studies by the Center for Disease Control, and they are serious even that they've been banned in Europe for several years now.

How does this stuff get into our bodies?  Get this:  it's not clear.  Some think it comes through what we eat, from plastic packaging for example.

What is known is that phthalates also mess with human hormones, in this case, testosterone.

Oh, and cooking in Teflon?  While I was reading up on this, I ran across a warning on WebMD that warns to never cook on non-stick cookware with a pet bird in the kitchen, because the fumes from overheated non-stick cookware can kill the bird "in seconds."

Oh, that makes me feel safe. 

2  What to Do?  Avoid Plastic as Much as Possible, Of Course.


Here are some 15 tips to get Plastics Out of Your Food:

1.  cook in cast iron
2.  avoid a microwave
3.  if you must use a microwave, then wrap your food in paper towels when heating and place on a real plate, not a plastic one
4.  use wax paper to wrap food for storing in the fridge (get some rubber bands, it helps)
5.  save glass jars and reuse them for food storage
6.  eat off of glass plates
7.  drink out of glassware not plastic
8. use metal forks, knives, and spoons (or wooden ones for cooking)
9. throw out your plastic stuff
10.  don't use parchment paper -- it's covered with a "Non-Stick"coating and that is silicon and it's sometimes got some sulfuric acid, too.  It's not just paper. 
11. buy fresh food as much as possible
12. observe how food is packaged and avoid plastic packaging as much as possible, especially plastic bottles
13. once home, store all food in non-plastic containers
14. do not cook with plastic stuff (microwave plates, plastic spoons, nonstick ware)
15.  do not eat with plastic stuff (plastic plates, glasses, etc.) - get paper plates if you don't want to wash dishes!

Sources (in addition to the above hyperlinks):

WebMD (and links therein)
FDA
Harvard.edu (and links therein)
Univ of Houston (and links therein)
NIH