BEANS FOR YOU!

I ate legumes on New Year's Day. Different cultures have different New Year traditions (some even have different days for the event). A U.S. Southern and Southwestern tradition is to eat humble food to ensure "plenty" during the coming year.

One side of my family hailed from the South, and they insisted nothing but black-eyed peas would do the trick. However, I was raised in the Southwest, and grew up eating pinto beans on New Year's Day. Of course, I often embellish the meal, this year serving a green enchilada casserole and a salad. Apparently, I'm not that humble.

The idea is to not ask too much of the fates, which don't admire grand requests from people who are already comfortable. It seems we're expected to want only a fair share.

In our nation, many of the formerly comfortable are becoming less so, and a number of those who were living just below the comfort level are now queueing up at food pantries.

What's gone wrong is a complex of issues; to study them is a bewildering and alarming experience. Clearly, though, our ideas of comfort have become unrealistic. We often focus on financial growth while neglecting the concept of "having enough." Ownership and consumerism rule the day, and we often define our comfort level by those false standards. We also tend to judge our neighbors by their acquisitional abilities.

Yes, me too--as my country contributes heavily to the degradation of Earth and practices economic colonialism, I reap a consumer's benefits. I am learning how transient those benefits are. Once Earth can no longer sustain life as we know it, and once we have achieved the luxurious support of the wealthy (to our own detriment), beans for supper will start looking pretty good.

And so, my New Year's wish for myself, my neighbors in Norwood, and the world is: beans. Enough for healthy food, an Earth friendly to biological life, and the love and fascination that make living good.

It's a humble enough wish to appease the fates, and it's realistic to hope we can make the changes necessary to accomplish it.

Together Yes extends a New Year's greeting to all.

We welcome inquiries, ideas, and suggestions at sustain@tgryes.org. Our website is: www.tgryes.org.