What have we lost?

Ever wanted to do something more?

Be someone better?
 

Have you ever thought, who am I?

Why am I here?

I ponder these questions and that is that is what I am doing today...pondering. So what does that have to do with food?  Those of you that follow my blog know that I haven’t been doing this for very long. But you do know that the reason why I love food and cooking is because it is a universal way of sharing life. Your life. Last summer I lost one of the most influential people in my life. I grew up with him as a mentor. He was an artist, an athlete, a philosopher, and a great family man. He was so influential in my life that my own father considered him a father figure to me as well. I loved him and his wife like family. I was lucky to eventually be able to call him and his family friends as well. During his funeral one of his loving daughters implored us to always say “I love you” to those you hold in your heart. This habit is part of my philosophy of life but there are some people who aren't ready to hear the words "I love you". I have seen first hand when people become a bit freaked out. Something I don't want in my friends and family are unsettled emotions. Since childhood one of the main ways that I show that I care for someone is through my cooking or sharing a meal with them. People can still feel my "love" for them without getting wrapped around some emotional axial. 

I am new to this blog thing and I am not trying to get a bunch of readers to go to the restaurants I have enjoyed. I created it as an extension of me and my thoughts. I created it so that those who read it could feel something deep inside of them. I want to be able to share pieces of my world with others. I can’t cook for everyone whom I want to know that I care for, but maybe this blog will be some way to show that I care.

As a nation I think we have forgotten how to break bread. Many people I know view food as fuel and nothing more. They prefer it to taste good but its still just something to fuel their machine. Believe me I get that view. I have spent plenty of my life opening up MREs to fuel my machine. But I want to change the thoughts of people across our country to view food as fuel for the soul. Have we forgotten how to sit down and break bread? Or have we just gotten to busy to care to do so.  How to sit down and have meals as a family? How to have meals with friends? We no longer have meals as a community. This is a mistake. We should not have stepped away from the table.

Look around, do you see the impact.? It is tangible. It impacts our behavior towards other people. It impacts the children of our nation. It changes our sense of self. It destroys our health. It is impacting our joy. Most of us have forgotten that a meal is a ritual. It is a ritual that honors the food we eat, how it is prepared (from farming to the way its cooked), the people we are eating with, and frankly the person that took the time to make the meal. Sharing a meal is a ritual to fuel our bodies, enriching our families & friends, and spreading love. Love. Sigh….and I am back to missing my mentor. I am grateful to have spent at least one dinner with him, his family, and my family at our favorite local restaurant whenever I was back visiting in my home town. But I have missed too many meals with others because we (many times it was just me) were “too busy.”

My life is very busy, to the point that I rarely in the same place for longer than a few months. But I am hopefully going to be in one place for more than that now. I am looking forward to becoming more involved in my community. I don’t want to forget the ritual of a breaking bread and sharing wine. By forgetting this, our lives and our world are substantially less rich. We need to get back to the ritual of breaking bread...of sharing a meal and sharing our lives. In that spirit, I will continue to share my food adventures and will begin sharing more recipes, as I hope to be making meals for others in the very near future. I look forward to giving more of myself to others. What good are we, if we don’t give our greatest gift? Our time, our love, and ourselves.