Debi Simons, Author at Respect Food Roles

“Inspiration is for amateurs. . . .

December 22, 2017March 4, 2016 by Debi Simons

Man tied to his bed with anchor and chain

The rest of us just show up and get to work” (artist Chuck Close, quoted in The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman, p. 69).

I always say if you can get one good idea from a book or speaker that you can carry away and actually put into practice then you’ve spent your time well. So my key insight from the above-mentioned book is this: you don’t have to feel like doing something before you do it. And indeed sometimes, perhaps most of the time, trying to make yourself feel like doing something just puts an extra step between you and your work.

Do you enjoy the process more than the end result?

December 22, 2017February 29, 2016 by Debi Simons

rooms and ceiling drywalled but not painted

There’s a happiness principle: “Enjoy the process.” Also, “Success is not the destination but the journey.” We’ve all heard these ideas, and they do make sense. If all you care about is the end result, then you miss out on a lot of potential enjoyment. I’ve started reminding myself of these ideas when I’m in the throes of some event or the other. Pay attention, Debi! The event itself, whether a meal or a party, will last only a couple of hours, but the preparation will be much longer. Don’t let haste and worry destroy that process.

Don’t Miss Out!

December 22, 2017February 25, 2016 by Debi Simons

diagram of earth on summer solstice This will be the last Super Bowl reference until next year, I promise. As we sat 2 1/2 weeks ago in front of the TV waiting for the game to begin, my brother said, “I can’t believe this is finally happening after all these weeks of waiting!” And I think we did watch and enjoy and experience very single minute (of the game, not the half-time show, which I turned off midway through).

His comment reminded me of something one of my least favorite fictional characters, Daisy, says in The Great Gatsby (which isn’t a favorite novel of mine, either): “I always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it.” Even though I don’t like her, I do sympathize with her statement. (Yes, I do realize she’s not a real person.) Sometimes we so look forward to something, so anticipate it, that when the event actually happens we miss it. While that didn’t happen with the SB, it’s certainly done so for me in other situations. It’s almost as if we’re concentrating so hard that we can’t concentrate, if that makes sense.

Common Sense Is the Key

June 3, 2019February 23, 2016 by Debi Simons

book cover for The Cure For Everything, showing an apple

The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness by Timothy Caulfield, Beacon Press, 2012, available in several formats.

If you have time to read only one book on health this year, I would strongly suggest that it be this one. Were you to be prone to spend money on dietary supplements, cleanses, homeopathy, or acupuncture (to name a few currently popular fad items), you’d make back the money you spend on this book with all the money you’d save by cutting out your expenses on those totally needless items.

A dear friend from a number of years ago (and in a different state from where we live now) said to me about some nostrum or other, “It totally changes the way your body works.” Whoa! Do we actually want to do that? Sounds pretty dangerous to me. (She was safe in taking whatever-it-was, of course, as it did nothing of the kind. Cleaned out her wallet, but that’s about it.) Caulfield actually tries out every item he criticizes, so he puts his money where his mouth is. There’s a hilarious section

How’s the Checklist Going?

December 22, 2017February 19, 2016 by Debi Simons

Debi I wrote about this new tool a month ago. At left is the picture I took at the time. The idea, as I explained at the time, is drawn from two sources: Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto and Maria Cilley’s Sink Reflections. The nice organizer I bought came with a heavyweight plastic sleeve, so I printed out a checklist and trimmed it to fit. The orange pen cap sticking out of the pocket belongs to the erasable marker I use to check off tasks, with the marks coming off easily with a kleenex and a little, well, spit.

So, pretty trivial, huh? Actually no. During this past four weeks I’ve begun to use this tool more and more.

A Difficult but Needed Book

December 22, 2017February 17, 2016 by Debi Simons

book cover for Travesty In Haiti

Travesty in Haiti: A true account of Christian missions, orphanages, food aid, fraud and drug trafficking by Timothy T. Schwartz, Ph.D., first edition 2008, second 2010. No publisher listed; available in multiple formats.

How’s that for a compelling headline? I went back and forth over putting this book here in the blog, as so much in it is extremely unpleasant, depressing, and . . . maddening. The subtitle also seems to imply that Christian missions are going to be a main target of its criticism, but that isn’t the case. Secular NGO’s come in for much of the blame heaped upon attempts to help Haiti. (An “NGO” is a “non-governmental organization,” a term of astonishing flexibility and scope.)The book opens with a gruesome scene: five Haitian peasant men are murdered by a mob because they are supposedly communists. In reality the men, and hundreds more like them, are actually members of a charitable cooperative advocating land reform. The violence drives out their organization and others like it, but soon new projects come back. Schwartz comes to Haiti also and stays for a decade, doing research for his doctorate and then working for various relief organizations himself. You’d think that his tenure there must have been post-earthquake, but no. The book ends well before then, around 2005.

The Sadness of an Abandoned Passion

December 22, 2017February 12, 2016 by Debi Simons

Not a very cheerful title, is it? I was sitting here pondering what would be a good subject for an end-of-week post when a Chopin waltz came on the radio, a piece that I labored over back in the days of my piano obsession. (After a fruitless search on the playlist and YouTube I decided that the exact opus number and title didn’t matter.) What a beautiful piece, and how much I wanted to be able to play it! The contrast between my labored and hesitant version, even after hours of practice, and the sprightly performance on the radio is pretty stark. I so wanted to be able to play it, and I so . . . couldn’t. Or any other of the pieces I longed to play. Finally, about five years ago (and it shouldn’t have taken me that long) I declared myself Free From Piano Playing. You may say, “Hey, why not just play for your own enjoyment?” But that’s like saying, “Why not play chess for your own enjoyment?” The fact is . . .

What Makes an Event Fun?

December 22, 2017February 11, 2016 by Debi Simons

cartoon of people watching football at a party Well, here it is Thursday already, four days after the BRONCOS WON THE SUPERBOWL. I hope if you like reading about cooking and food that you’ve visited both the preview and the review of my menu and maybe tried out something.

What impressed me especially about the evening was the warmth and camaraderie in the room as we all watched something we cared about. That’s what made the occasion special, although it was nice that we won. (WE WON!) I try to explain to my son the anti-football person that it’s not really a matter so much of liking the game; I watch very few non-Broncos matchups. It’s more of a cultural thing, at least for me. I thoroughly enjoy watching a game with my family. It’s a way for us to participate in an activity together, to be unified. We all get along quite well anyway, so it’s not as if we’re at each other’s throats the rest of the time or anything like that. It’s just fun, the kind that creates a warm memory. The fact that WE WON (okay, I’ll stop) didn’t make a dab of difference in my own life; I actually came down with something on Tuesday and spent two miserable days on the couch and in bed.

Not All Relationships Are the Same!

December 22, 2017February 3, 2016 by Debi Simons

Is there no end to the stream of wisdom I’ve gained from watching “A Chef’s Life“? This is now the third post I’ve written inspired by that TV show on PBS. (Read the other posts here and here.) We’re now into the third season, and as I watched Episode 8, “Honey, I’m Home,” I picked up another little nugget from Vivian Howard, the “chef” in the title. (Jim got seriously freaked out by the chicken-liver segment.) She and her husband Ben Knight run the restaurant “Chef and the Farmer” together, and it doesn’t always go smoothly. In this episode dear Ben, who’s often labeled, somewhat unfairly, as “grumpy,” is having his first art show in a decade. He’s been busy acting as general manager, emergency fill-in, and beverage artiste, which has left him very little time to pursue his painting. But now he has a show in Durham NC, and he and Vivian are cramming in visits to as many restaurants in town as they can before it starts. At some point Ben bails out, his nerves (and probably stomach) getting the best of him, but Vivian presses on, undeterred. That woman must have the capacity of an anaconda!

The Difference Between Pleasure and Happiness

December 22, 2017January 29, 2016 by Debi Simons

I wrote about the “hedonic treadmill” last summer, a concept dealing with how we adapt to pleasure, especially as that pleasure relates to possessions. So, for example, when I first poked my head into the entryway of our house I thought I was going to pass out from excitement. When I come in the front door now do I have that same almost-unbearable sense of pleasure and anticipation? Of course not. My friend Clover said once when she had come upstairs with me and was going back down, “Wow, this is such a wide-open vista from up here!” And she was right. Coming down those stairs does indeed open up a beautiful view. I try to remind myself of her comment when I’m coming downstairs, but most of the time, let’s face it: I don’t pay any attention.