You've got to eat a peck of dirt before you die

"there isn’t enough hand sanitiser in the world to keep a small child clean" Homa Khaleeli/The Guardian

I continue to be uninspired so started flicking through my digital photo albums, searching for one of those moment in time inspirations. And here it is. These are my two oldest grandchildren - one from each family - now seventeen and almost seventeen - and both very tall. My head comes halfway up the boy's chest. He looks to be around a year old in this photo? Toddlers both of them and siblingless. They adored each other then, they still do today - well all the cousins - now five in number - all adore being together and generally make sure they all meet at least once in the school holidays.

But it's really that peck of dirt thing which is the topic for today. Not that there's much to say as you know it all really. Your mother or your grandmother - both of them in my case - will have said it to you. Depending on the occasion it was said, it might not just have that literal meaning however. It also means:

"Everyone must endure a number of unpleasant things in his or her lifetime. (Often said to console someone who has eaten some dirt or had to endure something unpleasant." The Free Dictionary

So it was a sort of consolation as well. 'Shit happens', 'Life wasn't meant to be easy' and all that.

But back to the eating of dirt. A bit of dirt is good for you. You need a healthy biome in your gut and you may well get it at birth - all the yucky stuff in your mother's vagina as you make your way out - they make sure babies born by Caesarian get some of it too these days. If you don't get the microbes then, then you get them soon after because as The Guardian writer said, "there's not enough hand sanitiser in the world to keep a small child clean."

A peck of dirt is no small thing however. It's 2 gallons or just over 7 1/2 litres. Or this bag of apples from America is sold as a peck. That's a lot of apples. Translate to dirt! My granddaughter seems to be giving it a big hot go in my opening picture, but she's still a long way off a peck.

It's over a lifetime however isn't it. So you've got plenty of time to eat it.

Having passed through the era of super clean for babies and toddlers - sanitise everything kind of thing - the general opinion now seems to be that too clean may in fact be detrimental to your health because:

"Microbes are thought to help train our immune system because when it encounters a harmless microbe, the immune system learns to ignore or tolerate it. If children’s exposure to these microbes is limited, then their immune systems remain immature and won’t learn to tolerate harmless microbes – or react to disease-causing microorganisms." Homa Khaleeli/The Guardian

Which is why they think there are more things like allergies, asthma, obesity, autism ... these days.

The dark side of it all is that, of course, there are eating disorders, where people actually eat dirt and all sorts of other horrible stuff, preferring it to actual food. It doesn't bear thinking about really how sad some people are.

But really this was about a small moment of loveliness, of joy even, in a world that sometimes doesn't seem to have any. Nigel Slater has a new book out called A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy ... a Memoir of Sorts. He introduces it thus:

"Celebrating the little things is a lifelong habit of mine that now feels more important than ever. I recently unearthed a stash of notebooks in which I had scribbled down many of the all too fleeting moments, some tiny detail or story, that I felt necessary to record before it vanished, often preserved in no more than a single line."

Or a single photograph maybe. I shall buy the book of course, but I might also have a look at some old travel diaries I wrote for past holidays. Not that I would expect there to be anything worth noting down. Not even a single line. I've never kept actual diaries. But you never know. And there are always the photographs.

POSTSCRIPT

This is wisteria. Today as I was walking past Montsalvat - well actually well before I got there - I was struck by how many cars were parked here and there, higgledy-piggledy all over my footpath. Montsalvat is a local tourist attraction - an old artist's colony built in oldy-worldy style and now a pleasant place to visit on a sunny day. There are lots of events held there, and the inevitable café/restaurant too. I thought it might have been a big funeral or wedding - they take place there too. As I got closer I noticed that most of the people were Asian, and so I asked one couple what was happening. It's the wisteria the lady said - it's only today and tomorrow - which is surely not true. You can go to Montsalvat anytime, and if there is wisteria growing in the gardens then surely it will still be there after tomorrow. Maybe there are some other events to go with it. No I just looked it up - I think they just serve food and stuff around the pool where the wisteria is. Not open on Sunday because someone has booked it out - unfortunately for them it's going to rain on Sunday.

So when I got home I looked it up. It seems that wisteria is important for both the Japanese and the Chinese as it represents good luck, kindness, longevity and romance too. And yes, there were a lot of young couples going there. I even noticed one couple in the garden of a house opposite Montsalvat which is always lovely at this time of the year, because of the wisteria that drapes the front porch. Asians are not shy it seems to me when it comes to photo opportunities.

The Japanese word for wisteria is 'fuji' which of course is the name of their sacred mountain - Fujiyama - and also, apparently lots of personal names as well. If you have a name with Fuji in it then you are blessed. You learn something every day. Nothing to do with food I know, but a small moment of beauty - the young couple in the garden. I should have taken a photo but was too busy weaving around the cars to think about it.

Moments of joy in the past perhaps with those past blogs on September 27th.

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Good things = kippers

2021 - Nothing

2020 - Breaking rules - good or bad?

2019 - Nothing

2018 - Nothing

2017 - A Word from Bert Greene

2016 - Food courts

Well let's hope on those non blog days - lots of them - there was a lot of joy going on.