Just watched... as I was told by an LFoaB reader that it was something that basically mirrors what I [we, as a family] are doing and would find it quite interesting, How To Cook Your Life.
Yes, it is good... pretty much great in fact.
Echoing a large theme of the documentary is something that perplexes me: "How can you not have the time to cook your own food?"
If you think about it, it is the most basic of all Human Things [besides breathing, going pee & poop, maybe a few others] to eat. And if you are going to eat, why would you not take a vested interest in what goes into your mouth. And the best way to do this, is to make it yourself.
Now certainly, I am not without experience sitting on the other side of this same coin. Even though I started out cooking, learning by my mom's hand, and did so for many years... I also spent a rather long period of time drifting into the supposed ease and convenience of having others make my food [i.e. take-out, dine-in/drive-thru, delivery]. But that loss of control over who was making my food, their lack of care in it [and why should they, it's not their food... it's a job--and a rather low, underpaid job at that], took a toll and enacted a much higher price on me [Us, as a family] than just the super-expen$e of eating others' food.
I paid, in handing that control over to someone else, in many other ways too: weight, of course -and as I already mentioned- financial, but also Quality, Care, the Art & Act of "Doing" something slow and thoughtful, the Love of Creation, the Time & Devotion spent in prepping and cooking, the ingredients themselves [shopping, picking over]... overall, the Artfulness of the Act of Feeding those you Love. And that's a pretty steep price to pay, to give all that up, for the new modern drug of: "Faster, Better, NOW".
Immediate Gratification is not only killing our children, it's already poisoned us as adults. How much time do we need to do the stuff to keep up with The Jones' and trade off, in that process, everything of real & lasting value? Too busy to cook, you work hard, go to Boston Market... "For Moms on the Go!" [more corporate solutions to living life]. And why is Mom [or Dad, or anyone else for that matter] so 'on the go'? Money? Of course, it always the Money.
New car on the horizon? A new Rivendell custom? Chris King hub? TJ Max having a week long sale on Fruit O' The Loom undies [or far more sinister and the real bastard child of Modern American Life: families that have to fly 24/7 to just cover housing, utilities and healthcare expenses]? Okay, fine... but what's up with spending more money and trading off less love, less care, more frantic paced every-thingness in doing all that, for all this [i.e. modern life/living]??
I'm going to jack a sentence from my pal, Kent Peterson, "We all get 24 hours each day. We should spend that time living the life that makes sense to us." Okay, I jacked two sentences... but, damn, doesn't that have some serious resonance to it? Is this what all of life has become, been reduced to: the chasing of money... and then, everything else must follow suit after? I say, No.
There isn't any good, solid, sound reason for this way of living. There is no good reason at all. Except that that's what we've been told, lead and hoodwinked into believing "Life" is.
Bullshit, I say.
Hypothetically: what if you could make just enough $$ to support the basics of a decent place to reside [of course, defining 'Decent' becomes interesting and very varied from person to person], good food you'd make, and a few dollars left over to throw under the mattress/or to buy some new shoes/clothes/some books a couple times a year and then [but always] greater to that percentage, a lot of "You" in gobs? Would you, your family, someone you love, need more? Amy, Chloe and me are shooting for this, and nothing else. We get close, it looms, it hovers, we get fogged up on our focus and then readjust our goggles, and hit it again. I think we are getting closer to it, sometimes further, but mostly closer.
I'm going to cap all this with a Chloe quote from our ride earlier to see Minnehaha Falls w/Amy & me, "Daddy, I wouldn't trade our lives riding on bikes together for anything... ever, ever, ever, EVER!!" I agree Chloe, I agree.
Life is what you make it...
...go make some, but cook it slow, and marinate it in lots & lots of Love.
Keep Ridin'... Always
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