"Our lives are more about watering deserts, than they are about tearing down walls." - CS Lewis

“Ever to excel, to do better than others, and to bring glory to your forebears, who indeed were very great ... This is my ancestry; this is the blood I am proud to inherit."
- Homer, The Iliad


Life has never been perfect, nor will it ever be.  Human nature will never fundamentally change.  We are flawed human beings.  Progress, if it does occur, occurs when we realize we took the wrong turn and we head back the other direction and then take a different path.  After reading “The Blue Zones”, about the healthiest places in the world, I became even more convinced of how big of an impact culture has on health and about how wrong we have gone in education, as one example.  
 
Each one of these groups in The Blue Zones has a specific culture in which young people participate in and are brought up in and that they crucially belong to.  There are certain values, ethics, morals, traditions, roots, celebrations, and commitments which go along with this.  The young people are acculturated into a grounded and specific way of being in the world.  Most Americans are no longer acculturated in their educational upbringing. Indoctrinated maybe, but acculturated no.  
 
This is not healthy and it is a distinctly modern problem.  This was a wrong path.  I lived it myself, where I can remember the utilitarianism, political correctness, and ideology creeping in, as Alabama history, religious teaching, and Appalachian cultural dancing, folklore, and literature were slowly pushed away into an encroaching oblivion.  No wonder Americans love traveling to other countries and other cultures so much.  
 
In the seminal work on depression, “The Weariness of the Self” the author makes the timely point that our depression epidemic is largely a cultural phenomenon.  The human psyche needs culture to make sense of the world, and to live a healthy life.  This was formerly the role of education.  The ego is tired, the psyche is weary, the American is sad.  The existential burden of an atomized individual, without a culture to fall back on, is too much too bear.   Plus, the struggle to become an individual, set apart, ironically only exists in the context of a culture.  If you want to reject a culture, or even excel as an individual, don't forget that you have to have a culture to reject or to excel in relation to in the first place in order to do that.  
 
Now we teach self-esteem, whether earned or not.  Now, we dumb down thinking, in order not to offend.  Now we teach utility, but not values.  It’s as though we are trying to create the world from scratch and that nothing learned throughout our history matters anymore.  
 
The older form of education involved lore, tradition, and belonging.  It gave young people a way to make sense of their experience and a classical ideal to aspire to.  Now, in many cases, education seems to be about validating the student’s whims and vanities, not bringing them into a community where they can more objectively measure themselves and find their niche.  I love the idea of bringing back trades, and trade schools, of teaching the great old books, and in linking schools up with other transcendent cultural institutions to create local community.  
 
Education is about more than test scores, self-esteem, or diversity quotas.  It’s about belonging.  

Read Next:  Hari Hachi Bu @ Other Secrets of The Blue Zones

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* This is part of a year-long weekly series called "52 Weeks to Eating better than Ever". 
Click on the side bar for more information and to read the previous essays.
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As an old Marine friend of mine says…
 
The “7 Ps of Preparation” are
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
 
It’s a little crude, but it’s true and it applies to eating well.  Think and plan ahead like a Marine.  Prepare to eat well.  Be systematic.    Otherwise, you're likely to eat junk food and to eat too much, because it's so convenient to do so.
 
We are all busy, more than we should be.  It’s hard to have time to eat healthy, particularly when families are involved. I recommend taking one day to plan the meals for the week ahead.  Maybe it is Friday evening, for example, or maybe Monday.  You pick out a few proteins- grilled chicken, some shrimp, and black beans.  Cook some of those and put them in the refrigerator for the week ahead.  Most pre-cooked foods will last 2-3 days, some longer in the case of fruits and veggies, rice, pastas and grains.  What you don’t use that you think will spoil you can freeze temporarily. Have plenty of fresh vegetables chopped up all the time and ready to snack on.  This will make a big difference when it comes to eating healthy.  You’ll be much less likely to overeat.

• Pick 3 proteins.
• Pick 6 vegetables.
• Pick 3 fruits. 
• Set aside 1 hour to cook and prepare these foods and pack in individual containers (preferably glass containers because of contaminants in plastic.
• Put it on your schedule so you do it every week at the same time.  
• Freeze what you aren’t going to consume within 3 days.
• Have plenty of nuts and olive oil on hand for snacks and salads and healthy dips.

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Read Next: My Super Simple Philosophy

Men become richer not only by increasing their existing wealth but also by decreasing their expenditure.  
- Aristotle
 
Most people I know would like to be rich if they had the choice.  I’m sure there are a few people out there who could care less about money, but if we’re being honest, most of us would like to not have to worry about it. Good news:  there are two ways to achieve this state in life, there are two ways to be rich in life.  One way is easy, and you can decide upon and maintain your ethics ahead of time and stick with them easily.  You need much less in this case, and so it’s much easier to work and live how you see fit, and be rich. 
 
The other way, the 2ndway, could be ethical too, but it will be harder to maintain your ethics and there’s a good chance it won’t be an ethical richness.  And you may, in the second case, need to pretend you like people that you don’t, for years and years and years.  This way of being rich is to make so much money that you never worry about money.  Depending on what you want to buy and own, you may never achieve this status of being “rich”, even if you have $3 million dollars or whatever.  Which do you think is easier and more realistic for most people? I’m always amazed at how many seemingly “rich” people are miserable.  
  
The average American only saves 5%, while 50-75% of the population has no savings at all.  The juggernaut of unfettered consumerism, which is our primary source of identity in America- that of a consumer, has been terrible health-wise for most people.  Most people need more of an identity than an unfettered will, thrown back on pre-human and primitive desires, unconstrained by wisdom, morality, or the higher brain’s cognitive restraint.  Consumerism as our primary identity is a game we can’t win and a thirst that can never be quenched.  Its “ritual” is consuming, it’s “bread and wine” is credit cards and statements, and its “liturgies” are commercials, slogans, and logos.  What make it even worse is that since we live in an anti-culture we are constantly atomizing more and more towards a life solely existing as a consumer, because it’s the only source of identity most modern people have. So, we keep consuming to feel alive. 
 
Consumption is the only way we know to be rich, because it’s the only way we know to feel alive.
 
The iphone takes precedence over tea with friends at the café.
The expensive car emblazoned with a logo, takes precedence over walking with a friend.
The best SAT score takes precedence over character.
And the best elite schools, highly connected to the new moral community of rootlessness and political correctness, ascend culturally while real community, built on roots, tradition, and internal values, vanishes. 
Overall, despair sets in.  
It’s a game that no one can win.
 
Now back to the original proposition.  I like money. I like traveling, sometimes.  I like having a good business and doing good work.  There’s nothing wrong with financial gain and I wish it for everyone.  But again, there are two ways to be rich and one comes with a big downside if we aren’t careful.
 
Most of us can want less of the things we don’t need, the things that chain us down, and the things which aren’t wise to desire in the first place.  If we do this, our wealth increases instantly.  Unlike the stoics, I’m not asking you to eliminate desires. But I am asking you to desire what makes you happyjust like “the philosopher” - Aristotle taught 2500 years ago.  Sometimes, we need to change what we desire, we need to transform it into something better.  
 
Sure, you may one day make so much money that you finally feel “rich.” I hope you do.  But there is another way to be rich.  And how much is enough?  Most people never define it.  I like Clark Howard’s, Dave Ramsey’s and the Bible’s and ancient philosophy’s advice to stay out of personal debt.  Be wise, desire the right things, the things that really make you happy in the long run and learn to get by with less.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  You can make money but not let it become your sole identity, your primary focus of richness. One focus on being rich emphasizes external values and the other internal values, and internal values are time and time again the bulwark of a healthy and meaningful life.  You know and I know what we need to do.  
 
Why not start by being grateful, content, simplifying, and enjoying the simple pleasures in life?  Your wealth will explode!
 
There are two ways to be rich.   Be careful which one you pick.  

Read Next: Chaos and What You Can Do About It?

* This is part of a year-long weekly series called "52 Weeks to Eating better than Ever". 
Click on the side bar for more information and to read the previous essays.

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It may sound overly dramatic to say that nuts are one of life’s greatest treasures, but it’s true. They taste good, they’re easy to find, store well, and they’re good for you.  Most importantly, they are one of the best things to snack on.  Especially compared to all the terrible snacks they compete with, like potato chips, ritz crackers, granola bars, and so on.

Nuts are plant foods and contain protein and healthy fats, fiber, and vitamins and minerals, and are good for your cardiovascular system, and for your brain.  They contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (49–74% total fat), several B group vitamins (including folate), vitamin E, minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, potassium and magnesium, antioxidant minerals (selenium, manganese and copper) plus other phytochemicals such as antioxidant compounds (flavonoids and resveratrol) and plant sterols.
 
A nut is a simple dry fruit with one or two seeds in which the ovary wall becomes very hard at maturity, and in which the seed fuses with the ovary wall.  My home state of Alabama is where George Washington Carver of Tuskegee developed over 300 uses for the peanut, which is technically a legume but often thought of as a nut, and was once only thought to be food for poor people but is now known to be very healthy.  
 
Here are some basic tips about how to get the most out of nuts.

• Try to eat a small handful of nuts every day.
• Nuts have many uses so put them on salads, cereals, or use them as a snack.
• Nuts are high in fat, and fat calories, so don’t go overboard.
• Opt for the unsalted and unsweetened nuts. High amounts of sodium and sugar can cancel out the many health benefits of nuts, which in their natural state are very low in sodium.  
• Think variety, since every nut is different mix it up to take in different vitamins and minerals.
• Seeds are often thought of as nuts, even though they aren't, but not to worry because they are good for you too.  
• Add nuts to a meal containing carbohydrates, because when nuts, (or any other healthy protein or fat) are consumed with carbs, the glycemic response is lowered, and there is less sugar and insulin produced.  An example would be putting almond butter or peanut butter on whole wheat bread as a snack. 

 
Specifically, nuts contain:

• Almonds: protein, calcium and vitamin E
• Brazil nuts: Fiber and selenium: just two Brazil nuts a day provides 100% RDI for selenium for an adult
• Cashews: iron
• Chestnuts: Fiber and vitamin C (although much vitamin C is lost during cooking)
• Hazelnuts: Fiber, potassium, folate, vitamin E
• Macadamias: highest in monounsaturated fats, thiamin and manganese
• Pecans: Fiber and antioxidants
• Pine nuts: Vitamin E and the arginine amino acid
• Pistachios: protein, potassium, plant sterols and the antioxidant resveratrol
• Walnuts: alpha linoleic acid: plant omega 3 and antioxidants

 
It seems like many things that taste good aren’t always good for us.  Part of the struggle is to acquire a taste for things that are healthy, which happens with time.  With nuts though, we can indulge and enjoy from day one.  They taste great, are filling, and they are one of the healthiest things you can eat. 
 
Read Next:  52 Weeks to Eating Better Than Ever: An Introduction
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