And then I hesitated. Practically, the pumpkin pancake recipe is good, but I think it could be great with tweaking that I haven't done. Thematically, it felt discordant: "Now we interrupt this series on bringing warmth to the world to give you a recipe."
I toyed with some big ideas to connect pancakes and peace-- that as someone living with abundance and peace, I have a near-obligation to appreciate it,-- or that peace is a concept different at different scales, and that large-scale peace depends on individuals with inner peace. But neither idea really works. Certainly, NOT enjoying the minutia of my life is NOT going to help with people living with strife, and when my family eats tasty healthful foods, we are better able to share figurative warmth, but those aren't really the same idea. Beyond that, the more I think about it, the more clear it is that peace does not scale directly. We must not wait until we our content with ourselves to work for a more just and peaceful world. Conversely,* we cannot wait until the world is peaceful to appreciate our pancakes.
Which is probably about as far as I am going to get in thinking about peace. I apologize if you thought I was going to have the answers. My conclusion is to directly disregard the message of advent. Don't wait. Don't wait to make the world a better place. Don't wait to enjoy your life. And then rephrase the message of advent. Do prepare. Prepare now. Let's prepare a better world. Today.
Let's talk about how.
Today, for instance, I am leveraging my privilege as a wealthy, educated, Christian, parent, to encourage the public school not to have Easter Egg hunts at school. The non-Christians in my town have enough to deal with without being asked to buy plastic junk in celebration of a religious holiday they don't observe.
I am going to smile at the students I meet, regardless of their race, religion, national origin or even class attendance. It is the last that it the real challenge for me.
I am going to share an image of my friend Sunflower Spinner in her peace hat. She is also trying to make the world warmer and wanting to discuss how. I remember being with her as she designed the peace hat in 2001. It felt really good to help create a tangible, if small scale, manifestation of our large scale hopes.
Yesterday I wore my peace hat to work. It was a small and relatively insignificant gesture, but I needed to do something in face of the bigotry, hate, and vitriol in the world right now. Maybe we need a peace sign selfie day. Then a conversation about positive actions to take to show the human race isn't all about hate.
I made the hat not too long after 9/11. The reason it is my peace hat is not obvious. Here's the story. The hat is made from Peace Fleece. (http://www.peacefleece.com/). The blue was a special edition called Baghdad Blue, and the proceeds from the sale of this yarn went to a joint Jewish/Islamic organization promoting peace. The patterns on the brim of the hat all say peace in different languages, with the letters having been translated into binary and then mirrored (to get a pretty pattern). I no longer remember what all the languages are, but I do remember that I chose languages representing as large of a geographical area as possible.
I am going to share my imperfect, untweaked recipe for pumpkin pancakes because they are tasty and they re-heat well. I felt better about breakfast this morning knowing that my sons, eating leftover pancakes, consumed far more vitamin A and fiber than they frequently do at breakfast. They are a good idea now. Why wait?
What else should we do?
Untweaked Multigrain Pumpkin Pancakes
(based very loosely on my mother's oatmeal pancakes, and less loosely on the different versions of pumpkin, banana, sweet potato and carrot pancakes I've made this fall)
1 can pumpkin
2 C buttermilk
1 1/2 C oatmeal
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C cornmeal
2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
2 Tbs. oil or melted butter
1/4 C. molasses (or some brown sugar)
1/4 C. cottage cheese or Greek yogurt if you have it on hand
1/2 tsp. maple flavoring
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
pecans or raisins (optional)
cooked or grated sweet potato or carrot (optional)
mashed banana (optional)
Mix all ingredients. Let the batter bubble for a while. Form into pancakes and cook (I use a little electric fry pan set at 350). Serve with maple pecan banana topping or syrup.
*This just led to a fascinating conversation with my colleagues about formal logic terms. I have great colleagues.
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