My Refrigerator

So I’ve been watching this whole drama unfold around the COVID-19 issue and it looks to me like an opportunist grab for power by technocrats. A lot of people are suffering both illness and economic disaster while those holding the reins steer us over an Orwellian cliff. it has brought to my thinking that at some point I may have to choose to go against the grain. Again. Oh well...

There’s a phenomenon I have recently been witnessing in my refrigerator in correlation to how strong and healthy I feel. Given the fact that I am self-isolating, but on my own little food forest near a very Tico community in the mountains of Costa Rica, I could say having the best weather in the world has been helpful. But the thing with the refrigerator also correlates with a decided, but gradual, change in my diet over the last several years since I’ve live in the land of Pura Vida.

In my refrigerator right now, is a jar of red cabbage kraut, made by friend Rivka. Also in my refrigerator is a jug of homemade mango kombucha. Also some green papaya ceviche marinaded in fresh orange and lime juices from my garden. Also, are two jars of sedated sourdough starter wild captured here by my son Sean, and it wants out of the jar. There is home-made mango chutney and pickled ginger. My refrigerator is an incubator for the microorganisms that lead to healthy, happy gut/brain/heart functioning and I am fascinated by how that changes my experience of physical health and the implications.

Now I am not a bored certified scientist, but I do read and study a lot of various theories across the board, and do not believe my views are so strange. Something about the consumption of foods that are primarily composed of the microbiome of the area that I live in has caused an upgrade in my functioning and a greater sense of ease with my situation. What I mean is the information that is percolating through my intestinal tract and beyond is telling my body that all is well, that there is no dis-ease, at least in this body.

I am not going to downplay the suffering we all see across the globe. The “totalitarian two-step” is alive and well. Let’s see if there is any way  to change the direction of the dance.

There are many sciences that agree that on a cellular level information exchange is certainly going on and that DNA and RNA are packets of that information. Some would say that genes are maps that can be recoded, and that the environment can cause DNA traits to develop or atrophy. Some nutritional experts would say that what you eat is information that is either in a form the body recognizes and can efficiently utilize, such as an organic raw apple, or doesn’t recognize, like a donut. Science has shown that your body, inside and out, carries trillions of viruses, bacteria, and fungi that outnumber the cells of your body 10 to 1 . That microbial stew pre-digests our food as it travels along the gut. If it encounters an apple, it immediately recognizes it as part of the biome. If it encounters a donut, it reacts with inflammation as if poisoned.

If people realized some simple principles, dis-ease as we know it would cease to exist. 

This consuming of local organic fruits and vegetables especially when fermented, is natural inoculation. This is how the microbial realm becomes no longer dangerous. This is how we make the immune system strong. It is a good reason for breastfeeding and letting your kids play in the dirt.

Considering the world we now live in, it is a good idea to immediately take stock of renewable resources at your disposal, to be as self sufficient as possible. And Costa Rica is very rich in farmland and the farming lifestyle. Everyone is growing something or has some cows. So in the worst case scenario, people will go back to doing what they have all ways done.....rest against Gaia. She provides abundantly. No one will starve. This is good, because all the farmers are local. There are only five million people here, less than the population of Los Angeles. There are cooperativos, that serve the entire community with banking, a market featuring locally grown and produced items, a gas station and repair shop, and membership discounts. It is a bottom up system, and it works.

Where I live, I have a 1/2 acre with a house and various fruiting plants...mango, oranges, limes, guava, bananas, plantain, yucca, chayote, water apple, guanábano, ginger, hibiscus, and coffee. How I got here is part of a mysterious chain of events. But here I am and I am grateful. 

I am moving in the direction of co-creating resilient and sustainable community. I see many gathering together and forming families, guilds and cooperatives that form a cohesive and interdependent village. I see this as a key to humanity’s survival. It is evolving as we speak.

Now back to my refrigerator...

Three days ago the coconut milk stored in there to cream my coffee had turned solid. I tasted it....tangy, like yogurt! I swirled it into a vegetable and lentil stew. Delicious! This is what happens when every little microbe in my refrigerator is happy!

So, my friends, take care of yourselves, take care of your body, and don’t let your fear steer. :-)