The GAIA Health Blog

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Gordon Parks was born a hundred years ago on November 30, 1912, and died in 2006 at the age of 93.



Best known for his work with Life Magazine, he is known to many of us as the first "Renaissance Black Man", i.e. that modern breed of men of color well rooted with pride in his so called "Blackness", but free to live inside of it and outside of it, living out all his artistic passions.



Beyond my parents, he is one of the few people I can say I truly admired. I didn't want to live his life, but he provoked me to ask myself, "What do I want my life and experiences to be? How will I define and express the world that I see?"

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Gordon basically did it all, photographer, writer,  classical music composer, political activist, traveler, simply incredible!!! I didn't even know until the 80's that he directed the movie "Shaft"!!! He was on of my true inspirations in my teens, a time when I could "feel" my heroes telling me telepathically to go out and peruse your goals and dreams, and marvel at your own journey and experiences.

Even if no one else ever knows my journey and experiences, my journey, especially in the past 4 years since I left Chicago, has been truly fascinating to me. The further I went away from home, the closer I came to the "home" within my own soul, and the uniqueness of my journey, and all that I have seen as I have crisscrossed these great United States, will never be experienced by another human being for all of eternity. So, I embrace my journey!!!!.

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I remember watching the entire Gordon Parks biography on PBS, when he told the story of how he got his first photography assignment, took dozens of photos, and basically screwed them all up though double exposure . Fortunately there was one photo that was left in tact, a woman in a gown. That one photo that survived was truly amazing, so much that the people that hired him knew that he would be someone special.

They showed that first photo on the PBS documentary, and I remember saying, AMAZING!!! I have been desperately trying to find that photo for this piece to no avail, I will keep looking. He tells the story in the video below on his first assignment, really funny and inspiring stuff.

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On Gordon's old MySpace page, he mentions his favorite meal as being "A Good Steak and a Good Salad". Well, I eat two or three steaks a year, and having eaten none in 2012, I have to eat one in honor of my hero, the man who help me find my own bloggers photographic eye.

So, since my Whole Foods has quality, grass fed New York Strip steak, that's what I'll have, Gordon's favorite, "A good steak and a good salad........"

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Gordon's Favorite (from his old MySpace page),

"....a good steak and a good salad"

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Peppercorn Encrusted New York Strip Steak

Grass Fed New York Strip Steak (I am no longer comfortable with conventional beef)

Pink Himalayan Salt, or Celtic Sea Salt

Chili Powder

Organic cracked Peppercorns

Grass Fed Butter

Coconut Oil, or Sesame Oil

Quality Brandy

Beef Stock

Chopped Garlic

Grass Fed Heavy Cream

Fresh Organic Chives

See Video at the right for instructions

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My opinions of eating Beef: I only eat two three steaks or burgers a year, so I don't get to obsessed up into the whole "avoiding red meat" thing, especially since it's only 3 out of 1400 meals a year. But, I still love the taste of beef, I just make sure my beef is grass fed. Some of the benefits of grass fed beef over conventional beef can be found here. I don't think that quality beef has to be a detriment to health. Read my article on how some meat eating cultures were supposedly cancer free. Also I take advantage of papaya enzymes to digest meat, a technique used in Polynesia for thousand of years, that article can be found here.

Salad preferences differ as much as people. My favorite is Spinach Salad, however I am always varying the vegetables, I love to do the red, yellow, and orange sweet bell peppers. Even a novice can design a colorful and good looking salad. The only serious advice I can give is the AVOID CANOLA OIL, AND other conventional oils such as Wesson. Canola is promoted as healthy but it is no less that POISON. You an make a simple salad dressing in 20 seconds by mixing half olive oil and half apple cider vinegar in a bottle and then shake. Incredibly tasty!!!!!

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You know, I don't blog for money, I got other stuff I am working on to make money. With blogging for health and wellness, I already have my reward. Not trying to over think what the "heavenly father" (and mother) have spoke to me indirectly, but I think it would go something like "OK Douggie, I'm gonna give you the gift of great health, just go out and express it to other people in your own way, you have complete freedom to your methods". That's enough of a blessing for me so far, even if I never become so much as footnote in history.

But hey, as humble as I try to be, I still have a little bit of ego, and if, a hundred years from now, if someone were blogging and writing an article called "A Hundred Years of Doug Wallace", methinks the highest honor would be for that writer to call me the "Gordon Parks of Blogging", ".....Doug having his own unique eye of photography and expression, and expressing it in a way that is totally true to him. Doug simply showed us the world through his eye, merging health, wellness, zest for life, travel, food, and everything in between to an internet experience that provokes all the senses and imagination with no compromises, no excuses, and no regrets..........".

And to that blogger a hundred years from now, you have permission to cut and paste the above statement exactly as written. Come to think of it, I'd perfer you quote it exactly as written........uh I guess my ego is bigger than I thought, I'm an artist now, and I want my legacy worded just right for all of eternity

~stay healthy~

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"Sail Forth. Steer for the deep waters only. Reckless O soul, exploring. I with thee and thou with me. For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared go. And we will risk the ship, ourselves, and all." --Walt Whitman

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