The Tasting Party

Tomorrow night, my wife and I are having friends over for a little gathering. Basically, I try out new recipes on friends, cooking most of the dishes while we all chat. This is the third one of these I’ve done. I started doing them last year and they provide a number of benefits.

First, it’s an opportunity to get together with some of the few people that I’ve found here in Dinkytown whose company I really enjoy. Second, it gives me the opportunity to work with new methods and flavors in the kitchen. Third, it gives me a chance to serve. Not show off but serve. Of course, the showing off part is always there but recognizing it and releasing it is part of the work.

During these parties I act as chef and waiter. While the guests chat at the table, I’m working on a dish. When one is ready, I bring it to the table, explain what it is and serve. Then it’s back to the stove top.

I try to make dishes that I can be relatively sure will be new to the guests. With the limited grocery resources here in town, that’s difficult but it’s also a big part of the challenge. The whole exercise  is very freeing, really.

So, what have I learned?

When I first did this, it was just something to do. A chance to liven things up for everyone. But once I discovered the therapeutic value, I began to better understand the notion of practice through work. The whole “sweeping the floor” thing.

Of course, once I can achieving the same exhilaration from actually sweeping the floor, then I will really have learned something.

Baby steps.

Hatred v. Concern

Strangely, the day after the election is more trying than any of the previous days.

Here in the Fourth Circle of Hell, John McCain beat Barack Obama 57% to 41%. People here are truly shocked that the rest of the nation didn’t vote along with them. Asking these people what the problem is, I’ve heard that President Obama:

• “is going to turn America into a Communist country”
• “took money from a foreign dictator”
• “is a terrorist”

and my personal favorite

• “is the Antichrist”

This isn’t anything I haven’t heard before. I’d heard it all through the elections but that was always from anonymous commenters on blogs. The four phrases I list above came this morning out of the mouths of two women that I work with and like.

For me, hearing this and not judging but being mindful and compassionate is…um…difficult. It’s one thing to fear the painful death that results from drinking Coke while you eat Pop Rocks. It’s another thing altogether to honestly believe that the newly elected President is he who will come to Earth to challenge Christ and bring about the end of days.

The compassion part isn’t too hard. As I said before, these are people I like. Watching them be possessed by such an intense level of fear and ignorance is hard and I do sincerely hope that they will be free someday. Still, it’s hard to not feel frustration with someone who buys into any old piece of nonsense they receive in an email or from FOX News. It feels like the emotion that bubbles up causing you to want to slap someone who is hysterical – which is wrong, too.

But I do feel that there is great value in remaining non-judgmental about the situation. If nothing else, we can be examples. I just don’t want to be an example who allows hatred to spread because I was busy being mindful.

So what have I learned?

I always used to think that I had a pretty bad attitude. That hatred was part of my general makeup. I certainly used the word enough. I “hated” disco and brussel sprouts and reality shows and “that smell” or “that fucking guy”. Looking back now, I see that I never really hated anyone or anything. I just used the word incorrectly. Not a right view issue but a right speech issue.

Some people live to bathe in hatred. Their hatred of a person or an idea gives them a sense of purpose and “proof” that they are on the right side of things.

In the big scheme of things though, does it really matter if it’s disco or the Antichrist? View or speech? Aren’t I, via my concern rather than hatred, giving myself a sense of purpose and “proving” that I’m on the right side of things?

Act and Observe

Today is the perfect day to take action, then watch and be mindful.

Learning comes later.