tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post1136845258055475588..comments2024-03-27T06:58:00.659-05:00Comments on Balancing Jane: Let's Be Real: Balancing Life's RolesMichellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07801229525416203656noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-44825569340358448492013-06-15T10:54:59.349-05:002013-06-15T10:54:59.349-05:00My experience has been much different from yours. ...My experience has been much different from yours. I have never felt like I couldn't identify as an American or that it was a bad thing for other Americans to do so.<br /><br /><br />You say, "my sense of identity is internal and not related to hobbies, interests or activities," and I'm not trying to tell you how you identify, but I don't WANT an identity that isn't connected to "interests or activities." I enjoy my interests and activities, and they are a part of who I am. Being a writer, that's part of who I am. Being a mother, that's part of who I am. Being a teacher, that's part of who I am. <br /><br /><br /><br />"maybe you need to think about how you're showing only a piece of your true self." I feel like you missed the point. I am ALL of those pieces, but inevitably some people are only going to see certain pieces at a time because I am not able to simultaneously exhibit every piece of who I am to every person, nor would I want to. My issue is that I think we sometimes get caught up in the judgments of a narrow segment of people without stopping to think about all of those other pieces of ourselves that those people don't know about. We're the only ones who truly know all those pieces (maybe that's what you mean by having an "internal" sense of identity?), so we are the only ones who are in a place to judge how "real" we truly are.Michelle (Balancing Jane)http://www.balancingjane.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-39526655701742890732013-06-13T06:23:35.166-05:002013-06-13T06:23:35.166-05:00Oh, and it leads to such tedious contentions like ...Oh, and it leads to such tedious contentions like "not all X is X" (as in "not all lies are lies", or "not all lies are -really- lies").Bryan Hannnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-42776299975142394862013-06-12T18:56:37.136-05:002013-06-12T18:56:37.136-05:00Glad I'm not alone!Glad I'm not alone!Michelle (Balancing Jane)http://www.balancingjane.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-29001378197767826772013-06-12T16:11:08.805-05:002013-06-12T16:11:08.805-05:00Just when I was giving myself a pep talk that I am...Just when I was giving myself a pep talk that I am a "real" artist and having issues of who do I think I am... you write this amazing post that helps put things in perspective. Thank you once again for an amazing read!Monanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-62652871919843576262013-06-12T10:36:17.823-05:002013-06-12T10:36:17.823-05:00I agree that there are people in the paleo crowd (...I agree that there are people in the paleo crowd (and in so many other fad diet crowds) that get preachy and definitely fall back on that same "real" rhetoric to justify a holier-than-thou attitude. I will never understand why we get so concerned about what other people are eating. <br /><br />That language of exclusion (especially with that real-natural connection you bring up) definitely gets wielded far too often. <br /><br />I haven't read Cooked yet, but I've read and really enjoyed Pollan's other books, so I'm looking forward to it.Michelle (Balancing Jane)http://www.balancingjane.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-32312719570392255172013-06-12T09:20:02.657-05:002013-06-12T09:20:02.657-05:00This is a great post, and I admire your restraint ...This is a great post, and I admire your restraint in the face of a colleague's asinine comment about your class. This argument about "real" seems hand-in-hand with our anxieties about having it all. In terms of race, I hear and have this argument all the time about my least favorite word, "authentic." <br /><br /><br />So, I too just read the Jezebel screed about the paleo diet, and while I think the article's tone is childish, I wonder if the author's reaction might have more to do with an larger tone of many (or, at least some) of these dieters, who can often try to hold a monopoly on "real" eating. I've often heard from diets modeling themselves after "ancient" menus that this is how our bodies are "meant" to eat, which only reinforces the idea that their diet is a return to the real, and our modern diet is somehow fake. Michael Pollan debunks a lot of this thinking in Cooked, in which he describes how our guts and brains have evolved to eat very much like we eat today (save for all the processed junk). "Real" so often gets tangled with "natural" in arguments about breastfeeding, diet, organic, off the grid, etc. It's hard to know at any given moment who's being excluded and who's being exclusive.<br /><br /><br />I've missed your blog and am just now catching up!Melodynoreply@blogger.com