SCOTUS, DOMA, and more fun acronyms.

This morning, the first thing I did was check supremecourt.gov to see if the Court has issued its opinion on the constitutionality of DOMA. And, while quickly skimming through the opinion for the final holding, my heart was pounding. When I finally read the words that the Court had found DOMA to be unconstitutional as a violation of the 5th Amendment, I almost started to cry. I was so happy, relived, and excited.

Then I sat back and thought about why I was feeling this way. I'm not a homosexual American seeking federal recognition of my state-permitted marriage. I'm a straight woman who is marrying a straight man next April. Why should I care? Well, there's the easy answer that I have friends who are gay and I'm excited that their civil rights have been expanded. But there was another, deeper reason for my elation and I think it is rooted in my die-hard patriotism.

I love America. It is my home. But, like a parents' love for their imperfect children, I also recognize that America is not ideal. I, however, truly believe that the greatness of this country rests on its ability to think of itself as awesome. Every American has a tiny seed of "F you!" in them and when that seed gets used for good, instead of evil, it is a truly remarkable thing.

I "became of age" during the Bush years. It was depressing. I was full of youthful vigor, ready to change the world, and all I saw around me was this county I love slipping back into barbarianism. Everyone was looking out for number one, corporations were the true political power, and the poor and down trodden be damned. We were sinking. We were still a country, but we had forgotten how to be a community.

In any event, I started to become cynical. I didn't think there was any way America could get back on the path of awesomeness. That all those tiny seeds of "F you!" had withered away and were replaced with hatred and ignorance. The America I had always thought was rebellious, riding its roaring motorcycle into the scientific/democratic/accepting future, had become overwhelmingly submissive.

But, in the past few years, I have seen the greater good triumph over political power. And today's Supreme Court decision was one of those moments.  A group of people who were denied certain rights were given those rights back. Their tiny "F you!" seed was held safe instead of thrown to the wind. This is a good day for America, my friends. I think we're back on the path of awesomeness, slowly but sure enough.

Rain

Tropical Storm Andrea is slowly making its way up the East Coast. In the D.C. area, we're expecting steady rain all day and temperatures in the mid-70s. The rain started last night. I'm a rain junkie. In Oklahoma, it rained alot, mostly in the form of thunder storms. Here it rains slow and steady. Growing up I use to listen to the rain, waiting for the dreaded moment when it would stop. Here, it just keeps on going, especially when the cause is something big like a hurricane or tropical storm. So, needless to say, I indulged in it. Last night I opened the window, make corn chowder, and read Stephen King's The Stand until I fell asleep with both the light and my glasses on. This morning I got up at 6:30 and kept on reading, this time with a cup of coffee, till 9:00 when I decided I actually had to go to work. But, I must admit that I'm just sitting at my desk watching the rain, wishing I could get away with closing my office door and finishing my book.

Going meatless.

I am a creature of habit. My finance, on the hand, is a creature of habit wannabe. He really wants to have regular routines, but he is a magpie. He is constantly researching and trying new things to improve his life. Sometimes, I'll admit, he researches himself out of doing anything useful, but it is endearing to know that he is always expanding his perspective and trying new things.

Now, with my tendency to not fluctuate from my routine and my finance's desire to figure out just what his routine will be, we often fall into this pattern: finance reads some new research on a topic, we decide to try it out, and then I stick to it longer than he does because he's on to something else. Our most recent endeavor, and one we've been pretty good at (with some obvious concessions), has been going meatless.

Question No. 1: Is this about animal welfare? Well, to a degree, yes. I'm both an animal lover and a born and bred meat eater. When I was about eight my family drove from Oklahoma to Colorado. On the way, there was no shortage of herds of cattle lining the highways. I remember thinking as a kid, "Well, they don't serve any other purpose. We might as well eat them." While logical to the point of annoyance, I might have also been somewhat of a heartless kid. I suppose I told myself growing up that some animals were meant to be pets, some were pests, and some were food. Though, when I really think about that now, it seems strange. If we're going to eat meat, why not eat any meat? And if we balk at the idea of eating a certain type of meat, what have we told ourselves to convince ourselves that eating one meat rather than another is okay? It's an interesting question and one I've not completely answered.

Question No. 2: Is this for health reasons? Um, I guess. But not for the reasons you might think. There's a lot of research going around about red meat, good fat, bad fat, blah blah blah. In college, I was a psychology major. The first lesson about psychology is that it is not a "hard" science, meaning that there are no "laws of psychology" like there are in physics or chemistry. Nothing is quite written in stone. So, the most important skill I took away from my psychology degree was how to decipher research. Now I can't read anything about new research without asking all the annoying questions a scientist would. Does the data actually say anything about the variables? Is there any correlation? Is the sample size large enough? What if there's a third, unknown, variable? What are the results not telling us? For that reason, I tend to disregard nutritional studies. Not because they are "soft" science, but because they are often reported based on the headline rather than what the data actually shows. So, as far as the health effects of vegetarianism go, I can't rely on all the typical reasons people think they should give up meat. No, for me it is something else. I recognize that health and nutrition are unique to every person. You have to experiment with different foods to find the right balance for you. My finance refers to it as, "If the Aliens Came and Put Us All in a Zoo, What Would They Feed Us?" For me, not eating meat just works for my body.

This experiment began mid-May. Over Memorial Day Weekend, my finance and I did eat meat (hamburgers, hot dogs, maybe I bag of pepperoni pizza rolls). And last Friday I had sushi. But, other than that we have been sticking to our guns on this one. Here's our findings thus far:

(1) Losing weight. When we stick to mostly veggies and fruit and not wheat-based carbohydrates, we lose even more weight.

(2) Better sleep. Our thought is that veggies are easier to digest and we are not having to work so hard to digest meat while sleeping.

(3) More energy. See (2) above.

(4) It is not as hard as we thought. We both love Asian food and all Asian cuisine is more than happy to make your food without meat. We indulge in pizza with mushrooms and olives. Plus, with the warmer weather, fruits and veggies are perfectly in season and delicious. We're ready for this!

(5) We will clean up our diet once we transition. A lot of people who take up vegetarianism initially go the route we are: eating pizza, pasta, etc. We understand that this is the transition stage and we plan on moving out of it as soon as we are weaned off meat. One step at a time!

Well, I suppose I should get back to work. Because, honestly, I cannot bill for this.