Deborah June Goemans's Blog
March 12, 2015
After the Fire: Rebirth!
After the Fire: Rebirth! By Deborah June Goemans
In the Constantiaberg valley, there is a type of amaryllis called Brunsvigia orientalis. It pops up out of the ground in March and April like an Easter egg. No leaves, no warning, and then it is there—unfolding into a spray of thirty brilliant, bright red flowers. Eventually these dry up and break off as a tumbleweed that rolls down the mountain, shaking off its seeds as it goes, and scaring the horses. Hence its common name, perdespookbossie—the bush that spooks the horses.
The traditional celebrations of Easter or Pesach evolved to celebrate the end of winter and the rebirth of spring, but in South Africa those holidays fall in the autumn. Although it's not a children's book, in my book, The Amaranth Bloom, I created special rituals to help children deeply understand Mother Nature’s calendar. Mother Nature teaches us we can still get close to the spirit of rebirth in the autumn if we use the perdespookbossie eggs as a promise that spring will come after winter. But there is also a deeper meaning to celebrating this day: it is our duty and our responsibility to make sure spring does arrive after winter.
After the intense fires in Cape Town this year, I encourage everyone to go out into nature and look for amaryllis and perdespookbossie flowers popping up out of the ashes and to celebrate the day by befriending a stranger in a way that feels comfortable to you. It is a beautiful way to teach children the resilience of nature and also the responsibility we have to protect our precious resources. (please share)
In the Constantiaberg valley, there is a type of amaryllis called Brunsvigia orientalis. It pops up out of the ground in March and April like an Easter egg. No leaves, no warning, and then it is there—unfolding into a spray of thirty brilliant, bright red flowers. Eventually these dry up and break off as a tumbleweed that rolls down the mountain, shaking off its seeds as it goes, and scaring the horses. Hence its common name, perdespookbossie—the bush that spooks the horses.
The traditional celebrations of Easter or Pesach evolved to celebrate the end of winter and the rebirth of spring, but in South Africa those holidays fall in the autumn. Although it's not a children's book, in my book, The Amaranth Bloom, I created special rituals to help children deeply understand Mother Nature’s calendar. Mother Nature teaches us we can still get close to the spirit of rebirth in the autumn if we use the perdespookbossie eggs as a promise that spring will come after winter. But there is also a deeper meaning to celebrating this day: it is our duty and our responsibility to make sure spring does arrive after winter.
After the intense fires in Cape Town this year, I encourage everyone to go out into nature and look for amaryllis and perdespookbossie flowers popping up out of the ashes and to celebrate the day by befriending a stranger in a way that feels comfortable to you. It is a beautiful way to teach children the resilience of nature and also the responsibility we have to protect our precious resources. (please share)
September 17, 2013
The Amaranth Bloom and Kafka’s Metamorphosis
Readers of The Amaranth Bloom have been puzzled by the recipes in the book. I feel obliged to explain.
Many of the themes in Metamorphosis are explored in The Amaranth Bloom. In particular, I have used Kafka's metaphor of a human turning into an insect to describe the way we can become victims of war. In my book, my characters are tortured by the circumstances in which they find themselves, just as Gregor is tortured. They live in crowded rooms, eat disgusting food, and are visited by men who are in control of their fate. I use the biological metaphor of a grasshopper turning locust as follows:
Normally the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) lives the peaceful solitary life of a tantric Buddhist monk. He chants, eats, drinks and even has sex in slow, purposeful, meditative moderation. But if you rub him up the wrong way, by overcrowding him and touching the back of his thigh too many times, he and his cronies—all former monks in the monastery—will renounce this life of solitary loving kindness. They’ll exchange their soft green robes for a black and yellow uniform and turn into one of the nastiest, greediest, most obnoxious gangs on earth: a plague of locusts.
“In humans this switch from nice to nasty is a gradual process,” Pa taught us. “It comes from losing confidence your descendants will have the resources they need to live a happy life. The cost of war is so great, though, that we would have used volition to evolve a much better way to build confidence, like we did with farming, if the great spiritual leaders hadn’t taught us that waging a war against evil, greed, cruelty, hate, and jealousy is the highest duty. So instead of thinking we’re fighting for confidence, we think we’re fighting against evil. But what you think is evil depends on the stories you hold in your ancestral memory. If you go back far enough you’ll see that sometimes your ancestors were right and sometimes they were wrong.”
As each of my characters struggles with his or her own metamorphosis from child to adult and from white to black, they fight to use volition to avoid becoming locusts. But after Gerry is beaten up by Letty’s father, his sister realizes he has taken a "will-less metamorphic journey from human to insect".
In Metamorphosis, the food is used to represent the way his family is disgusted by Gregor. I used the recipes to show the cultural differences between Letty and the Dernison family, but also to show how what can be considered grave oppression—eating tulip bread during WWII, for example—can also be embraced as empowering and that if we want to end war, we must not consider ourselves as victims.
Many of the themes in Metamorphosis are explored in The Amaranth Bloom. In particular, I have used Kafka's metaphor of a human turning into an insect to describe the way we can become victims of war. In my book, my characters are tortured by the circumstances in which they find themselves, just as Gregor is tortured. They live in crowded rooms, eat disgusting food, and are visited by men who are in control of their fate. I use the biological metaphor of a grasshopper turning locust as follows:
Normally the desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) lives the peaceful solitary life of a tantric Buddhist monk. He chants, eats, drinks and even has sex in slow, purposeful, meditative moderation. But if you rub him up the wrong way, by overcrowding him and touching the back of his thigh too many times, he and his cronies—all former monks in the monastery—will renounce this life of solitary loving kindness. They’ll exchange their soft green robes for a black and yellow uniform and turn into one of the nastiest, greediest, most obnoxious gangs on earth: a plague of locusts.
“In humans this switch from nice to nasty is a gradual process,” Pa taught us. “It comes from losing confidence your descendants will have the resources they need to live a happy life. The cost of war is so great, though, that we would have used volition to evolve a much better way to build confidence, like we did with farming, if the great spiritual leaders hadn’t taught us that waging a war against evil, greed, cruelty, hate, and jealousy is the highest duty. So instead of thinking we’re fighting for confidence, we think we’re fighting against evil. But what you think is evil depends on the stories you hold in your ancestral memory. If you go back far enough you’ll see that sometimes your ancestors were right and sometimes they were wrong.”
As each of my characters struggles with his or her own metamorphosis from child to adult and from white to black, they fight to use volition to avoid becoming locusts. But after Gerry is beaten up by Letty’s father, his sister realizes he has taken a "will-less metamorphic journey from human to insect".
In Metamorphosis, the food is used to represent the way his family is disgusted by Gregor. I used the recipes to show the cultural differences between Letty and the Dernison family, but also to show how what can be considered grave oppression—eating tulip bread during WWII, for example—can also be embraced as empowering and that if we want to end war, we must not consider ourselves as victims.
September 9, 2013
The Opposite of War is not Peace
The Opposite of War is not Peace
A minority group with special rights and also special responsibilities (a conscripted army and all) ruling a majority made up of various tribes—some peace-loving, some moderately scary, some way scary. Where have I heard of that before?
The more I learn about Syria, the more it sounds like what apartheid South Africa might have become if we did not have the right leaders at the right time. Assad and his followers have acted atrociously by murdering almost 100,000 political enemies since the Arab Spring, and his use of chemical warfare is reprehensible, but change must come from the people of Syria, not from foreigners and not from bombs.
The opposite of war is not peace, it is confidence, and you cannot bomb confidence into people.
Lasting confidence comes from the knowledge that your children and grandchildren will have what they need to succeed. You can bomb your enemies into submission today, but they will rise up and bomb your children into submission tomorrow. Both President Obama and President Assad should remember that good and strong leaders are not afraid to help their enemies achieve confidence. As Nelson Mandela lies a-mouldering in his bed, may his truth keep marching on.
A minority group with special rights and also special responsibilities (a conscripted army and all) ruling a majority made up of various tribes—some peace-loving, some moderately scary, some way scary. Where have I heard of that before?
The more I learn about Syria, the more it sounds like what apartheid South Africa might have become if we did not have the right leaders at the right time. Assad and his followers have acted atrociously by murdering almost 100,000 political enemies since the Arab Spring, and his use of chemical warfare is reprehensible, but change must come from the people of Syria, not from foreigners and not from bombs.
The opposite of war is not peace, it is confidence, and you cannot bomb confidence into people.
Lasting confidence comes from the knowledge that your children and grandchildren will have what they need to succeed. You can bomb your enemies into submission today, but they will rise up and bomb your children into submission tomorrow. Both President Obama and President Assad should remember that good and strong leaders are not afraid to help their enemies achieve confidence. As Nelson Mandela lies a-mouldering in his bed, may his truth keep marching on.
July 26, 2013
Adventurous Eating!
Ever tried tortoise tonic? How about Walkie-Talkie soup, made from the feet and heads (the "walkies" and "talkies") of chickens? Here is the Walkie-Talkie soup recipe from my book The Amaranth Bloom. If times are hard and you can't afford to eat organic, go to your local organic farm and they'll be happy to give you the feet and heads for free. When I was testing this recipe, I got my chicken feet and heads from Maureen Knapp at Cobblestone Valley Farms http://www.cobblestonevalley.com/products
Maureen raises the healthiest, happiest, most humanely-raised chickens and turkeys in the world, but, I must admit, it would take a very hungry winter before I would ever make Walkie-Talkie soup again.
WALKIE-TALKIE SOUP
Wash and pat dry five chicken heads and ten chicken feet and put them into the bottom of a pot. Cover with water and add some salt. Boil the water and skim off the scum. After a while add some chopped onions, some carrots, some whole unpeeled garlic cloves, and some chopped parsley. To enhance the healing power of the soup, add some wilderwingerd leaves if you have them, or else use spinach. Simmer covered for three hours at a very low temperature, and do not lift the lid under any circumstances. Then take the pot off the fire and let the soup cool without opening the lid. The next day open the pot and skim off all the heavy fat, strain the soup. If you are suffering a hungry season keep the vegetables otherwise throw them away because their goodness will have already gone into the soup. Pick the meat off the heads and feet and add it to the soup. Bring the strained broth to a boil and add chopped onions, chopped carrots, small whole onions, chopped parsnips, celery plus the leaves; and a sprig of rosemary. Boil the soup with the lid on for one more hour. Again do not lift the lid!
Maureen raises the healthiest, happiest, most humanely-raised chickens and turkeys in the world, but, I must admit, it would take a very hungry winter before I would ever make Walkie-Talkie soup again.
WALKIE-TALKIE SOUP
Wash and pat dry five chicken heads and ten chicken feet and put them into the bottom of a pot. Cover with water and add some salt. Boil the water and skim off the scum. After a while add some chopped onions, some carrots, some whole unpeeled garlic cloves, and some chopped parsley. To enhance the healing power of the soup, add some wilderwingerd leaves if you have them, or else use spinach. Simmer covered for three hours at a very low temperature, and do not lift the lid under any circumstances. Then take the pot off the fire and let the soup cool without opening the lid. The next day open the pot and skim off all the heavy fat, strain the soup. If you are suffering a hungry season keep the vegetables otherwise throw them away because their goodness will have already gone into the soup. Pick the meat off the heads and feet and add it to the soup. Bring the strained broth to a boil and add chopped onions, chopped carrots, small whole onions, chopped parsnips, celery plus the leaves; and a sprig of rosemary. Boil the soup with the lid on for one more hour. Again do not lift the lid!
