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shadowkatDiscovered this lovely show "The Chef's Table" Pasta. Except for one thing - once again it seems to emphasize our media's obsession at being the best at something? We really do live in a meritocracy and I think it's damaging to folks mental health.
Just find things that you enjoy about what you do - you don't have to be the best at it.
I remember years ago, someone told me a story about a bunch of national merit scholars who had all tested as the top of their classes or groups for the National Merit Scholar Award. Then they came together only to discover that whoa, they weren't the best. There were at least 500 people who tested as well as they did.
And the storyteller went on to tell the group, that the scholars took the next test, and whoops, they weren't the best. And they didn't know how to handle this. What would they do? How could they cope?
The person telling the story said that there is always going to be someone who is better at it, eventually. The baseball player who has the perfect average one year will be beat by someone else the next.
The Chef's Table Series is interesting though? The first episode was about a man who was lost. His parents had raised him - with the view that he could do whatever he wanted, but he'd better do it really well and be the best that he could be at it. His brother had taught himself to play 13 different instruments by the age of 16, and his sister had an amazing singing voice. But he couldn't find anything that he could do well (most people can't), until he realized he was good at cooking and went to culinary school - but got frustrated when he got a job at a hotel - and the chef wouldn't teach him to make pasta. So he went to Italy and fell in love with pasta making, after many stops and starts, he's gone on to run a top tier restaurant in Beverly Hills, where he honors the women who taught him to make various forms of pasta, featuring each woman in the episode.
He states at the end of the episode that he realized he was meant to make pasta.
It's lovely, but I'm reminded of something? In our society, I think, folks become obsessed with defining themselves by what they do, but that's not who we actually are? Nor is it necessarily all that we are meant to do?
The chef believes he was meant to make pasta and to make the perfect pasta.
But really what stands out in the episode isn't that? It's the connections he makes along the way, the people he has helped, and what he's learned from them. Alessandra who adores him - and he features in the episode, and who taught him in Bologona, Italy how to make pasta with joy and love.
The restauranteur in Chicago, who teaches him how to grow employees and support them with love and good will. What's lovely about the episode is not the pasta, but the connections between the people and how they work together to make it. He doesn't make it by himself, he makes it with others and learns through others. And then he honors the women who taught him in Italy.
I realized at the end of the episode that he was lead to make pasta not to make pasta, but to connect with those people and learn from them as they learned from him. The pasta was just the ...string that tied them together or the catalyst that sent him on the journey. Important yes. But not the main ingredient.
Also, food made with love like all things...is far more nourishing even to those who create it, I think.
***
Headspace app gave me an exercise to deal with my anxiety and worry. Set aside a time each day to worry. Write in a journal about or talk about or think over your worries at that time only. No other time. Then let it go.
So this morning, I did that. I put down all the things I was worrying over, and how I was resolving them, and the real situations. And it helped.
My anxiety decreased substantially.
I think sometimes the internet increases my worries. (Not Dreamwidth, other things on the internet. Or the news. Or my emails. Stuff like that. Actually DW correspondence list is rather calming.)
***
Why is it that no matter what fandom I enter - folks split into factions over characters? And there's always a group that just heavily anti-ships a character or pairing - usually one I like?
It's why I tend to stay away from fandoms for the most part. My tolerance for this sort of thing is relatively low?
I tend to follow the story thread. And if I realize that the story thread is featuring characters or pairings, I despise? I stop watching. I don't whine incessantly about it for years on end. Seriously life is too short?
Just find things that you enjoy about what you do - you don't have to be the best at it.
I remember years ago, someone told me a story about a bunch of national merit scholars who had all tested as the top of their classes or groups for the National Merit Scholar Award. Then they came together only to discover that whoa, they weren't the best. There were at least 500 people who tested as well as they did.
And the storyteller went on to tell the group, that the scholars took the next test, and whoops, they weren't the best. And they didn't know how to handle this. What would they do? How could they cope?
The person telling the story said that there is always going to be someone who is better at it, eventually. The baseball player who has the perfect average one year will be beat by someone else the next.
The Chef's Table Series is interesting though? The first episode was about a man who was lost. His parents had raised him - with the view that he could do whatever he wanted, but he'd better do it really well and be the best that he could be at it. His brother had taught himself to play 13 different instruments by the age of 16, and his sister had an amazing singing voice. But he couldn't find anything that he could do well (most people can't), until he realized he was good at cooking and went to culinary school - but got frustrated when he got a job at a hotel - and the chef wouldn't teach him to make pasta. So he went to Italy and fell in love with pasta making, after many stops and starts, he's gone on to run a top tier restaurant in Beverly Hills, where he honors the women who taught him to make various forms of pasta, featuring each woman in the episode.
He states at the end of the episode that he realized he was meant to make pasta.
It's lovely, but I'm reminded of something? In our society, I think, folks become obsessed with defining themselves by what they do, but that's not who we actually are? Nor is it necessarily all that we are meant to do?
The chef believes he was meant to make pasta and to make the perfect pasta.
But really what stands out in the episode isn't that? It's the connections he makes along the way, the people he has helped, and what he's learned from them. Alessandra who adores him - and he features in the episode, and who taught him in Bologona, Italy how to make pasta with joy and love.
The restauranteur in Chicago, who teaches him how to grow employees and support them with love and good will. What's lovely about the episode is not the pasta, but the connections between the people and how they work together to make it. He doesn't make it by himself, he makes it with others and learns through others. And then he honors the women who taught him in Italy.
I realized at the end of the episode that he was lead to make pasta not to make pasta, but to connect with those people and learn from them as they learned from him. The pasta was just the ...string that tied them together or the catalyst that sent him on the journey. Important yes. But not the main ingredient.
Also, food made with love like all things...is far more nourishing even to those who create it, I think.
***
Headspace app gave me an exercise to deal with my anxiety and worry. Set aside a time each day to worry. Write in a journal about or talk about or think over your worries at that time only. No other time. Then let it go.
So this morning, I did that. I put down all the things I was worrying over, and how I was resolving them, and the real situations. And it helped.
My anxiety decreased substantially.
I think sometimes the internet increases my worries. (Not Dreamwidth, other things on the internet. Or the news. Or my emails. Stuff like that. Actually DW correspondence list is rather calming.)
***
Why is it that no matter what fandom I enter - folks split into factions over characters? And there's always a group that just heavily anti-ships a character or pairing - usually one I like?
It's why I tend to stay away from fandoms for the most part. My tolerance for this sort of thing is relatively low?
I tend to follow the story thread. And if I realize that the story thread is featuring characters or pairings, I despise? I stop watching. I don't whine incessantly about it for years on end. Seriously life is too short?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 06:44 pm (UTC)I knew I'd have to be able to read two foreign languages for a PhD and the Spanish I had in high school wasn't going to cut it. So I took German when starting college. I did well in it, so I decided to go ahead and take Russian *to raise my grade point average.* As the comedian says, I kid you not. It turned out my Russian instructors were excellent. I did very well. Though I wasn't a Russian major, I made friends quickly with the kids who were majors and made good friends with instructors over time, unlike in psych where I barely bothered to get to know anyone. It suddenly dawned on me when I was a senior "Oh, my god! These are my people! Why am I waiting for acceptance to grad school in psych? Psych is okay, but what do I really want to study?"
Nearly getting drafted for the Viet-Nam War was enough to make me write to the places I'd been accepted for grad school in psych and tell them politely "Thanks, but I'm not coming."
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 07:23 pm (UTC)