Skin Climbing in "The Ogress and the Orphans"

When I did "The London Eye" study abroad last summer, my colleague M-A (who ran the program) would encourage students to "climb into [another person's] skin" (using a phrase from To Kill a Mockingbird). M-A would use this as a way to teach students - especially white students - to place themselves in the position of a BIPOC person (someone who has been characterized and defined by their skin color) in order to build empathy and understanding for the racism that marginalized people experience on a daily basis. This "skin climbing" is a powerful visual and I think it had an impact on students, as it had an impact on me.

Today I was reminded of this skin-climbing comparison in an anecdotal story found within The Ogress and the Orphans, a children's novel by Kelly Barnhill. The full story is can be read on Google Books, but I wanted to remember a few points that stood out to me and quote them here. The story is about an ancient dragon who put on the skin of an antelope and learned what it was like to live like an antelope.

The part that I love the most is when the dragon has an awakened moment after wearing the antelope skin:

"He was, he realized, more now. He was a dragon who had learned what it was like to be an antelope. He had been an antelope who knew what it was to be a dragon. Each experience expanded the other. There was more him in himself now - his mind was enlarged, and his soul was enlarged as well.

Very carefully, he picked up the magic-imbued antelope skin and held it tenderly in his arms. It felt previous to him now, and the key to something important. "Others should experience this," he said to himself. Other dragons need to know."

The Dragon took the antelope skin around the world, to all of dragonkind. One by one, the dragons put on the antelope's skin. One by one, they learned the delight in an antelope's speed and agility, as well as the joy of being a part of a herd. . . Most dragons, as a result of this experience, became vegetarians. The antelope skin - the First Antelope - became a holy object to dragonkind. They wanted to understand all creatures in this way. All places. They wanted to understand the whole world.

Over time, skin-wearing became a sacred practice for dragons. By becoming other creatures, they could better understand how dragons were perceived by others, and through understanding they could endeavor to make themselves nobler, kinder, more generous. It was through skin-wearing that dragons could seek enlightenment and openheartedness. Wearing skins became prayerful, holy, a state to be admired, and often dragons who had done so would listen. Temples were built. Icons adorned treasure caves. And the dragons who had taken on numerous points of view were venerated as saints. This came at a physical cost, of course. It took magic to animate the skins, and magic to wear them. The dragons would emerge weakened and ill after their time in the skins - made worse they longer they did it. Still, dragonkind considered this discomfort a worthwhile fee for their benefit. The enlightened dragons spent their recovery time in a state of contemplation and gratitude." (Kelly Barnhill, The Ogress and the Orphans, p. 81-82).

I like this comparison in how living in someone else's skin can not only build empathy, but it can allow for personal growth, self-reflection, contemplation and gratitude. I want to point out to my kids these truths when they read this short story, in hopes that they will be skin-climbers in their own lives. 

Lucy's Tummy and Gluten-Free Recipes

Over the past few months we have switched to a more restrictive diet for Lucy. She started to complain about a hurty tummy back in January, and the past few months have included a series of doctor visits, as well as a failed attempt at a hospital lab to get her to participate in a fructose malabsorption test. This is an excerpt of an email that I wrote to my friend M-A about the invalid fructose malabsorption test, which we tried to do in early March:

"Today was an incredibly frustrating day for me. Lucy was supposed to have her fructose malabsorption test, and we spent the past 24 hours getting her ready with a special diet (I woke up early in the morning to cook chicken and rice!) and following all of the specific requirements. We woke up early this morning, brushed her teeth with only water, and drove down to Tacoma for the appointment. And when we got to the hospital, the tech asked Lucy to drink a large bottle of sugary fructose water in five minutes. I wish I would have known about this time limit in advance, because Lucy doesn't do well with those kind of constraints and she was caught off guard. She took a sip, and then froze up, refused to drink, and started to cry. I tried to coax her through drinking it for a few minutes, and she made about 2/3 of the way through the bottle before the time ran out. The tech said that the results would be considered invalid because of the delay and we would have to reschedule! I was nearly in tears when we left the lab.

So, we are not any closer to discovering the problem. I'm not sure that Lucy is mature enough to handle the requirements of this test. She might be better prepared for what would happen if we did it all over a second time, but I think I'll see if our doctor has other recommendations. I don't want to repeat what happened today!"

We haven't gone back for a test, but I think we have figured out some other things which are helping Lucy's diet. We have cut back on almost all dairy and are avoiding wheat, and those things seem to be helping. We have seen an allergist for testing but Lucy's test didn't show an allergic reaction to dairy or wheat, so perhaps it is some other GI issue. The allergist gave us a form so we can get celiac screening done at a lab, so we might do that. I suppose we should also see a GI doctor eventually, but it seems like most of her tummy problems are solved (as well as the chronic constipation that she has had for most of her life) if we cut out these things. I'm not sure if I want to go through the hassle of seeing another doctor only to be told that they aren't sure what is wrong and to just keep doing the things I am doing...

So now my new hobby is going to speciality grocery stores and trying to figure out gluten-free recipes that Lucy will eat. It is quite a change and I'm actually glad that I have only been teaching one class for each of these past two quarters because thinking about specialty food takes up a lot of time. I never wanted to have my life revolve around thinking about food and special diets, just as a reaction to how much of my childhood was spent driving to goat farms and wandering around health food stores. When all of these dietary restrictions started for Lucy, I told J that this was my worst nightmare. It's still kind of true, but it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm figuring it out.

I have a couple gluten-free options that have been working so far. Lucy will eat pasta that is made out of lentils that comes from Trader Joe's, as well as a couple of other gluten-free products (like bread, muffins, pancakes and granola bites) which come from that store. I've found some other gluten-free mixes for cakes, corn bread, muffins and brownies at QFC. My friend Rachael shared with me a recipe for mochi waffles that the kids like, and this might end up being the dairy-free and gluten-free replacement for Grandma J's waffle recipe that we have used for our whole marriage until this year. When I was visiting Rachael in Saint George last month, she also made some flourless chocolate cookies to take back to Seattle. Lucy liked those so we'll have to make them again. 

Tonight, however, was a disaster when I tried a new recipe. I saw a video to make these easy gluten-free chicken nuggets on Instagram (see a similar TikTok video) and they were absolutely terrible. I think they were hands down the worst things I have ever cooked, and that's saying something because I'm a pretty terrible cook. It ended up being a huge mess to make the mixture, in part because our food processor doesn't work well and I had to move everything to a blender. Then the consistency of the mixture was off; it was so goopy that I couldn't create nuggets that held their shape. (Was a supposed to bake the potato instead of boil it? The recipe just called for a "cooked potato," but maybe the potatoes absorbed too much water when I boiled them?) Then, after I added a little corn meal to firm up the mixture and tossed the semi-firm "nuggets" into the air fryer, they turned into these terrible, dense biscuits that didn't even taste like chicken at all.

Since J was out of town for work, I was under an extreme time crunch to finish dinner before taking Sam and Lucy to their evening lessons. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before I could make anything else. I couldn't bring myself to eat them but Sam didn't have a choice, because his cello lesson was about to start. Sam was a good sport about it, and he ate a few of them with ketchup before we hurried to his lesson. While he was at his lesson, I went shopping at Target and bought him something else to eat for the rest of his dinner. But when I picked him up, he said he was still quite full and that the weird biscuits were at least filling.

I said, "Well, don't worry, we won't be making those again. They were terrible." And Sam replied, "Yeah...they were...Chicken Mc-Yuck-Its." That made me have a hearty laugh. J appreciated the pun when we called him about an hour later.