Macrobiotics is Dying: Why are there no new voices?

[sawyer99]

It has been so distressing to watch the closing of many health restaurants (like the Source on Sunset in Hollywood) and the dwindling macro sections of the Whole Foods grocery stores over the last few years. Personally, I think the passing of so many leaders in the macro community has played a role in this. Clearly, miracles have come from macrobiotics...I have talked with "incurables" diagnosed with brain cancer who stunned their doctors with suddenly clean MRIs. So why did so many of our own pass away? Why is the community so fragmented and directionless now? The river of humanity has chosen the path of least resistance, McLife should be fast and easy.
I think it is important that we don't go away. It is important that our voices never stop chiming in with that "inappropriate" question that hits too close to home. The macrobiotic community needs more troublemakers like George Ohsawa to keep it alive. Macrobiotics was always about change, not stasis. Many of our leaders fell on the front lines doing what they believed. They taught us which paths were safe and which were not. We should listen.

[Tracy]

It has been so distressing to watch the closing of many health restaurants (like the Source on Sunset in Hollywood) and the dwindling macro sections of the Whole Foods grocery stores over the last few years. Personally, I think the passing of so many leaders in the macro community has played a role in this. Clearly, miracles have come from macrobiotics...I have talked with "incurables" diagnosed with brain cancer who stunned their doctors with suddenly clean MRIs. So why did so many of our own pass away? Why is the community so fragmented and directionless now? The river of humanity has chosen the path of least resistance, McLife should be fast and easy.
I think it is important that we don't go away. It is important that our voices never stop chiming in with that "inappropriate" question that hits too close to home. The macrobiotic community needs more troublemakers like George Ohsawa to keep it alive. Macrobiotics was always about change, not stasis. Many of our leaders fell on the front lines doing what they believed. They taught us which paths were safe and which were not. We should listen.

Sawyer,

Respectfully, do you know what will keep "macrobiotics" alive? The UNIVERSE.
FREE thinkers. That's what. NO gurus. Individuals who "get it". Individuals who start cooking for themselves and not depending on Kushi or Ohsawa to do their "thinking" for them.
Who cares about "Health Food" restaurants?? Shouldn't we all be making our own personalized restaurants in our OWN kitchens? Cooking, eating, LIVING for ourselves?

Yes Ohsawa and Kushi and even Benedict gave us the "compass", but we've all got our own paths to follow. EVERYTHING is macrobiotic ( even chocolate and potato chips ). Everything is "yin and yang".

Once one becomes a "guru" and makes $$$$$$$$ off of their "teachings" all is lost. All it takes is for your "soul" to tell you "this isn't right. Eating this way will kill me, so I am going to try another way". And we change direction according to our OWN intuition. That is the way it MUST be. We fall down, we get up again. We make mistakes. We take a three steps backwards after taking one forward. And on and on.

There is not ONE thing one "macrobiotic" person CANNOT find in a grocery store. According to where you live, what climate, and what your personal taste is, you WILL find what you need.

Instinct. One must live by one's own instinct.

If the individual can grasp that one human basic concept and forget all the prattling from the "gurus" that is espoused, then this world will find harmony.

[ostarella]

Thanks for the reminder about finding our own way. I have been trying so hard to switch over and find the 'right' foods, which is difficult in my neck of the woods - either because certain stuff just isn't stocked or what is is very expensive. So I've cut out the dairy and the meat, and still feel guilty because what I am eating still doesn't seem 'kosher'. But I guess I needed the reminder that at least I've cut out the stuff I don't need, and that's what's really important. So my diet may not be what the mainstream of macrobiotics would eat - it's a start, right?

I gotta admit, though - I REALLY miss my strawberry yogurt... :(

[ojai22]

Thanks for the reminder about finding our own way. I have been trying so hard to switch over and find the 'right' foods, which is difficult in my neck of the woods -


Ostarella,

Have you tried ordering either online or through a catalog? One of my favorites is The Goldmine in San Diego CA.

www.goldminenaturalfood.com

You can have them send you a catalog which is chock-full of info about their products. Quite educational. For instance, from the good people at The Goldmine I was reminded of this:

"Although chlorine is an excellent agent for disinfecting water, it's not good for you. Chlorine readily passes through your skin and attaches to fatty acids, disrupting life-sustaining functions. Chlorine vapors also get inhaled and go inot your bloodstream. About half your daily exposure occurs while showering. The amount of chlorine exposure during one shower is comparable to the amount consumed in drinking water throughout the day."


:)

[julie w]

ostarella,

"I gotta admit, though - I REALLY miss my strawberry yogurt...."

There's a soy brand of yogurt on the market by "Silk" ( I believe) that *I* personally enjoy alot. They have strawberry, vanilla, black cherry, blueberry, lemon and a few others. I do like strawberries but for some reason I don't like it in yogurt form (I like the vanilla, cherry, blueberry and lemon only) so I can't give you a good non-biased opinion on the strawberry. However, I will say this, I've never liked any yogurt in my whole life until I ate "Silk" soy yogurt. If your local grocery store doesn't carry it, I'm sure you could find it online.

All the best,

Julie

[ostarella]

Thanks to both of you - I'll check out the website and look for the Silk yogurt! :D

[sawyer99]

TracyB

Also respectfully tendered, my post in no way implied the need for a "guru", but instead, loud and critical voices so that the word gets out. I've been exposed to the knee jerk response about the goal of non-leadership for the macrobiotic community. I don't buy it and never have. There are always leaders, not gurus, not self-styled messiahs, but leaders who dare to stand up and question prevailing thought. If you re-read my post, you will see rather overt statements in that spirit.

Even grassroot movements have leaders. To deny that fact is about as silly and unrealistic as saying that the human body can be sustained with brown rice alone. Your response read very much like you took the time to read the subject line of my post and didn't bother with the post itself. Some people like to McRead I guess.

Tom

[ostarella]

I don't think we need "leaders" as such - each of us is a leader, when it comes down to it. We can influence the people around us - family, friends, co-workers. I don't think it's necessary to have banner headlines...Jesus didn't, right? :wink:

[sawyer99]

Well, technically Jesus would definitely fall into that "leader" camp. He led 12 apostles and preached to the masses. In his day, the spoken word was the medium, not banners.

Can we live by example and change the lives of people around us? Not unless we are standing up and saying what is wrong and how to fix it. That takes courage that most people don't have. I know a macrobiotic counselor who was put under surveillance by the US Government for fear they were a "cult" figure. Michio advised this counselor to put an American flag on the front of her home so when they snapped photos of clients coming and going, they would see where she stood. Though fearful, she continued to help the sick and the curious find their way to macrobiotics. That's real leadership. Not explaining your funny diet to the passenger next to you on the airplane when you take out your brown rice and veggies.

[ostarella]

Well, just to clarify - Jesus didn't start out preaching to the masses, nor did he start out with 12 apostles - that happened as more and more of the *individuals* and *small groups* he talked to spread the word. I guess He thought it worth while, talking to the person next to him.

I'm also more than a little skeptical of someone claiming to be under government surveillance because she's preaching about a diet. Had to be a little more to it for them to think she was a 'cult' leader. Or maybe just a little more to her imagination. I mean, let's face it - not only does the government have somewhat more important people to be looking at, but it's stories like that that make people think we're just a little on the nutty side, and not unreasonably.

Bleating loudly about what's wrong with people's diets and why they should switch to macrobiotics isn't going to make a significant change - it would just mean one more diet "expert" out there in a morass of other "experts". The most effective way is just to tell people, one by one, what you did, why you did it, and what it did for you. Then it's up to them to decide. If we all did that, think how many people we could reach. That's basically what Dirk did in his book, and left the decision up to the reader. And look how many people he affected.

[Crazy Tommy T]

The availabilty of macrobiotic food in the UK has really grown over the last few years.