1. I found the chapter on marijuana in Michael Pollan's book Botany of Desire fascinating. Yes, on the one hand, I found his research into the history of marijuana and marijuana cultivation and the genetics that informed how growers developed better and better pot to be very interesting.
Even more interesting to me was his writing about consciousness and imagination and religious rites and how over the centuries different consciousness altering substances like wine, peyote, opium and others have enhanced religious and imaginative experiences, have aided shamans and others in their search for insight into mystical realities and have also aided poets, essayists, writers of fiction, and musicians (for starters) to explore insights and experiences and to imagine possibilities not otherwise available to them.
Does Pollan write about the abuse of consciousness altering substances.
Yes.
But like the desire for sweetness and beauty, Pollan also explores the human desire for intoxication, why organic intoxicants exist in the natural world, and what results from the pursuit of different types and different levels of altering one's consciousness (I write this post feeling the pleasure of and experiencing the benefits of the mild enhancement I'm now enjoying under the influence of my second morning latte!).
I just fixed Debbie a latte and during my break from writing this post, I thought about how Pollan writes about marijuana's medicinal qualities in this chapter. I immediately thought of two friends whose quality of life is enhanced by marijuana. One suffers from PTSD and the other from chronic pain.
Marijuana helps give them the relief they desire via a healing form of intoxication.
Both friends are ambitious as they pursue their avocations and marijuana helps them pursue the activities they experience as sources of happiness and fulfillment.
2. Debbie and I hosted tonight's family dinner and all I did to help out was vacuum the living room!
Debbie had a plan for dinner and she carried it out beautifully.
She baked gluten free dinner rolls, made a shredded carrot salad, and mashed several potatoes as compliments to the delicious pork and sauerkraut casserole she also fixed. Carol air fried a startlingly delicious batch of lemon garlic tofu cubes and Christy baked a very tasty Olive Oil Almond and Orange cake which she served with Orange and Sweet Cream Ice Cream (I hope I got that name right...).
3. I thoroughly enjoy discussions of Christianity and spiritual experience when everyone talks about these matters in their own language, on their own terms, and don't simply repeat what they've heard their pastors say or what they think they ought to say in order to conform with some sense of correctness.
We had such a discussion after dinner tonight and fearlessly shared our thoughts about mysticism, love, ecumenism, original sin, the Holy Spirit, charismatic worship, and other topics as they came up.
Not once did anyone say, "That's not right!" or "I disagree" or any other discouraging or conversation killing words.
We are searching and questioning and trying out insights and possibilities; we approach these matters humbly, unrestricted by assertions of certainty or dogma.
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