Support for What? Musings of a Rebel Without a Topic Sentence
This month’s DSMA Blog Carnival Topic is: “Describe your ideal diabetes “support group”? What would you discuss?”
This blog post isn't rambling. It's "textual impressionism".
One of the responses I’ve read to this triggered this question in my mind: Support for what? What do I need support for? Just diabetes? Probably not, since I regard myself as needing support but have yet to get on a bus to meet with a bunch of strangers in order to get it. Type 2 diabetes? People with Type 2 diabetes are in such a diverse range of situations, I have trouble believing that I’d find enough in common with people in a church basement or hospital meeting room to find much “support”.
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While I’m glad there is a growing number of Type 2 folks in the DOC, and I’ve tried to do what little I could to help that along, I don’t necessarily feel closer to the Type 2s than I do to the others. It almost makes me wonder what I need more – “support” or just community.
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The last support group I attended was a depression group formed through Meetup.com. I found this to be a tremendous experience. The other folks in the group were much different than I am, both in terms of their backgrounds and how they experienced emotional illness. It was a struggle, initially, to relate my situation to those of the others, but it proved to be very much worth the effort.
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Here’s what I think I need support with: being an introverted, heavily-overweight, middle-aged, non-driving, non-movie-watching single guy seeking to live a healthier life against the backdrop of emotional struggles but who does not see weight loss as a healthy goal or necessarily seeks a relationship. Got all that?
Part of what works for me about the online option is that I’m able to piece together what I need out of a fairly large group. A number of us struggle with a tendency to social isolation. Some of us are old enough for aging to become an important aspect of what we are. Quite a few folks wish they weighed less. There are others who struggle with loneliness and the stigma of not being in a relationship. And, of course, way way too many of us deal with depression. Even if I don’t explicitly discuss all of these things, I still receive a measure of support from those who do. (I have yet to find others who are too terrified to operate a motor vehicle, or would rather visit the dentist than watch anything outside a very narrow range of television shows. But I feel sure they’re out there.)
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My new motto is "Declare Victory and Call It a Day." Seriously. I want that inscribed on my medical ID.
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This post is my April entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2012/april-dsma-blog-carnival-2/
Beginner’s Notebook: Still Life With Avocado
OK, here's what you're going to do. Next time you go grocery shopping, you're going to take a quick peek in your refrigerator to make sure you have a little lemon juice or a fresh lemon. (I think lime juice would also work.) Then, when you get to the store, you'll go to the produce section and check out the avocados.
The avocado you want is ripe but not overly so. If you're new to this, the one you want will give a bit to gentle pressure but not feel squishy. (GENTLE pressure - no need to harm anything.) For this application, a little squishy is okay.
When you get home with your prize, you're going to cut it in half lengthwise, working around the large pit in the middle. You'll then rotate one half against the other, and one of the two halves will be freed from the pit.
There are a number of suggested methods for removing the pit from the other half, most of which have the potential for serious injury. I sometimes use one of those, but often I just work around the with a spoon. (I deal with more avocados than most home cooks, I'd guess. Two - and now three - of my favorite things to make include them. See here and here.)
Next, put your avocado halves on a plate. Salt them and drizzle them with lemon juice. Then just eat those suckers, scooping bites out with a spoon.
I did this for the first time 20 minutes ago, and that first bite was A Moment. The tartness of the juice perfectly balanced the unctuousness of the avocado, one of those great combinations of acid and oil. (Think salad dressings, or pickles on cheeseburgers, or ketchup on french fries.)
If I had a rating scale for how much I wanted you to try something, this would be WAY up there.
You could argue that this isn't even cooking. Fine. But it is most certainly eating.
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