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You know the feeling that things you thought
bullsh*tty suddenly start to make sense and
things, even exciting discoveries, that used to
make sense no longer do? I have felt that way
a few times in recent years but today I will
focus on bread-baking.
It appealed to my sense of accomplishment and
yearning for freedom. An amatuer could do it well.
Michael Pollan, in his book "Cooked," described
how after trials and errors he made decent Tartine
bread. Moreover, the American baking scene is
teeming with inspiring stories of self-made
free-lance entrepenures. Last Dec, I read about
one guy who quited his IBM job, went up to
Portland, OR, opened a successful bakery and
wrote "Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast."
I dabbled in baking artisan bread a few times with
mixed results. As interest grew, I invested
in the art with more reading and tools of the
trade. I disclosed my ambition to a friend and,
after enthusiastic encouragements, she warned:
"Watch the electricity bill grow, though."
Well. I don't have to now. I give up and it's not
because I suck at it (I do). Wheat is fattening
for me (and likely my son), as I have discovered
over time. This is one big deal. Since my great
awakening to health, I have chosen to eat to live
and not the other way around.
Then I read
“The wise man then followed a simple way of
life – which is hardly surprising when you
consider how even in this modern age he seeks
to be as little encumbered as he possibly can.
How, I ask you, can you consistently admire
both Daedalus and Diogenes? Tell me which of
these two you would say was a wise man, the
one who hit on the saw, or the one who on
seeing a boy drinking water from the hollow of
his hand, immediately took the cup out of his
knapsack and smashed it, telling himself off
for his stupidity in having superfluous
luggage about him all that time, and curled
himself up in a jar and went to sleep. And
today just tell me which of the following you
consider the wiser man: the one who discovers
a means of spraying saffron perfumes to a
tremendous height from hidden pipes, who fills
or empties channels in one sudden rush of
water, who constructs a set of interchangeable
ceilings for a dining room in such a way as to
produce a constant succession of different
patterns, with a change of ceiling at each
course? Or the one who proves to others and to
himself that nature makes no demand on us that
is difficult or hard to meet and that we can
live without the marble-worker and the
engineer, that we can clothe ourselves without
importing silks, that we can have the things
we need for our ordinary purposes if we will
only be content with what the earth has made
available on its surface. If they only cared
to listen to this man, the human race would
realize that cooks are as unnecessary to them
as are soldiers.”
from Seneca the stoic and that sealed the deal.
Leaving the tribe, intellectually at least, seems necessary to gain
different perspectives, e.g., on health.
But please don't feel more justified not cooking for loved ones ;-)
For me, I try to influence people around me, mostly my son and dad, what's good food and life style.
The results have been mixed but I am hopeful.