The drone of the fan in the other room, the gentle tap-tap-tap of the soon-to-be-hardboiled eggs simmering in the pan for tonight's dinner, the chop-chop-chop of the melon and other fruits for the chilled salad to be served to celebrate the sun's setting are early morning kitchen sounds during this excessively hot summer weather. It seems strange to be up so early and hard at work in the kitchen.
We think we have maximized the 24/7 lifestyle, and then the heat settles in. We have no quick and easy air-conditioning buttons to push. We suddenly are connected to those people sitting on a stoop in Chicago or New York, fanning themselves and waiting for the cool of the evening. Their children know how to open fire hydrants - do we?
Well, we do not need to know, for we have garden hoses and lawns and sprinklers and other water devices, such as strolling to our lakes or to the edge of Puget Sound. We bemoan the heat, we become crabby, we talk and write endlessly about it, and then the beauteous marine air comes flowing back in and shuts us all up.
But then we have to get back to our stressed-out schedules and our moral dilemmas. Can we continue to deeply inform ourselves about the world situation, or do we hide our heads, hearts and minds in the sand? Where is the leadership, the dialogue, the honest assessments, or do we pick at the sound bites, worry about our rising mortgage rates, wonder only briefly - and thank the ringing cellphone for interrupting our concerns.
It ain't easy! We soldier on, each in our own way, trying our best. I am always amazed at the resilience of the human race, even while the race, under the dominion of power, religion and greed, inflicts such incredible, mind-boggling horrors. Poets, writers, painters and theologians have expounded down through the ages, and yet....
For some sort of reassurance, I hold dear the gentle tap of the eggs simmering in the pan.[[In-content Ad]]
