The Meaning of Life

I'll get to the meaning of life in a moment, but there are some days when I just feel compelled to tell someone - anyone - about what I managed to eat through the course of the day. Today is one of those days. And this is precisely why I have a blog - so I don't bore my wife and my friends absolutely to death. Reader, beware!

I started, as I always do, with a pot of tea - Mt. Everest Breakfast Blend this morning, from www.specialteas.com. Tea and a couple of oatmeal apple muffins. The power was out when I woke up and I was thankful that we have a gas stove in our new house. That will be, parenthetically, one of the few times I express gratitude for natural gas this heating season.

Over tea and muffins, the power still out, unable to check e-mail, I read Wendell Berry essays out loud to the dogs. I started with "Why I Am Not Going To Buy A Computer" (1987), and then got halfway through "Feminism, The Body, And The Machine" (1989). The dogs were more interested in the muffins.

After breaking fast, I headed out to watch a couple of hockey games. I'm sidelined with a sprained knee right now, but my team and the other team in my league both had games this morning. I went to cheer. I had a large Dunkin Donuts coffee - milk, no sugar - to keep my hands warm.

On the way home, I picked up dog food - Eukanuba All Natural Lamb and Rice is what we've been feeding the pups for a year or so - and some people food - organic, regionally-raised milks (skim and 2%), puffed rice cereal, organic spinach, bananas, sweet potatoes, oranges - from South Africa, I'm curflumoxed to say.

I also stopped at a nearby healthfood store to check out the glucosomine/chondroitin products. When the clerk asked if he could help, I asked if he knew the source of the chondroitin. Stumped. Shellfish, he suggested? Nope. As I understand it all chondroitin comes from one of two sources: shark cartiledge or bovine trachea. I just learned about this the other day. Some scientists suggest that there's a slight potential risk of acquiring Mad Cow Disease from bovine sourced chondroitin, although nothing conclusive has been proven, and the likelihood is slim. It's trachea after all, not spinal cord. Still, more than a few say we ought to be using chondroitin from shark cartiledge just to be on the safe side. I'm all over safe.

This was all news to the clerk. He looked confused. I felt a wee bit guilty about knowing more than the health food clerk. And, if you must know, a wee bit proud. I bought nothing. I headed out.

At home, I had a second breakfast - puffed rice cereal with banana and soy milk - did a little work, spent some time working out - trying to limber up and begin to strengthen my knee - and then had some lunch. Lunch was a little plate of leftovers: Swiss chard, which had been sauteed with garlic in olive oil, with a touch of lemon juice and feta cheese added at the end; a brown rice pilaf with apricots, cranberries, and pumpkin seeds; an orange.

And now I've just wrapped up dinner. Marinated, grilled London Broil, from the local, grass-fed, organic, growth hormone- and antibiotic- free Belted Galloway steer in our freezer. Baked winter squash from our farm. Steamed organic broccoli and cauliflower, the latter from our farm. A glass of organic red wine from Italia.

So, here's the scorecard:
Superfoods scored: 9
Missing in action: 5
And that's not too bad; especially considering that 2 of the 5 aren't daily requirements. (I'll have to blog about SuperFoods soon!) It's the first time I've counted in a while. And the first time I've exercised in a while. So, life is good.

But what was I going to write about? Ah, yes. The meaning of that good life. But it really deserves its own entry, doesn't it?