David Mark Erickson

It has been about 5 days since I landed back in Seattle and reentry is going pretty well so far.  My biggest accomplishment was being able to beat my jet lag almost immediately.  My flight back was a long and it really kicked my ass!  I have had plenty of long trips in the past so maybe I am just getting older … anyway it worked in my favor since I was so damn tired I was able to get 2 nights of solid sleep in back-to-back which has seemed to click me over into my new time zone.

My mad dash down to Portland for one night was great, although taxing in and of itself.  I love catching up with my peeps in P-town, they are a great bunch of people and I feel lucky to have them all in my life.

Now that the initial rush of being back has started to slow I’m beginning to experience the oddness of “being back.”  I have lived abroad a long time, about 10 years now and so to be “back” for an extending period creates a condition for deep seated memories to be drawn out and for past ways of being to be remembered.  I’m sure I will post more on this later, but one of these that has struck first is eating.  And, not only eating, but cooking and shopping as well.

I was in the grocery store the other day was totally overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place and the vast array of items to choose from.  I also felt like I could not trust any of the food I was purchasing.

While most of the places I have been traveling and living in the last 10 years do have comparable stores, food selections (fresh and processed) and similar shopping experiences, no other country I have been has such a crisis of dietary health as does the United States.  In my mind, there is no doubt that our food is slowly killing us and that we as a culture need to seriously examine what it is that we want from our food industry here.

The issue of food in America aside, what I am finding now that I am back is that I feel like I don’t know how to eat … a very disconcerting feeling I assure you!

I will devote further musing about this in the future, but suffice to say that, on a causal level, I think what gives rise to this is the convergence of my current way of being and past ways of being that I am remembering now that I am back on “home” ground. I suspect that this is going to be the dominate theme in my life for the next six to eight months while I am back here in the PNW.