Baking With Intention (Thoughts on Poetry, Activism, & Alice Walker)

"Poetry is the Right Expression for Revolution."   
                  ~Alice Walker


Growing up in the south eating fresh vegetables out of the garden in the summer was preferable to trying to cook full hot meals and especially any sort of baking in the sometimes fierce humid summer days and nights.   So anytime my dear Grandmother chose to bake in the summer it had to be due to the reason it was a special occasion.   Even fixing food for the annual church homecoming picnic in early August was not cause enough to heat up the house in her opinion.   In her opinion bringing bright red juicy tomatoes picked fresh from the garden and sliced along with maybe a plate of sliced onions was enough.   I found it funny when she would lean over and whisper in my ear her disapproval of the people who stopped and picked up buckets of fried chicken from Bojangles or KFC.   She would say, "well good lord like it would have killed them to get up earlier one morning and fry up some chicken!"  This from the woman who insisted only in bringing sliced tomatoes and onions because she did not want to heat up the house by cooking anything.  
     Luckily for me and perhaps unfortunately for my poor Grandmother my birthday was on the first day of summer in June.   My sister's birthday was in August.   Granny usually wound up baking my birthday cake and 50% of the time being responsible for my "chosen," birthday meal.   Granny made the best strawberry shortcake in the world.   The cake was made in an iron skillet and there was no cake mix involved.   All from scratch.   In addition to this the strawberries were fresh from the wild strawberry field that grew on the back portion of our land, and since my birthday came right after strawberry season, Granny always made sure she froze enough to bake my birthday cake.   Also Granny made this amazing tomato roast beef with rice and of course amazing buttermilk biscuits so this was a usual choice for me for my special birthday dinner.   Luckily for Granny my sister usually preferred Mama's homemade chocolate cake for her birthday and hamburgers on the grill by my father; so Granny only had to suffer usually once during the summer humidity and heat.   This in my opinion is baking with intent.   Granny did not believe in mixes.   So making it easier on herself with cake mixes, biscuit mixes or canned biscuits were not an option.   Anytime my Granny baked it was baked with intent.   When she baked it was truly from her heart and she cut no corners.
     I remember once our pastor saying that it is easy to just stop and say a quick prayer that one says everyday or has memorized; but he once challenged that we "prayed with intent," meaning we knelt with purpose to really expose our hearts and minds to God, not just to recite a learned verse or trite everyday diatribe.   When I delved into Buddhism I would learn that meditation meant pondering on your intentions and actions in relationship to the world at large.   It seems natural to me that the older I grow the more I realize doing anything with intention has the possibility to change more hearts, make larger impacts, and even taste better.   I once wrote on the use of canned biscuits being a sort of "cop out."   I believe anything, even baking done without your heart's intent is just sub par or worth no more than a dime a dozen.
     I recently attended an evening with Alice Walker as the guest speaker at the Washington Performance Art Center in Olympia, Washington.   This was possible due to my recent enrollment in classes at Evergreen State College and in particular to the course I am taking from Professor Donald Foran titled, "How Poetry Saves the World."   Over the past first two weeks of class I have felt my heart and mind expand two fold on how I approach poetry and at large my writing in general.   Seeing it beyond just telling stories and compiling words I am seeing Poetry as well as literature and art in general as ways of expressing an activist's voice, shining light on truths and paving the pathways to revolution.
     Alice Walker said, "we are living in an age of enlightenment," which pushed me right up against the back of my seat.   It is the feeling I have felt boiling within my heart since late 2007.    Everything that is happening right now from financial and economic break downs to earthquakes and tsunamis are all apart of a big changing revolution from within mother nature to more personal places as within each individual's heart.   I have no doubt that many will chose to stay blinded about what is going on around the globe.   This is easier and safer.   This is baking with mixes.   Baking without care of taste or texture.
     I think back on the WTO riot in Seattle when I lived here.   I believe the "activism," turned more reactionary.   Somewhere along the way it lost its true heart or intention.   True Activism has to be with heart and intention and by the example set by Ghandi and Martin Luther King, I believe Activism with heart and intention is done thru peaceful demonstration, poetry, literature, good journalism, and art.   There are many ways beyond marching in streets to exhibit activism and pave the road to revolution.   Alice Walker said the other night that, "The reasons 'they,' do not want you to have a political vision in your heart is because you will see what they have stolen from you."    This is why people want to burn books, destroy art, and even kill the messenger.   "They," would prefer us all to bake cakes from the same boxed mixes.

For further information I suggest the following books & documentaries:   "Overcoming Speechlessness," by Alice Walker; "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," by Jimmy Carter; "Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action," documentary by filmmaker Velcrow Ripper;" & "Hard Times Require Furious Dancing (New Poems)," by Alice Walker.