The Nutmeg’s Curse

It’s funny or maybe not how a common pantry staple like a bottle of nutmeg was once a resource the Dutch East India Company harvested with slave labor in the global south in the eighteenth century.

I won’t tolerate capitalist racism like that and which is still going on in Asia and elsewhere. I will tell you to check out of the library or even buy and read The Nutmeg’s Curse by Amital Ghosh. The Brooklyn author exposes the biggest culprit of climate change as gas-guzzling U.S. military machines.

Refugees flee their home countries because of the wars. Ninety-five percent are law-abiding citizens. The floods and wildfires that climate change cause are what uproot people to America as well.

I’ve been anti-war for decades. I frown on nationalism too.

The neoliberal political creed centers personal responsibility as the marker of economic security–when it’s systems and policies like neoliberalism that keep people in our place.

No–I’m not always Green and in light of the fact that capitalism is the cause of climate change.

A woman I helped out as a thank-you gift gave me a plastic bottle of strawberry poundcake foaming hand wash. I took the gift and will buy another bottle for myself as I’ve come to like it.

So–ease up on yourself when you order take-out in a plastic container. Recycle the container and be satisfied you’re done with it.

The greater harm is that hot plastic leaches chemicals into food. So–transfer the food to a dish when it arrives.

I’m all for giving a Thank You that delights the receiver.

Discovering a Better Life

The subtitle of the book above tells it all about the theme: How to Discover a Better Life. I submit that we can create improved health, wealth, and happiness for ourselves by engaging in a simple joy. This happy habit doesn’t cost $3,500 and can be had for a song throughout the year.

In synchronicity, I found the book The Art of Flaneuring: How to Wander with Intention and Discover a Better Life.

Italians in Italy take a passeggiata in the evening after dinner.

The author Erika Owen gets at the penchant for fashion flair on a jaunt thus: “The nightly passeggiata is seen as an opportunity to flaunt your best style. Locals dress up and, as they pass, gossip on what (or who) everyone is wearing.”

In an early chapter Owen quotes people on their walking habits and why they engage in flaneuring.

Per Justin:

“I like to think this parallels life. The struggle makes you appreciate the beauty.”

Like other flaneurs he was aware that the issues you face dissolve as you get in physical activity.

Owen attests that for women:

“It was a long fight to win our places on the sidewalk, one we’re still battling to this day.”

Owen tells readers to check out Jacqueline L. Scott’s blog Black Outdoors to read the post “A Black Flaneur in the ‘Hood.”

For the cost of a pair of walking shoes and the right athletic gear to flaneur in this hobby is a cheaper alternative to jet-setting.

Even rolling down the street in a wheelchair can be an act of flaneuring. Or rolling down the road in a park.

Airplane Mode

Everyone should read this book which exposes the racist colonial exploration roots of modern tourism.

I’ve had no interest at all in traveling to Asia or the Caribbean Islands or anywhere that local people live in poverty.

Nor do I like going to beaches–and Coney Island is a beach right in my hometown that is famous. Why would I go to Cambodia to fry on a beach when I don’t want to glisten in the sun in my own backyard.

Plus–hello–I’m a woman so traveling alone in another country is risky.

Airplane Mode was unsettling in its reality that American tourists are really only engaging in consumerism when they travel the globe and buy trinkets and souvenirs in India and Africa.

I would be interested in reading about the demographic composition of tourists: their source of income; their mindset; why they have the need to travel 12 hours on an airplane to bake on a beach in Bali.

Other countries build new hotels to keep up with the demand for tourists coming into their lands.

I just don’t get the love of beaches and cruises and the desire to see the Taj Mahal or Great Wall of China either

Nor do I have any interest whatsoever in traveling to Paris where it’s said they don’t like Americans as we won’t learn French.

There’s a better way of spending our extra money that I’m going to talk about in a coming blog entry.

It hinges on treasuring what we have and living a life we love. Without needing to go into debt to go on vacation to escape burnout or grind culture or other toxic trouble.

For one I think a person can find the job they love and remain employed at it. Not that the paycheck is always going to be great. Yet you can love your life right where you are.

Yes choosing carefully what we spend money on–and opting to forego the Cambodian Carnival Cruise in favor of fun right at home–could be the ticket to paradise.

Buying Boycott

This was sent to me in an email yesterday:

People’s Union USA Calls For National Boycott In A ‘Feb 28 Economic Blackout’

Pamela N. Danziger

Senior Contributor Forbes

Pam Danziger reports on retail, focused on the luxury consumer market.

Feb 25, 2025,07:06am EST

Updated Feb 25, 2025, 10:47am EST

Topline

A consumer-activist group founded by John Schwarz has launched a grassroots campaign to halt spending online or instore and not use credit or debit cards for 24 hours on Friday, Feb. 28, in an attempt to disrupt the economic order and “take back control of our economy, government and future of our country,” reports CBSNews.

Key Facts

The People’s Union boycott calls for no spending on fast food, gas or at major retailers – “No Amazon, No Walmart, No Best Buy” – beginning at midnight on Feb. 27 through midnight Feb. 28.

Purchases deemed essential, i.e. food, medicine, emergency supplies, are permitted but only in cash and with small, local businesses.

After the single-day spending pause, People’s Union plans week-long protests against specific retailers, including Amazon Mar. 7-14, Nestlé Mar. 21-28 and Walmart Apr. 7-13.

In an unaffiliated protest, Black faith leaders are calling for a 40-day “fast” or boycott of Target to protest its dialing back DEI initiatives to run during Lent starting on Ash Wednesday, Mar. 5.

The Power of Women’s Anger

I recommend everyone read this book not just women. Men who don’t want to reinforce misogyny by remaining silent when other men degrade women should read this.

The truth exposed in Rage Becomes Her–like the reality Kathleen Hanna expressed in Rebel Girl– is not invented fiction. Not should this treatment be tolerated in everyday life.

At the end of the book the author itemizes a list of things women can do to use our anger in constructive ways.

A Colorful Way of Living

I recommend that everyone buy and read the book above. I checked it out of the library and read it in 3 hours.

The cofounder of the Vera Bradley lifestyle brand wrote the guide. Round about 12 years ago I bought the Vera Bradley messenger bag seen in the second photo.

I will quote from the book in this review:

“Look for ways to put beauty where it doesn’t exist,” Vera would say.

“That very colorful way of thinking evolved into one of Vera Bradley’s driving principles–We create beautiful solutions.”

What beautiful solutions–to living our lives; to how we connect with each other; to what we think and feel–can we design and refine?

Creating memorable experiences like the Vera Bradley team does is the second way to craft happiness.

How about for a dinner party use cloth napkins and a ceramic pitcher? Change the tablecloth and use a different centerpiece each season.

Little touches can make a big difference.

There’s beauty everywhere if we open our eyes to see it.

Today more than ever in America it’s time to do what I coined: Take a B.I.T.E. out of life–to express Beauty Individuality Truth and Empathy.

A colorful way of living is the best way of living if you ask me. Accepting and embracing all colors and creeds of everyone living on earth.

The cofounders of Vera Bradley had an Aha moment about designing colorful bags after a layover in an airport when they rued the drab neutral colors of the luggage women carried.

Vera Bradley was Barbara Bradley’s fashion model mother.

With $500 in seed money they built a brand worth half a billion today.

Per Barbara Bradley everyone should Be Nice. If being nice is good enough for her I’ll take this from other people too.

We should not be afraid to show our True Colors. We can do this in style with a Vera Bradley handbag.

Cheers! to living colorful and loving colorful and laughing colorful.

Breaking My Fashion Vow

The green sweater that I bought in a PXS arrived in a PM a petite medium not extra small. So I returned it for a credit. Even in a PXS I wouldn’t have kept the sweater. The color green was not attractive and the metallic threads in the sweater looked like tinsel. So I sent it back.

Owing to donating a second sweater to the thrift shop I bought a different metallic sweater in a PS. Too big I sent it back for the PXS. I have the opposite effect of most women in feeling like I’m The Incredible Shrinking Woman.

The older we get us women can literally shrink and get shorter if not slimmer. I’m only 5’0″ tall. I would not like to think I’m going to lose an inch or two in height.

This week I had an epiphany: that every clothing item we buy should be a “Wow!” I call this refining our approach. Engaging in “collecting” clothes not shopping for them. Buying an item after careful and measured consideration.

I wasn’t the one to invent the concept of having a Word of the Year. Another Fashionista did. Yet I’m picking up on this. My Word of the Year is Refine.

To refine how I shop and what I buy definitely. Also to refine what I expect from people and to refine what I think I’m capable of.

Holding everyone to an impossible standard–even expecting yourself to live up to this ideal– is going to cause all of us to be unhappy and resentful.

Far better to embrace a fluid way of life where we accept the changeable nature of who we are and how we live and of others along these lines too.

For one I bought 2 fancy sweaters at a reduced cost. Paying $56 total. I also bought a red handbag when I discarded the 3 pocketbooks.

We can get bored wearing the same clothing items over and over. The winter is cold and can be dark. It can cause seasonal sadness. Buying “things” won’t improve our mood per se. Yet getting two new clothing items can give us a lift when we wear them with clothes we already own.

I rarely buy more than 2 clothing items each season anyway. This is why we should fill in the gaps in our wardrobe with stunners that we’ll look good and feel good in. Again collecting not shopping impulsively.

Buying 2 “Wow!” items instead of 5 or 6 mediocre “Okay, I’ll take it” items after a casual shopping trip to the mall or after an online spending spree.

Heck–I also bought a denim midi skirt. Out out is going in the garbage a cotton knit ankle skirt I’ve had for too long to remember how long.

As I approach turning 60 I’m struck with the idea that a woman–everyone of any gender gender expression really–should be good to themselves as they get older.

Post-50 is not the time to settle for less. It’s the time to expect good things for ourselves. Not impossible feats. Good things. There’s a difference.

So understanding that each of us is doing the best we can with what we were given. That maybe when you meet the love of your life it’s OK to want to buy a fancy new frock to paint the town with this person.

I’m padlocking my pocketbook after these purchases. The dilemma I have is what kind of gift to get myself for my 60th birthday.

I’m thinking jewelry.

Get Organized Month

January is Get Organized Month.

The zipper on a pocketbook broke so I discarded that handbag and two others I was no longer enamored of.

Right on cue in the first week of January I tidied up desk drawers. I’m donating a green sweater I’ve had for 9 years and a dress I no longer think flatters me to a thrift shop.

Why is it you’re expected to pay $70 for an acrylic or polyester sweater? Where have all the cotton ones gone?

Buying a regular cotton sweater or a polyester one is equally not a sound eco-conscious choice. I prefer the cotton yet will accept a cotton/polyester or cotton/acrylic blend.

The green sweater was acrylic and I called it a “normcore” sweater. Which is passe to wear as I’ve met a guy I’m interested in.

I’m convinced that when you’re dressed chic you can get away with being a radical on the inside.

I broke my vow and ordered a metallic emerald V-neck sweater at a reduced cost. Since I was donating the green sweater and one other clothing item.

“One thing in–one thing out” is the policy I follow.

The start of the year should be Get Organized Month. It’s the ideal time to begin something new.

Letting go of those old go-go boots; of the past; of the guilt and shame; of the shapeless sweater when you want to impress your amore; of what no longer serves you or suits you–gives us the space to bring in new people and new possibilities.

Attack the closet first. Everything else will fall into place if you ask me.

For Us Twisted Sisters

This blog entry is for the ladies:

A woman is not supposed to have anger.

What do you do then when the anger comes on like a gunslinger walking into an Old West saloon ready to shoot?

When things are not OK at the OK corral.

Are we supposed to keep our mouths shut and submit to injustice? The definition of justice is right action. Taking the right action is met with disapproval from the Old World Order.

An Amazon critic of Left of the Dial claimed no one could recover. Oh really sunny. Do you have a daughter or son? If they got ill would you give up on them because you thought there was no hope?

Ladies: We’re dealing with idiots. The so-called normal guys have a screw loose. I’ve met a peer who is sane and healthy.

We have the right to express our feelings and tell others what we think. They might not like this.

I have radical ideas not sensational claims. There’s a difference between the two:

Editors publish authors with a gimmick or famous people or celebrities pushing what’s popular or sensational. Or a lifestyle that can be yours if you buy what they’re selling in terms of a product or opinion.

I would urge you not to buy a book that a celebrity wrote.

I wrote in a blog entry a decade ago this truculent idea: conformity is repression. The guaranteed outcome of suppressing our feelings, thoughts and intelligence is ill-ness.

Women are supposed to take care of others. On an ordinary day no one takes care of us. The cost of having a man take care of us is often dependence on men for money and a roof over our heads.

If we’re mentally or physically ill we won’t be able to take care of ourselves.

That’s the catch 22. If you’re kicking and alive you have the opportunity to attempt to set things right.

We need to see gunslingers with vaginas on TV and in movies. We must have more lady gunslingers in real life.

Even if the only “gun” we’re slinging is our authentic self. Individuality is subversive to those in power.

It’s time for us ladies to walk into the saloon, cock the gun of our mouth, and shout like Twisted Sister in the 1980s: “We’re Not Gonna Take It” anymore.

When you’re ready to cock the gun I would think people think twice about asking you to accept the stale donuts as a tasty smorgasbord.

Happy Everything!

Two years ago I bought a white bowl with black letters inside touting: Happy Everything!

In January 1990 I published my first-ever article on doing spring cleaning on New Year’s Day. Like always I was the first person writing about something like this.

January is the perfect time to clear the cobwebs from our head as well as the clutter from our house.

To “spring clean” our thoughts and let go of the thinking that holds us back from risking change.

My New Year’s resolution is simple: to give and receive joy. That’s all.

I have no interest in buying things anymore to feel happy. I was given cash as a Christmas present so treated myself to items in a gift shop.

Otherwise I wouldn’t have doled out the money to buy something.

The goal as I see it is to have what you need and love what you have.

Oprah Winfrey gets at this with her quote in the Gratitude issue of Breathe magazine:

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more.

If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”

Giving and receiving joy doesn’t cost a dime. The feeling you and the other person gets is priceless.

I believe that gratitude is like honey that flows freely: We should pour on the gratitude for our fortune in life, for the people we love, and even for whatever struggle we have.

What we learn from going through a hard time we can teach others to instill hope for healing and recovery.

That is my ultimate goal: To bring Joy to the World at Christmas and throughout the year to everyone I meet.

No one should feel like they’re going it alone. No one should feel worthless in the eyes of others either.

Which is why I’ll mix metaphors and say too that Gratitude is like Miracle Glue holding our humanity in place.

My wish is to give others hope for healing the cracked parts and recovering joy.

To enjoy life should be what it’s all about in every season not just at the holidays.

Happy Everything!