Tuesday, August 05, 2008

eating as entertainment











Steak, Martinis, Jami's mom, Gaby, and sister, Jennifer, and our niece Grace: all make for a wonderful evening of eating. Note Grace's special panache with pasta.
I attempted recreating a martini I'd had here in Durham: 1/3 Hendrix gin, 2/3 Chopin vodka. Jami reminded me at the last minute that the special thing about that martini was the cucumber soaked in brine; to me, the big olives don't lose any of the excitement of this martini.
The steak: a veal porterhouse - raised on a farm in western SC. I think that I would eat it again.
Meals bring us together - that is why the central sacrament of the Church is a meal, a bringing together and lifting up; and why all through scripture, the eschatological kingdom is a feast.
Something more than consuming food goes on in a meal.
Just like a painting is more than a representation or an expression.
Just like our bodies, which can be analyzed physically, have souls, the essence of which escapes observation.
Human life cannot be reduced to its mechanics - or when it's attempted a comic effect is produced.
Eating is more than the consumption of proteins for breakdown into amino acids.
And so it is.

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