Welcome to Team Worldwide, a method to invite Earth’s people to help run our new humanity, composed of world citizens. You can decide to join Team Worldwide after reading this one-page Proposal for Teamwork, which is designed to describe any job that is benignly contributing to the health of the world. I hope this document will give folks a feeling of how I see that working/playing for the world in a positive sense might look. You might use it, for example, to look at whether your current position is healthy for you and the world. I hope that you will join Team Worldwide and all work will become as the playing that we need to do in order to evolve!
a proposal for teamwork!
We want to be able to count on you to help improve the world!
You can expect to grow and learn because of holding this job!
We expect you to find value in your job. We need you to find satisfaction in it and pleasure, and to take pride!
Please express yourself. We will express ourselves in a healthy, constructive way befitting a group of people with positive goals in their hearts. When you need help in expressing yourself, we want you to seek it diligently.
Please tell us if you lack the skills to complete the work or if you have a prior commitment to other work.
Please agree to maintain your health and well-being. Please work each day so the job can get done. Please keep your psychological state balanced, and in motion.
We want you to say what your needs are, including the need to be acknowledged, though you can expect us to praise your good work. If you see that your teammates are producing good work, please say so.
Please report any complaint effectively (to someone who will do something about the situation).
If you find something that needs to be getting done is not, we’d like you to tell us what that is.
Please also agree that you’ll apply yourself to getting any part of the job done, though—if it is unethical and we haven’t realized it, please tell us; we don’t want you to do any unethical work.
We want to hear your ideas on how to make your job more effective and fun. Please share them!
Shopping lists are precious pieces of paper—so valuable at the time of their creation and use that we loathe losing them, although they are only to be tossed away when their employment is completed. I found these sixty in a food store where I worked for three years; when fellow workers found out I was collecting them, they saved them for me when they found them. Somehow, this project seemed kind of neat to my teammates and I, so I kept it up! Apparently we do not hang on to shopping lists but easily lose them when done (hopefully not while their usefulness is still occurring!).
The tools are a creation borne of the need for belly healing and nourishment, of nutritive desire and intellectual satiation. Shopping lists tell what; how many; which from different stores, perhaps; and, in the creator’s script, the mood associated with each item or grouping. This last may not be important to the writer, but is communicated to us readers. The lists are an intimate glance into shopper’s worlds. Even the medium speaks volumes—pencil, pen; scrap versus full 8 1/2” x 11” sheet of paper, or in between; used paper versus new; condition of the list when lost. Of course, exact items on the list share priorities and planning. As is apparent, customers require herbs as well as foods, some of them. I took pride in working in a store where we actually sold supplements and medicinal plants, instead of just foods, while the foods we sold were as healthful as could be. (Though some fancy markets were around in Chicago when I was at Whole Foods, none had the focus of providing organic foods and health food store products, like Whole Foods offered.)
Why make a shopping list? For the shopping list writer, coming up with every item can be an achievement, even a big accomplishment, but is always a labor of love! Cooks and non-cooks alike will record recipe ingredients; meal plans; items needed from different stores; and/or quick pick-ups, the way I do it for my mate (the chef) and I; because he’s not a native speaker, I usually do the writing and the reading of the list at the store, especially because my impulsive writing is hard for him to decipher.
Shopping lists are an important component of shopping, a vital technique of capitalism, personal and specific yet essential to the structuring and execution of the shopping errand, the hunting and gathering of the modern world. They are a tool, intimate yet so much a formula of spending patterns. They are an organizational aid, a stimulant to memory—necessary in this fast-paced era. They are little-sung, yet vitally alive, giving us, their readers, a glance almost comparable to glimpsing hair style or clothing of their maker. Shopping lists tell much, and represent household maintenance procedure, a customary portion of our American method of life. They fascinate and captivate every food indulger!
“Let me make a list.”
The creation of a shopping list, as we see in these examples, does not require fancy supplies; any paper will do, and pencil as well as pen or even marker works to record one’s thoughts. The penmanship does not need to be legible, except for one’s own eyes.
“What else do we need? Here, let me look at the list.”
Lists are purely personal. They can appear that way: scribbled; items in a row, or scattered, perhaps indicating state of mind when recalling those items—an “Oh, yeah! That, too!” ending up in a directive gestalt, for one store or several errands.
“Cross it off the list!”
Crossing off items when you put them in the cart or basket is a very pleasurable activity; pure psychological satisfaction—each an important task completed! As you pick the item off the shelf, your written suggestion and memory aid turn into a tangible part of your kitchen workspace, only just to be paid for and trotted home with.
“Oh, no! I forgot the shopping list!”
Looking at these creations, we can only guess at the mind of the writer; their gender (or not), their educational level, their political views, their relationship to the family they’re feeding. Yet there are some observations we can make. Looking at this sample size of 62 lists, we can launch an investigation of shoppers and their customs.
These notes were collected in the late 1990s, before electronic devices were as popular as they are now. The look back is historical not only because folks were not using as many digital tools for organizing their shopping as they might be today. Also, the lists come from Whole Foods Market, in its iteration as the first of its stores in Chicago. This was when John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, and Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, owned the business, before it merged with Amazon. Though its history is as a healthy food provider as opposed to a health food store, it carried herbs, some supplements, and natural medicines that one might find in a health food store, when I worked for it from 1997-2000. A bit of my personal history is relevant here.
When living in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1986, I worked at Down-to-Earth Natural Foods, a supermarket/health food store adjoining a healthy fast-food restaurant. This place was very progressive. As a cashier, I finally got an introduction to food as medicine when I started listening to the herbalist who worked there. Actually, my earliest experience with this concept was when the fourth grade nurse at my school put a piece of aloe vera on my friend’s cut finger, beneath the bandaid, “to help Heather’s cut heal.” This was my introduction to natural medicine, and it was a “Wow!” experience. Though we lived on a farm, growing some of our own food, my mind was in the gutter of American popular mythologies, stories of mind over matter and machines making medicine.
Back in the Chicago suburbs, Nutrition World’s Diet House featured a job for me and an elderly expert who consulted with customers of our store in a wealthy town. We were tested on nutrition and dietary supplements; I enjoyed this experience a lot. When I moved into Chicago, I worked at New City Market in the rich theatre district (kind of near Second City); It’s Natural on Michigan Avenue near the River; and finally Whole Foods in Lincoln Park, another fashionable section of town, with a lot of traffic. (I had also furthered my education at Highland Park’s Sprout Shop, Oak Park’s Whole Food and Grain Depot, and as a customer at Portland, Oregon’s People’s Foods and other progressives enclaves of the West.) I must say that the Whole Foods where I worked—on North Avenue in a strip mall—was right next to Transitions, a New Age bookstore where I spent many a break, fortifying myself with food, drink, word and music. And other lunches found me buying zucchini burritos at a nearby Mexican restaurant or eating my Whole Foods salad bar selections in a vacant lot by the basketball court.
I felt great working at these stores. We had a restaurant that looked down on my Whole Foods section—“Nutrition”—composed of vitamins, supplements, herbs and bodycare. One day two women approached me and stated that they liked the way I moved, and wanted to offer me a job at nearby Best Buy, but I was more than happy to remain in my store, Earl Mindell’s herb book in my apron, trying to enlighten customers as to how to embrace greater living practices.
When I worked for Whole Foods Market, the store—though initially having been a food outlet—had developed, like I say, into providing items one would find in a “health food store,” i. e. shampoo, soap, vitamins, algae, and herbs. Several of the 62 lists reference these items—medicinal plants; personal care products; supplements such as spirulina, vitamins and minerals; spices—like herbs, offered in bulk, in pills, or in other forms. One smart shopper is getting “anchovies—B12!” This refers to, I assume, that the seeker is looking to get a source of vitamin B12, and anchovies have a lot of it; instead of a bottled source of the vitamin, this buyer wants to get hers/his from a food source. Also, they are not a strict vegetarian, we can glean from their entry, as anchovies are a kind of fish. The writer, however, is intelligent and resourceful, we can see—unless you think they could be moreso if they were vegan and wasn’t looking for fish to eat at all—and can be enthusiastic (always a good quality when paired with food!).
What is the process of making a shopping list? Of my sample, people tended to grab a small sheet of paper for this task: 43 did so, while 11 used a medium-sized sheet. Large sheets were utilized by 8, including one which was typed, while of the 43, seven folks used just a scrap to write on; Post-It notes were fine for 6. A full 17 of the writing material for the lists was repurposed, using these things: five business or other small cards; two envelopes; a paper napkin (this was particularly delicate but did the job); a list of songs that start with “L”; an Herbfest ’98 registration notice. Only three used writing paper specifically for the task—one with a flower and bee design; one with a corporate logo and worker’s name. The third used specifically “Chopin Liszt” paper, with a drawing of the two composers by Sandra Boynton!
Folded 8 1/2” x 11” paper was useful—6 of them were found; and stained paper was common. Was this the original state of the list, or did it become wet/marked after it left the writer’s hand, falling somehow to the floor and being rescued by some “Team Member” who gave it to collector me? Most of the lists (34) were recorded on white paper; another 9 used whitish or grayish paper. There were eight yellows in the crowd (including the Chopin Liszt one), and three greens, along with a hot pink, three pinks, and two lavenders.
In terms of lettering, only one list was typed, but that list also had an additional entry plus a correction in blue ink, and a couple of added entries in pencil; fourteen items were crossed off. This appears to be for a feast of some kind—“chestnuts” (these are described in detail as to amount and fresh or canned version); “Sweet potatoes; Cranberry sauce; Eggnog; Roasting pan;” ingredients I recognize for stuffing; a sauce with “1/2 cup dry Sherry;” fancy mushrooms (shiitake); rosemary, thyme and tarragon spices (the blue correction was about amounts for fresh verses dried rosemary herb); creamed onions, perhaps?, etc. etc.—the list is a full page long, ending with “Tampons” written in longhand; the writer of this list may be a woman, I venture to guess.
One must indeed work around what the store offers. Dry versus fresh, frozen or unfrozen, canned, jarred, bagged, boxed—how indeed do we get our food? Is fresh always best? I drink turmeric tea. I can find dried turmeric in mixtures put out by tea companies, but the fresh root is actually offered at both Whole Foods and Devon Market, our local “world market” store; it’s more satisfying to chop pieces of the fresh orange root into a cup, with a little fresh ginger. Is it better for me health-wise? Well, it’s more fun and I know and experience exactly what I’m getting: amount—how strong I like it and how much I am spending; and quality—the unspoiled purity and delightfulness, my adventure, perhaps to share. That’s an interesting idea—the more involved one is in preparing one’s food, the more joy one receives from eating it, and the more likely one is to spend to get more…yet, the more one is satisfied with one’s food, the less one will need to eat, on a food-as-entertainment level, so perhaps the less one will get fat!
During my tenure at Whole Foods Market—my employment as Nutrition section salesperson, I was moved profoundly, as I had been at the other health food stores where I worked. Some of my co-workers were also touched deeply—by ourselves, each other, and the store’s service to humanity (our customers). We were intellectually stimulated by what was going on in our department. “Our whole society is suffering because nutritional knowledge is not in the hands of the majority of the consumers; Whole Foods,” I wrote back then—but it is still true, today—“is a testimony to how shoppers will buy when they become somewhat educated and to their desire to get educated. Whole Foods suffers in its mission because its food store consciousness lags behind its health food store consciousness: the store suggests powerful solutions,” like the bottles and jars we dusted, read on, and told customers about, “then frustrates customers when its hobbled limbs cannot keep up with their desires to buy, buy, buy!…The hierarchy thing has been done already—by the people we’re trying to eclipse with our rectitude. When we do so we shall get a reputation as shining, golden, virtuous; and it’s reputations like that (by the way) that sell products.” (This from “Store/Company/Industry Alert in Preparation for the Year 2000: Plans for an Expanded Healthy Health Food Store,” which I wrote on my own initiative, as an inspired Team Member.)
I found a few menu plans on large paper. A dinner of pork, with marinade, asparagus and beans was laid out, with recipes and a section “To Buy.” Another list featured a menu plan with categories of foods needed to make it a go, including, in a box, “liquor”—“amaretto” and “cheap white wine” were underneath. Several other authors would be shopping for alcohol; a simple “wine” was listed on #6. Two specific wines could be found on #9, “Wine—Los Vascos, Sincerre.” A “wine—>white -Melissa & John” was the final entry on #11, written on an envelope.
One full sheet of notebook paper (#21) is two-sided and lists healthy practices. It begins with, in all caps, “ELIMINATE: CAFFEINE, ALCOHOL, JUNK FOODS, REFINED (SUGAR) (WHITE FLOUR)>BRONNER. FIBER.” (I’ll have more to say about this list later, but for now I want us to notice its tone of enlightened concern and enthusiasm.) Is “BRONNER” a reference to the All-One-God-Faith Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap, which has a lot of Dr. Bronner’s healthful suggestions listed on its bottle?
The list on the Herbfest ’98 registration form has a formula for a drink I used to swallow every morning when I lived with my high school friends in San Francisco; these folks had migrated to the city after I shared my West Coast experiences with them at winter break from Reed College in 1985. Jim’s (Demetrious’) mom was into healthy food, and he had learned a lot from her. The drink is, as expressed on the list: 3-4 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp grated ginger, dash of cayenne in lemon juice (1/2 lemon). We would drink this up and I’d run to the Asian fruit and veggie store for the best-looking fresh fruits, which we would then enjoy. This experience would stimulate me to continue trying to improve and maintain my health by eating certain foods; by the time Whole Foods Market came to Chicago, in a refurbished brewery building with skylights, the largest health food store in the country, I quit another job in order to work there, and since I lived within walking distance, a perfect three-year career was born. I would continue the learning experience I’d started in 1987, and wrote extensively to my fellow workers and management the time I was there.
Many of the lists were written in cursive, and many have items crossed off. They remind me of my own methods: first, I grab a small sheet of paper from the notepad of some charity sent to me by mail—in lieu of a Post-It note if I don’t have any—or a piece of 8 1/2” x 11” scratch paper for a long list (or for ones for different stores). I rip or cut it off as needed, scribbling in pseudo-legible, half-cursive, half printed handwriting which, like a journal entry where I’m recording my dreams, only I have to be able to read. I utilize some medium to record the items my partner and I, in counsel, see that we require for the smooth operation of our life. Sometimes the list hangs around for a couple of days and I add to it as needed. Ideally, I then put the list by my wallet so I don’t forget it.
Sometimes, however, I fail to bring it with, woe is me! At the store, we charge into the produce section (all 6 of our stores feature their fruits and veggies as you enter) and I look for the list. Finally I find the pocket it’s in, and whip it out. I never carry a writing instrument to cross the entries off, although that’s fun and satisfying; I always forget, and never have a pocket for one anyway. Instead, I usually lose track of the list by the time we enter the checkout line, assuming we’ve gotten everything and I don’t need it for another store.
One of the lists in my collection seems like a holiday one, with CDs and other gifts—including wines; it has names but is very hard to read. I thought it too personal to publish so it is not in my collection. There was another list we found that I couldn’t read because it was in an Asian language—it looked like Chinese to me: undecipherable to my eyes at this time. And there is another with a stationary name and company address that I will be covering up for viewing. The charming “Chopin Liszt” graphic by Sandy Boynton, the great illustrator and humorist, is the ultimate paper—in size (4” x 6”); color—a hard-to-lose yellow; inspiration—the two composers have groceries in their arms; and humor— wordplay for a shopping list! At least, it seems to me perfect for the job (there are even two columns side by side, for one or two words each line).
I wrote in July of 1998, “The commitment of my Nutrition co-workers is incredible: we must, for a small wage, act as therapist and doctor, oftentimes, which we do, out of love! I know the company values our minds, for we could not play these roles if it didn’t.” (this in correspondence with Susannah Frishman-Phillips by email, July 10, 1998)
I’ll tell you that the lists dearest to my heart are ones with a concern for good, hearty healing items—and not necessarily the expensive ones. All lists qualify, which shows the humanity of the Whole Foods consumer, who takes joy in eating wholesome fare. It reminds me of why I worked there and enjoyed those days! I love just being near the foods offered by this store, because I see their freshness and their quality—it’s inspiring. Also, creativity goes into many of the products and a Whole Foods is like a museum; unfortunately, as in an actual museum, sometimes what’s on display is too pricey to afford by the average shopper—this is a problem!. Whole Foods has, unfortunately, developed a reputation for being expensive; this is not uniform, but can indeed be a feature of its pricing. Competition would be desirable.
My country, the U. S. A., suffers from the consumption of poor-quality foods, especially people failing to eat enough fresh produce. (I was a vegetarian for 30 years, and I relied on health food stores for some of my meal ingredients: Whole Foods has a place!) The Obama Administration got a letter from me suggesting that the President subsidize fruits and vegetables for the poor, so the nation could heal itself from the inside out! I think Michelle Obama was concerned about food deserts, another problem of our nation.
Like Amazon is for online shopping, Whole Foods has become for this market of healthy foods. The monopoly is troubling, to say the least. Looking at the shopping for delivery that the store offers, and the increase in employees, one must ask how its workers are compensated. Especially during this Covid 19 time, is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sharing the wealth, or not? Furthermore, are employees learning about whole foods by being around them—a possible perk of the job? Are they at least inspired in this healthy atmosphere—and maybe even by some of the customers by whom they are surrounded?
The penmanship or penciled letters of these lists seem to express their symbols with joy. Take #1, on a medium-sized piece of yellow lined paper: “SOUR CREAM BUNDT CAKE,” written in all caps in underlined black marker. Below it are six ingredients, plus “CARAMEL FROSTING,” with “BROWN SUGAR (LIGHT).” This one was found crumpled, like many of the lists, probably on the floor. Or, take the 4” by 6” off-white folded paper, #60, also wrinkled, with only two items on it, both expressed with uniquely kind of dyslexic printing: “Sage” and, underneath it, “coarse salt.” I am torn between preferring two different tiny lists; the first, #67, is a lavender scrap of list with darkly pencilled arrows pointing to items to buy, perhaps from a different store—“getting @ drug store”—along with some dates for meetings; I’m not sure if the other things are to be purchased at Whole Foods (“—>water bottle (2) for kids; —>calcium; water filter; —>margerinne”) or not. The other scrap that yanks at me (#61) is a tiny (roughly 2” x 4.5”), extremely wrinkled double-sided list, torn on all sides. The writing seems done by two different hands. One side reads, “Onions/Kiwi fruit/navel oranges/spring greens/spinach/potatoes (if this year’s).” Here the thinking customer shows his/her care for quality and freshness! On the other side, the list reads, “Tea/Salmon/Tomatoes/Olives” in a script somewhat larger than the first; the second, in a sort of cursive, looks more hurried than the first (it’s harder to read, while the first shows the patient intention of distinct—if miniscule— lettering).
62 lists. 19 large. 43 small. I look at one of my mom’s shopping lists and see her glorious cursive describing her raw materials for making loving meals. Her fancy “f” in “fruit;” her capitalization of only one word, her favorite herb tea (“Cham tea” for chamomile); “red tea” down twice, once smaller and once at the top of the second grouping or column;”butter” in quotes—(“”butter””)—presumably referring to a margarine-type product she and her mate intelligently consume—there are eleven (plus the repetition) items on the list, but I like to see “yogurt” the best. It’s the first item and reminds me of her relationship with her mother-in-law, who used to make it. I know my mom’s household now eats those single-serving flavored ones from a store like Whole Foods, and thoroughly enjoy them—they get different flavors and have them with breakfast—number one on the list indeed! (This list was not found at Whole Foods, but is an important part of my collection because I recognize her hand; plus, she studied poetry and is a writer. Like any alert shopper, she is concerned with quality, and simple items do the trick—here’s the whole list: “yogurt/tortilla/coffee/ fruit/ “butter”/ hummus/ lemons/ milk/ green salsa/ Cham tea/red tea/red tea” (#46).
Well, my point here is that food is good and lots of people know it—or did in the late nineties when these lists were found. As a Nutrition Team worker, my hand was in the body care, vitamins, herbs and supplements that we sold in my section, and so was my heart. Of course, much of the products we prepared, cleaned, shelved and told customers about were part of whole foods themselves—vitamins, minerals, etc. But the herb section was my pride and joy: we offered large jars full of dried leaves, berries, and roots which had medicinal qualities. Some of these, like ginger and garlic, we sold in pill form and also, raw, in the Produce section with the bananas, lettuce and such. (These days, my Whole Foods sells fresh turmeric root, delightfully orange when cut—enjoy as tea or in food and say goodbye to arthritis pain! Or at least that’s how my sister and I use it. Meanwhile, my doctor wanted to prescribe some fancy, addictive drug for me, without mentioning that it would be a lot easier on my joints if I would lose weight! I did and use turmeric, and feel pretty much no hurting!)
So coming across lists with herbs on them (and vitamins and body care, less so) was living proof that folks planned to buy them and found them valuable. Here I make a distinction between herbs and dried spices, which we also offered in the Grocery section in bulk, so customers could serve themselves in little bags, avoiding overuse of bottles, lightening their footprints on the Earth. My #29 lists “diuretic tea (dandelion”) amongst its bathroom and refrigerated items (“B treatment shampooo/diuretic tea (dandelion)/ juice (fruit& veg)/ 3 votives/ cotton balls/ T paper (1)/ Pads/ orange mango tea/ Soap/ Bread/ eggs…” The next column—all of this on a 3” x 3” bright pink square of paper: “Salad tomatoes/ cuke/ brocc/ zucc/apples/ melon/carrots/ celery/ onions…” Then, finally, written sideways: “calendar sheets/nag champa/ dish towel.” We probably sold the incense, “nag champa,” in the kitchen/ household stuff section of Grocery, I don’t remember. Here again, the writer is possibly female, judging by the penmanship—very small letters but definitely a patient script—and the “Pads,” which could refer to the “green” menstrual pads that we sold. My current Whole Foods—after merging with Amazon and adjusting to Covid-19—does not offer bulk spices or herbs, boo-hoo.
Here’s a really inspiring list, if you’re me—#33, black ink on a 4” x 6” piece of grey paper, in a unisex hand. It reads, in all caps, ROSEHIPS/ LEMGRASS/ PEP MINT/ GINGER/ ELDER FLOWER/ ECHINACEA/ MARSHMAL/ LICORICE/ ASTRAGALUS/ THYME.” It’s encouraging to me that a) the writer is familiar enough with the words to abbreviate them and still know what he/she is talking about, i. e. “lemongrass”; b) the writer has found uses for these plants, whether strictly medicinal (like astralagus—see below) or nutritional (like rosehips for vitamin C and delicious tea), or peppermint, the tea I enjoy after eating meat, to soothe my tummy; c) several of the items have enthusiastic check marks next to them, indicating that the writer has cared enough to put these items in her/his shopping cart. Indeed, the borders of the nutritional and medicinal can be blurry! That’s what I love about herbs—they are medicinal, but they are natural!
You’d have to see me in my section at Whole Foods: Lincoln Park to get the picture. I would walk around, duster in my apron, along with Earl Mindell’s Herb Bible, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1992, which we sold at the store. To find the uses for an herb like astragalus, I’d look it up in that book or another, show the information to a customer, and lead them to the area where we sold it. It’s on page 47 in Earl Mindell’s book:
“FACTS: Grown in China, Oriental herbalists have used astragalus for centuries for a wide variety of ailments, including diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Westerners, however, are just beginning to discover its many benefits. Recent studies in leading Chinese medical journals suggest that astragalus may help activate the immune system, thus enhancing the body’s natural ability to fight disease…”
List #4, on white lined paper, uses two hands with two different media: blue pen, in cursive, for “Caulk/ stamps/ whole foods” and black marker for the rest. The marker is printed, to say,
“rice
“ cakes
pancakes
pasta
crackers
chicken/ beans/ rice milk/ almond butter/ veg./ fruit juice/ herbs/ potato.” Judging from what I know about nutrition, which is not that much, I would say that this writer team is trying to move to rice products as opposed to traditional grains, i. e. wheat/ oats for Americans. Also, they want some herbs; whether this means spices for cooking with or medicinal herbs like astragalus is impossible to surmise. But here we see Whole Foods offering dietary flexibility that more conventional stores cannot, or at that time did not (today, our big supermarket does offer some alternative products but I couldn’t compare it to Whole Foods in scope of uniquely healthy food products for sale).
Let me just note here that my partner was angry at me earlier, and threatened me by saying “From now on, we will not shop together!” He knows how dear to me our cooperation in food-procurement is! One day later, we’re back together and I am baking oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips from Whole Foods—sweetened with not sugar but stevia (stevia is a South American herb that is 16 times sweeter than sugar, which may or may not actually be better for our health, the word’s not out), dark chocolate and delicious!
One of the few green shopping lists I have is small—2” x 3”—and seems to have been composed in several stages. The media look like blue pen; pencil; and black pen. There is a graphic, too, an abstract line drawing with a series of squiggly lines. (It looks to me like one writer saw the first items on the list: “Acidophilous/ Cheese/ Celery” Then added “H2O2/ CABBAGE” then drew for a minute and then, “green tea.” I would guess the “H2O2” is supposed to be water, but I don’t know. Anyway, I find it noteworthy because of the “Acidophilous,” which I’m used to as acidophilus. It seems a British spelling of the word, meaning a popular strain of good gut bacteria that we sold in our section. Number 35: so interesting for such a smidgen of paper!
To change the subject a bit, one of the lists is #37, delightful for its handwriting—legible, patiently crafted, but unique. Somebody is gonna have a nice time, with their “camera/ 8 to 10 inch pot/ firewood/ 1/2 lb mozzarella/ 1 lb ricotta/ fresh basil./ pine nuts/ olive oil./ lotto ticket”!
Number 40, a list on a smallish piece of paper—but written in red ink—features a question mark after “organic meat?” and a misspelling of “vitamins:” it says, “vitamines.” The entries are a bit haphazard: differently angled words cross and fail to obey the lines of the paper.; the first letter of “Bread” has been changed to a capital. There are three body care items listed, along with “Disinfectant spray (natural).” These are balanced by “WATER,” the vitamins and four food items. Apparently this shopper likes cleanliness (“sterile cotton ball/ deodorant/ toothpaste”) AND indulgence (“Chocolate” with a capital “C”), and is not a vegetarian but wants to shop for general food categories (“Grains/ Bread/ Chocolate”), as well as to explore something Whole Foods may (and does) have for sale— “organic meat?.” Thus we see that a list tells a story, and may be an anthropological document as well. Vitamins and body care were in my section, called “Nutrition,” and I am happy to see that people take advantage of the chance to nourish their bodies, inside and out, even perhaps with high ideals in mind, such as decreasing their carbon footprints and getting and staying healthier.
List writers prefer black to blue pen by about 100%, and only a few utilize pencil or other colored pens—but several do. Four employed mixed media (i. e., red and black ink, or pencil, blue ink and black ink). One used blue ink to make five lists on an 8 1/2” x 11” piece of paper, which was already printed on—but very lightly (#15); definitely recycled, though. The author used three columns. The first list started under “WHOLE FOODS,” made of thick letters in all caps. The second followed a colored in “jewel,” the name of a big Chicago grocery store; the third said “Stanley’s;” underneath that, one saw two other store names written, with one item each—“Alliance Bakery” (“pain”) and “Andy’s Deli” (“cheese”). I assume “pain” was bread, as in French. All items except the store names were in cursive, and each began with a colored in dot in front of it; the effect of all this was an artsy document that bespoke of its entries as exciting, fun, important and neat: just the kind of shopping experience one would hope for.
To all of my list writers: thanks for your time! I hope you didn’t forget anything on your trip. See my website’s Food section for the small lists: alternatefuturesinstitute.com online.
I read your recent post regarding Chicago police reform. One point I, also, see is that police brutality/mistakes are very expensive to taxpayers. Obviously, they should be prevented. The Gallup poll you reported found that a majority of Blacks and Hispanics want “a major change” in policing. I am white and want this, too. But since there are so many guns in the USA now, police officers are at severe risk. Any effort to harmonize police and public interaction would, I think, be useful.
The Mayor’s cuts in the police budget, you report, would affect the counseling division. This is a horrible idea, in a world and nation full of trauma, which especially effects police officers; I suggest a major increase in counseling and therapy for police, instead.
Prevention of crime is a huge issue that depends not just on creating safety; this is national and worldly in scope. The human condition today brings aggression with it, as we struggle to meet our needs with methods from the past. We can evolve. However, today, cops are risking their lives as a matter of course. This must make them furious and in need of mental health support.
I suggest 3 things for police reform. One is, train officers in capoeira and jiu jitsu, both Brazilian martial arts. I think this would help officers feel more powerful. Other citizens should also employ this method of mental strengthening. Playing soccer would also be great training.
Secondly, increase, don’t decrease, funding for therapy for officers—and every other Chicagoan!
Third, figure out language for all citizens who speak English to use in tricky situations, such as scripts for both parties: people interacting with police, and police talking with the public. I suggest also that these behavior explorations be combined into one televised class for all City employees and, optionally, residents, called Community Gist or whatever you like.
Here are my ideas regarding DuSable Lake Shore Drive. C. Jenny Walbridge 312-608-8070, 60660
The Drive has served the people—trail users and car drivers, and bus riders—well, for a long time. Why not consider whether/how we could improve it, for users of the future? I think it needs the light touch of designers AND a practical viewpoint. My immediate reaction is that we neither have lots of money for redoing this area, nor need to spend a lot on it to make it better serve Chicagoans/tourists.
As we see, gas prices are going down, but this is NOT a reason for the City to attempt to do other things to try to encourage more car driving, which does make Chicago money (i. e., gas taxes). It’s time for something different—looking to the future with an imaginative lens. A symptom of the changing tomorrow is the plethora of new vehicles on the roads. And we should consider how to take care of the users who already are there, on the trail, in minor ways, before proposing major $$ changes.
Drivers of cars don’t need an improved Drive. The DSLSD experience is a great one for car drivers already; keeping the asphalt repaired is all it needs. The underpasses on the North stretch have been decorated artistically and look great.
Global warming may cause the Lake to assert itself; the buildings that sit next to it may be in danger some day soon! Rocks have been added on the lakeshores to save structures—good idea! These additions may be important for the trail, also, and have indeed been added in a place or two.
This global warming concern is legitimate, though spending lots of money to fill in some land along the Drive might be a bad idea, because, like I say, the City doesn’t have it, and that includes the taxpayers who live here, like myself. Yet adding more trail users would also be smart for the future. If you have to expand the width of the trail for this purpose, maybe that would be a good idea.
Lake/trail users could benefit from some basic facilities: more bathrooms; drinking fountains; and shelters, for protection against rain bursts and sun. These might encourage trail users. Also, were the trail wider, and were there more beachfront, users might increase in number. I imagine spots delineated for viewing, for pedestrians and bikers to stop and paint or take photos of the skyline—both along the North side of the Loop and the Southside, looking to the landscape. Stations for exercising, like many trails in cities have, might also enhance the DSLSD trail experience.
Now that we have e-bikes, scooters, and skateboards, as well as bicycle transport, maybe it’s time for some more lanes along the trail. Where would folks taking the suggestion of the New York Times, recently, for seniors to walk with ski poles, fit in on the current trail? What about rollerskaters or rollerbladers—where do they have room to move?
Utilizing the ideas of Katy Bowman, biomechanist (see Move Your DNA; nutritiousmovement.com), our human bodies evolved stepping on uneven ground. A trail for “hunters/gatherers”—with uneven-surfaced pathways—would be a revolutionary nod to getting and staying enriched while healthy. Could we make a trail to compete with San Fran?
Meanwhile, a decorated but flat pathway especially for the wheelchair-bound would be a stimulant to their recreation, too. I can see an expanded Lakefront Trail that accommodated these ways of moving and facilities: creative designers would maybe even volunteer their efforts, working in a group for a better DSLSD.
The Drive has a lot to offer, but maybe the two-legged, small-vehicle level is the one to plan for—not the automobile, which has already attained its full enjoyment use pattern. However, buses could share the Drive better, too: more of them instead of cars sounds like a good future-planning technique.
Here in Illinois, we are currently going by a “no cash bail” system, wherein defendants are not detained in our jails until their case reaches the court. The reasoning behind this is that government ’s holding someone if they cannot post a certain amount of bail is racially discriminatory. This because poorer people—usually “Black” or “Brown”—cannot afford the fee, so are stuck in jail, whereas the richer, often “White,” can pay the bail and go free until their court date. However, this system of no cash bail saves a lot of money, since jailing people is costly. The only problem is that those arrested for crimes, when put back on the street, before their court date, may be tempted to perform more crimes.
And those who are jailed get little, if any, rehabilitation, I understand. Yet they live in proximity to ski lled crime committers in prison, so could learn more methods to use for breaking the law when they get out. It doesn’t help that our system prevents released felons from renting living spaces and taking advantage of other opportunities to better themselves. Crime must seem like the only way to live, even though it fails to bolster the community—in fact, it is an attack on the lawbreaker’s community, and therefore the criminal, themself. Additionally, this behavior contributes to a negative stereotype—an assault on everyone.
A related situation is the plastic gun one. Gun availability has increased, now that people—children, felons, terrorists—can buy gun parts and assemble them themselves. Meanwhile, some firearm owners are using gun impoundment to avoid having the weapons around because gun presence at home is a temptation—to suicide! Canada may be different, but the right to gun ownership for all Americans can backfire, and it has, similar to the no cash bail rule and prison without rehab, in general. Similar, in fact, to the state of humanity.
The appeal of guns is that a weak being can use them to halt a threatening one. Guns terminate—they end—they create finality. And justice cannot be restored after a death has occurred, can it? “Getting justice for my loved one”—what prison sentence or amount of money could heal such a wound? There would be none except to prevent the maiming in the first place. But prevention suggests far-reaching considerations—maybe even a system quite different from the one we employ today. I think American mass shooters might feel they need to live in situations that they don’t sense could ever be created. For example, it’s clear to me that we need hordes of therapists in every school, not just one social worker per institution; but could that be brought about?
The time is now to define lack of violence of every sort, including psychological, and the presence of fairness and justice for all Americans of every age. Why do we value human, and why humane, interaction? Can we replace work that is destructive to our bodies and minds—too much sitting; too much heavy lifting in factories; boring mindwork—by robotics and artificial intelligence, substituting for it employment that enriches lives through character, not wages? Rebuilding surroundings for ourselves will take a lot of work, from research (see Katy Bowman’s nutritiousmovement.com ) to completion. But enjoying the production of more humane environments will be great recreation, as we empower creative expression—in housing, for example. No law allowing gun access will be wanted, as people won’t desire gun presence. Kamala Harris, you have a gun today, but I do not and do not want one tomorrow, either; I am not scared: I have faith in our American abilities and potential species evolution. The four of us should continue elucidating fairness, as you three have done in your work for the nation and state and I have tried to on my website—but together, with the guiding concern of rehabilitation for all! I look forward to staying in touch in the future.
I sent you a letter awhile ago telling you I was also writing to Dorval Carter of the CTA, and that I would forward you the letter. I sent it to you, with another copy of my art magazine, Blueprint for a Greener World, the other day; you should have received it by now.. The letter details in 16 points my ideas for the CTA system.
In any case, it is clear to me that education is also up—in our world, and in our city. I have a couple of points to make regarding it. Firstly, Chicago teachers are getting paid enough! Is it fair that they get pensions while most other jobholders don’t, in our city? I don’t think so, though I’m not sure whether they pay into Social Security. I know the Supreme Court said the city has to pay them their pensions, which it should, as the pensions have been promised them. Maybe pensions could be phased out, though! Not until every Chicago worker is paid fair wages that include yearly cost-of-living adjustments will your work be done, in my opinion.
Secondly, upon reading the website for the school board candidates for my district—District 2—I realize one important viewpoint regarding CPS education. This is that there is a lot of idealism among the system’s workers, which is a good thing. This romanticism includes these ideas: all kids deserve to have a school that they can walk to. Students should expect to learn foreign languages if they have a significant presence in the student body. Nurses and social workers should be present at every school. Art and music programs should be decent and running at each school. Finally, teachers should expect to be paid well.
Let me laud the CPS system, before I proceed, for trying to reach the goals I have mentioned, along with trying to bus students when appropriate; trying to earn money for the schools not by taxing homeowners; trying to teach disabled people; being transparent about who the candidates for the school board are—the website I saw was beautiful; potentially being willing to take school board advice not to use police presence in the schools; and other fine methods for educating and inspiring our youth, tomorrow’s leaders, even to the point of making room for magnet and special schools (such as Edison Regional Gifted Center, which my partner and I have some experience with) when other more traditional education situations are still delinquent in the focus of the city, deserving more attention and resources.
Anyway, in the face of such idealism, I think it’s time to ask what we want our city to be teaching the kids, and I have answers:
1. I say, we should learn about our bodies! What better place to start early preventing injury? Injury that could mean lost productivity—and hurt—later in life. Injury that could mean visits to physical therapists who may finally pay attention to you, and care! My experience treating my condition of pathology from sitting too much makes me concerned for children and teachers who sit much of the day. I direct you to nutritiousmovement.com , Move Your DNA, and Sitting Kills, Moving Heals. If today’s CPS teachers can’t teach the human body, find others who can—such as folks who know acupressure, which could show all of us how to care for each other’s health. Nutrition, too. (My November 23 speech, “What Is Food?” will be at the College of Complexes and streamed by Zoom; I could email you the link if you want. You might like to hire me as a nutrition co-coach for school meals.)
2. There are other ways to keep young minds busy and learning and help society at the same time. Like learning other languages: the world is a big place! Why should we expect that problems, including the production of beautiful children themselves, will be solved only using English? Lazy lovers can always choose mates from English-speaking Nigeria or India, as well as the USA. Spanish has the same alphabet as English—it’s spoken by one of our two
2
neighboring countries. Not different enough to build bridges across the planet, I say! Spanish should be required, but so should other languages—this could be a way to create loyalty groups
among the older student body of schools—I’m thinking, those who are learning Ethiopian, or
Persian, or Navaho. What happened to Sister Cities, by the way?
3. Cursive is still an art that should be taught, as students learn to write in other languages’ scripts as well as in English. Some people can write cursive well; some who only learn to sign their names in longhand won’t have to learn it. But some could help society and the world by working to preserve great people’s ideas and quotations—like the patriotic words of Black leaders, for example. For both children and adults, some people’s cursive writing could be used to write out great words of the memorable—like Dr. Frederick Douglass; Dr. Coretta Scott King; and the Bill of Rights, etc. In cursive form, personality is expressed; humanity is communicated; readers can even, perhaps, experience soul. Maybe some people would come up with writing styles that would make good fonts when translated into worldwide computer use—these could be marketed.
4. With today’s long-lived art supplies, children’s and mentally “ill” folks’ art therapy work could be saved and sold. This would help communities by developing and showing local talent. As a former School of the Art Institute of Chicago student, I can see worthwhile artistic production by these groups; saving kids’ homework could be taken to a different, moneymaking level! Engaging artists to help people learn while expressing themselves, and learn while creating marketable artwork, could be done, starting right here in Chicago. For non-artists, making and selling frames for peers’ artwork might be a way to raise money for the education system. Artists and teachers, I see, should work with wisdom figures and parents to create templates for kids to use for learning and expression, like some lessons in math, reading, etc. that are already in use, and identify artistic results. How about partnering kids with performance artists? Letting our children and mentally “ill” folks’ expressions lead us to further humanity is an idea whose time has come!
3
5. Meanwhile, hordes of talk, art, music, and dance therapists are needed for people to get over the buffeting of them by our immature world. Schools need tons of social workers!
6. How about exposing children to different bioregions? My UN-declared World Ocean Year
idea would see landlocked children traveling to see the ocean for the first time.
7. My ARTEMIS plan could be worked on by kids communicating with other kids—from other countries—making a collection of bad-health-preventive practices from all over the world. American Recovery Team, Ecological Muse, International Synthesis!
I’d like to meet with you and my Senator, Mike Simmons, for lunch at Ethiopian Diamond, on Broadway. Mike and I both love that place. We could throw other positive ideas around—and catch them!
“Our vision is that within 20 years more than 80 per cent of the workforce (four in five staff) will convert between 2 – 4 hours of sitting time with standing daily at their desk.
“Regular minor movement whilst at work is essential for us to:
• keep our bodies healthy
• prevent illness & relieve stress
• liberate us & make us more productive”
* (Note—yes, they said “Liberate us!”)
“Get up offa that thing” as James Brown suggests
The On Your Feet Britain challenge encourages you to take James Brown at his word and convert ‘sitting time’ to ‘standing time’. Make some simple changes – it’s easier than you think:
Let’s Move More (Australian Tips & Goals) The Australian Department of Health suggests, in its colorful 8-page brochure on adult physical activity and sedentary behavior, that people be social while exercising. In “Why not try these ideas?,” “Active and fun” is one of its four suggestions.
“World Health Organization Guidelines for physical activity and sedentary behavior:
It is recommended that:
“Adults should limit the amount of time spent being sedentary. Replacing sedentary time with physical activity of any intensity (including light intensity) provides health benefits.
To help reduce the detrimental effects of high levels of sedentary behaviour on health, adults should aim to do more than the recommended levels of moderate- to vigorous- intensity physical activity. Strong recommendation, moderate certainty evidence
Doing some physical activity is better than doing none.”
My reactions to this are fivefold. First, two out of three of my Kukuwa African Dance video women are in their sixties but bebop around quite well, thank you very much! And thanks to them, I am feeling great after a 15-minute workout online. These days (January, 2022), they are having a five-minute exercise program. It makes me remember that I heard about dance clubs in New York that were open during the day (instead of at night), for patrons to get their exercise in during daytime.
Secondly, my sister (who uses a “walking desk” treadmill in her office) and I (who use a “kneeling chair” that rocks) get movement and alternatives to traditional sitting.
Thirdly, the issue Alan Hedge of Cornell brings up about breaks in sitting, and that every 30 minutes of sitting work should be broken by 8 minutes of standing and 2 of moving.
Fourthly, when I am moving around, it’s sometimes because I should, but often because I feel like expressing myself joyfully, which is good for me, as WHO and Hedge concur. I experience joyfulness when I move around (dance, for example), even if only for a couple of minutes—all agree that 5 minutes of Kukuwa African dance, for example, is good for body, but is also great for psyche. Neither WHO nor Alan address this “joyful” issue: what does “joyful” look like?Workers are gonna be more motivated to move around and get their bodies oxygenated, including their brains, thus becoming more productive and valuable, if they are happy!
Yet this brings up another issue: how to empower folks to jump around? Going outside for exercise is fine unless air quality is low. At work, people may be reminded of their oppression—terrible bosses, failure of company to let workers unionize, and all sorts of other problems, some of which are architectural, some societal, some worldly. For my opinion about world stages of maturity, see my website:
The song “Happy” by Pharell Williams, with its video of different people dancing, makes me inspired—I want to move when I hear it—it’s catchy. Same with “Uptown Funk,” by Bruno Mars, and Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice, Baby” and Fatboy Slim’s “Funk Soul Brother,” and “Old Movie Stars Dance to Uptown Funk,” as well as Salt ’n’ Pepa’s “Express Yourself!” and NWA’s “Express Yourself,” as well as ATL’s “Freedom of Speech,” MC Hammer’s “You Can’t Touch This,” etc.
The US’ National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health reports on yoga and ta’i chi, finding that they are helpful in a variety of ways. Both are ancient disciplines, which have survived over the years, so this makes sense. There is another martial art that is great that I know about—capoeira; it’s Brazilian, and involves no weapons but the body; it is very dancelike (in fact it was developed by slaves to be so much like dance that their masters would let them practice it, thinking it was, indeed, only a dance!).
Other peoples might have different healthy habits the world’s residents could benefit from. Pope Francis, in his On Care for Our Common Home, reports that “St. Therese of Lisieux invites us to practice the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship. An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness.” (On Care for Our Common Home: Laudato Si, Paragraph 230)Some knowledge we can glean from each other may consist of interaction that is progressively healthful—creating and expressing fun, enjoyment of ourselves and each other, and kindness, including the sharing of talents and capacities.
Fifthly, stretching is important for total health! Moslems do what is in yoga referred to as the “Child’s Pose” five times a day. That is, they get on the Earth and fold their arms over while kneeling on the floor, stretching—five times a day! Everyone does this—men/women, old/young. How civilized can one get? By civilized, I mean life-enhancing and preserving—and celebrating!
My idea for a world language is to be crafted from the most amusing parts of all current languages. The moving discipline for world health—for fun and joy—should feature the movements that people can do for optimum health and beauty—and even humor, I say. Also, they could show respect and value for the Earth, our common home, and each other.
Actually, there is now a way of transcribing movement, other than recording it in film. It’s called Labanotation, and is presented in Brenda Farnell’s Dynamic Embodiment for Social Theory: I move, therefore I am, 2012, New York: Routledge. With this tool, we can learn from people in every corner of the world.
I want to be a Minister of Movement for my world. I want to make a TV show where I help people move more joyfully! Maybe I need to consult Daria Okugawa, at the Alexander Teacher Training In Chicago.
In any case, the British call for “liberat[ion]” is not falling on deaf ears. These ears hear, and want to respond to worldly need for liberation! The British also mention that a positive attitude is one of the results of exercising. Certainly we can see that this type of attitude, and a healthier workforce, will make more money. But, if the workers do not make more money themselves, they will see injustice and will have a harder time feeling motivated to jump around. We all need inspiration!
For USA government health.gov/MoveYourWay Community Resources: campaign materials, fact sheets and posters for printable materials, colorful and smart: “Dance Moves,” “Feel Better,” and “Fact Sheet for Adults” for adults. The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion does not mention Alan Hedge & Cornell idea that “It’s not just about activity to burn calories and promote circulation, but also the importance of gravitational stimulation from postural changes (Dr. Joan Vernikos’ work at NASA…)” —email of 12/13/21. Vernikos’ research encouraged his 20-8-2 approach. I think this means that, like our hunter-gatherer forbears, human need to be basically moving all the time, stretching, lifting weight, walking, AND DANCING!
“Vernikos found that keeping subjects resting and immobile—an extreme form of the typical American lifestyle—caused the same health problems as extended weightlessness.” That is, superset astronauts’ muscles & bones degenerate and overall health appears like that of elderly people.
“‘Her easy-to-follow plan shows how fun activities such as walking, dancing, golf and just simple movement will help us become not just healthier but stronger and more independent.’ —The Tucson Citizen”
shows that the key to reversing the damage of sedentary living is to put gravity back in your life through frequent, non-strenuous actions that resist the force of gravity throughout the day, 365 days a year…The Sitting Kills, Moving Heals method is fun, easy to follow, takes no time commitment—and it works, giving far better results than conventional diet and exercise plans.”
A)—I say that life itself is movement. Our early ancestors were movers—hunters, gatherers—not sitters, right?.
B) I assert that life itself is joyful movement—passionate awareness, from plankton to whale—including humans.
C) I say that sitting for awhile—too long—and not moving makes one out of touch with one’s body and therefore joy, and is not healthy for one or one’s fellow folks—or for Earth, which turns with the oil of playfulness and self-improvement/growth, which often issues from interaction. Playfulness/creativity—“Creativity is intelligence having fun,” as Albert Einstein said—continues to save the world, when we let it. If not fun, why done? I ask.
Imagining the United Nations members trying to help but sitting too much, I am sad, for me and for other world residents. And other office-dwellers: maybe working from home has given lots of people a new productivity, as they—like me right now—can just wear sweatpants and take movement/play breaks.
“Liberate us,” as the British website says. Act like it! Which comes first for world liberation—the reason for joy, or the behavior of being happy? Watch Pharrell William’s “Happy”! I bet you’ll clap along—and maybe get up offa that thing, as James Brown sang!
See
Physical Activity Promotion and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Building Synergies to Maximize Impact
“Conclusions: The authors call for a synergistic approach to physical activity promotion and SDG achievement, involving multiple sectors beyond health around their goals and values, using physical activity promotion as a lever for a healthier planet.”
As a Chicagoan for the last 30 years, and a Chicagoland resident for 28 more, all without owning a car, I much appreciate the CTA. I had failed to grasp that there is one leader of the CTA, and how long you have acted in that capacity—until recently. It took me seeing your presence on the news and in the paper last June to realize who was heading the public transport that I’ve relied on for years. I can only imagine what a huge task it must be to keep the City going in this way! It’s like allowing blood cells in a body to move so that they can keep the amazing creature that is Chicago alive! We are one of the largest systems in the world, with a healthy mixture of residents, students, artists, tourists. Families; citizens of many generations; people with and without much money to spend on getting around can contribute to each other, and larger causes, because of your efforts over the years. Mr. Carter, thank you!
My State Senator, Mike Simmons, recently met with you regarding transport issues. I would like to help you and him and Mayor Johnson plan for a safer and enriched future, for CTA employees and Chicago riders. The following are my thoughts on the CTA.
1. The ghost bus phenomenon is worrisome. If I were you, I would communicate about this situation: there are ghost buses: why? Because the driver doesn’t show up? Because the bus has broken down? These are legitimate reasons, and it would hearten riders to know them. I know Mike Simmons was bringing this issue up at the recent meeting you folks attended. It is important, but I think not the most vital issue you should deal with.
2. My foreign-born housemate and I agree that all drivers we have experienced have been kind, intelligent, alert and responsible: you are doing a great job hiring! With this letter, I also hope to empower some of my heroes, Chicago CTA train operators and bus drivers.
3. I worry for their health. It has become clear to me after studying governmental movement efforts to prevent citizen sedentary lifestyles that sitting for long periods of time is extremely harmful to one’s wellbeing—like smoking cigarettes. My source, Katy Bowman, of the website nutritiousmovement.com, writes in Move Your DNA (the book) that some of the afflictions that scientists thought were genetic are, actually, conditions exacerbated by not moving enough. (“Put down this book and walk around!” she says, at one point.) I have not read Joan Vernikos’ book Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, but she used to work for NASA: she found that astronauts’ bodies aged disproportionately when they were apart from Earth’s gravity. “What do you want me to do?” You’re possibly wondering. I must direct you to Paul Hedge of Cornell, who suggests that for every half hour of sitting at work, employees should sit for 20 minutes, stand for 10, and move around for 2. Well, what makes us move around joyfully—as workers and celebrators? It’s the health of our world—our city—our people—our teammates. (See enclosed cartoon.) I assert that drivers should take more movement breaks, so their routes should be shortened or encompass these breaks. This would be good for customers, too; the busses and trains you guys made are uncomfortable and bad for the posture (why do only drivers get some semblance of comfort in their seats?), translating to anxiety and discontent. Riders would be safer if the driver was feeling more alert, a state that would be brought on by them taking a stretch and boogie break. I hope you hire me and/or other capable folks to lead an exercise class for CTA workers, so we can figure out some movements each driver could utilize for individual health maintenance, if they want.
4. How to fight violence on CTA? “You give each CTA customer a gun on their way in to transport; they use or do not use it and hand it back on the way out…children get knives.” Yikes! Outlawing guns on public transport and CTA property is very important, if it hasn’t been done yet. No guns should be on CTA or Metra—I feel this very strongly. The murder on the bus last June was obviously heartbreaking. I had heard years ago about a rape on a bus. How about the gun prohibition coupled with the driver’s ability to pull over; punch a police call button; use mace on the warring parties; talk (or yell) down the arguing folks?
5. The Transit Ambassador idea sounds better! This brings me to another point: why, oh why don’t you have a second worker on trains? Freight trains used to have two engineers, but they don’t anymore—and that is a problem. There were reasons to have more than one driver, just like there are reasons for el trains to have two workers on them: we are dealing with vulnerable human beings, here. The drivers should both, however, get to stride down the trains whenever they want—their getting exercise is important like it is for bus drivers. And what are the workers at the stations doing? I THINK YOU NEED MORE OF A PRESENCE OF STAFF. Should drivers be versed in dealing with riders’ behavior problems? Maybe. The Transit Ambassadors could be social workers: as Mike suggests, some “approachable, culturally-competent staff skilled [in] de-escalation, who are focused on creating safer environments for riders and customers” and, I would add, employees. Looking at other cities’ efforts at this type of solution would be a great idea. Whole Foods Market employs “Peace Officers,” but the Ambassadors could be more skilled than these folks. And a counselor could be located at every station—someone who knows about resources and has training in social work, too—think education /inspiration of all parties!
6. If you don’t like the discussion on the train, you can move to a different car. I have done that myself, and I don’t see why you’re outlawed from going from car to car now. While it’s true that one can get off through the door and walk to another car at a stop, if one wants, exiting through the train car door while the train is in motion seems like a good option, too. I remember riding with one young guy who strode down the aisle on a subway train, banging the plastic walls near each door. We were nervous, but he went past us through the car door into the next one. My analysis was that he didn’t feel like sitting, especially in seats that scoop one up and make one slouch. Couldn’t that happen? Your seats are so problematic! The horrific CPD shooting of a person for going from car to car was inexcusable; but I empathize with that rider, who may have been on drugs. Can’t that unfortunately occur, these days?
7. Music made in a bus/train station? Maybe at the stations, the way you used to do: culture entertains—and enriches. Getting folks to dance is a noble aim! Even the man who used to get people to gamble on the train distracted people and thus prevented mayhem.
8. How about uses/traincars decorated with their customers’ hand-/footprints on the ceiling? This is my favorite idea for the CTA!
9. I hope that you change that announcer guy! I’ve had enough of him! How about a woman? I would do it—I have a nice alto voice.
10. As you can see from the magazine, I have drawn some people—several while on the el and buses. I have more drawings of CTA riders that I would love to show in the vehicles. This, in addition to the hand-/footprints of riders.
11. For the future, vehicles that do not pollute will be even more important. I hope this is one of your priorities! It should be.
12. The JCDeaux or whatever pictures in the bus shelters are fine, but the switching views back and forth from different pictures are a waste of energy and money. The time reports on the tops are great, though!
13. This Ventra system, I must say, sucks because it doesn’t tell you how much money is on your card, when you use it, and I fill them up at a station. This is problematic. The old system was much better! However, filling the cards up at the kiosk is easy, I must admit.
14. If my idea of Sidewalk University (“Teach and Learn Diversity @ Sidewalk University!”) was going on, on the bus/train, the rider could drop a quarter into the bucket on the side of the vehicle if they learned/taught something on the train/bus. It could be a movement, fact, viewpoint, name; totally optional, it would give riders a focus and motivation to stay alert and helpful to their fellows. Really, it might be a good idea for you or the Transit Ambassadors to investigate theatrical techniques (“theater games”) and art therapy/dance therapy methods of dealing with a diverse crowd such as folks who ride public transport. Dealing with humans detained in a closed space together for awhile is a challenge. It can be met, though, I feel; tourists certainly use public transport eagerly. If you yourself have not used CTA recently, I think you should, Mr. Carter, Mayor Johnson, and Senator Simmons! Turning it into even more of a cultural experience than it already is, I think, is the way to go. We have art, music, and theater schools with students eager to help out with their talents, and residents wealthy in Chicago experience who might act as a resource, and definitely the need for helpers (Transit Ambassadors could aid tourists and all other riders, too).
15. Free or discounted rides could be provided for the poor, but one still may need to show a card or whatever, to feel that they are using a great service. This is hard to communicate, however, since there are not bathrooms at the stations.
16. THERE SHOULD BE BATHROOMS AT THE STATIONS! As a woman, I feel assaulted because of lack of facilities all over the City. Priority One should be to provide these! We must figure out what is humane, and make it happen! Maybe they need to be staffed. Perhaps they should be beautiful and artistic. In any case, figure it out, you guys, please! You should also make sure there is fresh water for human beings to drink at stations!
Thanks for your work and your attention. If you have any questions, please contact me; a meeting with me and Mike Simmons, who I’ve volunteered for, might be possible. Oh yeah, I read somewhere that whole-body vibration is supposed to be good for us! There’s yet another way the #147 bus rocks, though it feels like a tin can going down the Drive.
Blueprint for a Greener World magazine of art by the author also available for viewing and purchase
I. Movement
Trained in art of many sorts, and anthropology—the study of humans—I am versed in differences between people on Earth, and the lifestyles of our ancestors, the hunter/gatherers. As a vegetarian for thirty years and now a fish-eater, as well as a worker in seven different food stores, I am familiar with food issues. In her book Move Your DNA, biomechanist Katy Bowman presents this lifestyle as the one that formed our bodies, by evolution. The idea is that we need to move—all the time—in different ways, to nourish our bodies. Some of the diseases considered genetic are actually brought on by failure to move healthfully, says Katy. Another writer, Brenda Farnell, subtitles her book “I move, therefore I am” to contrast with the philosopher Rene Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am”!
Our ancestors were active. I like to call them our dance sisters! The hunters and gatherers we can study wear bare feet or the like. And they do not propel themselves over FLAT surfaces. When they do sit, they aren’t doing it on chairs—as babies, children or adults.
Here are Katy Bowman’s suggestions for shoes that nurture our feet, from her 2015 book Whole Body Barefoot. Notice what our feet need to do their work and play. I quote:
a sole that is thin and flexible enough for the tissues in the foot (and not just the ankle) to feel the ground below the foot and respond by articulating, innervating, contracting, releasing, etc;
a heel that is neutral, or “zero-drop,’ allowing all joints to work from a neutral baseline and enabling the full range of motion for all joints in the body;
an upper that fully connects the foot to the shoe, so there’s no need to grip the toes or the front of the shin to keep the shoe on while walking;
a spacious toe-box that allows enough room for the toes to extend and spread as necessary while walking, hiking, or climbing; and
a front of the shoe that rests on the ground (as opposed to one that swoops upward and raises the front of the shoe above the standing surface, slightly extending the toes.)” (page 5)
Flatness is all around. Think how many jobs in uneven paving could be created for sidewalk conversion, providing sightly, and slightly uneven, walking surfaces—slightly, so as not to annoy the folks in wheelchairs; but giving us opportunity for FEELING with the soles of OUR FEET while we self-transit! And think of decoration with our footprints! I’ve suggested to our transit system here in Chicago that they use riders’ foot- and handprints to adorn railcars, stations, and busses. Maybe tourists could partake, too.
Moving can mean more than one thing to people. It can mean “getting up offa that thing,” as Britain quotes James Brown singing, in the government’s anti-sedentary-lifestyle educational materials. It can also mean emotional impact. I was moved by the Chicago woman who was on the news celebrating her 104th birthday the other day—she was dancing and said she loved it!
Maybe if we left our anger at the world—the emotion that causes us to disintegrate in order to express our frustration at life, which is legitimate. But if we left it in the garage, and went for a ride in the sportscar of fun, we would last longer, without unconsciously causing accidents and injuries for us and our loved ones so we die early! (Though we were right—it was difficult! Let’s fix this!) Look at yours truly—typing these words with two fingers in a desperate attempt to share ideas that seem helpful, while meanwhile my own body is suffering! It’s time for a break!
II Touching
Acupressure is a technique of healing touch based on the touching of certain places on your own or another person’s body. It’s not acupuncture, but is similar, and is less invasive. What if we knew about these points and could stimulate them often? Informed hugging could lead to preventative medicine, it seems to me: lovely! How touching!
Our dancistors, the apes, were great. They still sit around and groom each other, touching fur and skin with hands. The bonobos are like the chimpanzees—the animal most related to us. But bonobos don’t kill each other as chimps do. In an anxious moment, I understand, they like to be sexy. Is there something touching to learn, here?
III. Ascension
I have known three people who used tilted seat pillows. One was a phlebotomist—her patients’ chair bottom slanted away from the back of its chair. Another was my Feldenkrais worker, who had studied movement, especially skeletal positioning. The other is a friend who is short. She loves her tilted seat pillow; it helps her sit comfortably, which she does as a professor, a lot. I am interested in the idea that triangular-when seen from-the-side seat pillows or rubber cushions might be helpful for ALL sitters, until tilted seating is standardized. I hate sitting on seats that scoop me up and tilt me BACK, like I might fall out of my chair if they don’t! I am a believer in gravity—it works equally over horizontal space the same, in the vertical direction. Plus, I think that putting my weight on my spine is bad for me; we have sitting bones for a reason—they are even called Sitz bones (the ischial tuberosity).
The next move of any sitter is to ascend, and the next move of humanity is to get connected, which is a spiritual move into smiling. I think we humans are a bit scared of this type of experience right now, the possible world changes that ascension suggests. Yet we have a weapon to fight our uncertainty about the future: to document the steps that get us there! Brenda Farnell’s book, Dynamic Embodiment for Social Theory: I move therefore I am, introduces a way to express movement on paper; before Labanotation, film was the operative technique, but it has proven impractical.
Instead of watching TV, elders could be playing/working for posterity: having their hands drawn; writing things in cursive; getting interviewed for the Library of HuemanKind; sharing their insights after hearing some music and seeing some performance art videos that get them up-to-speed on intellectual/creative issues—inspiring artists to put them in videos! These projects, instead of melting back into the chairs. Maybe if all chairs were slightly tilted forward, seniors would never need so-called seat lifts because they would be in much better physical shape from using their muscles more. How about everyone getting in better shape? Can you see a world informed by healthy body environments?
IV. Exercise
There is a decent diet for people who want to lose weight— it helps you reset your metabolism gradually until you’re at your desired poundage. Then, you can indulge a bit and then reset yourself easily. This diet strategy that I’ve employed also uses exercise—a circuit of specified weight training, cardio training and stretching—to help bring one’s body into health and maintain that state. I have lost weight doing this diet—the Curves program, now evolved into Women’s Group Fitness center on Devon in Chicago.
A member years ago, I am now returning to the club that I used to enjoy as a coach- in-training; I’ve been doing it for just a month, and have already noticed changes for the better. A hurt knee influenced my stopping the program years ago, and I have missed out over a decade until returning onboard last month. The other people at Women’s Group Fitness—along with the music— inspire my enthusiastic movement; it is sort of like a group project for all of us.
I am learning through personal experience and research how to take care of my knee—and it doesn’t include staying away from exercise like I thought at first. Strengthening is what I need, as I found out through physical therapy at Athletico. But rest is important for my self-care, too; I use icing to soothe my limb, and work out only every other day, so my muscles can heal and grow.
And I try to employ Alan Hedge’s sit/stand/move technique, standing for 8 and moving for 2 minutes of each thirty spent sitting. Katy Bowman also shares visually her personal living space (on her website, nutritiousmovement.com), and my initial approach of frolicking through life is, with these methods, reinforced. I also have discovered The Foot Fix, by Yamuna Zake, who I talked with by email at one point. Just as I suspected, my feet are alive, I have discovered, and will respond to loving care. The small book sits in a prominent place on my shelf, and with its footprints on the cover inspires me to take care of myself from the ground up.
While the medical community encouraged my stance as victim of my body and its pain, which would probably have been prevented had I been encouraged to embrace athletics early on, it also sent me to physical therapy, which has helped me a great deal. And now with the weight training workouts, I am back in the saddle—older, weaker, but on a victorious path to health! I have learned that, ironically, I DO need to move! My knee joint needs the fluids that flow in it to circulate—and that can only occur through exercise of whatever kind. And that is for me to figure out—by an optimistic glancing into possible future directions in which to continue to grow!
Bernie Sanders, in the book Where to Go From Here, suggests that we need to fight, especially folks who the Republicans threaten.
I see that the youth–as well as the older–are miserable–because our whole system is rotten–yes, dysfunctional (p 255). Bernie calls for jobs for all–of course! (p. 260) But what kind of a setup is it when one has to work to get money for sustenance, instead of being supported in staying truly alive so that they can discover and share their natural talents? This, when one is virtuous, and loves their parents and friends!
How can we expect the quality childcare (p. 260) and compassionate elder care (p. 260) Bernie calls for when workers are pissed off–and rightly so?
The whole arrangement is leaky! Technology has broken us down, and we need to figure out how to stand back up and create a vibrant movement–of humor and dancing! The current symbolism in our brains makes us machines, not lovers full of life. Instead of driving and sitting, our bodies need us to walk, dance and drum–and do capoeira if we’re going to practice a martial art.
What is necessary for our ascendance–our going up from being stepped on, by others; machines; and ourselves–is a reprogramming of our bodies and brains though movement. It’s possible. We need this, just like we need good food. And like we need each other’s differing cultural elements–to grow into butterflies from living in cocoons!
Another thing that has mutilated the world’s humans is history, which has brought us here to this point in America and the larger planet. We need help–all over; it is not correct to rest in the insight that we come by it honestly–that our situation is understandable. This because our plight sucks! It causes suffering for all of the humans, as well as the other populations on Earth. Those with billions of dollars are 1) going to die soon and 2) can’t enjoy a faulty world anyway.
Don’t worry, though; we can solve the problems if we play and work together. But not in unity. We need to invent a harmony, in which difference sounds good with other differences. Exploration of ourselves: this we need, in order to figure out our roles in future activity.
I come by these suggestions from an appreciation of talk therapy; a degree in anthropology from a Jesuit university; study of art and liberal arts; and my life in Chicago, Illinois and Chicagoland. Plus, my good friend is from a different nation. We have his part of the world on a piece of fabric from a photographic image, of Russia to Africa and Africa to India. On the opposite wall is a photographic image of the Western hemisphere–North and South America–on our round planet.
As a friendly woman, many interactions with all kinds of people have I enjoyed. I count as supporters Blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, and others. I can see what is happening in the world right now, and it calls for salvation. But I know what we need to do!
An English-speaker, with a bit of Spanish and Farsi familiarity, I have read wide and far–including some parts of the Bible. Right now I’m focused on the Psalms, and am learning a lot. Some say that they are religious–and are the furthest away from virtue that I can imagine!
Many Americans want to be led, like yours truly–by scientific truths that heal the soul. I listen to my heart, as Psalm 16 asserts. My Luke in Limericks, a personal effort of study, recounts 12:11-12, in which the reader is advised to not worry about what to say in any circumstance, as the Holy Ghost will put words in their mouth–my approach, too.
From an inheritance of quality genes, I want to share with the world. As an infertile person, I am hoping that my relatives and wider Chicago family will keep having kids, for the sake of the human population’s future.
This website suggests several healing modalities. It is a work in progress. I hope you can utilize it as an individual belonging to a huge natural effort of peaceful evolution that just needs some direction. I can see a great tomorrow, and would love to be a resource for handling its sustainable creation!
Dear 24th District Council Member Veronica Arreola, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, State Senator Mike Simmons, Police Superintendent Larry Snelling, Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Garien Gatewood, Deputy Mayor for Education Jen Johnson, Officer Bob Vanna of the 24th District, CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova, and Senn High School Principal Holly Dacres,
“We are each other’s harvest. We are each other’s business. We are each other’s magnitude and bond.” -Previous IL Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks
Now it seems that the city needs officers to give tickets in order to raise money for the municipality and keep the system going: it’s too expensive to jail people, admitting errors is embarrassing, the whole s ituation is problematic! Moving to a safer neighborhood and taking the responsibility of avoiding crime is not the same as walking down your street fear-free in this great city of ours, or anywhere else in our great nation or world. That’s a symptom of the immaturity of the planet; but it doesn’t mean that we can’t do something about it in our city.
Education about our global neighbors—and talk therapy for myself— helped me recover from parenting mistakes and national trauma, and has suggested to me ways of combatting our international juvenility.
The magazine Blueprint for a Greener World is meant to inspire and fuel, as well as convey my understanding of hope for the future. To improve the world’s current psychological plight, in a nutshell—while we learn to be friendlier to each other, employing Native American words and integrating other cultural treasures initiating oversees, we are learning to enjoy life, using our virtues. We will be looking up and out and around to see other ways to be creative rather than only raising families. Using drums and our hand/footprints, let’s reprogram our bodies to ascend, expressing ourselves and welcoming the youth with healthful rhythms.
The cartoon featured on the eighth page of my magazine is by Herb Block, who went to Senn High School! My grandmother inspired the image when she stood up for the value of the United Nations at a Daughters of the American Revolution conference in 1953. Edgewater’s and Andersonville’s diverse and enlightened populations will find the cartoon funny, but tragic, because it accurately depicts many people’s foolish attitude about our country and world.
I have written prose and poetry and expressed my struggle with a troubled human environment. I see that Are we strong enough to get creative? is the question for all of us, now.
We humans want to make the point that, right now, living hurts! It hurts in many ways. Documenting these conditions and incidents is the first step towards healing. But sharing news of peace should be the second.
Noise in IL?
Pollution? Not sound.
We want a state of music, not sounds of pollution—nor sound pollution—in our homeland.
We can capitalize spiritually on our history here:
See our folks frolicking together, not just drinking beer.
Artisanal outlook: ebony and ivory
Playing, taking turns, no rich-folks-wanna-be,
But wealthy and healthy in heart, strong again in soul:
We excel in being ourselves—from jazz to rock and roll!
2
Especially for CPS:
I like the idea of teaching cursive writing in schools, using the help and examples of older people and their scripts.
Another idea for students is a video documentation project, the Library of HumanKind—or, HueminKind—which could be like StoryCorps, the Library of Congress-stored conversation effort.
Especially for the CPD:
Training in zen thinking and acting. I would also use the fight/dancing Brazilian martial art capoeira (it involves a lot of evasive moves like cartwheels; the two players fight in a ring of people, and I think sing a song: “Comrade…”)
The situation that generated Black Lives Matter! inspired my idea of Good Neighbor Training/Community Ties : a program that would be available to see on TV. It would be required for all Chicago employees, who would be televised while participating in it, and it would be an education in living in urbanity, for us city residents, dwelling side by side. Yes, we could start global healing right here! .
The plethora of negative police incidents in this country in the last few years make me think that the script police officers use to interact with apprehendees could be improved. In one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, he discusses a Korean airplane that went down. The co-pilot couldn’t tell the head pilot that he’d noticed something that was wrong, because politeness rules of their culture didn’t allow that! Instead of saving their own lives and those of their passengers, the Korean pilots crashed the plane! Subsequently, the language of pilots was changed to English. I suspect something similar is going on here, with police procedure. I am not a psychologist, but maybe the CPD should hire one, or an anthropologist, to rewrite the process of interacting with citizens.
My partner tells me that some other countries (Germany; Iran) do not publish the names of criminals.
It saddens me that we often think of “justice” as right punishment. It’s so easy, when considering crime incidents, to want revenge. But real justice means
3
safety, and no assault occurring in the first place! We need to train for a peaceful world.
Especially for the CTA:
I feel that the “Red Line” is problematic, and I have a few suggestions to change it up: firstly, call it another color—Tan Line or Silver Line. Red reminds one of danger and blood. Even Maroon would be better, I think. Or Grey.
Secondly, I volunteer to be the overdue-for-a-change announcer for the CTA.
Let riders decorate stations/railcars/buses with their hand/footprints! This would create customer commitment to the routes and something to look at while riding; putting them on the ceilings would encourage riders to relax in the stressful confinement that public transport cannot help but be.
That is why roaming officers are so important—we really do value each other’s lives and wellbeing…Maybe we do need an officer on every platform.
My biggest suggestion for CTA is to remodel the railcars and buses with better seating, including that for drivers. Why not look around at transport seating in other countries? The reason I don’t like it now is that it makes the sitter slump, which is uncomfortable and not healthy. I would choose seating that is flat or slightly tilted downward (to the front, not back), so bodies could be supported in getting up when they need to. Tilted seats would help the sitter shift their weight into their legs in preparation for ascending, instead of being a lump; the seats you have now thrust people’s weight back, as if you are fearful that they might fall out of the chair! (This is a common design mistake, and I am sorry that drivers, and most of us people, suffer from poorly-designed chairs, too—including toilets!)
I remember the Guardian Angels—do you? They were volunteers who dressed in red and went through train cars, guiding riders with their presence to remain lucid and stay friendly. Think of cultural presences on vehicles as a good thing; entertainment might prevent violence.
Now they’d be arrested for going through cars, so you’d have to change that stupid rule; preventing riders from walking from one car into another means we can’t MOVE
4
much: you want us to instead sit in the seats that makes us slump? No thanks! That’s a breeding ground for expressing our frustration with being caged.
Finally, your riders—Chicagoans, tourists, and others—should be treated with more respect. They deserve to use the bathroom and change their children. You know how you were forced to put in elevators for handicapped folks? Well, how about bathrooms for each station—with attendants, giving out Kleenex, menstruation supplies, diapers—for males and females and they/them? When we start treating ourselves like humans, shooting each other like animals will probably lessen, too.
“…We hail what heals and sponsors and restores.” -Gwendolyn Brooks, “Art.”
