On food, veganism and joy
A conversation between myself and a friend on Facebook (beginning with a picture of cakes)…
Me: nice cakes! Do they taste as good as they look?
Friend: not nearly as nice, i’m afraid..the vegetarian in me still cannot grasp the concept of baking with vegan products – they are well beyond me even now. the cupcakes were dry & tasted a little too much like soy..with icing, they were revived a bit, but even so..i think they were just decorative.
Me: shame. I’ve never understood veganism – you’ve got to have some pretty high principles to hate food that much. where do they get the joy in their life?
Well, fantastic decorating job, anyway…
Friend: haha the least i can say is that thank goodness our joy in life does not revolve around food! &… they were joyful over the icing!
***
I personally think that you can get an awful lot of joy from food. Think of your happiest memories… how many of them involve sitting around a meal table with close friends and/or family? How many of them involved a special meal of some sort?
A good steak, just the right side of medium-rare. Proper Pommes Frites (french fries), not the paler American immitation. Green beans. A good sauce (your choice)…
Real, fresh, Japanese Sushimi…
A glass of rich, smokey red wine and some Green & Blacks dark chocolate…
I’d go on, but I’ll make you all hungry. 
Aren’t these things that give you joy? Don’t they make you smile? I was thinking last night, as I drifted off to Bedfordshire, about the meals at l’Abri. There were so many good gatherings with friends around a table, so many joyous momoents. But many of them were made more so by the quality of the food: The first time Anna made Mexican Casserole. The Sunday Breakfasts where Phil made muffins. The time I made soup, and managed to persuade Marta that the salad demanded real olive oil…
In these moments, and in so many of your own significant memories, the people you are with are the most important thing. It is the shared fellowship that we treasure. But I really do believe that the food we eat plays a significant part in our enjoyment of the moment and in what/whether we remember. There really is a lot of joy in food.
I was mainly joking with my comment on veganism. But I do have a problem with it, because it does feel so much like a philosophy that steals the joy from food. It reduces food to something to morally anguish about, rather than celebrate. It becomes a measure of your superiority and a basic form of sustenance, and nothing more.
So, make beautiful cup-cakes. Gather friends around you to enjoy them with you. But make sure they taste nice…
Hungarian Poetry
[This is another non-serious post, I'm afraid. I'm writing a lot of serious stuff offline at the moment, and I can't bring myself to be serious on the blog without feeling like a broken record]
My friend Ruben writes poetry. He blogs some of his work. By all accounts, he’s quite good. The only problem is he writes in Hungarian…
Now, I don’t speak Hungarian. Not even a word. I have a few friends that do, but I have no talent for languages what so ever (I’m still learning English). Translating Ruben’s poems is just not going to happen.
So, I have a new hobby – something that keeps me wryly amused on dull days. I translate Ruben’s poetry via Google. The results can be hilarious…
Today’s offering:
“takarítok mintha én mindig is
takarítok takarítok
mintha egy foltot bujtatok
takarítok“
Becomes:
“cleaners as I have always been
cleaners cleaners
like a patch of loop
cleaners“
Barmy.
Or:
“drótok a levegőben
telefonfák
néma szegek
huszonnégy órák
Which becomes the rather wonderful:
wires in the air
telefonfák
without pins
twenty-four hours
My best guess is that telefonfák is a mobile phone provider…
Have a go yourselves. Ruben’s blog is here, and the translation tool is here. If any Hungarian friends would like to provide true translations, I’d be interested to read the results…
Facebook is scary, and other things we’ve learnt this month
I spend far too long reading tech blogs. Too much dross. And you know, as you’re reading about the latest buzz around this, or the controversy around that, sometimes you learn some things you’d rather not…
Like, just how much of my information Facebook has access to. And how they use it. This interview is just plain scary. For those who haven’t left Facebook yet, it might just push you over the edge…
But, while you’re pondering that, I just wanted to throw a thought into the mix. If Facebook knows all this about you, what does Google know? Google who handle my emails, my web searches, my video watching, my work blog and analytics… and probably a lot more. Just how much of our lives are we handing over to multinational corporations. Is Facebook-founder Mark Zuckerberg right when he says that our whole concept of privacy is evolving? And if so, are we happy about it?
Other, slightly less scary, things we’ve learnt this month.
- Printers are evil
- Google might be making us stupiderer
- Three countries in the far east generate nearly 75% of all porn revenues
- 52% of American marriages in the last 10 years ended in divorce
- The Amish kinda like messing with technology
- Just when you think he’s reached his nadir, Pat Robertson shows you he can go lower still
Just in case I’ve depressed you completely, I’ll leave you with a couple of videos that cheered me up. The first shows the wonderful levels of innovation that still exist in music. As long as people come up with things like this, long may they continue.
The second just made me smile. Fast forward to 1:50 and enjoy.
Want!
Jesus is welcome at my party
The wonderful Phil Jackson has written an interesting (if very long) treatise on wine, starting with John 2:1-11 (The wedding in Cana).
Phil’s opening comment has prompted me to re-look at the passage in question:
“150 gallons of wine. If your Christian friends are not in the regular habit of hosting parties of the sort that 150 gallons of wine need be called upon, then speak gently to them, but they may have missed a conspicuous and central priority of the faith they profess.“
I did the Maths. Those six stone jars held a lot of water. Jesus made the equivalent of 700 bottles of wine. And that for a party that had been going on for a while already. And you wonder why Pharisees accused him of being a drunk and a sinner…
Still, anyone who comes to a party with 700 bottles of free (and good) wine would be very welcome at any party I hosted. I can’t quite imagine it becoming a regular “Christian” thing though – Christians in this country just don’t seem to throw that kind of party…
The Road Ahead
2010. My 31st year. My 5th decade.
It’s common at this point, 2 days into a new year, to do some taking stock and to think about the future. Well, what can I say?
I’m about to embark on a second 3-month stint in Chichester. My life there has been… interesting. The work’s ok, the people are nice, but jewellery isn’t really my kind of thing. I’ve been camping, really. Living pretty much out of a suitcase, lodging with a family, in a room I vacate when they have visitors. All of my stuff is still in storage in London, due to the kindness of friends that has been stretched far beyond the 6th months initially envisioned.
It’s been good to be out of London. It’s been good to be working. I’ve enjoyed the slower pace of life, and the easy access to beautiful countryside to walk in. But I haven’t really met anyone yet, and the greatest single component of my ‘social’ life has been my driving instructor. Chichester is a beautiful city, and day-to-day life is nice, but it doesn’t feel like home.
Now, with the second three-month contract agreed, I’m trying to work out how much I can really settle in this city. I need to look for somewhere to live, but how do you do that when you don’t know if you’ll be around in 3-months time? How do you make friends in a town you have no connections to?
The wider questions include how much do I want to be here? I mean, I have a choice. I could chose to settle, or chose to camp for another couple of months and then move on. I have no ties right now – I could go anywhere. Most of my friends are still in London, but each time I come back here I think “It’s really nice to see everyone, but I’m glad I no longer live here”. I’m very happy to visit the Smoke, but I’m in no hurry to move back.
Life really is an open horizon, an undiscovered country for me now. Not only do I not know what is ahead, but I don’t even know by what yardstick to measure choices. I have to take each decision on it’s own merits, which has left me drifting somewhat. I am in Chichester because it was the only job I found. I am still there because it is better than any present alternative.
I have very short-term aims. Learn to drive. Buy a car. Save up for a trip to America (there is a wedding to go to). Maybe join a walking club, or take a course in screenwriting. All rather temporary, really, and non of them give any sense of direction.
The future? I really don’t know. I know I prefer the country to the city. I know I prefer the company of friends, and sharing my life with others. I have a dream of community living, a dream that I hope to share and build on with friends. But the chances of it becoming reality are pretty slim. I have people I care dearly for, scattered far across the world, and I have no idea how to incorporate them into my future. And to be close to some means to be far from others…
I don’t know how to end this post, because I don’t know how to resolve these issues. I stand at the beginning of 2010 hopeful but completely ignorant of what it will bring. The road stretches ahead, full of many possible destinations. I don’t know where I will live, or what I will do, or who I will know…
Walk on.
The Wedding of the Year
An impossible to focus camera. A grainy , ISO 800 film. A dark, romantically-lit house. Sneak-shots rapidly taken (between moments of clearing plates and washing up).
All these combine to give you some of the worst photographs I’ve ever taken. But they are indicative (if poor) images of precious memories. Yes, it was Marta and Danny’s wedding…
