What matters most is how well you walk through the fire
Food has glorious, creative potential. Baking up desserts with pronounceable whole ingredients to greet our sweet tooth is one of my favorite ways to share and interact with others.
Food is also a necessity, which means it is also mistakenly a privilege. Like America’s Declaration of Independence states, everyone should have access to what they need. Nearly 800 million people in the world (one out of every nine individuals) do not have enough food to sustain themselves healthily.
I came to kitchenandlegs last night thinking about the anxious side of eating that starts from some place of surplus. The behaviors and global industry around eating disorders give way to worry, stress, life-threatening illness, and financial complications. I thought about how sharing food is fulfilling for others and fulfilling in so many other ways. I thought, Hey, you don’t need a Web MD article on how to get your healthy back after a challenging time! Researching the UN Food Programme Statistics, I reminded myself I knew– the big picture, and the little, immediate one in front of my face, too. Because I’ve been here before.
This post is named after the poem and book by the Beat poet Charles Bukowski. I loved his snappy, gruff poetics as soon as I discovered him at Naropa University, and most of all, for this: what matters most is how well you walk through the fire. Because– what matters more, really?
Everyone’s fire is different, but to survive– what that means for each of us in our own lives– we must find a way to walk through it. #goal: have ways of ensconcing yourself and be there to ensconce others.