Munch a Bunch of Seaweed

Dulse
Photo by tiny.ian

Farming can be hard work.  Why bother to sow when you can simply reap Neptune’s bounty?

Forget fish, crabs, shrimp, lobsters and the like.  There’s a quick and renewable resource within easier reach, and that delicacy is seaweed.

Having once been a routine part of European diets, this “healthy and sustainable source of protein” remains a staple within “some Asian countries.”  No need to freeze those leftovers - for centuries they’ve been used for “fuel, fertilizer, or to feed livestock.”

Don’t like your seaweed wet and sloppy?  Try munching on some crisp dulse or crinkly nori.  Just steer clear of rotting algae and so-called “stinging seaweed” (the latter of which is actually composed of bacteria). 

Resources

https://news.yahoo.com/back-menu-europeans-once-ate-163149549.html

Shock and Awful

Fair Use

A recent college graduate expressed “shock” regarding the intensity of her first 9-to-5 job.  She lamented that it left little time for “sunlight, exercise, adequate sleep, healthy eating, and forming connections with other people.”

Some who’ve endured decades of commuting to full-time work sites might curtly respond, “Welcome to the real world!”  Yet some might also ask, “Must worldly reality be that way?”  Human biology seems designed for a lifestyle that includes plenty of outdoor activity, rest, friendships and physical nourishment.

Sitting in a vehicle and then at a desk for hours on end precludes much of that.  With just enough breaks for fast-food gulps and bathroom relief, this type of grind seems just what the doctor didn’t order. 

Some are calling upon Gen Z to pave the way toward a more healthful work-life balance.  Others are currently requesting “the option of remote work.”  This quote by Dolly Parton (who famously parodied the 9-to-5 regimen) speaks to all that and more:  “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”

Resources

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/college-graduate-just-started-her-185249035.html

When God called Florence Nightingale

Young Florence
Painting by August Egg

One day in 1837, Florence Nightingale was sitting beneath a huge cedar tree at her family's estate near London.  Although only 16 at the time, she received a message that would alter her life forever.  Florence identified this experience as a "first calling from God."

Greatly inspired, Florence felt drawn to the field of nursing.  This was not looked upon kindly by her mother and sister.  Ladies of their social stature were expected to become wives and mothers, not "lowly" nurses!

Florence never married, but not for lack of suitors.  She felt that marriage would inhibit her primary calling.  This one-pointed devotion enabled her to work especially hard.  In 1853, she became Superintendent of the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in London.  In 1854, she (plus a staff of 38 nurses whom she had personally trained) went to Turkey to help improve  horrific conditions from the Crimean War.

It was there that Nightingale successfully met her biggest nursing challenges.  Fatal mass infections were commonplace due to medication shortages, unsanitary conditions, and official neglect of the situation.  Nightingale became known as "The Lady with the Lamp" because she would continue her visits to the sick and dying far into the night.  She was called "a ministering angel" and was even immortalized in the 1857 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem Santa Filomena:  Lo! In that house of misery   A lady with a lamp I see    Pass through the glimmering gloom,  And flit from room to room. 

Throughout it all, Nightingale never forgot the Source of her calling.  Putting into practice her lifelong study of biblical perspectives, Florence remained a finely-tuned instrument of Divine love and mercy.

Resources

https://www.hampshirelive.news/news/history/history-embley-park-florence-nightingales-4741799

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale

Leave it to Themis

Statue of Themis
Photo by Ricardo Andre Frantz

It seems as though possibilities for extraterrestrial life are adding up faster than you can say Themis.

Themis was an ancient Greek goddess who personified divine law and order.  That must be why she holds the scales of justice in courthouses throughout the world.

Yet her namesake, 24 Themis, is not of this world.  It zips within the main asteroid belt, somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.  This hefty chunk of who-knows-what was found to maintain water ice on its surface, plus a smattering of organic compounds!  

Could this be a recipe for some sort of primordial soup?  If so, could life be forming within numerous parts of the Universe?  Themis has not weighed in on these matters, leaving such inquiries in the fumbling hands of mere mortals.

Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Themis