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ecophilosophy - on modern living

MODERN LIVING  ~ j. christina brittain

MODERN LIVING  ~ Bill Buford
 Excerpts from Heat ( 2006)

MODERN LIVING  ~ Nicolas Freeling
Excerpts from The Kitchen and The Cook (1970, 1972)
 
 

 

 

 

 

MODERN LIVING

On the path of least resistance:

The path of least resistance isn't always the easiest one...it can be the one you know the best, or the one you navigate well. Consider the possibility that there is another, more rewarding way to accomplish what you are doing.

On being stuck in a place that might not feel the best:

If you and I were to sit down chatting, what question would you not want me to ask? Use it as a starting place for finding a better way.

The secret to moving forward:

When you are stuck, a good way to move forward is to quit cutting and pasting your past into your present experiences. Stale old, ways of knowing the world need to be put away. Ask fresh insights and ideas to take their place.

On freeing yourself:

Sometimes it is more productive and more freeing to be truthful than to be nice.

On wranglers:

In the old west, a good wrangler was essential to the business of successfully breeding, rearing, and marketing cattle. It was the wrangler's job to keep the cowboys' horses and equipment ready and available for work.

Today, few horse wranglers still work on the open range. Instead, their positive contribution to life has been replaced by a destructive kind of wrangler who is intent on destroying your enjoyment of everyday life. This is the person who disputes, quarrels, and argues about everything no matter how insignificant the issue may be.

Next time you're confronted with one of these negative wrangler, take immediate steps to protect yourself from his or her habit of stealing your positive energy. But don't make the mistake of challenging the 'person'; instead challenge the joy-sapping behavior. Say to the wrangler: Instead of use wrangler ways to make yourself feel good, why not try another way?

It's likely the wrangler will look confused about what you said, but don't worry about it. At least, you got away.
 

MODERN LIVING  ~ Bill Buford
       Excerpts from Heat ( 2006)

Most metropolitan professions are language-driven--urban, deductive, dominated by thought, reading, abstraction from the moment you wake and wonder how to dress for the day and read a weather report to find out. (Cooking is) learning like a child (by experiencing life through the senses.)

Nature is God's gift to himself for having created human beings.

MODERN LIVING   ~ Nicolas Freeling
Excerpts from The Kitchen and The Cook (1970, 1972)

On modern architecture and living space:

In a corner somewhere a small microwave oven was built into the wall next to the garbage disposal; one would have the greatest difficulty distinguishing between the two. The designer was most enthusiastic about this touch.; think! no smell, no labour, no time used. And what would one cook? Ah, yes, a hamburger, and that in just a few seconds.

These poor people, eating the cornflakes of jargon instead of the hard bread of instruction, were it was obvious, incapable of tasting, chewing, or digesting any food whatever, whether mental or physical, and were perfectly happy with this state of affairs: at last they had got rid of all those nasty smells of earth, rain and sea, all that horrible matter. That mankind eats and defecates, what ghastly state of affaires, it must be stopped instantly.

On the benefits of cooking:

Cooking gives, in useful, accessible and relatively cheap form, a measure of relief from an existence with no activity (and no smells), a world in which one can work all day without once breathing real air, without once seeing daylight, without once walking up and down steps, a world in which the greatest muscular effort asked is initialing a piece of paper. (253)

...society is suffering from the push-pull effect again, resulting in a very slow running-on-the-spot, with jerks and grimaces, which is our substitute for the Tritsch -Tratsch Polka,. It should seem clear that bewildered children doing their own thing feel that they are being manipulated and played with. Cooking one's own dinner, however badly, is a simple and happy therapy. And what does it matter what you cook? Even with a half a pound of sausages one can rediscover the pleasure of the past and be a greasy lout.

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