During the month, I highlighted one meal throughout a given day that traveled to my plate compassionately. I tried to eat locally to help stimulate the local farming economy. I started ordering meat from Green Zabiha, a grass-fed and organic meat provider in the VA area.  Naturally, I ended up eating less meat because the process of attaining the meat was intentional and costly, but I was willing to pay the premium, knowing where my meat came from and knowing that the animals were treated with dignity. I ended up cooking most of my meals which yes, also took time. But again, it was worth it to me to take time out for myself and prepare a healthy a meal.

It was an incredible month of conditioning, self-reflection and appreciation of my blessings. Through each day, I felt as though I was creating a reciprocal relationship of compassion and nourishment for my body. The process became a way for me to worship the Creator for providing me with sustenance as well as demanding respect for my body, while making sure it was nourished with good foods. By making a production out of the meals, I felt as though I was preserving the integrity of the food and allowing myself the opportunity to be intentional about what I put in my body.

Habits change slowly and steadily. The vision behind this change of habit was not a reactionary approach; I wasn’t trying to deny myself by going on a diet. Rather, I allowed myself to think about the possibility of fresh and healthy meals which made me feel better than I ever have about my diet. Instead of thinking about what I wasn’t eating, I conditioned myself to think about everything I was enjoying and how it was preserving my health.

Also, food unites people. By making an event out of my meals, I took the time to invite people over and share what I was eating. This strengthened the bonds between friends. It felt like we were all in this fight together. Sharing my images on Facebook also put me back in touch with people I haven’t talked to in years because again, food brings people together. That is also what I have been seeing in Jamie Oliver’s show Food Revolution. Oliver won a TED award for his work of revamping Britain’s school lunch program. In his show, Oliver goes to a city in West Virginia, labeled as the unhealthiest in America by the CDC, to hold up a mirror to folks about the rubbish children are eating in schools. You can watch free episodes here.

Happy eats!

About 30 days ago, I started a Compassion Food photo blog on Facebook. (I’ll save the details for next week’s topic on Food.) For 30 days, I made a vow to eat only grass-fed organic meat, mostly greens, ultimately making sure that whatever traveled to my plate was treated compassionately and in turn, I was showing compassion to body. The response on Facebook has been so encouraging. I had people I haven’t talked to in years emailing me, encouraging the message behind the photo blog. People I didn’t know also messaged me. This got me thinking about social networking and the power behind finding a niche audience to push for social change; perhaps for purposes of this article, we’ll call this group a tribe.

The idea of tribes is age-old. People have come together in clumps around gender, ethnicity, kin, and religion for thousands of years. Today, with the plethora of ideas out there, it can seem overwhelming to get people organized around a given cause. For example, I am particularly interested in environmental advocacy. There have been times were I felt like any work I do barely makes a dent on the larger issues at hand. I am starting to realize, specifically through the research of folks like Seth Godin and David Logan that you don’t need to get thousands of people on your team to see societal progression. You just need to find a tribe that believes in what you believe in and connect them to other tribes who can act as allies. That is how we can achieve sustained change. The people who commented on my photo blog are probably coming from a similar mindset; they are thinking about what kind of food to put in their bodies and perhaps how to eat healthier and more aware of the impact our consumption has on the world.

For those of us interested in demanding a higher consciousness of society, progression and social justice, the idea of finding a few passionate people on our side seems much less overwhelming than finding scores. Social networking can be a tool used to find these people. Be it through Facebook, Twitter, Linkedn, what have you, the possibilities of connecting with like-minded individuals is boundless. Now, let’s get to it!

It all began in our freshman seminar led by our goofy instructor who we later found out used to be a clown. He taught us about creative expression, improv and taking risks. On the first day of class, I noticed her red slippers fashioned with red ribbons as an added touch by hers truly. Perhaps, she couldn’t ignore my inquisitive eyes longing to make a connection with the only other brown person in the room. Alas, after many more awkward encounters, we became friends—the Pakistani American Muslim girl and the Indian American “culturally” Hindu girl. Our budding friendship found safe-haven in an undergrad American playground when perhaps elsewhere in the world, this wouldn’t be the case.

Our friendship blossomed, leading us to plan a trip to Europe. We went from London to Paris, stayed in Madrid for a few days and then took a train to Italy. It was a spectacular rewriting of a personal narrative but it took a toll on our friendship. Traveling with people can be difficult and by the end of the trip, we couldn’t look at each other. Nothing memorable happened to prompt this type of attitude on either of our parts. Perhaps it was too much of a good thing. In any event, when we got back to the States, I wasn’t sure our friendship could survive.

Time went on as it always does. We stayed in touch and let things flow as they always do. Fast-forward two years and I found myself writing my Master’s thesis in a particularly difficult spot. My advisor told me I needed to hire a copy editor to read my thesis and I couldn’t afford it. My friend sat with me, line by line, fixing my thesis. This process took days seeing as how my paper was over 50 pages. It was during this process that I realized the strength of our bond. It transcended demographic expectation, the headaches of travel, and the test of time to a place of genuine desire for the other to succeed. It was this selflessness that is memorable. Friends are with you through the big hurdles; they ride the waves with you but more importantly, they sit with you through the mundane little things, line by line, and word by word.

As Americans, it is easy to avoid thinking about water issues because we seem less affected than developing countries. Perhaps this is true, but that doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to the likes of Vivendi, Nestle and Perrier who want to sell a public good in the US and beyond.

People have a connection with their land and the resources reaped from the land. I would argue that many wars are fought not over political ideologies but scarcity of resources. Privatizing water for profit establishes an unfortunate dynamic which promotes a world where profit is promoted before life, a world where everything and anything becomes a commodity.

I am not suggesting we forget that providing water to residents is not free. It costs money to pump water and provide it to residents. Public utility rate systems in some US metropolitan cities provide incentives to consumers to reduce water consumption, charging more or less depending on use. The point being, these public agencies are more interested in the public good and held to a standard by the federal government to provide safe drinking water. I cannot say that a private company would have the same motivations, seeing as how their primary interest is profit. Perhaps there is a middle way for public and private agencies to work together but in any event, water is life and should not be used as a source of profit.

More information:

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/general/

I was watching a TED talk by MIT scientist Rebecca Saxe on how the human mind is programmed to feel for others. In fact, there is a part of the brain that controls our ability to empathize. Development of this part of the brain is shown to start in young children, all the way up to young adults. This got me thinking; how does one develop this part of the brain in a healthy way? How do we connect with others? As we were taught in kindergarten, it is through communication. Listening, a part of the communication exchange, can be the gateway to developing empathy.

In a world where we are bombarded with social networking tools reducing us to character quotas and static impressions of our day, it is even more necessary to consciously take time to listen and empathize with the people who matter in our lives. If we don’t, isolation and detachment will continue to disconnect us from belonging to the collective, which as humans is a natural and necessary predilection.

With the advancement of technology mobilizing every part of our lives, we can choose who and what enters our psyche. We choose what phone calls to answer. We choose which Facebook messages to reciprocate. Technology has made us extremely efficient. But at what expense? If we decide that efficiency is one of the most important values, perhaps it is possible when choosing to perk an ear to what we care to hear and nothing else, we miss out on ideas and deepening of relationships, which best occur happenstance. Technology encourages a measured life and the likelihood of chance encounters is hard to come by.

That said, communication technology could prove to be a productive tool for rekindling lost relationships, even if they do seem superficial. But I am left wondering about the fulfillment level of such relationships. I operate with the assumption that as a society we should move towards a higher level of awareness. When I apply this to my relationships, communicating constructively, mainly through listening, is an important way for me to deepen my connections.

To be better listeners, we are often forced to put our own feelings aside to better understand the person’s state of mind. We are put in a position to comprehend the underlying emotions in the content of the message, in hopes of giving appropriate feedback. We look for non-verbal communication, which helps us understand the unsaid. We become at the disposal of our loved ones for a short snippet of time and in that moment, we learn to get out of own heads and connect with someone whose well-being matters to us. We allow them the space to vent and give them guidance from what we know. In this process, we define our role in the collective good, following suit with the designations in our brain, which gives us the space to empathize.

Gahh! No more seats on the subway! My arm shot up at the hand railings lining the top of the car, in hopes of finding free space amongst a crowd of tired and hungry workers ready to call it a day. During peak hours, the subway defies all social norms of personal space.

On occasion, I have found my face in armpits, smelling scents I wish I hadn’t and avoiding glaring eyes awkwardly positioned in front of me. These occurrences evoke an uncontrollable, yet thankfully silent snicker within. Expecting the usual today, I gripped the hand railing, bracing myself for a bumpy and claustrophobic ride.

Despite the subway quirks, being in a space that is shared by so many people creates opportunities for interaction, having the potential to inspire us. I noticed a girl reading a book called Water Wars. Thus began my journey into understanding the global water crisis. It started with a girl on the subway and deepened with the discovery of a soul sister, Vandana Shiva, the author of Water Wars.

A literal tree hugger, Vandana Shiva was inspired by Chipko movement in India, where women resisted deforestation by practicing the Gandhian method of satyagraha, non-violent resistance. Shiva is an environmentalist and eco-feminist, authoring numerous books on these topics. Luckily, I got my hands on Water Wars and started learning of the global water crisis that plagues much of the world, prompting some to say that water is the next oil.

Thankful for the newfound wisdom that Shiva provided me, I started to delve deeper into her background. Being a South Asian woman, I identified with the gender and cultural similarities we share. I found it endearing to know of a kindred spirit coming from the land tilled by my ancestry. She stands up against opposition which seeks to manipulate the land as they see fit without any regard for the present ecosystem. Particularly sensitive to women’s issues, Shiva recognizes that women are oftentimes the most likely to suffer from environmental degradation. They are the ones who travel miles for water, feeling the affects of arsenic-polluted water pumps on their bare feet. In a documentary, I saw her marching with women who opposed a Coca Cola plant from withdrawing groundwater and polluting a city in India. From her work, it is clear that Shiva believes it is imperative to provide information to people so they can take control of their environment, not falling prey to internal governance issues or foreign aide regulations.

Feeling inspired from Shiva’s activism, I couldn’t help but question where I stood with my passions. Being an activist is no easy gig. With a high turn-over, it can be a lonely journey. In fact, especially with environmental activism, the issues are so expansive that our efforts feel like a drop in the ocean. Even legitimacy in the eyes of policy-makers can be hard to attain. It is fair to say that Shiva faced a lot of opposition from people who didn’t share her world-view. But at the end of the day, she followed her conscience and she continues to do so.

When thinking about my own passions, I can only hope to do the same, even though I struggle with much of the aforementioned issues. Without conflating ‘activist’ and ‘radical’ too much, I am reminded of my dear friend who shared with me the meaning of ‘radical.’ It comes from the word ‘root.’ Yes! Root! Negative connotations are attached to the word ‘radical’ because it has been used to label abnormal acts. But if we take a step back and try to understand the source of the word, maybe we can begin to grasp a deeper understanding of what it means to be a radical. A radical individual is focused on getting to the root cause of a given issue. They are in search for truth and justice. It is not an easy position to take because it can be difficult to internally sustain but I believe that a radical is someone who finds satisfaction in the normative view of the world. They have a vision of what the world should be like with justice and equality—-this belief is deep-seeded within their soul. It is a self-sustaining. The radicals who are able to fight for their cause day-in and day-out recognize the cause is bigger than them and they can only sustain this world-view if their soul is aligned with their action.

And this is Vandana Shiva, who continues to spend her life aligning her desire to see justice with the world she resides in—-she is truly an inspiration.