Showing posts with label lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lessons. Show all posts

Sunday, March 22, 2009

sharpening our lenten knives


I own only one sharp knife. It is small. Tuesday night I was told of its formal name: “a paring knife” and I was also notified that such a knife would by no means be sufficient for a “normal person’s kitchen”. My disinterest in all things culinary is nothing new. I’ve baked no-bake cookies and made 10 Minute Rice in three minutes. One boyfriend joyfully noshed on raw cauliflower after an earnest attempt to serve him baked eggplant for dinner, and another asked in his annoying Afro-British accent, “Have others tried to domesticate you, and they’ve failed?” - - Making me sound less like a woman who prefers to have food prepared for her and more like a feral beast. Somehow though, I have survived in the United States sans the ability to cook, and also without a television or an alarm clock, for what it is worth.

The controversy surrounding my paring knife and the frustration it caused Ben really got me thinking about the things people do in their own lives that cause me such distress when I am in their space. You know, those things that just amaze me that somehow they too manage to survive. Things like the oh-so-common Hansel and Gretel sort of trail of shoes and dirty clothes through the apartment that so many boys seem to be fine with. Or how my friends in the burbs choose to drive their two tons of steel every time they need something from the CVS around the corner. Or the fact that people say they don’t have enough time to exercise or write notes. How do these people survive, I wonder?

I guess they must have a nice knife collection.

Friday, December 12, 2008

2008: Months of Lessons Learned


January: A rapid detox from Ethics class can be achieved with immediate lunch with the guys.

February: Sometimes you can feel very small while standing by the ocean, or anywhere in Dubai.

March: If a guy you are interested tells you that he knows all the words to Les Miserables, take it as a red flashing light.

April: A Masters Thesis is an invitation, not a bookend.

May: Never presume you are locked out when a door shuts unexpectedly; but if you drive over the river to get your key, enjoy the sunset on the bridge.

June: Haitians live by the hand of grace, at the mercy of a few individuals and a system with only gleans of redemption and hope.

July: Hoosiers love basketball. And for street signs? Not so much.

August: There’s nothing that can’t be cared for while sitting in an Adirondack chair on the porch.

September: Like life, the cholla cactus may at first appear to be one animal, but it is really another.

October: Even while dressed in Notre Dame gear, it is ok to start cheering for UW half way through the game: loyalty always surfaces.

November: The wealthiest county in the US, Fairfax County, can still be capable of great things - - such as being responsible for the first use of the words “President-Elect Obama!”

December: Unlike intestinal parasites, the gesture of hospitality can make you a victim of the host’s pathology, but in loving friendship all things can be conqured.