L3-93 in My Heart 4ever!

Wow, I am so stoked right now. I just had my final lesson with my first class ever. These guys are so rad, check out the new threads they got me! I am just overjoyed. My new hat is off the hook! Word!

The Secret of Life & The Meaning of Death

Evolution is a design process complete with failed starts, happy accidents and loose ends. Death is the beauty of the Life and Death cycle, it is integral to the entire process. Without death there is no room for change, the process becomes stagnate with no opportunity for mutations to occur.  Mutation is the engine of evolution.  Natural selection is natures system of checks and balances.

            For millennia the human has been a focal point for evidence of the divine in nature, we turn to ourselves to promote concepts of transcendence.  This is all well and good, I have no problems with this field of study, I feel it is entirely sound and valid.  However, it is also narrow and limited and therefore incomplete.  We over emphasize the importance of our own species to the detriment of planetary health.  Nature took a great risk in endowing us with a vast capacity for intelligence and manipulative abilities.  Because of these attributes we assert our hegemony over the remaining citizenry of this earth.  We support this false authority with both mainstream religion (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) as well as popular secular thought represented by hedonistic materialist capitalism, existentialism, and nihlism.  I feel that these beliefs are unfair in that they glorify our inherent strengths while ignoring our inherent weaknesses.

            In searching for the secret of life we would be wise to seek the wisdom of the ancients.  It is universally accepted in anthropological circles that early mankind possessed a unanimous spirituality, known as animism.  The unifying structure of this belief system is that all the various life forces posses an eternal spirit essence.  This would include individuals of a particular species, or groups/communities of that species, or the entire species as a whole.  Furthermore this includes geographical features such as mountains, swamps, oceans, the sky as well as less tangible entities such as the wind or gravity.  Because of this belief the ancients held their environment in high esteem, always taking care to properly respect and nurture their fellow earth citizens.

            Naturally a belief in a highly spiritualized community caused our ancestors to desire to communicate with the “animal powers.”  This is evidenced in the many ceremonies/rituals devoted to appealing to the non-human powers.  At a spiritual level certain practitioners found that they could imitate particular characteristics of various animals and thereby acquire specific attributes/prowess.  Through spiritual interaction we discover the collective conscious of our species.  This in essence is our species spiritual identity.  Once we’ve found ourselves we can open a much more profound dialogue with our immediate spiritual cousins, the animals, and as we begin to understand their collective conscious we build a more profound and intrinsically true understanding of what life is exactly.  This process of profound inter-species communication is in essence the secret of life.  Once we’ve acquired this knowledge we will have the tools to discover the meaning of life and perhaps the secret of death.  But until we develop these insights we will remain bewildered and confused as to the profound vastness of creation.

Mo' Sculptures In UB

Mongol Lion

Russian Lion

Cows.  In the Middle of the City.

Pix From Naadam Trip

Jason and Nara chillin' on the Stupa w/Galsa Our Driver

Rabbits Cabbage

That's Wild Rhubarb in My Hand.  How Do I Know?  I Ate Some!

"Indian" Strawberries

Camp Naadam '09

We Built A Spirit Protector

Nay Sayers Enjoying the Fruits of Our Labor 

Naadam

  I tried asking my students but they couldn't offer a clear story.  Apparently the Mongolians have been celebrating the Naadam festival every year since the time of Chinngis Khaan but the modern ceremony commemorates the establishment of Mongolia as an independent state.  Back in 1921 Sukhbaatar (translation: axe-hero) lead 600 mounted Mongols to battle against an army of Chinese infantry and routed their oppressors for a glorious victory!  Now every July 11th-13th the Mongolians gather with family and friends either in the national stadium or out in the countryside to eat Hosher (some kind of deep fried meat pocket) and watch the "three manly sports" horse racing, archery and wrestling.

  Not one for crowds I high tailed it out of town with some teacher buddies for a nice weekend of camping, my first camping trip since coming here.  After a brief stay at our drivers summer home, where his family fed us Hosher and Vodka, we took off for the woods to make our camp.  We set up in a birch forest which was quite beautiful.  Afterwards we trekked up the surrounding bluffs to see what we could see.  A funky sort of mountain shrub with an array of petal like capsules that turned out to be succulent and edible.  Some wild rhubarb clinging for dear life to the scrubby mountain side.  In a partially wooded area some wild "indian" strawberries.  Its always a pleasure to find wild edibles, even if not enough to satisfy the stomach they remind the palette of times before we were born when we depended on such sustenance.

  Back at camp we set about making fire, always necessary whilst camping.  Nay sayers in the group claimed we would fail due to wet conditions, but Jason and I had no ears for their vile lies.  We set about collecting dead wood that remained upon standing trees.  In wet conditions one cannot rely on deadfall as the moist ground soaks this wood thoroughly, but dead branches exposed to air offer hope.  We laid pine cones at the base of our fire pit and spread birch bark on top of that for kindling.  After that we built our tinder up teepee style to form a mass of fuel with plenty of aeration.  In no time at all the birch bark took fire (by lighter dammit.  No time to form a bow-drill) and our wet wood was soon ablaze.  Conveniently there was enough dead wood to keep us warm through our nights stay.  I skewered sausage slices on a stick and cooked them, serving them with butter crackers and raw onion.  A bag of hard boiled eggs amongst other simple delights sustained us for the night.

  At one point this drunkard stumbled into our camp and offered us money if we let him run off with the women for drinks and god knows what else was on the sick bastards mind.  It was very awkward because the man stayed a long time trying feebly to communicate and ineffectively "helping" with  the fire by dumping an overly large pile of wood on our flames.  I really wanted to maim him but I don't want to get deported so a held my bastard temper.  Eventually some un-uniformed police officers showed up.  They were after him but that was unclear at first, they circled our camp in what seemed like a menacing fashion and called one of the our  Mongolian companions (a lady) over for a private conversation.  Sketchy.  Fortunately this turned out to our benefit as they soon booted the man out of our camp.  Its nice being on the right side of police decisions for once.

  I woke up worthless with a massive hangover and a stomach full of unwanted bile.  I don't think I've ever been sick in a more pleasant place.  Plans to hike the ridge were scrapped for long naps in the sun and drizzle.  Eventually we packed up and headed back to the crib to await the arrival of our driver.  The family had left so we made about cleaning the place.  Only one problem, we ran out of water.  The neighbors saw me trying to collect rain off the roof with my cup and invited me over.  They tried to feed me weird parts of sheep like ear and hoof but I selected the red bean salad instead.  Its always awkward turning down hospitality but seriously folks, sheep ear?  WTF?

  All in all a pleasant trip for sure.  Check out the pix above and for gods sake, write back dammit!

FoodBlog

Damn.  I just realized it's been almost a month since I last posted.  Sorry folks.

  My cousin Roxanne was asking about the food situation here in Ulaanbaatar (UB) so I figured I'd dedicate a post to the subject.  When I first moved here I had problems finding an acceptable source of vegetables which kinda freaked me out.  Apparently Mongolians have been living on a meat heavy diet for several generations and their breed has developed a tolerance for meat that others such as myself don't posses.  I think this might have something to do with the scarcity of arable land.  They have a saying here "Grass for cows, meat for humans."  I believe that around here it must be true.  The sparse vegetation that clings to life on the steppe is not suitable for human consumption, so they employ the use of ruminates who are in turn slaughtered for their valuable fat and protein.  In order to acquire the appropriate vitamins from this diet one would need to consume a great deal of meat which may in turn account for Mongolians tremendous appetite.  I don't know.  Just speculatin'.

  Anyhow, back to the veggies.  The few stores that I did know of had their veggies wrapped in shrink wrap which scares the $h!t out of me so I tend to steer clear of that.  I was also warned of the fruit vendors who set out their wares on the sidewalks.  Allegedly their food comes directly from China which would account for the cheapness.  Mongolians would  have you believe that the Chinese are a cruel race of baby slaughtering, dog eating barbarians who are incapable of producing anything good, particularly vegetables.  Another more reliable source told me that the Chinese production machine has to feed billions so the food system is corrupted with gross pesticides etc. whilst Mongol soil is completely untainted.  Seriously though, pesticides and the like have never been introduced so the soil here is more organic then anything in America.

  Well, I've finally found a store that sells trustworthy vegetables so I'm breathing more freely now.  I've been making salads and a lot of stir fry to balance out a previous diet that was heavy on meat and junk snacks.  I was elated to find an abundance of Lambsquarters growing in the area.  Lambsquarters or Goosefoot is a cousin of spinach but grows as a weed.  You can find it almost anywhere in the world, growing in empty lots and "disturbed soils" (what does that mean?  All the edible plants books mention disturbed soils but to me it means nothing.)  Here in UB nobody puts forth any effort to eradicate weeds so Goosefoot is thriving rampantly.  

  In twenty short minutes I'm able to harvest enough plants to feed me for a week.  I usually find a healthy looking plant and pluck it from the stem leaving the root buried in the soil.  This allows it an opportunity to grow back.  I then take these trimmings home, pluck off the leaves, rinse them and dry them on a towel in open air.  Once dry they are ready to eat or can be refrigerated for later.

  Today I'm making a reduction from the remaining stems and using this to boil my potato.  I'm hoping this will inoculate my potato with the rich deposits of iron, vitamin B-12, phosphorous and whatever else.  All I know is: this stuff taste awesome, its free and its rich in vitamins and minerals.  Don't believe me?  Look it up yer damn self.  Peace! 

http://www.prodigalgardens.info/june%20weblog.htm#Lambsquarters