Cake Is A Political Issue

This post is not just about cake. But a lot of it is.

The other week, I was having a party, and I decided to make a cake. It's been a while since I've done such a thing, so out came the recipe books. "Using an electric hand whisk, whisk together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy," it said. No food mixer came with the flat I'm renting, so I was going to have to do it the old-fashioned way, by hand. I set to with the wooden spoon. Within a minute, I had to have a rest. My arm muscles were too weak to keep going! I got started again... knackered. I kept having to do a bit, rest, do a bit, rest... I was mortified.

(Where am I going with this?!).

I am lucky enough to live in a society where I can buy cakes, really really good cakes, for cheap, anytime anywhere. And if I do want to make a cake myself, there is a wide range of fancy equipment to take all the effort out of it. I am very lucky indeed. Must go out and buy an electric hand whisk...

Except... perhaps it is precisely that luck, and all those lovely electric hand whisks, that has resulted in me being so mortifyingly weak and feeble? The systems of our developed society work brilliantly together to save me time, and save me effort, and probably save me money too, while earning somebody out there a decent living. But what are the invisible costs? Lost skills, and atrophied physical capabilities? Ill-health and soaring health-care costs? They'd not show up on a balance sheet, but could it be?

'That link is so tenuous it's silly. Get a grip, and stop harping on about cake. Go down the gym if you're worried about being weak.'

Yeah yeah, I know. But that's kind of the case I'm making...

Making time, paying for the gym membership, and summoning the inclination to formally 'take more exercise' patently isn't easy for people - if it were easy, we'd not have the ever-increasing rates of obesity, diabetes and other fat-related illnesses that blight the Western world. Even for those of us who do make time, and passionately enjoy our preferred means of exercise - there's clearly something out of balance when 'a marathon runner' doesn't have the physical strength to whisk up a cake mix! 'Not enough cross-training,' the fitness freaks will tell me. They'd be right - runners are advised to cross-train in order to improve their running form, speed, endurance, and I know I don't cross-train as much as I should. The body is a system, and it works best when all aspects of it are trained. Wouldn't the same idea apply to everything we do? Why is physically using your body increasingly something separate from day-to-day activity? Ever think we're focused too much on component problems and not on the wider system?

'Taking more exercise' is an individual solution to our societies' health problems. But perhaps we should be focusing on all our activities. Perhaps society shouldn't be structured so that individuals are focused on sitting at desks/in cars/on sofas/in front of screens for most of each day, with technology doing all the other things that need doing. Perhaps then telling these same people to get off their fat arses and go down the gym for 30 minutes 3 times per week isn't helpful either.

We need to look instead at creating lifestyles where sitting on your ever-fatter-arse simply isn't what people do all day? Plus on tangent, think about the environment - so long as we have food (including cake), we are walking talking bundles of renewable energy. Since we're hell-bent on scoffing more calories than we should, why not use it for something?

Use it to live an active life. Not a passive grub-like one.

Mouthwatering Photo by shimelle

Why Value-Conflict Is Eating Me Up

For those of us who are sick fed-up with our jobs and believe there must be more to life, a big part of the problem is conflict at work.  I'm not talking about the petty, though aggravating, disputes with colleagues about silly things like re-filling the paper tray in the photocopier or washing up the coffee mugs. 

I'm talking about conflict between our values, and the values and expectations of our employers and the systems we work in.

I've been getting seriously wound up about my work.  The evidence for this is there for all to see, splattered all across my recent blog posts.    Why am I so wound up?  I love my work, don't I?  I'm a therapist; I help people, I like helping people, I'm pretty good at helping people. What's the problem? 

The problem is conflict.  There is a conflict between my personal world view and politics, and the world view and politics of my employer, and hence my job.  I am a gung-ho, fully-paid-up-member of any movement pushing for improved health, well-being, quality of life, rights, and opportunities. In the context of my job, that'll be for people with learning disabilities, mental health issues, or any other sort of disability. In the context of my life generally, that'll be for everyone!

But, I am not remotely gung-ho about the way our society is organised.  As far as I can see, our society either creates or exacerbates many mental health problems and disabilities. Our society also creates unhappiness, loneliness, fear, hopelessness, isolation, and stress.

My job expects me to help people towards improved health and well-being in the context of the wider society basically staying the same. I feel strongly that more than everything, it is the wider society that needs to change.

So there.

Blue Bloody Murder

Listening to a radio interview with a UK politician the other morning, I found myself swearing blue bloody murder at the numpty. Answer the sodding question!!!!

Politicians and their policies are about creeping improvements, but with minimal change. We all know about obesity being an increasing problem in the Western world. But measures to tackle the problem are feeble, because the objective is to keep everything basically the same. Suggestions usually focus on improved information and education, so that people can make the choice to eat less crap and do more exercise. The talk is about 'empowering' people to take the small steps that'll make their existing lifestyles that bit healthier. For example;

- get off the bus one stop early.

- use the stairs, not the lift.

- have a salad, not a burger.

- have a low-fat burger, not a full-fat burger.

There's no serious examination of our existing lifestyles as being a root cause. The talk is not about empowering people to make the big changes that would overhaul their entire lifestyle, and our entire culture, for the better.

Given that obesity and many other lifestyle-created health problems keep rising in the West, I would argue that we need a more radical approach. It's not going to work, to simply use the stairs more. What is needed is a new way of looking at the entire system that's creating and maintaining these unhealthy and unbalanced lifestyles. And a real commitment to change. To act, not just to debate, and definitely not to dodge the question.

Image by Joao Paulo Correa de Carvalho

Problems with Articulation

The Social Model of Disability argues that it is the way society is organised that disables people more than their individual impairments. Change should be directed at society rather than the person.

The gulf between the rich and the poor in Western societies is growing ever larger. If you're one of the comfortably well-off, and everyone you know is equally comfortable and secure, this might seem unlikely and of little immediate concern. But the current credit crunch and recession is laying bare just how tenuous the middle classes' notion of 'security' really is. Many people have found themselves just one unexpected event away from losing everything. And to me, 'losing everything' isn't the terrible thing, it's the stress, fear and misery that comes with it.

Much of the way our society works not only disables people, but also makes them ill, lonely and unhappy. Despite unprecedented wealth, health and technology, the stats indicate that our society is afflicted with ever increasing depression, anxiety, isolation, stress, obesity and a sense of never having enough time.

There is, of course, a lot about Western society that is wonderful. But I don't think that that makes it ok to disregard all that is not wonderful; that is awful, wrong and damaging.

We're not encouraged to truly question the status quo. I often question things, but I find it very hard to articulate what I mean, what I'm getting at. I struggle to find examples or data to back myself up, to justify my questionning. I can't think fast enough, or can't remember the details of the report that led to my questions. I don't have any answers, so I flounder.

I do have instincts, gut feelings and direct experiences that inform and illustrate my questions. Some of these find their way onto this blog. And I do listen to others and read the words of people who can articulate themselves better than me, who can collate data and marshall arguments.

In the meantime, I can say what I feel. I feel that the answers to these problems lie in the way we think about work. The way we value time, relationships and creativity in relation to money or security. The way we prioritise the environment versus economic growth. And the choices we make about moulding people to systems or systems to people.

Choked with the Cold

9.30am on a frosty Saturday morning. The sun is rising through a gap in the trees, and bathing the living room in gold. I want to be out there, jogging the ice-crusted trails down by the river. But I'm not, because I'm choked with the cold: just the walk from my desk to the kettle makes my head pound and my eyes wince, let alone the 7 miler my training schedule suggests for today. What is even more galling, is that this is my first bout of ill-health in about 18 months (hangovers withstanding). It seems to say a lot, to me at any rate.

Whilst away travelling, my health was exceptional. No colds, flu, tummy bugs or any of the other common ailments that ordinarily catch me out a few times per year. It was a fear of mine - that I'd end up coughing and sneezing through the night while staying in a 8-share dorm somewhere. How unpleasant, unfair and annoying it would be for my room-mates. Or a stint of food poisoning, while sharing a small block of communal toilet facilities! How vile that would have been for other guests. I did carry around a vague anxiety about falling ill on the other side of the world, away from the familar system of free health care taken for granted in the UK.

But, luckily, it never came to be. I enjoyed over a year of perfect health. It doesn't take a genius to see why: lots of exercise, daylight and fresh air on a daily basis. A massive reduction in negative stress. Autonomy and control over pacing and activity levels - if I felt a bit tired and rundown, I could opt to rest. If I felt buzzing with energy, I could run/hike/write/work like a fiend. Constant changes of my environment and the people around me probably boosted my immune system over time. The need for very cheap and very simple food meant a super-healthy diet of fresh fruit, veg and carbohydrates most days. Being a budget nomad was so good for me.

Now I'm back, have been for 4 months now, which seems to have been long enough for all the good contributing factors to slide away and a pesky dose of the cold to incubate. It'll be over in a day or so, it's no big deal, and I'm grateful that this is the worst health problem I have to complain about. But the compare-and-contrast is resonant. In comparison to before, life now is characterised by significantly less control and autonomy, less exercise, less exposure to daylight and fresh air, more negative stress, a less healthy diet, and less engagement in creative fullfilling activities.

Normal life is bad for my health.