 Yesterday at the fruit market pumpkins were $2. Couldn’t resist buying one.
This morning I made soup. Fried up a chopped onion in the big pot, then added chopped up pumpkin (only used half), two chopped carrots, a potato and some celery. To this I added brown rice, red lentils and split peas that I had soaked overnight. (Not much – just about a tablespoon of each). When all this started to smell delicious as it gently fried, I added about 2 litres of water and three chicken stock cubes. From the freezer I took containers of chicken stock made from the remains of long-ago-eaten chicken and added about one litre of that and stirred in half a teaspoon each of salt and curry powder. Once the soup was gently bubbling away I left it to simmer for a couple of hours. Later (when the soup is cooled a little) I will puree it in the food processor, together with herbs from the garden, including parsley, rosemary, garlic chives and a little mint. Tonight, it will be served hot with a sprinkle of extra parsley and a blob of Greek yoghurt. We will eat it with a thick slice of warm buttered Turkish bread. Yum! Now, I know that there are only two of us to eat this, but it will do for about three meals. And yes, I know that the energy needed to cook the soup probably cost a small amount (even taking into account our solar panels) and the vegetables and other additions originally cost something – as did the Turkish bread…BUT it will be a delicious and filling meal and all for $1 pumpkin +. Can’t help but have a feeling of smugness as I contemplate my old-fashioned frugality!
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 Way back in October last year, I posted a blog on the SSM debate and the proposed plebiscite. In the blog I wrote that, as it was ‘none of my business’, I would most likely just leave any voting form blank – that is, if it did come to pass that we, the populace, would get to vote on the matter.
My ideas have changed in the year since I wrote that. Although I still think that it is none of my business, I did come to see the need to vote. And the need to vote ‘Yes’. I learnt that there are more than a few people for whom this decision is very important; a vote in favour of SSM would give them a feeling of equality that they have missed out on and a feeling of inclusion instead of exclusion. In the past few weeks people have been willing to disclose how they voted. I have not pressed people for their views but some have been offered. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised by my church-going Christian friends telling me that they voted ‘No’ because it (SSM) didn’t seem right and didn’t match their Christian views on marriage. I refrained from pointing out the obvious fact that this debate concerned civil marriage and has no effect on religious ceremonies at all. I also didn’t point out that the founder of their Christian Church maintained that the most important ‘law’ of all is ‘to love your neighbour as yourself’ as well as the so-called ‘Golden Rule’ to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’*. Surely that means (basically) to be kind and loving towards ALL people and not just the ones who subscribe to your personal beliefs. So… anyway, here were a couple of ‘No’ votes. Friends of this same couple also voted ‘No’. I was a little taken aback to hear that, as they have a gay son. When I stated my surprise I was told that the gay son also voted ‘No’, because he could see nothing good in marriage. Ah, so no thoughts of compassion for his gay comrades, then? So… that’s another three ‘No’ votes. A close relative told me the other day that she was ‘so sick of this same sex thing’ that she voted ‘No’ – just to ‘get rid of it’. She also filled in ‘No’ for her middle-aged son who was just too lazy to fill in his own form. So…there’s another two ‘No’ votes. Jeepers, did anyone vote ‘Yes’? My 19 year-old grandson was one of the very few who asked me how I voted. At my answer of ‘Yes’, he had no comment at all. I didn’t ask him what box he ticked but I guessed it was the ‘Yes’ one. So, that’s one vote for ‘Yes’ (mine) and possibly another from the grandson. So… what will it be? A few weeks ago, I thought that the ‘Yes’ vote would romp in with a huge swell. Now I am not so sure. But the time has come. Tomorrow the result of Australia’s public vote on Same Sex Marriage will be announced. And then the ‘fun’ will start! Give me strength! *Do unto others as you would have them do unto you definition: A command based on words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount : “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” The Mosaic law contains a parallel commandment: “Whatever is hurtful to you, do not do to any other person.”  I have seen the horror pictures of the acres of plastic pollution floating in the world’s oceans. It’s the stuff of nightmares. We are told that by the year 2050, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. Think about that!
On recent walks with my little dog I have noticed ever-increasing pieces of litter scattered throughout the several acres of parkland near my home. So much so that yesterday afternoon I took a garbage bag on the walk and gathered up the tossed plastic drink bottles, empty chip packets and other rubbish. By the time I reached a bin, my bag was full to overflowing. Did my small act of rubbish collection achieve anything, I wonder. Perhaps not - but I feel a great need to stop at least some stuff from being swept into the drains during the next tropical downpour. This plastic pollution of our seas is killing fish and other sea life, including birds. So, what a minuscule act of mine that was, compared with the problem that exists – and yet, if everyone – EVERYONE - did what I did yesterday and picked up a few bits and pieces…wait, hang on…if everyone FIRSTLY did NOT throw rubbish where they stood, but dealt responsibly with it, the problem would surely be greatly minimised. But is it too late? I will not start on the excessive plastic packaging situation, nor will I go on about the ridiculous use of single use shopping bags, nor the production of never-ending (often useless) plastic ‘goods’. It makes my head spin. And yet… And yet… Is this the worst problem that faces today’s world? My head is more than spinning when I try to follow it all and make some sense of what’s going on. My head is almost exploding with the problems of the world and every time I sit at the desk to add a blog post, my mind feels like the ocean – filled with rubble - but this rubble isn’t plastic pieces; it’s all the awful things that are going on in this world of ours. What is happening? Sure, there are still nice and good and helpful and positive actions taking place daily around the globe but…but…far too many not nice, not good, not helpful, negative things occurring. In Australia we have the inhumane act of keeping asylum seekers imprisoned on Manus Island for years. Nothing short of torture. Australian politics in general is in disarray, with stupid distractions forever keeping the government from doing its job of – yes – governing. Australia is about to gift billions of $$$ to an Indian coal miner – instead of funding renewable energy solutions. (Can you believe it?) In USA, there is Donald Trump. What can I say, except he is now the whole world’s problem, it seems. Over the entire world there is the threat of global warming…It is not going away! I keep thinking, ‘I must write about that’ and then change my mind because it’s either too horrible, too upsetting or simply unbelievable (think Donald Trump). It’s almost like I’ve developed an allergic reaction to my computer, as each time I move towards it to write, I feel compelled to back away – too unwilling to put words into a blog. But, here I am and I have written something. Make sense of it if you can. I can’t. |
