Nothing is Easy

Ian Anderson was so right when he sang that lyric in the Jethro Tull song by the same name. Even the simplest action or decision requires deliberation, consideration, administration. To wit, the Clueless Husband whose Concerned Wife sends him to market with the admonition not to buy [fill in the blank] if it contains BHA or BHT or Red Dye #2 or High Fructose Corn Syrup or Trans Fatty Acids or Aspartame or Gluten or Refined Sugar, Also, only buy [fill in the blank] which are Organic or Pesticide-Free or Locally-Grown, is Fair Trade-Certified, Kosher, and has 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Packaging. Or better still, No Packaging.*

I'm riffing here, but seriously, we have spawned a nation of nervous nellies afraid to step on a crack, or they'll break an oppressed monkey's back.

The Label Readers, a Novel by John Grisham. A New York Times Bestseller. Printed with non-GMO soy-based ink on organic phyllo dough.

In days of yore, when suburbanites covered their sofas in clear vinyl, all you had to look for was the Good Housekeeping Seal. Things were so easy then. Shopping used to be a gentleman's sport, like lawn bowling. One could buy almost anything without a second thought, let alone a pang of guilt. Nowadays, shopping requires the skillfulness of a gymnast on the pommel horse performing a high-difficulty-factor routine. And if that weren't enough, the Russian judge had one too many shots of vodka last night and the Chinese judge is none too happy with what was posted on his Facebook Great Wall this morning.

Even though they are on sale, those tulip-perfect, pesticide-questionable peppers from Holland, which are a joy to behold, come all the way from, well, Holland. That's a costly commute. On the other hand, the locally-grown, organic, sustainably-farmed peppers cost an arm and a leg and really don't look so great. But I've a romesco sauce to prepare, damn it, and I need peppers! I'm Keanu Reeves in Speed and Dennis Hopper is posing an on-the-horns-of-a-dilemma question, What are you going to do, hotshot?

Ultimately, I compromise in my choices. Striving for balance and moderation, I eschew the straight-jacket of orthodoxy. See, Aristotle was so right also, when he proposed striking a middle ground between two extremes. And who I'm I to dispute the wisdom of The Golden Mean?  It's progress what counts, not perfection.


That last part is something I've learned in my other program.

Oh, and that romesco sauce?  Yum.

*In.gredients in Austin,Texas.

The first package-free, zero-waste grocery store.