Tag: Succession

A Little Sunshine, a Lot of Rain Makes My Fig Tree Happy Again

Makes My Fig Tree Happy Again

I don’t know why but human beings need a lot. Sometimes when I’m ordering from Amazon for the fifth time in a day I think, why the hell do I need all this stuff to function?

But we do. Sad really that humans have put themselves into a position where we perpetually demand…stuff.

Stuff.

Lots and lots of stuff.

Toothpaste, soap, food, towels, cable television, air fryers, band aids the list is endless.

If you think I’m exaggerating try going to the drugstore sometime and walking out with only one thing.

Or check out Costco. Baskets filled with giant sizes of products that could feed a family for weeks.

Humans demand a great deal to function.

We not only need things, but we need emotional stuff too.

Love, caring, support, kindness and all the other bits and pieces that make us feel wanted and loved. It’s in our DNA.

Cut to my tree.

I have a fig tree outside my window. The gardeners have chopped him up numerous times with no mercy. I’ve been devastated at times when I look out and see what they’ve done to this poor little green leafy object trying to survive.

He’s looked sick for months and then something miraculous happens. Rain and sunshine and suddenly he’s standing strong again. He’s taller and fuller and his leaves are green and shapely.

His little figs return and he’s off to the races.

All because of some rain and sunshine.

How many people do you know who can survive on rain and sunshine?

How many people do you know who can survive without constant attention or a great car or Starbuck’s?

I don’t pretend to know why humans are created as we are, but I suspect long before there was an eight-dollar cup of coffee we were able to get through a day.

Think back to cave times when it was only about the basic needs?

Today no one could even survive on basic cable.

Humans needed food and shelter. There were no designer loin cloths and of course fur skins came cheap and they didn’t buy them at Dennis Basso.

So we actually survived without Netflix, toilet paper or organic kale. I guess everything was organic back then and they didn’t even have to pay Erewhon prices.

So evidently we don’t need as much to survive…or do we?

Is there any doubt we could never continue to live in this world without all the “things” we have?

So of course I realize we’re not plants and need more than water and sunshine to flourish, but actually we need both of those as well, yet plants are very content to make do with just that. When did we decide we couldn’t?

How did we evolve into a planet full of hoarders?

Even homeless people push shopping carts filled with their possessions from place to place. We all seem to need things.

What if we gave everything up and went back to living simply without streaming channels, cars, pressed juices, and uber?

Once we were happy with nothing, but it would be impossible for us to function as human beings in this world now without all our stuff.

We’d survive, but we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves.

How would we pass the time?

We could take long walks. Yes but we’d need good walking shoes on the concrete. After all our feet aren’t used to long walks without proper footwear.

Oh and we’d need clothes cause people get arrested for going around in public naked unless you’re in San Francisco.

There’s that word need again, did you notice?

What am I trying to say?

I guess I’m a little jealous of my Fig tree. To thrive and be so happy with just water and sunshine.

Those things make me happy too, well of course the water has to be filtered, and I’d need sunscreen.

It just seems to me we’re all so addicted to stuff now. The things we need to need to get through a day.

All these “articles” make life so much more complicated. Not for what they are, but for the fact we need money to buy them.

And there’s the rub as Hamlet said, money.

Trees don’t need money to be happy yet as humans we’ve set up a system where we can’t live without it.

And not just a little…a whole lotta money especially these days.

With each dollar we need we move farther and farther away from the basics of life.

Yes, I seem to be channeling my inner sixties mentality when fifteen people lived in a VW van painted with colorful flowers.

When communes were all the rage until people outgrew them and went out into the world to become millionaires.

Jerry Rubin one of the Chicago Seven went to work on Wall Street.

So is there any way we can actually live a quiet uncluttered life if we choose to?

Well the hippy in me would like to think so. But the Yuppy in me hears the voice of Gordon Gekko, don’t be stupid… “Greed is Good.”

I guess we can never go backwards now when we’ve all been acclimated to need and want.

Let’s face it, we enjoy our nice cars, our good restaurants, our organic foods, our pretty clothes and our cornucopia of Apple products that get us through each day.

I suppose it’s the grand design after all that we grow and prosper. Constantly moving like a shark in the water and never standing still.

It’s just that my fig tree looks so damn happy and content out there soaking up the sun and he doesn’t even need sun block. Maybe more time in the sun might do us all some good, I’m sure it couldn’t hurt. I just have to go on Amazon and order some new trainers and I still have the last season of Succession to finish. Oh well, I can always soak up some sun tomorrow.

Coconut Sunshine Chicken Tenders

1 cut up chicken. Use thighs, breasts or drummettes

1 cup coconut

½  cup almond flour

½ cup panko

½ cup flour

2 eggs beaten

canola oil deep enough to deep fry

salt and pepper

Cut chicken into pieces as desired may be strips or chunks

Combine dry ingredients

salt and pepper chicken and almond flour, panko and coconut breading mixture

Dip chicken into flour, then egg and finally into all three dry ingredients combined.

Drop gently away from you into the 350 degree oil.

Fry until chicken is cooked on both sides, approximately 5 minutes.

Drain and serve with pineapple sauce.

Pineapple sauce

1 cup crushed pineapple

1 tablespoon apricot preserves

1 teaspoon ketchup

Mix together in blender or food processor until combined but still chunkyish.

Bucket List Schmucket List

Bucket List Schmucket List?

Okay, so when I was young a few ions ago it seemed like although many of us would choose to watch that new-fangled invention television in lieu of outdoor activities, we had choices.

It didn’t matter where you lived there always seemed to be lots of fun whatever the season and it didn’t take much to convince us to go outside and play.

Even in the coldest winters back in Michigan we donned our seventeen layers of clothing and went outside to sled, build a snowman or have a good old fashioned snowball fight.

In the summer despite heat and humidity we nagged our parents until they blew up the rubber pool and we raced to leap in and pretend swim. As we grew older the number of round rubber pool sides increased in height. A pool with four layers that you could actually lie down in full length was the ultimate.

There were also public pools if your mother had a car and could drive you there, but you were perfectly content to lie in your rubber paradise, toes perched on the rubber pool side, reclining in the sun catching those evil UV rays. What did we know or care about wrinkles? We only knew we loved to feel the heat on our faces as we luxuriated in our mini pretend ocean.

We loved the outdoors despite the mosquitoes, bees, wasps and various bugs, spiders not so much, we were forced to include in our summer world. We even had real grass.

At lunchtime you would grudgingly pull yourself out of the pool and eat the tuna or peanut butter and jelly sandwich with chips and Kool Aid your mother placed on the picnic table. You hurriedly downed your lunch while the pool awaited your return and you didn’t even have to wait an hour.

We’d go to sleep at night exhausted without worrying whether or not we’d accomplished anything that day. We just knew we couldn’t wait to get up again the next morning and begin again. It was a time of innocence, appreciation for the small things in life and pure joy at just being a kid.

In Autumn you eagerly anticipated your father raking the leaves into piles so you could jump and crunch them under your feet before he burned them at the curb. That smell of smoking leaves was heaven to every kid who knew Halloween was imminent.

Life was easier, kinder and lacking in confusion. We knew as kids where our boundaries lie and if not, our parents would gladly remind us. We loved to hang out and read comic books, and getting a quarter from your Dad for the new Archie Annual was nirvana. Life was an Andy Hardy movie.

We ate sunflower seeds without realizing they were healthy and Jello molds laden with fresh fruit. We had no additives in our food and we spent so much time walking to school and playing outside we definitely didn’t need a Fitbit to tell us if we took enough steps each day.

There were double features at the movies on Saturdays and a box of Junior Mints or Dots. Popcorn and a drink were a popular option and we sat quietly throughout the show enjoying being on our own in an air-conditioned theatre.

Fast forward to today. I spend most of the morning deciding if it’s worth it to shower, dress and put on makeup to run a few errands. If I do more than four things in a day I need a nap and I can’t wait to strip off my clothes and jump into bed at night.

Why this huge shift in my world? Why the need to plan an agenda when all I have to do is exactly what I’d like?

After your kids are grown and out of the house and you have all the time in the world it seems you’re confronted with a problem…what do I do with all this time? I’m determined to fill my days with interesting activities, not just pass the time. Yet the time does pass, quite on its own without any consideration for you or your goals.

So I grab my bucket list, everyone should have one, and I start to check off items.

1. See Big Ben. Hmmm, this entails travel…have you seen those damn airports? And what if I’m stuck on a plane for hours in 104-degree heat like those people last week?

2. Learn pickleball. Right okay, I guess I’ll need to go shopping for a comfortable pair of, shoes. That’s a maybe so I’ll put a star there. Right  Norma, who are you kidding?

3. Clean out the drawers and get bags ready for charity. Okay I can do that. I’ll take a bag into the closet and leave it there to start filling. That’s easy so I’ll underline that one.

Wait what about last week when I did that stuff for the firemen but it wasn’t on my bucket list. I’ll just write that down and check it off. It’s only fair I get credit for finishing an activity.

4. Learn Spanish and Italian. Then figure out why I need to.

5. Okay now. let’s see, oh yes, send the book proposal out to another agent. Maybe this one will have a sense of humor and be able to read. Two qualities I’ve been having difficulty finding in an agent.

6. Wait, I have to call and plan a brunch with the girls. I’ll get on that today.

Oh, I just love being so busy.

7. Let’s see now. Machu Pichu…nope too much walking.

8. White Water Rafting…yeah right! Cross that sucker off.

9. Visit the rain forest…nah too humid.

10. Wait here’s one I actually did, see the Sistine Chapel. Goody, I love checking stuff off.

11. See the Northern lights. I guess that’s still doable.

12. Galapagos. Nope seasick.

13. Ride the Orient Express. Okay that’s a keeper.

14. Swim with the sharks. Nope that was pre-Jaws; why is that even still on here?

15. Mountain climbing. Good luck dragging my ass up a mountain.

16. Glamping. Damn I must have been high when I added that one.

17. Finish my proposal for the TV show. That’s a priority so I’ll get that done today. Or at least start it.

18. Just a second, I still want to try that new Keto recipe and see if it works. If it’s yummy I’ll add it to the blog. I better make up a shopping list.

19. I have to decide about the headboard for my bedroom redo. I should call the upholsterer.

20. Binge watch Succession. That’s an easy one.

Heavens there are so many things on this list I still have to get to. Go on a Safari, take up golf, let’s see that charity is a no go, the city didn’t like it Safari, and wait I can try to …oops wait a minute the phone is ringing.

Hey girlfriend, sure I have plenty of time to talk. What’s going on? No shit, tell me and don’t miss a detail. No, I’m not busy at all.

Lord, I miss that rubber pool.