Tuesday December 9th

I met this guy Dan who's been a nursing home administrator for 40 years. He works at the mental health complex. He was hired to shut down a couple facilities and reintegrate the populations elsewhere. 

His job will be over in a year. The first one is closing within about a week and he's on track with that. Then the next one will be done about a year from now. He thinks maybe he'll retire. Except he doesn't know what to do and can't imagine sitting around.

 We talked a lot about caregiving and the system. I mentioned the surprising number of people I meet that need additional help. I told him I called Interfaith to see if they were offering such services. He told me they were great people doing great work providing many kinds of services that fill in the gap for caregivers. He mentioned the directors name and said that they used to have each other on speed dial.  

He talked about the importance of crystal clear directives and power of attorney. You can get those forms online and have them notarized at the bank. If one is not clear in one’s wishes and the system takes over … well, the system takes over.

And as we were pulling up he’s fishing around to give me a business card. He gets out, puts both feet on the ground, and looks back at me.

"I'm serious," he said, "you can use that number.” 

This morning I met Sujata and she told me how to pronounce the word kitchadi. Well, she didn’t just blurt it out. I asked her.

She looked at me a bit quizzically as if to ask how I know about this dish. 

“That’s not something you can get in an Indian restaurant.” she said. “We only cook it at home. It’s for times we don’t feel well.” It’s comfort food.

I said I read about it online. It’s white rice and moong dal as a base. A easy-to-digest, near-complete protein. 

KITCHadi, sometimes spelled kitchari - with an ‘r’ - and if you can say the ‘d' and the ‘r' together you’ve gotten a lot closer to the pronunciation.

I said I use basmati rice and she said plain white is better; less flavor. It’s kind of strange about the rice flavor when the complicated spices may include ginger, cardamom, cumin and any number of vegetables including onion and perhaps even garlic.

She indicated that one should not believe everything on the internet. Of course. Then I tried to interject my research on Arabian Seven Spice and my finding that every country or region has it’s own recipe. None of them are wrong. Right?

Anyway, at least I can now pronounce basmati rice the Indian way. Accent on first syllable. Basmati.

~~~~~

When we say everything changes we have some understanding about what that means. What I hear by using the word changes, is that there might be some changes in the future. We can look to a time in the past where there have been changes. 

A way that describes the actual activity is this: everything changing. That means ongoing right now. 

Look around. Pay attention. Soon it will be something other.

~~~~~