I am having a day-mare! Maybe you have noticed it too ~~ that deafening blaring HUSH all over the “world” ~~ that thin, but perceptible, gloomy veil that is muffling the hum of our collective energies. Well, it has my angst-meter on red A-L-E-R-T!!
Essentially, I am a happy-go-lucky, smiley-greeter to anyone/everyone…always! Truth be known, my adult children admonish and question this behavior, “Why do you have to talk to EVERYBODY that walks within 3 feet of you!?? Why!?”  Well…because I love talking to people, engaging ”them” in  their daily stories, stories that bloom into page after page, chapter after chapter, forming their personal autobiographies ~~ OUR LIVES! I love people…and I KNOW that “something” is goin’ on!
So…getting back to my angst-meter-reading…after the last election, there were rays of palpable joy that beamed from everyone! All “eyes” windowed a clear view of  hopeful excitement. A renewed thinking that the positive possibilities for America/the World, where/are absolutely attainable. At that time, there was an unspoken happy zeitgeist percolating through our cells, through one another, and out past the universe. “We were gonna be O.K!!”…we capitalistic crabs-in-a bucket trying to survive! YES! we were gonna be fine, even if pushed to the buckets-bottom,the promise of a new paradigm (and hard work) would be our answer!! YES!!
But…the weight of  reality, with its quicksand-grip on all of our collective lives, reared its grizzly head! The truth revealed…sigh…and, if this happy-go-lucky-pollyanna-gal is any barometer, well…no matter where I go, there is just an unspoken “something” sad going on. I see it, I feel it, I touch it everyday muted in everyone I meet…and, the present seems to be taking on a rather grim presence!
Whew! With that unending winding road of wordiness, I hand to you “a little” good news ~~ keeping in mind that it is the “little” things in life, one-by-one, that will happily and productively get you through “these” awesomely daunting monolithic-like “big” times of angst. So, here goes…
Those of you that, a long  time ago, gave up eating soy because of its harmful unopposed estrogenic effect on our bodies (men included), can safely have soy back in your life again!! Remembering that it is the “little things”, one-by-one…this news IS exciting!! Yipeeeeeeee…soy!!!!!
However, there is one caveat ( I knew it) to this great revelation ~~ the soy that you ingest MUST be fermented. Soy, in the form of tofu, soy milk, isolate, or TVP (etc.) is still a Bozo no-no. In those forms, soy has an unhealthy endocrine disrupting effect on our bodies ~~ causing unbalanced hormones that could result in the possibility of getting cancer and FIBROIDS, forsooth!  But, if eaten in its fermented form, it is not only an excellent healthy food choice for our bodies, but it is also excellent (indirectly) for the planet, for animals, for pollution-control and for our moral-compass-fibers…the ol’ yin/yang!! A WINNER!!!!
The A-Okay list, specifically includes Natto, Tempeh, Miso and Shoyu…these are all of the fermented types of soy products. Because we KNEW that “straight” soy (ie. tofu) was/is endocrine disrupting, this new “little thing” of allowing soy back in our lives (fermented only), has opened a world of possibilities for vegetarians AND for those contemplating a non-animal-eating life…making it so much easier to take the plunge.
I must say, Tempeh is amazing. Readily available in any supermarket, it is fermented soybeans packaged in a flat, brick-style, that has a similar consistency to a Don’s Hamburger! Easy to prepare, simply open the package, heat ‘n eat. I know that you creative cooks will find Tempeh extremely versatile, and perhaps, that old adage “it tastes just like chicken” that is applied to any new venture in eating…well…now the new saying “it tastes like tempeh” will be rolling off your tongues…it is that great!!
All these vegetarian-decades later, of jones’n for soy but knowing its harm, AND, now discovering that in its fermented state the lowly bean is perfectly acceptable/healthy, has truly been a joyous revelation during these  otherwise, tenuous times!! Sigh…it is after all, the “little things”, 1 by 1, that get you through the “big things”…sigh!!!