Meet Arthur Bowen

by pii

Arthur Bowen is a family man.  He loves spending time with and being actively involved in the lives of his wife Tina and his children Artie, Alex, Cassie, and Brandi.  He adores his grandchildren, Noah, Owen, and Slaide and loves to dote on them.  Arthur is an avid sports fan, a BBQ enthusiast, and loves to laugh.  But all of these things—sports, grilling, laughing, parenting, playing with his grandkids, and being active, present and attentive in his marriage—are suffering owing to a range of health problems that plague Arthur on a continual basis.  It was the heartbreaking sense of loss that Art had conveyed to me over how much his health interferes with every aspect of his life that prompted me to ask him if he'd be interested in trying an experiment.

I hold a longstanding interest in the effects—moral, spiritual, bodily, mental—of the choices we make with respect to the things we put in our bodies.  Something of an amateur nutrition and health buff since 1996, I have been vegetarian for 15 years and an on-again/off-again vegan for 9 years.  At the time when Arthur conveyed his pain to me I was myself trying to reacquire some control over my dietary habits and exercise regimen (my own struggles, new and old, are documented elsewhere in this blog).  Having recently attended a screening of the documentary Forks Over Knives I asked Arthur if he'd be interested in undertaking an experiment whereby he would adopt the same whole foods diet that had helped so many people in the documentary I had just seen.  After just a few minutes of discussion we both were feeling energized and enthusiastically hopeful about the potential for such an experiment.  We decided we'd partner on the endeavor.

Arthur Bowen and piiopah—Eden Creek Farm, 2011

Over the course of the next several days we mapped out a basic approach.  I told him that his efforts might really inspire others and his story should be shared.  And by his story I mean this story, here, now: the one that you are reading.  I told Art that he and his wife (my sister) should log their ups and downs, ins and outs, triumphs and challenges as this unfolds.  Hence the blog that you are at presently.

On Friday, the first day of July, I had a chance to sit down with Arthur Bowen and ask him about the experiment: what he was going to be doing, why, and how he and his family felt about it.  Below is part one of our interview.  I hope you enjoy it!



INTERVIEW


coming soon...