Meditation
Discovery Ministries
Tuesday, February 23, 2008
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about perceptions. In the course of trying deal with my own perceptions, and those I hear from others I had an epiphany; flavor, everything has one, some times so subtle as to be undetectable. Looking at things through my newfound sense of taste I discovered the source of conflicts both real and imagined.
In the real sense, we often try to put things together that nature just will not allow; like adding baking soda to anything acidic, or even worse pouring it into a vat of vinegar, you better run. Some real things are not that intense we’ve just never tried that combination before, and we resist, mightily like someone has put sugar in our macaroni and cheese. It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not what our palates are used to. Sometimes things have subtle flavor, so there’s no way for us to detect anything until it’s too late, we have an allergic reaction, and in some cases we die.
On the imagined side things are a little different; we imagine that we won’t like a thing so we don’t. Our perceptions tell us that this well not be palatable so we won’t try it, or we try to drown it in salt or ketchup, before we even taste it, in an attempt to change the favor to something that we are used to. When we do this we don’t actually get the true flavor of the dish the chef intended. It’s like we’ve already decided that we prefer the taste of what we know, and anything served to us that challenges our palates is somehow an affront to that sense.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I realize that certain people don’t like certain flavors, or their systems just have not tolerance for them, and there’s nothing that can be done about that situation, except to not serve them that particular dish. Everybody like sweets, even though everybody should not eat them, but everything cannot be a confection all the time, sometimes you have to cook with what you have on hand. This is when the true gourmet, or diplomat shines through in all of us. We are able to put together a dish so flavorful, and aromatic that people beat down our door for the recipe. Not everyone has this artistic skill or talent, but that doesn’t mean that we should kick then out of the kitchen. It means that, like with all things, they need to be taught how to season so they don’t get a bad review. Peace and Long Life.
Love Worf
