One foot forward or two feet back?

I find myself drawn toward two worlds, two disparate and seemingly incongruent transformations of my transitional self. It was my two “super weekend” activities that brought this internal conflict to the fifty yard line of my consciousness.

First, I’m deep into a book on the American relationship to food, and farming, titled “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” It was thoroughly researched and beautifully written by Barbara Kingsolver, her husband Steven Hopp, and their college-age daughter Camille. Their third-grader Lily contributed to the text too, but she wasn’t old enough to sign a book contract, so her name doesn’t appear on the cover.

The trio explains in vivid flavor how far we’ve drifted from our whole food roots without realizing that we’ve sacrificed taste and nutrition in our quest to slap fast, cheap meals in front of our busy families. The book is an eye opener to be sure and although I’m not even halfway finished, I’m ready to forever forgo grocery stores and restaurants in favor of cultivating and raising all the items destined for my freezer and pantry. It’s a decidedly nineteenth century way of thinking about eating, and it’s growing in its appeal. Fast.

Then again, on Saturday I attended a marketing seminar that prompted me to carry everything I’d ever been taught about public relations, media relations, and publishing out back to the dumpster. I should forget about big publishing, forget about agents, forget about newspaper book reviews, forget about radio, forget about Barnes & Nobles, forget about Oprah. Yes, you heard me.

So how’s a writer to sell books? The internet, of course; but it’s about much more than simply having a web site with a shopping cart. It’s about buzz, baby. It’s about web sites with and a blog of purpose, it’s about commenting and video and podcasts and teleclasses and zeitgeist and keywords and spiders and ezines and social networking and squidoo and optimization and rss and being a filter and being a resource and giving away content and reciprocal linking. It’s about being savvy and wired and totally twenty-first century.

And it’s totally appealing, like the commercials that pitch the convenient foods that everyone today eats, the same food that has caused our children to become the first generation ever to have a shorter life expectancy that the generation that preceded it.

The dilemma of my Super Sunday isn’t will the Patriots beat the spread or which commercials will emerge as the most creative and memorable. The dilemma today is: do I step with both feet into an agricultural life that rejects modern food production in favor of activities that most people believe belong to a bygone era? Or, do I accept what the agricultural industrial complex has dictated as “acceptable food choices,” resign myself to a sedentary future (which probably includes diabetes, heart disease and pharmaceuticals) so I can master the all the internet tricks that will likely net me increased business?

Or, can I do both?

http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/