Slow Food

Our society has become a fast food nation. We often eat out, if we are lucky, it is at a sit down restaurant but most often, it is a fast food restaurant while we are on the run. I remember growing up, we as a family would go out to eat usually when my Dad got a raise, as a celebration. We would usually eat as a family and have conversation around the dinner table.

I don’t often remember us cooking as a family. Unless you want to count the time that my brother and I were supposed to put a meatloaf in the oven. I tried to tell him there was plastic wrap on it. But as older brothers so often do, he didn’t listen to me. Needless to say, the meatloaf didn’t turn out very well. There were other times like this, where we had to work together to fix dinner for the evening, most of them turned out with better results.

I love to cook. As I got older and now have my own family, I have found one of the best ways for a family to interact is to cook together. During the process of cooking, everyone feels needed and wanted, they are helping each other. The activity allows everyone to enjoy being with each other. Then when someone is asked a question, the spotlight is not focused directly on them and they can be a little more open about answering. It is also a good time for adults to discuss issues concerning the family. I also believe that couples who are planning on getting married should spend time together cooking because it can teach you a lot about one another.

Most kitchens are very poorly designed; usually the biggest problem is that they are too small. However this can work to your advantage, in a small kitchen you must touch someone to get by them or it is easy to give them a small hug. This is especially important if your family consists of teenagers. Most often teenagers are not very receptive of physical contact and will even shy away from it. This allows you the opportunity to give a small hug or touch which means so much to a parent who doesn’t get enough hugs from their children. But, this is also helps the teenager who is ‘too cool’ to accept affection openly.

Cooking is an opportunity for growth. It allows everyone the ability to share, experience one another and be creative. When you have finished it is not something that has no meaning. Instead it is just the opposite; it has more meaning than food from a fast food place or even a nice sit down restaurant, simply because everyone had a hand in creating it.

-Bon Appétit

Good morning kitten.

OK, so I broke down the other day, I gave in. I agreed to get a cat!

My wife had wanted a cat and after much begging and pleading, I decided that it would be ok. Actually, it was more like she kept talking about it and wouldn’t stop so I agreed. I just felt it best to give her a hard time about it. I grew up with both dogs and cats so it didn’t bother me to get a cat. Growing up with both cats and dogs, I learned a few things. Cats are nice when they don’t have an attitude. Although I must admit that it is great when a tiny little cat can control a Very Big Saint Bernard.

We decided to adopt a kitten from a local animal shelter. We chose Emma because of her beautiful markings. She quickly became a part of the family. She enjoys being held so hopefully that will continue as she grows older, instead of having the standard attitude most cats have. While the wife felt that we should redecorate the Living Room in cat toys, the one she gets the most enjoyment from is a very inexpensive ball of yarn.

However, the most enjoyment I have received from having a kitten came at 6:30 on a Saturday morning. It was then that I woke up to go to the bathroom. Since I was too tired to fight with the kitten, I let her explore the bathroom, while I did what I needed to do. In the middle of my early morning ritual, the kitten decides to jump up on the edge of the toilet and proceeds to fall in, all while I am peeing. She immediately jumped from the toilet and took off!

I hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time. Needless to say, Emma received her first bath later that day. This was an experience in itself and luckily, no injuries from giving her a bath.

They say cats are smarter than dogs but, I don’t ever remember hearing of a dog jumping in a toilet, let alone, getting peed on. I have heard from so many people who say that the cat will remember that experience and won’t ever do that again. But after that, nothing would surprise me.

Dreams of a boring life.

When we were kids growing up, how many of us said, “I want to grow up to be someone who gets up everyday, goes to the same job and do the same boring, repetitive, meaningless task, day after day”?

I could just about bet that none of us ever had a dream like that. But that is exactly how most of our lives end up. Most of us had dreams of being somebody who did something incredibly exciting. Whatever happened to those dreams? Why did we let them go?

We would probably respond that life caught up to us, we began to listen to those who told us we couldn’t do it, we realized that they were dreams and we had bills to pay. While this may be true, why can’t we as adults find those dreams again and live life with some excitement?

While the dreams would have changed from the time we were kids, the idea is the same. Many times, it is just the fear of taking a chance and failing that stops us. Sure we may rationalize it in many ways but this is what it boils down to. So how do we recapture those dreams or more specifically, the dreams which ignite a fire in our heart?

Building passion is the beginning. By starting to focus on the thoughts, feelings and desires of what it is that you want and simply getting excited about it. As you do this, start taking some action towards your desire no matter how small. Now while this may sound somewhat like you’re hanging out in the self help section of the bookstore. What you are doing is changing the repetitive, day to day actions into something you enjoy. The more you increase doing the thing which you enjoy, the more you can decrease that which you don’t. Eventually you will be living your dream.

So if it is so simple, why don’t more of us take the step and begin changing our lives?

FEAR!

For Mom

Mom, as the time approaches where we set aside one day out of the 365 in an entire year to honor you, I thought I’d take a few minutes to give you some thoughts on how much everything you have done has been appreciated.

Being the youngest of three boys, I realize that by the time you got around to raising me, you had ‘given up’. Now most people may think that this is a bad thing but, I rather enjoyed it; it allowed me to get away with more. Now when I say you gave up, let me clarify, you didn’t give up as in quit, rather you just had enough and got to your breaking point, things just didn’t seem to bother you quite as much and because of that, I was able to do things that my brothers weren’t able to get away with. So actually, it isn’t you I should be thanking but, instead my brothers, for breaking you in and training you in the right way.

Now that we are ‘adults’, one of the more enjoyable times is when we are sitting around the dinner table, telling stories of our childhood. We can share these stories and tell you about them now just because you can’t ground us or punish us any more. The best part comes when we look over at you and you have this blank stare on your face and you respond with, “I never knew you did that!” Well now you do.

All humor aside, I do enjoy our relationship now. I am so thankful that I was raised with such love and care in such a wonderful family. This family has now grown to not only include children but grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. You have been the guiding force of this family. Thank you for everything you have done for me and for our family. Thank you for such wonderful love and guidance.

I’m proud to be your son!

Regrets of Time

Time travel is a concept which has intrigued people for a while. Even though Einstein theorized that it is possible, it is something we are not capable of proving right now. Although the idea has some interesting possibilities and even some dangers involved.

I watched to movies over the past weekend, both of which dealt with time travel but in different ways. ‘Click’ with Adam Sandler was about a man who has a ‘universal’ remote which allows him to control time by pausing and fast forwarding with the remote. The other movie was ‘The Lake House’ which had a unique spin on time and time travel. Two people communicated with one another yet they were separated by two years. Needless to say, after watching these movies and thinking about it, my brain would hurt a bit, although this has always been a subject I’ve enjoyed.

I wonder, if we were given the opportunity to travel back in time, how many of us really would want to. Memories are there for a reason, I think even if we were able to go back and relive the good times, just being able to watch and re-experience those events, it wouldn’t have the same effect on us. We would probably find our memories dull and boring compared to what they once were.

Everybody has regrets in their life which they wish they could change. It is these choices and our decisions (even the ones we regret) which make us the person we are today. Changing those decisions and correcting the regrets would make us a different person. Since we would be a different person, our lives and how they have turned out would be different. This is one of the paradoxes of time travel. A good example of this is the movie, ‘The Butterfly Effect’. Each time something in the past is changed, the future is changed.

One of the best stories I have read on time travel was a short story. I believe it was even called ‘The Paradox of Time Travel’. It was about a man who has a sex change at some point in his life, goes back in time and as a man, meets himself, as a woman. They create a child, which is he. Yes, it’s a hard concept to understand but, long story short, he is his own Father, Mother and Grandfather in the story. It’s a very interesting and unique story.

There are several paradoxes of time travel but, the question remains; would you really want to change anything? Regrets are there in your life to help you make better decisions the next time you are faced with a situation, it is a learning tool. One life, one time frame is hard enough to navigate; I couldn’t imagine trying to understand more than one. Making the right decisions, even if there are regrets down the line, allow me to become the best person I am capable of becoming.

For now, I think I will just leave time travel as something for the movies and stories. Instead, I think I will go take an asprin.