How much do you love pistachios?

Hello humans! In California, my research is focused on this small but powerful green nut. Not just because they’re the only nut I can eat, but because I believe pistachios, when cultivated and distributed responsibly, have the potential to address real-world challenges.

Here’s how pistachios can make a difference:

Fighting Hunger: Pistachios are nutrient-dense, packed with protein, healthy fats, and essential vitamins. This makes them an ideal food source in regions struggling with malnutrition, especially when access to other nutrient-rich foods is limited.

Eco-Friendly Farming: Pistachio trees are more water-efficient than other crops like almonds, and they thrive in arid climates. They also play a role in preventing soil erosion and can sequester carbon. But, water use still needs to be carefully managed to avoid exacerbating environmental strain, especially in drought-prone areas.

Boosting Economies: Pistachio farming provides stable income for rural communities, creating jobs not just in agriculture but also in processing and value-added products like pistachio butter or oil. However, it’s important to ensure fair compensation for farmers and avoid exploitative practices that dominate some parts of the industry.

Sharing Resources: Instead of contributing to water conflicts, growers can work together to adopt smarter irrigation technologies and sustainable farming practices. Collaboration, along with policy support, is key to making this a reality.

Connecting Cultures: Pistachios have been integral to various cuisines and traditions for centuries. By sharing their cultural significance, we can bridge divides and promote a deeper appreciation for diverse food systems.

Pistachios are more than just a snack. If we take a mindful approach to their cultivation, distribution, and consumption, they could play a meaningful role in solving some of the world’s pressing issues.

Who’s in for rethinking how this tiny green nut can drive big change?

What’s A Great Life?

I believe a great life is of quality and peace of mind, that facilitates curiosity, empathy, generosity, and the ability to borrow positive energy from your own childhood. To support ownership of my own narrative and the expansion of my equity in how I invest in myself, a great life is to have power over my life and to inhabit my own skin with freedom and joy.

For this blog entry, I will spotlight my grandfather aka Pop-Pop aka Lionel Jackson. He was on this earth for only 73 years, but his legacy remains nearly 33 years later. Pop-Pop grew up in Jackson, Tennessee. He had a Bachelor’s degree in education. In his younger days, getting a Bachelor's degree for him was like achieving a PhD. It was a major accomplishment for any Black man to receive. Pop-Pop had lived in Philadelphia for most of his adult life. In a city plagued by problems, my grandfather remained generous, curious, and empathetic. All people experience emotions, but I often tend to notice who can accurately identify their emotions as they occur. Some empathic people tend to not identify their emotions and can often go misunderstood, which leads to irrational and illogical choices or counterproductive actions.

During our ritualistic outings to get ice cream at Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors, he called it "cream", it was common for these excursions to coincide with his robust emotional vocabulary and philosophical point of views. Looking back through the wide eyed lens of a child, I remember when my normally jolly Pop-Pop mentioned if he felt irritated, frustrated, or worried. The more specific his word choice, the better insight I had into exactly how he was feeling, what caused it, and what he should do about it. For me, I was an active listener. Pop-Pop had a natural curiosity about everyone around them. His curiosity was the product of empathy. He cared about other people, and what they were going through. He was difficult to offend by having a firm grasp of who he was. His self-confidence, sense of humor and social awareness shaped who I became giving me the ability to read other people, to know what they are about, and understand their motivations. His quest to be the best version of himself rubbed off on me. In my memory I can picture when Pop-Pop was a local pastor for the Methodist churches in the community. I found it fascinating that I had a Catholic upbringing during my early years attending nursery school, taught by French nuns based on my parent’s influence, and my maternal grandfather worked in a Protestant ministry.

Since my grandfather was never one to push, he had the ability to frame a narrative to show his children and grandchildren what the access to education can do. I double majored at Temple University, studying International Business and Marketing. Some of the hardest and biggest lessons I learned was to adapt to change. It meant becoming flexible when learning about differing viewpoints demonstrated in books, students, and professors. It meant trying to abate the fear of change and systemic threats to my ability to succeed and graduate with a college degree. I felt that if I expected change, I could plan around it and for it. Some may call the embracing of change as "critical thinking." Others may just call it "surviving." Pop-Pop allowed for each child to follow their own process, but he was always there to ask "how can I help, what can I do?" He had prepared me to get out of my bubble, to see the world, and to form my own generosity of spirit, resources, and insight. After graduating and working in the real world, while I understood my own emotions, it was another thing to lean into them and to use them to my full advantage, while keeping my weaknesses from holding me back. Being aware of those who pushed and installed my buttons was a constancy. I would seek out supportive environments and surround myself with people that fostered my success.

Today, I still look to learn, to improve my self-confidence, and to stretch my mind, even if that moment is painful or uncomfortable. This is my commitment to personal growth and balance. If I am half the person that my Pop-Pop was, then I can radiate a quiet confidence, remain calm and centered in the face of the challenges to come and still find room for joy in 2020 in spite of all of the challenges of this year.

Mind Matters: A Mentor Spotlight

Who was your mentor?

I was about to enter 2nd grade when I visited the first Bagel Nosh in NYC during one of my regular trips to New York Cit-ay! Eating my first bagel was not the culinary experience that I had heard about from adults. Chewing a bagel gave me my first headache. Imagine sitting on the playground swings, nursing a headache at 7 years old. For many years after, any bagel was affectionately called “headache bread.” It is one of the many unique adventures I can recall from visiting the city that never sleeps. By the way, I took a nap to get rid of that headache.

Aunt Rita and Uncle Mel lived in Manhattan at 520 West 114th Street in a 2 bedroom apartment for $149 per month. My aunt attended Columbia University for free. I am forever amazed she received two masters in Education. My uncle worked in finance. All three of us were originally from Philadelphia. My aunt and uncle took turns teaching me how to roller-skate on the red-bricked pavement at the Columbia University campus over a summer in the late 1900s. Hanging out on Columbia's campus across the street at that impressionable age, I was surrounded by books, critical thinking, and intelligent educators. I was famous for asking, “where are we going next?” The weirder, the more wonderful. Aunt Rita and Uncle Mel were willing participants and had a curiosity to learn about something new that day. I adopted this outlook. During some summer evenings, their friends would emerge from the cranberry colored elevator door that lead to the apartment’s black front door with a gold number on the exterior for a potluck meal. For me, the long checkered linoleum hallway doubled as an indoor skate path so I could answer the door quicker. Anything from a vegan dish to a delicious bowl of lumpy cream of wheat might have been on the menu. The lumps were my favorite.

To this child, a descent into the NYC subway system was the equivalent of a trip down a rabbit hole and resurfacing at a possible mad hatter tea party in the form of a wooden play-ground in Central Park, art museum, public art installation, food place, chess match or the July 4th fireworks by the Hudson River. Any of their friends that joined could have been from a different country or culture which added to the enjoyment. NYC was my adventure place, a perpetual field trip where I would absorb as much culture as possible. I didn’t care where we went. If a subway ride was included so much the better.

When my aunt and uncle moved back to Philly to be closer to family, I admit NYC did not have the same feeling to me knowing that those particular adventures were over. There were other shenanigans and escapes, most of them thrilling and thought-provoking. I thank my Aunt Rita and Uncle Mel for facilitating my cultural exchange program that began as early as elementary school and became my recipe for life into adulthood, for my ability to explore and for giving me the ability to look forward. Grateful for you and for my memory palace.

Some people go through life without a mentor to set them up for success. I have been led by those mentors who were generous with me. I have experienced that it is better to volunteer and do social good for artists and to support the arts. Sign up to become a mentor or a mentee!

Be positive, active, curious and often out of your depth.

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