I, Too, Sing America

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

and grow strong

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed–

I, too, am America.

 Spring and all

William Carlos Williams

By the road to the contagious hospital

under the surge of the blue

mottled clouds driven from the

northeast- a cold wind.  Beyond, the

waste of broad, muddy fields

brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water

the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish

purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy

stuff of bushes and small trees

with dead, brown leaves under them

leafless vines-

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish

dazed spring approaches-

They enter the new world naked,

cold, uncertain of all

save that they enter.  All about them

the cold, familiar wind-

Now the grass, tomorrow

the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf

One by one objects are defined-

It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf

But now the stark dignity of

entrance- Still, the profound change

has come upon them: rooted, they

grip down and begin to awaken.

And after reading Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I had some knowledge about the benefits of sustainable living and community-supported agriculture.

Now Pollan’s book has given me much more to think about. The idea, for instance, that some food is “food” and some food that looks “normal” has been processed beyond anything our great-grandparents would recognize. Another new concept to me is nutritionism, which according to Wikipedia “is an ideology that assumes that it is the scientifically identified nutrients in foods that determine their value in the diet.” Seemingly this idea alone has created a western food culture that has made us not healthier, but fatter. And reading that our diet has shifted from leaf-based to largely nut-based was a radical idea to me. We have basically excluded one set of vital nutrient sources in favor of another, perhaps less beneficial, one, to our apparent detriment.

I would recommend perhaps reading this book instead of listening. Like many informational books, there are a lot of facts to be gleaned, and reading would allow you to take them at your own pace. In addition, there was something about the reader’s voice—the pitch, the inflection, something—that was a bit grating at times.

Will In Defense of Food cause me to completely change my diet? That remains to be seen. I agree with many of the principles Pollan puts forth; a few of them are already near to my heart. But I have ordered this book for my husband, in the hope that maybe we can make a concerted effort to change the way our family eats. Letting go of decades of eating habits won’t be easy, but ya gotta start somewhere … 

            While interwoven with his own experience with Not-for-Profits, what Clinton refers to as NGOs, the former president gives a detailed overview of who’s who in the world of giving.  Each chapter gives a different slant on the giving model and explores different ways the reader can also begin to give more generously themselves.  Clinton’s recommendations range from giving time to money, from micro-credit programs to being a big brother/big sister. 

            The breadth of Clinton’s charitable work is on full display as the writer gives case after case of his work since leaving the Oval Office.  This does not mean Clinton is writing solely about his own exploits, but rather weaves is own experiences in an almost secondhand way.  By telling of his friends and partners in the Clinton Foundation, the author shows the intricate web of people needed to run a modern NGO, and briefly shows the hurdles that face many non-profits.

            The book, though sometimes listy, read very fluidly and without any of the catches that often keep people from finishing non-fiction books.  Each idea led easily to the next and kept the pace of the book from being broken.  This is important when dealing with a subject of such grave importance as charitable giving.

            However, the true gem of this book lies in the individual lives the readers are allowed to briefly glimpse.  Clinton praises the spirit of humanity that shines bright in a doctor who has given his life to fighting treatable illnesses in Haiti or that of a young rape victim, infected with AIDS, who donates her time and energies back to the clinic that had provided medicines to her for a drastically reduced price thanks to a global non-profit collaboration.  The volunteers and victims giving each other reason and hope lends the reader a bit of the positive energy men like Bill Clinton are privy to each day.

            In the end, the book’s title proved to be apt.  Not only does the book present a broad view of the way millions give of themselves each day, it gave this reader hope that we can come together and make the world a little better through giving.