IF YOU COULD EAT SOMETHING THAT WOULD MAKE YOUSMART OR HAPPY, WHICH
WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
NIKKI GIOVANNI
I prefer smart food. There is a huge lie in "ignorance is bliss."
Ignorance is hitting your wife or kicking your dog. Ignorance is pushing
and shoving when you could be persuading and entertaining. Charm is
always better, and I'm not at all trying to say that only the intelligent
are charming, but it's difficult to be charming when you are unaware of
the import of language. I choose words every time. I choose to be smart
because then if I am unhappy I can at least write a poem or a song or
bake a cake or paint a picture or do something besides pout and holler
and drink myself into a badder mood.
FRANK FARLEY, PH.D.
The dumb thing to choose would be smart food. We need a happier,
more than a smarter, world. A smart but unhappy person can be
dangerous.
Another problem is defining smarts, so a food for smarts is
questionable. The human race has a stronger grip on defining happy. I'll
choose the happy food because my definition of happiness requires a world
where all people are happy and free; where generosity is the principal
human trait; and where horror is a distant memory.
STEPHEN RECHTSCHAFFEN, M.D.
A true sense of happiness could never simply come from what we eat.
Frequently people feel euphoric from what they eat and that produces a
transient happiness. Happiness can be aided by a sense of wellness and
inner balance achieved through good nutrition and regular exercise.
Consistent happiness can only be attained through an tuner adjustment of
the psyche: an acceptance of things as they are, an awe and wonder of
creation, and an evolving love of life.
DIANE SOLLEE, M.S.W.
Dulling the intellect is dangerous. I'd endorse a diet that
increased reasoning ability and logic, the understanding of long-range
consequences to our behaviors, and interconnectedness. I educate couples
in developing satisfying marriages after the effervescent glow of the
wedding cake and champagne is gone. Good relationships like our brains
thrive on a balanced diet that includes good health and nutrition and
that demands stimulation through physical and mental exercise, people,
work, love, and play.
REV. CECIL WILLIAMS
Since the brain is the most complicated organ network in the human
body, "brain food" has to do with the total environment: community,
attitude, and behavior. The greatest "brain food" we could offer would be
the spirit. With environment comes love, compassion, hope, faith, fear,
and pain, coupled with the elements of the universe. All of this together
would make for one of the most creative, peaceful communities.
BABALAWO PHILIP JOHN NEIMARK
Western society has created an arbitrary separation of the linear
and emotional. We are raised to be either spiritual or logical. Most
decisions are a combination. If you buy a car based only on logic, you'll
get a good buy, but you may not feel joyous about driving it. If you buy
the car only on emotion, the excitement soon fades under higher payments.
You can achieve balance if you don't think of them as a separate
experience or ask questions like this.
Frank Farley, Ph.D. is a psychologist at Temple University, and
past president of the American Psychological Association.
Nikki Giovanni is professor of English at Virginia Tech and is the
author of Genie in the Jar.
Babalawo Philip John Neimark, High Priest of Ifa. is author of The
Sacred Ifa Oracle.
Stephen Rechtschaffen, M.D., is president of the Omega Institute
and author of Time Shifting.
Diane Sollee, M.S.W., is director of the Center for Family and
Couples Education, in Washington, D.C.
Rev. Cecil Williams, is pastor at Guide Memorial Church in San
Francisco.
PHOTO (COLOR)
Tags:
awe,
definition of happiness,
diane sollee,
distant memory,
dumb thing,
emotion,
food,
frank farley,
generosity,
giovanni,
good nutrition,
human trait,
ignorance is bliss,
inner balance,
intellect,
poem,
pout,
psyche,
reasoning ability,
true sense,
unhappy person
