IDEAS

Peter

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

We all have needs. Right?

Sometimes we ignore our needs — to our own harm. We pretend that they don’t exist — or we try to.

Other times we listen to our “self” — body, mind or spirit — and we prosper and grow.

Those needs change over time. My needs in my 70’s are considerably different from those in my 20’s.

Abraham Maslow concocted his Hierarchy of Needs in 1943 and it does a pretty decent job of illustrating the different levels on which we humans need to function if we are to be more than just living masses of cells. We can’t survive without water, food, warmth and rest: the chemical machine called a human will die without ample provision of all four of those components. And science has figured out that it cannot just take those things and create life from them. There’s something else missing.

Maslow’s pyramid breaks down into Psychological and Self-Fullfillment needs. I suppose you could have named the divisions differently or even conceived the entire pyramid differently but I think it does a good job of giving us a framework to consider what we are doing with our life.

If we want to get political, I think it’s fair to say that the only level on which a Capitalist society functions is on the Psyiological level. In a Capitalist world you get food, water, warmth and rest by buying it — with money, or time. But it’s all about transference.

From there on the rest of our needs we have to find other ways of fulfilling. For example, safety and security aren’t just something purchased with money. Safety and security are states of mind. You can have no locks on your doors and feel perfectly safe and secure if you trust your neighbors. You can have all the locks in the world and feel at risk if bombs are falling all around. Safety is NOT about money.

Belongingness and love needs too have nothing to do with living in a Capitalist society. Or any society for that matter. Connections with other humans — at any level of intimacy — arise from interaction, and intersect with our needs for safety and security. You can’t feel truly intimate with someone if you fear them. You get the point.

Esteem too builds upon the lower parts of the pyramid. Aside from finding special people in life we all want some sense of esteem from others less involved in our life but still IN our life. Popularly we may find this in a workplace, or in clubs or associations that are less personal, less intimate but which contribute to keeping us gathered together as a society and not just individual occupying nearby territory.

Self-actualization really has nothing to do with anything else. It’s not a function of how we get along in society. Self actualization springs from self-awareness. As we fulfill the three other parts of the pyramid we become increasingly aware of our own abilities, and from that point we can BEGIN to use our senses and strength to improve and create from nothing something worth being.

I doubt anyone can really reach the 4th part of the pyramid without finding peace and contentment in the other three. To do so is like a dog hobbling around on three legs. They can still function, and amazingly so, but always at a level lower than what could be done with all four sound legs. One part of the dog’s body is having to make up for what is missing. And similarly with humans, if we aren’t building upon three other fulfilled needs we will always be compensating in some way or another.

I feel for Millennials and even Gen-X’ers who feel a sense of fatalism because of where the world went during the period before their birth and after their parents. They can see that things are different, that the options are not as appealing, and I can’t imagine the fear and the lack of security that engenders.

But humans are adaptable. We surprise ourselves regularly. I hope that the generation my great grandchildren are in will find better answers than the ones we face today. In a world that is struggling to achieve stasis — balance — they are the ones who will have to deal with the mess we are leaving them.

I thought it worth a few minutes of time to think about what we need to function — to achieve self-actualization – in the hopes that more people can do that in a world that wants to keep us on the level of physiological needs only.

Take care of yourself and I’ll be back tomorrow to chat again. :-)

Peter

An intellectual subway

Do you like subways? I’ve only ever lived in a city with a subway for 2 years (Chicago in the beginning of the 1970’s). I used it for my daily commute to work for most of that time. That being a half a century ago I don’t have a lot of memories about my daily commute.

But, I was interested enough that whenever we travelled to places that DID have subways I was eager to try them out, even if one once or twice. London, Paris, New York, I’m not sure if there were more but it’s a very different social environment being in a capsule hurtling through the earth in a tube while watching, listening, and smelling one’s fellow travelers.

“If there’s an intellectual highway, there’s also an intellectual subway.”

Stanley Crouch (1945-2020)

I wonder what Stanley Crouch meant in the contrast between a “Highway” and a “Subway”? Personally, I think he was referring generally to the idea that there are different ways of reaching the same end point. You could be restrictive and say that he meant some ways are more cost effective, or some ways allow more destinations, and all sorts of other limitations; but I think the greatest meaning is to be found in the simplest explanation: “different ways.”

All my life I have been fascinated by how other people function through life. So many people choose things I would never dream of, and take routes that to me seem ridiculous, but they are not only perfectly happy doing so, sometimes they seem to benefit more and have a better time getting where they are going. Not that my route isn’t enjoyable — I also realize I find enjoyment in things others don’t.

It’s funny, the first time I read that I reacted negatively. My brain loves light and nature and breezed and such. The idea of taking what initially came to mind was a dark, gloomy, very alternative restrictive path seemed crazy. But then I thought about all the subways I’ve been on and none of the stations were ever dark and gloomy — it was just the inter-station space that might have seemed uninviting. But then that’s life, isn’t it? The four or more years we spend in college, or however long in an apprenticeship, seem dark and uninviting as a run-in to a career doing something that has fascinated us since our childhood. That time flies by — like the train in its tunnel — until you get to your station of choice where you can engage in what you really love. I quickly changed my understanding of what Stanley Crouch meant.

Diversity is great. We need it. We ought to celebrate it. Lately it seems as if the U.S. government doesn’t think much about diversity, that the government prefers discriminating against all manner of people and pretending that they are doing a noble thing but I differ. If there was only one way, it would be a boring, boring world. And much less developed than it is.

For a change I’m going to stop right there. Great ideas don’t need a lot of explanation.

Take care of yourself and I’ll be back again soon to chat. :-)

Peter

A Continuum

We all process the “events” in our life differently — it’s how we see the world through our own literal eyes, and process that with our brain. No two sets of eyes & brain are exactly the same.

Personally, I think I have been moving my interpretation of what’s happening in my life away from seeing “events” and more towards accepting that there is a continuum along which we flow. It’s determined and moulded and impacted by our choices, our genetics, and yes also by current events outside our influence. Still what a politician may do on the other side of the world will impact me in a slightly different way than my neighbor who is 30 years my junior, still has underage kids in the house and is a single parent. Bumps along the road are enough to jog us out of the pathway we had been traveling, but in the end it’s our own momentum, our own resistance to change, and our willingness to engage with the world around us that affects where we end up.

A continuum is defined as a continuous “sequence” and for example a days starts with waking, laying in bed for some indeterminate period of time, sitting on the edge of the bed, standing, going to the bathroom, etc., etc..

Over the years I ignored the part about sitting on the edge of the bed. Today, I find that my brain and circulatory system require a couple moments to adjust to uprightness. Also, from the moment I’m consciously awake there needs to be some sense of purpose in order to get me from a conscious state to throwing off the covers and starting the grand march through the next period of awakening.

It would be easy to see the events of life as just that — individual events. But for example our recent trip to the Emergency Room that I blogged about a day or so ago wasn’t just a singular event. Things began happening in a body some time in advance. There may have been signals that something was different — signals that were noticed or ignored — but finally the noticing or ignoring had an impact and something else happened to set off alarm bells in our conscious brain.

Some folks seem to be beset by problems their entire life. Others are born with medical conditions or genetic conditions that they have no impact upon. From the moment of conception things have been happening to us that alter where we end up in life and a great many of them are not anything to do with our conscious choices. Some are, and those that are dependent upon choice depend also on whether we make good choices, whether we care about our choices, how much we value pleasure, the state of our bank account, etc., etc..

I saw a short video that I wish was able to be shared, but it came from NASA and it illustrated the navigational requirements of the Artemis II flightpath. A mistake at any one of a thousand points in space and the capsule would have ended up missing the moon, or missing the earth on it’s return trip and sent the crew into endless space to perish like a dying star. The course was plotted successfully and they returned safe and sound but the entire event was more than just a moment here, and a moment there — it was all part of a process, a continuum.

While the two of us were still employed we could THINK that we had some control over our life. Realistically, we were trapped within financial, geographical, and historical limits.

  • We couldn’t afford to move to the South of France,
  • Our parents chose to settle in Wisconsin a choice that saved us from all manner of natural disasters faced by residents of other parts of the country or world.
  • We were born at the midpoint of the 20th Century. No matter how much I wish I’d been born in the Renaissance, or Medieval times, such was not my lot in life and I could pout all I wanted but I was doomed to be an inhabitant of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

You get my point. I find it interesting that many of the writers I find most compelling were alive a great many decades and centuries before my own time. My brain belongs to a different time — no matter how I try to conform to 21st Century thought I constantly crash against the wall of time. We have been part of three tornado warnings in the past year — before that I can’t remember a single time in my life when I had to take shelter because of a tornado or even a rain storm. Once I had to deal with snow that drifted to 4 feet, and I like to about froze my butt off trying to get the snow blower through the drifts but that was a singular incident far different from what people just 300 miles north of us have to deal with annually. My genetic heart condition suggest that had I lived there instead of here I might not still be around at age 77 as my heart is no longer keen on high stress even though I ran, and did strenuous work 30 years ago. A valve that operated just fine once seemed not so inclined anymore and nothing changed instantly to cause an event, it just happened.

As I age I also find celebrations to be less meaningful. For example, we annually celebrate Independence Day. But no one alive today had anything to do with achieving our independence from Britain. Yet we label a day as important and we have a good time because other people who were just as flawed and troubled as we are took action on a cause they found important. Certainly, I’m happy to have a birthday, it’s better to be on the top side of the grass than 6 feet under. But I’m much more motivated by something to be done today, than looking back on a day that I had nothing to do with — other than appearing helpless and demanding for my parents to care for.

What’s my point in all this?

We need to keep moving. Life isn’t about being static. Most of the time we aren’t making singular decisions that forever change our life. Most of the things that happen to us, that we think we initiate are the result of something else and our choice in the grand scheme of life is a relatively small nudge in one direction. Yeah — we can nudge ourselves over a cliff if we are careless, but the majority of our nudges are simple adjustments and ought not to warrent excessive second guessing, worry, or anxiety. Most of our decision can be changed, or compensated for. Oh, sure, we might bear some penalty for a wrong decision but that’s life — that’s learning — that’s part of the process. If I steal something there may be a price to pay. If I lie I may lose someone’s trust and find it difficult or impossible to ever regain trust, but I can minimize the damage if I act. Just like going to the Emergency Room can minimize whatever was going on in a body.

A lot of our worries and anxieties are signs that we aren’t ready to let go control. But control is something we — in all honesty — rarely ever truly experience. Decisions aren’t so much events as they are data points on a continuous graph — points of inflection that can be altered in the future and corrected. I TRY not to worry about things. If something’s wrong with my body, or my wife’s body we find the best physician we can and we trust that they know sufficient about how bodies work that they stand a good chance of fixing what may be wrong — if anything IS wrong — which I say because sometimes our body does something that isn’t life changing, it just happened. Worrying about something without a serious cause does not good. I have to exercise confidence in the people I give access to various aspects of my life or else what’s the sense of having them there to do what I ask of them? Senseless worry is just that: senseless. Anxiety doesn’t fix anything, it only makes us — personally — less able to deal with the situation.

Life is a continuum. We’re each on a pathway through life and along the way things happen. How we react to what happens determines where we end up on this pathway. And for now, that’s a good place to stop for now. Take care of yourself and I’ll be back again soon to chat. :-)

Peter

The Things We Love

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”

Thomas Acquinas (1225-1274)

Like most of us, I suspect, I have a love/hate relationship with social media. At present it comprises more of my interactions with other people than I am happy about — but I’m too much of a hermit and recluse to search for people who share my interests. A lifetime taught me there aren’t many. Actually, I SAY that I’m a hermit and a recluse but in reality it comes down to the fact that I’ve never been able to find many people who have similar interests in close proximity. Most of my life I have had active correspondences with people all over the world. (Well, mostly the U.S., Australia and Europe.) — I’m OK with that. I like people. I like conversation if it’s something I’m even remotely interested in, but I hate small talk, and sports, and politics. And, more than that, people are exhausting. I’m one of those INTP personalities and people can all be just too much.

I get confused by the social media topic of searching for self. Speaking only for myself, I have always had things I cared about and I thought that the things I cared about defined who I was. I probably saw the Thomas Aquinas quote above when I was young but I doubt that it ever really sank in as something I “remembered” — in my head I was simply satisfied that my faith, my ideals, my interests pretty well defined who I was and that was that.

Having interests didn’t make self-definition easy, mind you. Over time things change. My understanding grew. Other people too grew and changed. Sometimes we would come to a fork in the road that took us in different directions. Yeah — that made sense. You go your way, I’ll go mine, and we are both seeking what we want in or out of life.

I don’t know about you, but I do fear for the young. Especially with the rising prevalence of AI – Artificial Intelligence. Just this morning I saw a blog post from someone bemoaning the fact that “their time with AI” wasn’t as fulfilling as they hoped it would be. Yeah…. That struck me like a brick. AI isn’t a person. You don’t really “spend time with AI.” But there you have it, The machines are not serving as it they were human companions for at least SOME part of the population.

I don’t know. In my mind the ability to think, and process ideas, is a major part of life. I grew up in the era of the Civil Rights movement, and the beginnings of the Ecology push, and a bunch of other ideas, maybe ideals, that shaped my generation. I still struggle with those challenges; I still think about them.

I know that idealism isn’t dead. My granddaughter and her husband are avid outdoors people. They annually trek or canoe through Boundary Waters — now under attack — and they are upset, and motivated. They both have jobs that keep them attuned to public opinion and public causes. They do all that they can to minimize their impact on the earth. I give them mucho credit for resisting the inertia that draws back from new challenged.

Unfortunately I don’t see as much of that kind of activism that affects daily life in people living near me. Maybe I’m blind. Maybe their activism is hidden. I’m delighted when I see the folk who come out for No Kings Day protests, but I’m saddened that we can only screw up our courage to the protest point so seldom while evil men and women are out every single day harming and plotting to harm others. Is that because we have too many distractions? Do we, as a nation, not care enough about anything? I have no idea.

Thomas Acquinas lived 800 years ago. But some things don’t change. And I have always loved the reality that truth never changes. Most ideas have lived before our time, we are almost all the time simply repeating history in a slightly different “flavor.” English instead of Latin or Greek, or Indian, or, or, or, or.. One didn’t need social media to suffer loss of identity. Peasants in medieval times surely had to wonder whether there wasn’t something more to life than their experience — assuming they had a free moment when they weren’t required by the Lord of the Manor or the conquering army to do something. We can spend time pondering what we should be doing. Or we can go about doing what we love or care about so long as we are able — and filling in with required tasks when we must. We don’t have to give up our hopes and dreams. But we do have to own them. If we refuse to say, “I love choral music and I want to sing” we’ll never go out and find a chorus or choir to join. And that is how we find out who we are, isn’t it? Or, as I heard from an acquaintance recently: they had trained as a nurse, graduated the course, took a job, and spend several months doing the work — and then decided that they didn’t want to spend their life doing THAT!!!!!. So, they listened to their interests — or what they thought they were interested in and made a decision. They are now doing what I think they see as a temporary job until they connect with another interest that is more important to them. But they now have a direction. They KNOW what they want — and it came from within — not from someone else’s advice or meddling or idle curiosity.

Life can be difficult. But it can also be simple — if we let it be. We can make our own problems too. Sometimes the difficult thing isn’t difficult at all, we just don’t want to do it and find a million reasons not to do it. Who am I may be a philosophical question but it can also be a practical one — a question that we answer day by day, minute by minute, ever refining the fine points of our definition.

But in it all, I really think it’s about “The things we love.” What do we care about? Do we care? Should we care? Why don’t we care? Decide what it is that you love, care about, are willing to live and die for — and everything else falls into place. Perhaps not easily…. but at least you’ll know where you’re going.

That’s it for today. Take care of yourself and I’ll be back to chat again soon.

Peter

At Best

We go in the direction we are looking.

Often our suppositions and beliefs push us beyond reason or experience. If we believe one nationality or group to be inferior or superior then all of our thoughts will try to enforce that opinion.

It’s hard to find people who truly want truth for authority rather than authorities to decide what is true. And what I mean by “truth” is those things that can be substantively verified or proven.

I came across this quotation from B.F. Skinner (for more about him see the Wiki article about him)

Considering free will to be an illusion, Skinner saw human action as dependent on consequences of previous actions, a theory he would articulate as the principle of reinforcement: If the consequences to an action are bad, there is a high chance the action will not be repeated; if the consequences are good, the probability of the action being repeated becomes stronger.

Skinner developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism, and founded the experimental analysis of behavior, a school of experimental research psychology. He also used operant conditioning to strengthen behavior, considering the rate of response to be the most effective measure of response strength. To study operant conditioning, he invented the operant conditioning chamber (aka the Skinner box), and to measure rate he invented the cumulative recorder. Using these tools, he and Charles Ferster produced Skinner’s most influential experimental work, outlined in their 1957 book Schedules of Reinforcement.

Wikipedia “B F Skinner”

I really struggle with this idea. Historically there have been times when punishment has improved the lives of many, and other times when punishment has done nothing more than foment dissatisfaction and rebellion. I suppose on some levels, it’s the degree of punishment that is the difference. “Punishing” a child’s misbehavior or disrespect can produce an adult who understands the basics of human interaction and refrains from needlessly offending others. Conversely, if someone steals food to fill an empty belly or a child’s belly, and then confining them among thieves and murderers who will take advantage of a relatively pure heart — well, the results of that are probably more likely to corrupt one than to improve one. And, society has struggled for centuries to know what to do with people who flaunt the laws. Whether “serious” or trivial — there seem to be a limited number of solutions available and too often those who make the rules don’t want to be bothered dealing with those who don’t and would just as soon bundle them off to a place where they aren’t any trouble. NO wonder Britain populated Australia with convicts and prisons dot the rural maps of the U.S.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is all about whether individuals are able to see a shadow projected onto a wall, without seeing the source of the projection, and deduce that there is something going on that is more real than the shadow on the wall. It seems a simple concept, but in reality, and in application it speaks to a group of people who are unable to make such connections.

The U.S. election of November 2025 demonstrates the reality perfectly. Given all that was known about candidates before the election, the outcome demonstrates the some are capable of making the connection between idea and reality.

Yes, there are some people for whom punishment is nothing more than a lesson in how to avoid punishment — but in the election situation the “punishment” the population was enduring because of a President from a certain party has been proven to be far less of a pain than the release from that president’s punishing power than being released into the hands of the Orange Buffoon.

There was a time when public discussion could entertain multiple ideas, sort them out, and arrive at solutions that suited multiple interest group. In that sense “punishment” or enduring various social settings, situations, biases, behaviors have been able to teach lessons far more important than just how to avoid the situation — they have enabled society to move beyond social problems so that everyone received some benefit and no one was an outcast.

I sometimes wonder about things like “national pride” or “regimental pride”. One would think that being proud of something is a good thing. But the question needs answering, “is it?”

If you have ever watched or been part of a regional or national heritage celebration it’s clear that to some degree there is always a feeling that we are somehow just a little bit better than them. If we were all the same, and our accomplishments were no better than anyone else’s accomplishment what reason would there be to have a special event marking our “accomplishments”? In daily life we have Polish events (yeah, I’m mostly Polish) and Irish celebrations (my wife is mostly Irish) and gay celebrations and sport team celebrations to herald the winning of who knows what, and so on and so forth. They all celebrate something the celebrants think makes them particularly worthy of recognition. Certainly military celebrations are the most scary because they are celebrating their victory in battle, their ability to subjugate or destroy others, and while they hide the ugly by talking about honor and the flag and this and that it really comes down to the fact that they are proud to have whupped the ass of whomever they went against. Basically, it’s good to be a bully.

I know that’s not a popular opinion. But the problem is that when we begin seeing ourselves as more noteworthy of celebration than others that pride rises up and men and women do terrible things to save their pride and prevent embarrassment. Or, to be punished. How many common crimes are committed so as to avoid reprisals for other crimes. How many social offenses are committed so as to avoid the disapproval of others… It’s a great big Round Robin of a mess. And we get into it because we feel the need to be better than someone else.

I don’t know how to change anything. I do know that we have seen better climates for the exchange of ideas. But in a time when national treasures are being plundered by the few while the populace stands silently beside it’s clear that Plato was right about some people not being able to draw conclusions based upon concepts and that we aren’t in for a smooth ride anytime in the near future.

I guess I better stop here, for now. I’ll be back soon to chat again. In the meantime take care of yourself and your loved ones. :-)

Peter

Knowing the Unknowable

I used to love driving. In a lifetime I’ve wracked up well over 1,000,000 miles with a few years of commercial driving and a lot of touring. I find it relaxing and meditative. I’ve had some of my best thoughts whilst driving and for many years couldn’t wait for an excuse to get in the car and go, go, go, go anywhere.

Nowadays driving isn’t’ as much fun. One sees way too many stupid acts and reckless risks taken. But A nice drive is still the generator of new thoughts.

A few days ago we were chatting (you and me) about knowing about God and my mind returned to that topic as we headed west towards our summer place to pick up a few things I realize might be needed in our new house.

For the tiny little creatures we are we have monumental egos. We think we can understand the entire universe but we have a hard time regulating our own personal lives. As a race we have a horrible history of violence and discontent — nationally, regionally, locally, and all the way down to our most intimate personal relationships. After all, look at the mortality rate for marriage.:

The average length of a marriage in the United States varies depending on factors such as whether it is a first, second, or subsequent marriage. In 2018, the median duration of a first marriage was 21 years, while second marriages lasted around 17 years. For those married three or more times, the median duration was 13 years1. The national average marriage length is just under 20 years, but couples in Maine and West Virginia typically have the longest-lasting unions, lasting for 22.3 years2. However, the average length of a marriage prior to divorce is eight years3.

So much for till death do us part!

But considering that we have a hard time getting along with our “closest” partners in life the idea that we can ken the length and breadth of a supernatural being is the height of absurdity. And yet humans have been fascinated by whether there is something beyond this life and if so, what — or who — might be there to share it with.

I know that a great many people want to deny the existence of any “intelligent” “being” or “power” beyond what we can sense. And yet we are blind to much of the light spectrum, we are deaf to sounds beyond our small hearing range, we cannot smell as well as many of the animals we gather around us, our tastebuds aren’t sensitive enough to prevent us from killing ourselves, etc., etc.. We see ourselves as so powerful, even exploring the universe remotely — and yet we are pretty insignificant beings individually.

True, when acting together we can threaten the livability of our giant planet — but that takes the individual actions of millions of us all doing things that aren’t good for ourselves or for the planet and the speed with which we are killing ourselves is guaranteed to cause death and destruction lasting many years for many more millions still to be born.

Worship is something that makes no sense to the human animal.

wor·ship [ˈwərSHəp]. noun

  1. the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity: “the worship of God” · “ancestor worship”

But I guess that’s what gives “worship” its real value. The idea that people with a limited lifespan would take some or all of it and devote it to the adoration of an entity that they can’t see, touch, taste, or hear is the ultimate extravagance. Perhaps that’s why the Christian concept of a God has the power that it has. I can’t speak for other faiths. I don’t understand them, I don’t practice them, I have no significant experience of them. But the idea that a Christian does things, accepts things, and believes things that seem by all human reasoning to have no value to their life — or the lives of others — is the ultimate luxury: a life lived for God and not for self.

A great many people think about heaven and or hell. I suspect that the fact of their thoughts is that they really like what they have here on earth and whatever their concept of anything that may or may not happen after death is pretty much akin to what they know here on earth. It’s hard to imagine what any other form of life might be like — so our idea of utopia or damnation is rooted in experience.

Occasionally humans get glimpses into other realities. Sometimes through art. Sometimes through music. There have been the thinkers who have transported others through actual words or the record of their experiences written down. But the likes of these are hard to find — and yet sometimes those beacons seem to find their way to those who are seeking and illuminate their life in a way that lights a flickering lamp to illuminate others along THEIR pathway.

It’s impossible to understand the unintelligible. We can’t know the unknowable. And yet some of us try. Most of the time the pursuit of God is done silently in private. The lifting of a thought. The tending of a broken heart. A helping hand extended. In thoughts, words, and actions we find ways to reach beyond this present life and touch something immortal, unknowable, too great for our brains to take in entirely.

And at this season we ponder a birth in a manger. A long time ago. We wonder why the promises of that event seem unfulfilled. Some of us give up on hope. Others cling fast. Around the world a sweet incense of devotion arises in a way we cannot sense to a being we know nothing of, really. Some question whether it’s all worth it. Others know that it definitely is. Because Faith IS the evidence of unseen things and the proof of what has not been witnessed.

Merry Christmas to you.

No blog tomorrow. I’ll be back on the 26th. Take care of yourself. Love your family and friends. And lift a glass of good cheer, with our without spirits — but with YOUR spirit.

Peace and love to all.

Peter

15 Household Uses for Cornstarch

I like to read labels. It’s not compulsive but….

If you are like me it’s easy to get stuck in the habit of just going out and purchasing the brands and products that you see waved in front of you on TV and over the radio and via social media. But there are a lot of jobs that can be done just as easily and quite a bit cheaper using products we all have at home — or if you are like me — sitting in the pantry waiting for the next time you want to make gravy.

One such is good old cornstart.

  • Scrub tubs: This works especially well for acrylic tubs and bathroom sinks. Mix a tablespoon of cornstarch with a cup of white vinegar in a glass measuring container. Mix well, then microwave for a couple of minutes. Funnel it into a spray bottle to which you’ve added a couple tablespoons of liquid detergent.
     
  • Clean glass: Cornstarch is a wonderful window cleaner! Add a tablespoon each of white vinegar and cornstarch to two cups of water. Funnel into a spray bottle and use on window or door glass. Your windows and glass will be streak-free!
     
  • Remove stains: Dry or mixed into a thick paste with water, cornstarch can remove many kinds of stains on rugs, furniture, clothing, and other fabric items. Leave the paste on until it dries before brushing or vacuuming. A cornstarch paste even works to remove blood and grease stains. Repeat if a single application doesn’t completely remove the stain.
     
  • Polish silver: Mix cornstarch with a little bit of water to bring out the natural shine in silver objects.
     
  • Freshen grubby fleece hats, mittens, stuffed animals: Pour a cup of cornstarch into a large paper bag, add dirty items, and shake well. Leave a few hours if the items are stained. Remove items from the bag and brush or shake off excess cornstarch.
     
  • Loosen knots in shoelaces, hair, and dog fur: A knot in your shoelaces? Knots in hair or your dog’s fur? Sprinkle knots liberally with cornstarch, then pull and wiggle on the knot until the laces slide out. Sprinkle liberally on matted hair or dog fur and work it in down to the skin to help the matted fur untangle for easier brushing and clipping.
     
  • Deodorize smelly stuff: Dust the insides of smelly shoes or boots, liberally sprinkle over a dog’s coat (avoiding the face) and leave for a few minutes before shaking or brushing out.
     
  • Soothe a bite or sting: A few drops of water in a spoon of cornstarch makes a paste to spread on a fresh insect bite or sting.
     
  • Ease sunburn pain: While it’s better to focus on preventing sunburns in the first place, soothe the pain of one by applying a paste of cornstarch and water to the burned areas. Give it time to dry.
     
  • Prevent athlete’s foot: Renowned for its absorbent qualities, cornstarch sprinkled between your toes and into your socks before putting them on will help keep feet dry and less susceptible to the fungi that cause athlete’s foot.
     
  • Dry-shampoo your hair: Hair looking unkempt and greasy/stringy, but no time or motivation for a wash? Keep a small jar of cornstarch in your bathroom along with a large makeup brush or a small, flexible paintbrush. “Paint” or sprinkle the starch through your hair, working it in until it’s well distributed. Shake your head a bit, then brush the cornstarch out along with the grease and grime. Voila! Smooth, shiny, and fluffed out, you’re ready to go.
     
  • Make a quick deodorant: You can find lots of recipes online for making homemade underarm deodorants, but why bother? Just use a large makeup brush to dust armpits with dry cornstarch. Stand on a towel so the starch that falls won’t get all over the floor. Pat treated underarms with a soft cloth to remove excess.
     
  • Prevent/treat chafing: Many people experience chafing undersides of their arms, inner thighs, and nipple area, especially during vigorous exercise. Rubbing cornstarch over the areas that usually chafe will both lubricate them against chafing, and soothe the irritation that may occur.
     
  • Make a seed tape for planting small herb and vegetable seeds: Small vegetable seeds can be hard to sow evenly across your seedbed, and may result in uneven spacing that wastes seed and increases the need for weeding. Buying pelleted seeds or seed tapes from a seed company can solve this problem, but with a little cornstarch you can make your own. Start by making a cornstarch gel: Mix 1 cup of water with 1 tablespoon cornstarch in a saucepan, then stir gently and bring it to a boil for about 5 minutes. Once it thickens, allow it to cool completely. Next, place dabs of the gel onto strips of biodegradable paper at an appropriate spacing for your seeds, then press a seed or two into each dab before folding and pressing the edges of the paper together. Seems onerous, but it doesn’t take much time. It’ll save a lot of seed waste and weeding time.
     
  • Make finger paints: One fun family activity is to make nontoxic homemade finger paints using cornstarch, water, and food coloring. Here’s a recipe: Add half a cup of cornstarch to two cups of water, whisk well, and boil until thick and gelatinous. Then separate into individual small containers such as repurposed yogurt cups, and add food coloring to reach a desired shade. Some folks add packets of Kool Aid as the coloring agent.

By the way, potato starch or arrowroot starch work similarly to cornstarch.

Ok — enough of that for today. Take care of yourself and we can chat tomorrow.

Peter

Doing Nothing

Yesterday I wrote an entire blog about this graphic. Georgia O’Keefe always had interesting points of view and the quote moved me — a lot. At the time I put it aside to use for a post I was in mid waiting-to-close-and-get-moved mode so my mind was in a very different place than it is now.

I looked over the post and decided to scrap it and post the graphic with very little comment because I realized that the meaning for this particular statement has potential to be extremely different for each person reading it. And so that is what I’m doing today.

Think about the ways we each, individually, have to wait for our own selves to return to being authentically you.

If you need a thought starter I could point you in the direction of the current election cycle. I bet we have all not been quite ourselves because of the ongoing rancor and shenanigans. That said…. I think that we all have had multiple reasons not to be ourselves in the past. Take a moment and ask yourself:

  • what have you done while not being yourself?
  • why have you felt compelled to change?
  • how long has that being going on?
  • is it cyclical or just repetitive (as in “every summer” or “when a certain thing happens”)

Ok. I said I wasn’t going to write a whole post and here I’ve already gotten half way there. So, that’s it for today. I’ll talk with you tomorrow, and keep yourself well until then. :-)