MAKIN BACON

 

Every time the calendar rolls over into a new year, all kinds of people (myself included) resolve to incorporate all manner of new habit(s) into their lives. After reviewing the past year filled with more than my share of double-cheese White Castle’s, who doesn’t know a egg white and shaved turkey sandwich is a good heart healthy choice when it’s time for lunch in the new year?

With the remote clenched firmly in my hand, I was surfing channels the other day when I was reminded we are indeed, a proud nation of innovators. Seems someone had anticipated my concerns as to how to improve on the egg white and lean meat idea. While it’s true I hadn’t been losing any sleep wrestling over the problem, I was stunned at the simplicity of the solution. Why not take the egg white and turkey and nestle it into a crispy bowl of bacon? Eureka!

Enter the Bacon Bowl.

But fear not fellow pork lovers, as is often the case with anything ‘As Seen On TV’, there was more. Not only is the Bacon Bowl convenient, but with its patented design, the Bacon Bowl generously drains the fat away so you can pour it down the sink and out of your diet. I will admit, at first blush, seeing the commercial made me think the Bacon Bowl is an idea whose time has come. Or has it?

My more orthodox amigos are less impressed. Hardly kosher, I can hear cardiologists of all stripes rising up in strident chorus, “But it’s still bacon!”

Good idea, bad bowl.

And that was when I had my light bulb moment.

Isn’t the ‘good idea, bad bowl’ at the heart of so many of our new resolutions?

I remember back in college when my buddies and I would laugh as we watched the girls on campus get all dolled-up in their jogging suits and head bands in order to go running. The exercise wasn’t funny. Their goal of taking better care of themselves was admirable. What made us laugh was knowing they were going to end up at the local Dairy Queen after they’d run their three or four miles. Yes, what better reward could there be than a Peanut Buster Parfait at the end of a good work-out. But lest you think I’m picking on the fairer sex, we guys were no better.

Back then, we didn’t have anything as slick as the Bacon Bowl. We did, however, have toaster ovens that could accommodate an upside down soup bowl and some aluminum wrap. Our bacon molded around our homemade form just fine. What better way to enjoy our nacho cheese?

Good ideas are important launch pads. I’ve known a fair share of innovators. But as with the case with the Bacon Bowl, there’s more to positive change than a good idea. As an amateur carpenter, I appreciate the presence of a good plan. Planning the implementation does much to make sure the new kitchen window has a view while the repositioned sink has pipes to supply the faucets with water and then, drain it away.

But as worthy as a good plan is, it’s the third leg of the stool that makes the other two worthy. It’s the doing of it.

Doing the demolition, leveling the floor and bringing in the new material. I would propose the whole process encapsulates what has made us what we are as a species. Good ideas, good bowls. It worked for the Pharaohs. It worked for Edison, Ford and Steve Jobs. And apparently, it’s working for the ‘inventor’ who took our inverted soup bowl to the next level with a new purpose.

The new year is as good a time as any to jolt ourselves out of our complacency as any. Being as afflicted with poor habits as the next guy, the Bacon Bowl commercial prompted me to begin looking around myself and my less-than-healthy habits. I saw them everywhere.

For so long, I fooled myself into thinking my bad habits were something to be cured as if the behaviors could be cut out like a tumor. Not so Joe. Why was I so deeply frustrated that I wasn’t getting any new results from doing the same old mindless drills. Newsflash. Habits are behaviors. We decide what we do. I’m coming to a new understanding that getting a handle on what I tell myself (and what I do) is really all about management.

Having the good idea. Stop smoking.

Planning for it. What does stepping away from cigarettes look like on an hour-to-hour basis…especially in the beginning. What can I do to prepare for it and not let the inherent fear kill the new idea before it gets off the ground?

Doing it. Having the quiet moment-of-truth conversation with myself as I look myself in the eye from the bathroom mirror…the talk when I decide that for me, the time has come to redraw some well entrenched neuro-pathways in order to end up at places other than the Dairy Queen.

I don’t know what it is for you, but I’ll bet there’s something. Something that once seemed like a good idea, but over time, has come to be served in a bad bowl.

Like you and me, there’s nothing intrinsically bad about bacon. But if you’ve decided to go egg white and shaved turkey, try putting some bits on top instead. You don’t have to eat the bowl.

This is not going to be easy. But that’s part and parcel to self-deception. It doesn’t have anything to do with ‘easy’. It does have everything to do with deciding to act like I’m ‘worthy’. If I do that, the behaviors will follow. Think good thoughts. Pick positive words. Focus on healthy images. The bowl will change in suit.

I remember an old white head advising me to love the stranger for you yourself were once a stranger. Some of my habits are stranger to me than others, but at least I’m coming to understand the importance of the bowl I choose to serve my life up in. And that, my fine reader is my new definition for makin bacon.

Live large. Love deep. Laugh loudly. Carpe your bowl.

I’ll look for you at lunchtime.

My thanks to Kate for reminding me of a gross oversight in neglecting to include the Passages department in my initial post this week.

Purple Mary is likely going to want my head as well. My apologies for the omission.

PASSAGES

 Phil (L) and Don (R) Everly – JWilds Getty Images

Phillip “Phil” Everly

(January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014)

DON EVERLY ON PHIL EVERLY’S DEATH: ‘I ALWAYS THOUGHT I’D BE THE ONE TO GO FIRST’

“Don Everly has issued his first comments following Friday night’s death of his brother and musical partner Phil Everly — and says he knew Phil was gone before anybody told him.  

“I was listening to one of my favorite songs that Phil wrote and had an extreme emotional moment just before I got the news of his passing,” Don told the Associated Press. “I took that as a special spiritual message from Phil saying goodbye.”

He also quickly downplayed any notion that the famous infighting between the two brothers caused any true damage to their relationship. “Our love was and will always be deeper than any earthly differences we might have had. I loved my brother very much… I always thought I’d be the one to go first. The world might be mourning an Everly Brother, but I’m mourning my brother Phil Everly.”

Meanwhile, musicians from around the world are paying their own tributes to Everly, with Queen guitarist Brian May issuing a lengthy remembrance on his official website. It reads in part: “I could probably write a book on the music of the fabulous Everly Brothers, but you’ll find echoes of their influence in a lot of our old Queen songs, and perhaps that is the best tribute. …I never met them. Wish I had. But they will always be my heroes. I don’t think they will know who I am, but my heartfelt condolences to Phil’s wife, his family and friends, and of course to Don. I can’t imagine how that must be. So hard, So sad. RIP Phil Everly … you were magic. I have tears in my eyes.””

Sources: Matthew Wilkening January 5, 2014 12:49 PM: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/phil-everly-tributes/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Everly_Brothers

Flashback: Everly Brothers Reunite for Simon and Garfunkel in 2003

Click on the pic and watch them sing  

‘Wake Up Little Susie’ and ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/flashback-everly-brothers-reunite-for-simon-and-garfunkel-20130920

Alicia Rhett

(February 1, 1915 – January 3, 2014)

Gone With the Wind actress Alicia Rhett dies

One of the last members of the cast of Gone with the Wind dies at the age of 98

“The death of Alicia Rhett was announced by a spokeswoman for the Bishop Gadsden Retirement Community in Charleston, South Carolina. Rhett, who never married, had lived in the community since August 2002. She was picked for a role in the multi-Oscar award winning film after being spotted in local theatre productions.

Originally Rhett was tested for the role of Melanie Wilkes by George Cukor, who was originally earmarked to direct the film. But the part was given to Olivia de Havilland. Instead Rhett was cast as India Wilkes, the sister ofAshley Wilkes. Despite the success of the film, a saga covering the American Civil War and its aftermath, Rhett –who was once described as a “sheltered southern type” – chose to return to her native Charleston. It was to be her only film role.

Rhett was the great granddaughter of Senator Robert Rhett, who was known as the “Father of the Secession.”

A talented artist before she embarked on her brief film career, Rhett resumed her work as a painter as well as becoming a local radio personality. Her works were put on display at the local library and plantations. Gone With the Wind won eight competitive and two honorary Oscars, with the 10 awards making it the most recognised film in the history of the Academy Awards until Ben Hur in 1960.

It was also the first colour film to win an Oscar.”

Sources: David Millward 9:39AM GMT 05 Jan 2014: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10551323/Gone-With-the-Wind-actress-Alicia-Rhett-dies.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Rhett

SOURCES, PHOTO CREDITS and ATTRIBUTIONS:

Banner Coastal Redwood Forest by Eric E Photography is used with permission.

Visit Eric and see his other work at: http://www.ericephoto.com or http://ericephoto.wordpress.com/

new-years-resolution-list: http://addconsults.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/new-years-resolution-list.jpg; bacon-bowl-maker: http://www.thatsnerdalicious.com/bacon/the-bacon-bowl-maker-fills-that-bacon-sized-hole-in-your-heart-video/#!rmESx; Crispy Bacon with a Bowl: http://i.imgur.com/JFaPyGN.jpg; Bacon Weave from ‘How To Make A Bacon Bowl’ – Business Insider (Published on Jan 25, 2013): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5D5EG8LmKc; New-Years-Resolutions-600×406: http://searchengineland.com/figz/wp-content/seloads/2011/12/New-Years-Resolutions-600×406.jpg; New-Years-Resolutions: http://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/funnyinthehead/files/2013/01/New-Years-Resolutions.jpg; i_forgot_im_sorry_i_forgot_sorry_post_card-r4f6ed2f33c584009b283e3b63fc65ce2_vgbaq_8byvr_324: http://rlv.zcache.com/i_forgot_im_sorry_i_forgot_sorry_post_card-r4f6ed2f33c584009b283e3b63fc65ce2_vgbaq_8byvr_324.jpg; possibility: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/possibility.jpg

– ## –