CurrentMom

Is "I'm Sorry" Enough? On Tiger Woods' Apology

Therapy Tuesday

Overshadowing the teamwork and joy of the Olympics is the long-awaited press conference recently called by professional golfer, Tiger Woods. Questions have been surfacing over the blogosphere and the news circuit: would his apology be enough? What details would he reveal? Is he truly sorry? What about his golf career?

While we have the tendency to look at celebrities and the fish bowls that they live in with great curiosity, at times, we forget their humanity. Standards are applied differently.  With this in mind, we can turn to Tiger Woods. But before we do, maybe it's important to look at how we process our own misdeeds.

Making mistakes reminds each of us of our own fatal flaws. Errors point out to ourselves, and perhaps others that we are far from perfect. While many of us can accept this as fact, the application, in and of itself, is a whole different matter.  Psychologically speaking, this falls into a concept called "cognitive dissonance."  As human beings, we fight to maintain cognitive harmony: that is, our thoughts and actions remain congruent. Cognitive dissonance comes into play when either our thoughts or our actions differ.  An example would be the idea that a person might hold that they are faithful in their relationships. Dissonance can occur in several ways with this example. Perhaps this person has unfaithful thoughts.  Or perhaps the person acted unfaithfully under the influence of alcohol. Or perhaps the unfaithful act occurred intentionally.  Any of these scenarios (or countless others) creates the internal feeling of imbalance and discomfort: the idea of being a faithful person has become unhinged. 

To resolve the emotional conflict, a person would have to do one of several things: change their internal construct (i.e: I'm a faithful person), change their behavior, or learn to tolerate the discomfort of the struggle between the two. Much easier said than done!

Potato, Cannelini Bean and Kale Soup in Only 15 Minutes

Meal Monday

This will my final blog for a while. New obligations have come up in my life that won't allow me to keep blogging and get my requisite amount of sleep each night. Thanks to all the friends and strangers who have taken interest in my posts. It really does give me a warm fuzzy feeling.
 
I'll be back when the spirit takes me, though. Maybe when I come up with a recipe that's just too good not to share, or I have a corporate food rant that needs venting.

In any case, today I want to share a super simple winter soup recipe that I whipped up last week. I've been a little slack about menu planning lately, so I've had to come up with some quick meals on the fly. This one turned out to be a big success.
 
Italian in origins, this soup combines potatoes, cannelini (white kidney) beans and kale in one pot. Some dried herbs and canned tomatoes add flavor. It's a nutritional powerhouse (my first Currentmom blog ever was on the wonders of kale) and literally takes only fifteen minutes to make.
 
You know how they say you are either a rice, pasta or potato person? Well, I have definitely always been a rice person, with pasta and then potatoes a distant second and third. But potatoes, I've learned, are really delicious and easy to prepare, especially in soup, and pack a healthy does of vitamin C, potassium and fiber. And they give this soup a good heartiness, while their starches thicken it up a bit.
 
So, give this one a try. Serve it was some yummy bread to soak up broth and don't be afraid to make it your own. You can use regular kidney beans instead of cannelini, although the effect isn't quite the same. And any kind of dark, leafy greens would do. 
 
Potato, Kale and Cannelini Soup (Serves 4)
 
What you need:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
Dried or fresh rosemary and thyme, to taste
3 medium potatoes (not baking), chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 15 oz can cannelini beans, not drained
1 15 oz can chopped tomatoes, not drained
1 bunch kale, stripped from stems and chopped
1-3 c vegetable broth or water
Salt and pepper to taste
Splash of Tabasco (optional)
 
What to do:
 
Saute the onions in olive oil over medium heat until translucent. Add garlic and dried herbs and cook, stirring, for one minute. Add potatoes and cook, stirring, for another minute.
 
Dump in beans, tomatoes and chopped kale. Add vegetable broth and water to reach desired thickness. Sprinkle in salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste.
 
Simmer until potatoes are tender, about ten minutes. Serve with bread.
 
Buon appetito!
 

 

Wanted: Reliable Blogger Who Works Well Independently

Startup Sunday

Any aspiring small business owner probably has an inkling that managing people will be one of the toughest parts of the job. Running a startup Web company is no exception. People who are geniuses at words, information and technology often become stymied when it comes to managing vendors, recruiting interns and overseeing staff.

Fortunately, I am blessed to have found a remarkable group of bloggers here at CurrentMom. They're reliable, creative, responsible and endlessly inventive when it comes to expressing themselves through the written word. The truth is that this site functions pretty well without me, most of the time. But right now we're facing one of those inevitable hiccups that requires my hands-on intervention.

One of our food bloggers is leaving.

Sigh.

I completely understand that things change. Emily has been with us almost from the beginning of CurrentMom, writing about the meals she fixes her toddler and photographing her creations to mouthwatering effect. It's not a surprise that her life circumstances might change and she'd need to step down. I wish her well and look forward to staying in touch.

But I'm so, so sad that tomorrow is her last regular Meal Monday post for CurrentMom. (I'm hoping that she will stop by in the future as a guest blogger.)

Because now I have to recruit someone new to take over her twice-monthly spot. I have to screen cover letters, resumes and sample blog posts in hopes of finding the right fit of talents for our little crew here at Currentmom. And once I find someone that I think is right, I have to take the leap and offer him or her the job. And then hold my breath every other Monday until I'm convinced that I made the right decision.

Lindsey Vonn, Title IX and Ugly Gym Suits

Sharing Saturday

I am bawling as I am watching now-Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn win the women's downhill race. Until two weeks ago, when she graced the cover of my favorite brain candy, People Magazine, I had never heard of Lindsey. Now I'm cheering her on, secretly hoping that her German and Swiss rivals crash (the Swiss one did and now I feel guilty) and am eagerly waiting for NBC to show the medal ceremony so I can really wallow.

 Honestly, I don't really care about the Olympics. I never watched them as a child.  My parents were not at all interested in sports, and they sneered at anything that was so prosaic that millions of Americans would watch it on tv -- even the incredulous, other-worldly athletic ability on display at the Olympics.  So I had never given them much thought.

But I married a sports nut. And I am raising three children who are all interested in sports, both as players and as spectators. It's a foreign world for me, and it takes all strength not to allow my ingrained disdain for sports, especially televised sports, ruin my family's pleasure.

The thing that these Olympics are sending home for me, however, is my utter gratitude for Title IX. I was nine-years-old in 1972, the year that the Title IX was enacted, which stated that "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance..." Up until that point, girls and sports were, for the most part, an afterthought, if not incompatable. And woefully underfunded. You had to be a real athlete to overcome the bias against women and girls in sports.

My memories of gym class in elementary school consist of standing in straight lines stepping sideways to the Alley Cat, and playing dodge ball, may it rest in peace. Junior high school was spent dreading gym days, when we were forced to don burgundy and white gym suits, complete with elastic waistbands separating the striped tops and the plain burgundy shorts, along with the lovely matching tube socks. I would pray for "that time of the month" (as the gym teachers called it) so that I could sit on the sidelines of rope climbing, basketball and the absolute nadir of my gym experience, softball, where Erin Maloney's ratted hair and cracking gum would mock me every time I was up at bat or tried to run. A forward-thinking high school thankfully offered me the opportunity to take only dance classes for my gym credits.

TechnoDad, Part 2

Fatherhood Friday

 

Two weeks ago I wrote about trying to lead by example when it comes to not having technology invade every facet of life. My plan was to not use my iPhone in front of the kids for any non-essential reason. Expecting an important work-related email was essential. Checking for NBA trade-deadline deals was not.

I'm delighted to report that, while I didn't succeed 100%, it was actually easier than I expected it to be. The first day or two was tough. Not, I think, because I was getting the sweats trying to break my addiction. It was tough because the thing was in my pocket, beckoning and teasing me.

As soon as I put it in another room, or even better, upstairs, the temptation just wasn't there any more. At first I was worried that maybe I'd miss a call. But then I realized that I've missed many calls in my life and somehow the caller and I survived. It wasn't too long ago that I didn't even have a cell phone at all, and therefore didn't have the accompanying expectation that it would be on me and be answered right away. (Heck, do you remember growing up we didn't even have answering machines? If we were calling somebody that didn't answer, we'd let it ring and ring and ring. I think it usually took about 10-12 rings before we'd conclude the person wasn't there.)

The act of putting the phone far from me is similar to the reason that I like to go food shopping. It limits my temptation. The way I look at food shopping is this: let's say I'm really addicted to Doritos. (I am.) If there are Doritos in the house, every time I'm hungry, or every time I see them, I have to make a decision whether or not to eat them. But if I'm doing the food shopping I only have to make the decision once. If I decide not to buy them, I won't be tempted later on at home. Same with the iPhone. Once I made one decision to put it away, I wasn't tempted to check Facebook, play Scramble, see the score of the game, etc.

But, before I get too self-congratulatory, convinced that by my example my kids will not need technology to fill the perceived boredom . . . over the last two weeks the one constant refrain from my six-year-old (when he's not asking to watch the Olympics)  has been "can we get a Wii?"

(Image Credit: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://whenwillapple.com/saywhy/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/adrogeriphone21.jpg&imgrefurl=http://whenwillapple.com/blog/2008/10/06/roger-from-american-dad-has-an-iphone/&usg=__IgACnliTTs6ysEE081pL9fAM5Ok=&h=431&w=600&sz=111&hl=en&start=83&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=oB8R9Hekws4FgM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddad%2BiPhone%26start%3D72%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1