Fresh Living

When author Courtney Martin got a six-figure book advance, she decided to share the wealth. In addition to donating to established non-profits, she started giving $100 chunks to friends and asking them to donate it however they wanted. So cool! This is all in an article in today's New York Times on Martin's resulting "Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy."

This year her benefactees did things like....

"Turned the writing of New York City children in a literacy nonprofit into books."

"Distributed 10,000 pennies to friends throughout the country to drop so there would be more lucky pennies for people to find."

"Slipped $100 into a thank-you card and asked a friend to give it to the clerk at her local Duane Reade who makes her feel like a million bucks whenever she buys toothpaste."

"Gave $100 to the most frequent commenter on her Web site, who turned out to be a former correction officer aspiring to write."

"Donated $60 to the Red Cross for Haitian earthquake relief, and $40 to a man on the subway who gives sandwiches to the homeless."

"Fixed an old bicycle he found on the street to give to someone whose bike was stolen."

Here's one recipient who begged people on NYC subways to take money from him.

 

Martin told the Times she doesn't think these small gestures will change the world (though I beg to differ--the butterfly effect and all that), but says "a visceral engagement with joy and spontaneity, and injecting more of that into our lives" is really important. Amen, sister.

How would you joyfully and creatively give away $100?

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Among my many inner selves, I am home to a little dominatrix she-devil with a small, sharp whip. Lets call her the Blame-inatrix. She's often surprisingly subtle, sometimes coming out as a feeling I manage to contain, or in comments or gestures most people don't detect. Other times, though, I don't even see Blamey until she's cracked the whip right across a loved one's psychic skin, making everyone feel uck.

It's some seriously toxic stuff, blame. And even if my victim isn't noticing consciously, these digs and micro-blames have a negative cumulative effect on my relationships with others and myself, being in such stark opposition to my aims to be a kind, productive, contributing, loving human.

So lately I do my best to simply notice when I have the urge to say something motivated by the mean whip woman. Then I ask: "Hey lady, what's that about?" 900 times of out 10 I've empowered her with some anger and then beneath that, inevitably, insecurity, vulnerability, and hurt. I've been thinking about this lately a lot and was once again soothed and blown away by Pema Chodron, when I came across this quote from her today, which says all of this so succinctly and perfectly:

"We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don't like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others. Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself. Rather than own that pain, we scramble to find some comfortable ground." - In the Gap Between Right and Wrong

 

How do you grapple with blame?

 

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One of the things that my integrative physician discovered when he ran a big battery of tests on me last fall was that I had a low vitamin D level in my blood.  This was not surprising--I'm a religious sunscreen wearer and most vitamin D comes from sun exposure.  Nor was it unusual--one study last year showed more than 3/4 of the American population walks around with a vitamin D deficiency.

Back in the fall, my level was 22 ng/mL, and my doctor wanted to see that at least double.  So I started a serious supplementation program - 50,000 IUs each week.  Vitamin D, unlike its water-soluble cousin vitamin C, is oil-soluble, so a weekly dose unfurls into your bloodstream nice and steady.  7,000 IUs a day is an optimal dose for someone trying to replenish their system, said my doc.

Eight weeks into this regimen, and my vitamin D level is up to 39--almost the doubling he was looking for.  Plus, I feel better - more "plugged in," better able to concentrate, and more awake.

But now what?  What is the right "maintenance" dose to keep myself supplemented, but not overly-dosed?  My primary care doctor recommends 400 IUs a day for a year.  Dr. Andrew Weil--the famous integrative doc--has raised his healthy-person recommended dose from 1,000 IUs to 2,000 IUs a day. The Vitamin D Council advises 5,000 daily IUs while deficient, and then adjusting to whatever dose gets you to 50-80 ng/mL (which I'm not yet at).

All this from a vitamin for which there are very few food sources--milk, eggs, and oily fish basically sum it up.   

I'm sure I'm not the only one whose head is spinning--and given that vitamin D is crucial to the prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and the common cold, the stakes are high to get this right.

Here are some tips from Dr. Weil:

1.  Take vitamin D supplements with fat-containing foods to help with absorption.
2.  Be extra D-vigilant if you are older--the ability to synthesize vitamin D declines with age.
3.  Don't count on the sun: for half the year, latitudes north of Atlanta, GA are too steeply angled to give us vitamin D-worthy rays. 

How have you sorted out the vitamin D debacle?  How have you balanced diet, sun exposure, and supplementation to make sure you get this important vitamin into your system?   

(image via: http://mycanceradvisor.com/)

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