Things I have been saying all along (but it's good to hear them from someone else)
1. Speaking of Faith Interview with Greg Epstein. Greg Epstein is the Humanist chaplain at Harvard, and I think I will be sending him a (positive) email. In this interview he clearly distinguishes his "New Humanism" from the "New Atheism" of Dawkins, Hitchens, and a third guy. "Most non-religious people are not anti-religious," Epstein says in the interview. Thank goodness someone finally said this in a public forum! Also he emphasized how humanism is more about what we DO believe in (the human experience, human capacities, human development, etc.--finding meaning and purpose in life that are not contingent on supernatural explanations) that what we don't. (PS Speaking of Faith has an amazing amount of free content on their website--I recommend it).

2. Healthy foods don't have to be expensive (or highly processed). Here is the list: oats, eggs, kale, potatoes, apples nuts, bananas, garbanzo beans and broccoli. Most of these things are on my routine shopping list. I have to admit that although I have intended to buy oats, since I didn't have a convenient place to buy them in bulk (i.e. only as much as I needed rather than a whole large container) I have been buying instant oats. Potatoes and bananas I am ambivalent about because of carbohydrate content--the potatoes, if baked and not smothered in cheese kind of balance it out with fiber, but one banana counts as two servings of carbs. Garbanzo beans I used to buy regularly, then found I wasn't using, but I had been thinking of using them more. However, to my dismay I am finding cans of beans at $1.50+ rather than the 60-75cents I expected and preferred. Nuts are also not that cheap, unless you can buy them loose (i.e. in bulk).
- posted by k @ 7:37 PM