Friday, August 18, 2006
Yerba Mate
Just wanted to share one of my favorite drinks: yerba maté. I've been drinking the loose leaves in a French press for a couple of years.
For writers, you can't beat this drink. Here's why, according to the New York Times:
"Yerba maté gets its pep from caffeine. But it also contains theobromine, the stimulant in dark chocolate, and theophylline, tea’s pick-me-up. “Because caffeine isn’t the sole stimulant,' said Timothy Ferriss, a neuroscientist who has studied the effects of natural stimulants on athletic performance, 'maté drinkers don’t experience the rapid upward trajectory and then the quick crash of coffee.'"
from an article by Sarah Bowen Shea found at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/fashion/17Physical.html
Mate got me through a very long all-nighter editing a nonfiction project I unwisely took on. I was alert but didn't have the coffee jitters and was able to sleep the next day.
To augment its health benefits, drink it with xylitol as a sweetner. Then you get only the mate slow stimulant without the quick uptake and crash of refined sugars.
My mom (and husband) thinks it tastes a bit "grassy." To take care of that, Guayaki has several kinds of loose tea, as well as a myriad of other products. I just buy the plain mate and add lemon juice and xylitol. Good iced or hot.
Here are the instructions for loose yerba mate from Guayaki's site:
"Loose Mate
French Press: Place 3-4 tablespoons of loose yerba mate or Java Mate in the French press (use more or less depending on desired strength). Add enough cool water to moisten the mate. Then add hot water. Steep for 3-10 minutes. The longer, the stronger.
Coffee Maker: Place loose yerba mate in filter basket. Add enough cool water to moisten the mate. Then run the machine as usual.
Espresso Maker: Yerba mate brews well in most espresso makers. Place yerba mate in a double espresso portafilter. Pull a long shot for a total of 4 oz. Great for making mate lattés. Some baristas choose to grind the mate before using in portafilter.
Tea Pot or Tea Ball: Add loose mate or Java Mate to tea pot and moisten with cool water before adding hot water. The mate will sink to the bottom in a few minutes. Pour through a fine metal mesh strainer if one is not built into the tea pot. (When using a tea ball, a fine-mesh filter is most effective.) This method also works great with a reusable tea sack."
http://www.guayaki.com/
Great stuff!
For writers, you can't beat this drink. Here's why, according to the New York Times:
"Yerba maté gets its pep from caffeine. But it also contains theobromine, the stimulant in dark chocolate, and theophylline, tea’s pick-me-up. “Because caffeine isn’t the sole stimulant,' said Timothy Ferriss, a neuroscientist who has studied the effects of natural stimulants on athletic performance, 'maté drinkers don’t experience the rapid upward trajectory and then the quick crash of coffee.'"
from an article by Sarah Bowen Shea found at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/fashion/17Physical.html
Mate got me through a very long all-nighter editing a nonfiction project I unwisely took on. I was alert but didn't have the coffee jitters and was able to sleep the next day.
To augment its health benefits, drink it with xylitol as a sweetner. Then you get only the mate slow stimulant without the quick uptake and crash of refined sugars.
My mom (and husband) thinks it tastes a bit "grassy." To take care of that, Guayaki has several kinds of loose tea, as well as a myriad of other products. I just buy the plain mate and add lemon juice and xylitol. Good iced or hot.
Here are the instructions for loose yerba mate from Guayaki's site:
"Loose Mate
French Press: Place 3-4 tablespoons of loose yerba mate or Java Mate in the French press (use more or less depending on desired strength). Add enough cool water to moisten the mate. Then add hot water. Steep for 3-10 minutes. The longer, the stronger.
Coffee Maker: Place loose yerba mate in filter basket. Add enough cool water to moisten the mate. Then run the machine as usual.
Espresso Maker: Yerba mate brews well in most espresso makers. Place yerba mate in a double espresso portafilter. Pull a long shot for a total of 4 oz. Great for making mate lattés. Some baristas choose to grind the mate before using in portafilter.
Tea Pot or Tea Ball: Add loose mate or Java Mate to tea pot and moisten with cool water before adding hot water. The mate will sink to the bottom in a few minutes. Pour through a fine metal mesh strainer if one is not built into the tea pot. (When using a tea ball, a fine-mesh filter is most effective.) This method also works great with a reusable tea sack."
http://www.guayaki.com/
Great stuff!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Mel and the Dark Side
I grew up in "the church." My father was a pastor, my mother a pastor's wife. Each and every decision had the potential to affect how each church viewed my father and his ministry and thus his effectiveness. In this light, there were a few cardinal rules: (I recognize that other pastors handled these rules better, overcoming them, even. But the political structure of the local church and the simplification and twisting of what "sanctification" means in everyday life naturally leads to not overcoming, to kowtowing, towing the line, doing whatever one must to survive to the next paycheck. And I have been told by countless other pastors and families of these same problems.)
1. Show no weakness, unless it's easily remedied. My parents had serious marital difficulties. But they could not work through these publicly without serious and longlasting repercussions to my father's career. Thus, they never got worked out and they divorced just before their 30 year anniversary, after my father had been out of the ministry for a couple of years. If you admit to having any problems with any recurrent sins, you lose your leadership effectiveness. (Why, I ask. Because people must believe that they follow their betters, not flawed humans, in order to simply do as they're told.)
2. Confront no one. Confrontation leads to real conflict which leads to problems.
3. Couch any disagreement in spiritual language. "In my prayer time this morning, I felt led to...." I have seen so many conflicts spring from this attitude, so much dishonesty, so much judgement, it's astounding.
4. Be nice. The truth is so unspiritual, so mean-sounding. You may not sound mean or angry or frustrated or cocky...or real.
Regarding "nice." I met a fellow writer at a conference recently who talked to me about her attempt to find honest feedback. She's writing a Christian book and had tried a couple of Christian critique groups. She said that she never got any honest critiques and when she critiqued honestly, told working writers exactly what she thought about their writing (gold, to my feedback-starved mind), they got angry and defensive. So she came to the "secular world" to find some honest feedback. Shouldn't that be a clue as to something being wrong?
I have been told my entire life to "be nice." But it's not always honest. It often gets in the way of truth and growth, mine and that of others. But "be nice" is the mantra of the modern evangelical church. (The two exceptions are to "entrenched, unrepentant sinners" and your family; you can be mean to them without much, if any, spiritual reprimand.)
I think it's what happened to Mel Gibson. Perhaps he's never been instructed or encouraged to look at those ugly, dark, complex parts of himself, to drag them to the light. I certainly never was. It's only in the last few years that I've recognized (after going on a long church-fast) the need to constantly do so.
One seminal book for me in this journey was Susan Howatch's Glittering Images.
It's about an Anglican pastor who goes through his journey of dragging his dark side to the light. I didn't like her second book quite as much, but this one was brilliant. It's not a typically evangelical book, definitely not something Focus on the Family would publish (thank God).
So is there any conclusion to all this? Any words of wisdom or learning we can all take away from Mel's experience?
Perhaps this: Though I would never wish alcoholism on anyone, I would wish the often unbridled honesty, looseness of tongue, and uninhibited personality that drink brings to most people on the evangelical church. Perhaps if all those placard-carrying, fire-and-brimstone-preaching (usually) men were to lose control every now and then, they'd face up to their dark sides instead of denying them and judging everyone else for having one.
1. Show no weakness, unless it's easily remedied. My parents had serious marital difficulties. But they could not work through these publicly without serious and longlasting repercussions to my father's career. Thus, they never got worked out and they divorced just before their 30 year anniversary, after my father had been out of the ministry for a couple of years. If you admit to having any problems with any recurrent sins, you lose your leadership effectiveness. (Why, I ask. Because people must believe that they follow their betters, not flawed humans, in order to simply do as they're told.)
2. Confront no one. Confrontation leads to real conflict which leads to problems.
3. Couch any disagreement in spiritual language. "In my prayer time this morning, I felt led to...." I have seen so many conflicts spring from this attitude, so much dishonesty, so much judgement, it's astounding.
4. Be nice. The truth is so unspiritual, so mean-sounding. You may not sound mean or angry or frustrated or cocky...or real.
Regarding "nice." I met a fellow writer at a conference recently who talked to me about her attempt to find honest feedback. She's writing a Christian book and had tried a couple of Christian critique groups. She said that she never got any honest critiques and when she critiqued honestly, told working writers exactly what she thought about their writing (gold, to my feedback-starved mind), they got angry and defensive. So she came to the "secular world" to find some honest feedback. Shouldn't that be a clue as to something being wrong?
I have been told my entire life to "be nice." But it's not always honest. It often gets in the way of truth and growth, mine and that of others. But "be nice" is the mantra of the modern evangelical church. (The two exceptions are to "entrenched, unrepentant sinners" and your family; you can be mean to them without much, if any, spiritual reprimand.)
I think it's what happened to Mel Gibson. Perhaps he's never been instructed or encouraged to look at those ugly, dark, complex parts of himself, to drag them to the light. I certainly never was. It's only in the last few years that I've recognized (after going on a long church-fast) the need to constantly do so.
One seminal book for me in this journey was Susan Howatch's Glittering Images.
It's about an Anglican pastor who goes through his journey of dragging his dark side to the light. I didn't like her second book quite as much, but this one was brilliant. It's not a typically evangelical book, definitely not something Focus on the Family would publish (thank God).
So is there any conclusion to all this? Any words of wisdom or learning we can all take away from Mel's experience?
Perhaps this: Though I would never wish alcoholism on anyone, I would wish the often unbridled honesty, looseness of tongue, and uninhibited personality that drink brings to most people on the evangelical church. Perhaps if all those placard-carrying, fire-and-brimstone-preaching (usually) men were to lose control every now and then, they'd face up to their dark sides instead of denying them and judging everyone else for having one.
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