A perfect meal.

Poetry, short stories, paintings, photography, songs – art of all genres.

Moderators: windsong, BlueGobi, Moderators, vince13, Maelstrom, Astrid

User avatar
Andrew
Posts: 3303
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:35 am
Location: Tasmania Australia
Contact:

A perfect meal.

Postby Andrew » Mon Feb 08, 2010 7:37 am

Yesterday I finished what food there was in the house. About 8 medium potatoes mashed and mixed with a tin of baked beans and some cooked kidney beans left over from when the kids were here. I know, I'm an awesome cook, I should have had a dinner party. Anyway, this is just preamble: I had just that meal Sunday, finishing all the food in the house, so nothing until I went this afternoon.

This morning went by quickly. I had some stuff to do on here and it kept me busy and out of trouble. So it was well after midday before I started my hike down the hill to the local Coles- about 45 minutes walk, not so hard with an empty pack and down the big hill. It was about 30 degrees I guess, hot footpaths on barefeet and a bit sweaty under the cap but not dripping off or anything. I hadn't had anything to drink or eat for the day yet when I headed out.

On the way down the hill there is a little shortcut around a bend. Steeper than the footpaths and a bit slippery after rain (I did end up on my ass once in the mud) but a fairly nice path with trees for shade etc. Coming out of the trees I noticed the blackberries on the side were ripe. I braved the prickles on my feet and went up to them.. deciding even though I wasn't planning to eat till I got home what a nice way to breakfast.

I ate and ate, till my hearts content as they say. Not even overdoing it, just enjoying the taste and feeling of eating them. Knowing that as far as food goes this is as good as it gets. Walking along finding wild berries on an empty stomach and having your fill. Seriously, it just can't get better than that.

I mean, here is where I digress a bit. I enjoyed the meal immensely, thinking how wonderful it would be to live in a world where people had the common sense to plant food instead of ornaments! I was homeless for a month after moving interstate before I found a cheap caravan 'park' almost exactly a year ago. While I was roaming the streets I haunted several city parks, filled with a lot of expensive trees that are completely useless to the many homeless and poor people I had also saw on my travels. I mean, whoever first designed cities like this was a total dick. And it pains me to think that in all the years of civilisation nobody with enough power to make it happen has actually thought of planting edible plants in every spare plot of land they can find. Instead of wasting them all on pretty looking and nicely landscaped but basically useless trees and shrubs. Don't get me wrong, I'm a great fan of trees- huggable, lovable things. Hate seeing them destroyed. This isn't about what we destroy, it's about what we give life to and how much more thought can go into it. Cities don't have to be just concrete bitumen and steel they could be just as full of life as well. Full of life and life giving.

Blackberries are treated as weeds! Instead of keeping them under control and putting paths between them they put up with them until they get overgrown then spray and destroy them. Replacing them with something prettier. Bleh. One of our basic foods, perfect nutrition for us treated as weeds. Where is the sense? Where is the thought? What good are our brains if we don't use them?

Anyway, not being a glutton about it for a change I had my fill and kept on my little journey down the hill. I kept looking at my purple hands as I continued towards my goal, a far poorer food source, the fruit and vege shed- and beyond that the supermarket. The colour left on my palms and fingers reminded me of the meal I had just had- an ideal meal. A perfect meal even. The small cut on the back of my right middle finger a testament to my enthusiasm amongst the briar patch. And I could honestly say to myself that it was the most satisfying meal I have ever had in my life. No cooked or processed meal could ever come close. (In fact anything cooked or processed I enjoyed half as much I would certainly have gorged myself on- spoiling the effect anyway. Food, or gluttony let's say, is probably the only real crutch/vice I have left even though it's most healthy food I indulge in these days)

So although this will probably seem like a mostly negative expression to many, to me it was a very rare good experience. The negativity is just background noise for me. It's just a selection of the many negative views I have of this world and our civilisation in general. And as it is background noise for me so it is also background for the story I tell. A rare good event in my life, small though it may be. A perfect meal.

I wanted to share it, and although I don't say much here. The reason being that there is usually little to say about my life and even less motivation to write it down. Something did happen today and as little as that event was I felt like sharing it for a change. And you are the people I wanted to share it with.

So thankyou for listening.

Edit: The problem with this crazy mind is it's sometimes forgetful. I forgot to add this little bit in so I'm doing it now. Not sure where it should slot in, I'll work that out later.

And then I start to consider what the cost of such a simple meal would be in the real world we live in today. For this is a simple food, or should be. One we've evolved to thrive on over hundreds of thousands of years. I shudder to think how much goes rotten every season- locked behind barbed wire fences, out of reach in ill kept and overgrown bramble patches- or worse just ignored by a world that doesn't care enough about such things, while so many go without. And while they rot in fields around the city they are sold in shops for upwards of $5 for a small handful- the price of a whole meal at Mcdonald's! And the small punnet only contains a version of the fruit that is bitter from being picked before it was able to ripen fully. My 'perfect meal' was even more than this, maybe four punnet's full. For the price of four punnet's of bitter blackberries you could go to a very reasonable restaurant. And this is only one reason why 'healthy' or 'natural' food is rarely the first choice or even high on any shopping list in today's wonderful world of processed miracles.

Last edited by Andrew on Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Warmsoul/Jeanie13
Posts: 29195
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:46 pm
Contact:

Postby Warmsoul/Jeanie13 » Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:00 am

(((((((((((((((( Andrew )))))))))))))))))))))

Oh my! Don't know how to express what I felt, feel. You shared a precious moment. Thank you.

Hope you don't mind, but I posted the following in the Corner, so others won't miss this. It truly is a must read! Thank so much for sharing. More Please!

Jeanie

((((((((((((( All ))))))))))))))))

This is a much needed read. Written by one the most sharing, caring and important persons to the chat room and here in the forums.

Needless to say I was touched. Smiled a lot, cried a lot and went back into my memories of life. Made me realize, that it is not the most expensive, the most beautiful, the position in life that gives you the greatest joy. Made me see that society tends to get the priorities a little screwed up. Thank you so very much ((((((((((( Andrew )))))))))))) for sharing as you did.

Now I want more from you!

Warmie/Jeanie


Please click on this, sit back, read, enjoy and please reply to it.

http://depression-understood.org/forum/ ... highlight=

TackingIntoTheWind
Posts: 1060
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:35 am
Location: South Wales

Postby TackingIntoTheWind » Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:32 pm

I remember when I was a child in infants' school in South Wales, ( my first ever school ), there was a lane between the school on one side, and the walls and fences of the adjacent houses on the other. Among other plants and vegetation growing on these walls and fences there were a few wild blackberries. And at the right time we were able to pick and eat a couple of wild blackberries from these otherwise overlooked plants.
This is thirty to forty years ago now. But I remember that so clearly.

User avatar
crystalgaze
Posts: 2511
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:11 pm
Location: USA

Postby crystalgaze » Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:07 pm

Hi there Andrew! Thank you for sharing! Awww!!!! I wish I could have some!!! T.T It does sound like it would be GOOD!

I guess I'm a little lucky... I am able to forage a bit, if I just go down the road & look hard enough. It's true, though; why not plant something you can eat?! So so so true.... My dad is like that & his father was like that; they insisted that there should be something in the yard to eat, in case we fell on hard times or there was bad weather.

User avatar
Andrew
Posts: 3303
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:35 am
Location: Tasmania Australia
Contact:

Postby Andrew » Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:20 am

Thankyou all for the replies. And thankyou Jeanie for such lovely kind words. They touched me deeply.

As for more, I'd have to drag something out of mothballs. I don't get the urge to write much these days and when I do it's pretty gloomy. My last efforts are buried in the blog and they are nothing like this one. I just felt this one deserved to see the light of day. The other stuff can stay in the dark corners I think. :)

*hugs*

Andrew.

User avatar
Warmsoul/Jeanie13
Posts: 29195
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:46 pm
Contact:

Postby Warmsoul/Jeanie13 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:14 pm

(((((((((((((((( Andrew ))))))))))))))

No, thank you. Looking forward to more from you.

Jeanie

Obayan
Posts: 4516
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:51 am
Location: oklahoma
Contact:

Postby Obayan » Wed Apr 21, 2010 12:34 am

I don't have many memories from growing up and the ones I do have are not nice enough to write about. But I do have grape vines and honeysuckle growing along the fencelines of my home. And you inspired me to make a memory with my grandson. Thank you Andrew. You are truely one of a kind my friend.


Return to “Art Work”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 203 guests