The media is the kitchen table we all sit around

The last two mornings I’ve woken up wanting to make a juice. I’ll report back whether this toadish enthusiasm for the early morning liaison with Red is habitual or a short lived fad. At the moment it feels good to start my day watching whole vegetables have the dear life crushed out of them. And the juice that comes out of Red really does wake you up and make you feel alive. Much better than any juice I have ever bought. Today I made two juices and put them one each in small bottles in the fridge with labels for me and my house mates to enjoy later. I live with three other people and it feels great that the whole house will benefit through the day. 2016 was a year of political disappointment for those of us who occupy centre, left and even centre right politics. 2017 is going to be a hard year. One positive thing we can do to keep ourselves alive to the possibility that better times will come is to cherish our friendships, community, family and our own individual wellbeing. We need to be strong for whatever lies ahead of us. Following the oil pipeline protests of the first nation peoples of America I listened to one reporter describe the media as the kitchen table around which we all sit. If what arrives at our kitchen table is an unhealthy vested interest diet of negative distorted news stories we become bloated with fable. Community and friendship become subsumed by a violent anger that is disproportionate to what most people actually feel given the opportunity to breathe and reflect. I am fortunate to sit around a kitchen table that includes critical thinkers, who are able and determined not to take news stories at face value but to look behind them and see how they are framed to distort the truth. Feels like we can nourish one another whilst creating opportunities to challenge the dissemblers. The vested interest is not and cannot be as great as the human spirit. Juice number one: several small carrots, 3 apples, 1 lemon, handfuls of kale and ginger. Juice number two (a thing of aniseed beauty): 2 apples, half a bulb of fennel, 2 oranges. Have a great day!