A room without a view

March 16, 2006

Dear Julie,

Having your own room is a rite of passage for every kid. Mine didn't happen until I was a sophomore in high school, which might explain why in this 12th year of marriage I began yearning to have my own room again.

I don't mean a room for sleeping. DC, the dogs and I snore harmoniously together every night. No, this room would be filled with all my favorite things: golf clubs, guitars and books. It would be outfitted with a full-length mirror to reflect my golf swing, a carpet to putt upon, a yoga mat, a stationary bicycle, a TV, a stereo, a reading chair, a writing table and paintings that mean something to me.

It would be a room to recreate myself and to find peace when life gets chaotic.

From my point of view, DC already has eight rooms of her own plus the basement. Except for the umbrella stand filled with golf clubs, our house reflects her personality. I just want a little space to call my own.

So I asked our friends Charlie and Gail, who made over our house once before, to move our den somewhere else. The remaining room is tiny with only one window that looks out on the driveway. Though DC knew about my plan, she would hardly speak to me afterward except for mumbling something about liking movies in which wives bludgeon husbands in their sleep.

DC blames the accursed Golf Channel for this and other upheaval in the house. One night I was tuned in when Gary Player was on. He is 5 feet 7, weighs 150 pounds and is 71 years old. He is a golf legend because he kept himself fit way back when many other professional golfers lived like playboys or gamblers.

Player enthuses over almost everything he talks about, but when the interviewer asked him about fitness he almost jumped up and down urging viewers to read a book called "The China Study." So I did.

Cholesterol levels were high at my last checkup, making me part of a club that includes more than one-third of the U.S. population. My very good doctor said lose 20 pounds. He didn't say how.

"The China Study" was written by a professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University and his son, a writer pursuing a medical career. It claims to be the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted.

This is what "The China Study" found: Eating plants is healthful. Eating animals and their byproducts leads to the diseases of affluence -- heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancers of the breast, prostate and large bowel, autoimmune diseases and others -- that afflict so many Americans.

This goes against the conventional opinion in medical books and food pyramids. Rumi said: "Conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls."

I was convinced. But becoming a vegetarian is a big step. Becoming a vegan is like becoming a Martian.

After 2 1/2 weeks of eating only plant-based foods I am 10 pounds lighter and desperately searching for a vegan dish that tastes as good as chicken and dumplings.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.