Gratitude Lounge

See, while I was reading the book, even with its criticisms of Western culture, I didn’t take it personally, it only revealed to me a different aesthetic, and they are really speaking specifically about the aesthetic of the tea room and zen Buddhist monasteries, because he does criticize Japanese culture to a lesser degree too, in several chapters. For example in Flowers for instance, ” The wanton waste of flowers among Western communities is even more appalling than the way they are treated by Eastern Flower Masters.” I just see it as the author is either so immersed in the one austere aesthetic -or- and I really think this may be true – that he is masterfully manipulating us to see through the eyes of that aesthetic, and to understand that perspective as not being barren, but a refinement of selective editing, with very subtle beauties. For me, his approach helped me to understand that aesthetic much better, because it was from the perspective of the inside out, and not from the perspective of a westerner trying to understand eastern philosophy within the context of western philosophy. At no point does the author try to understand an aesthetic of Western culture, nor does he try to translate the tea ceremony into western terms..

Personally, yeah, I’m a maximalist. As much as I enjoy simplicity, as much as I am in the process of editing my belongings, I still love my stuffed bookcases, my kids’ art fitted among the shelves, my blue & white rice dishes in the kitchen, etc. And if I rolled up a futon every morning to put in the closet I might be a bit of a fake.

But the chapter on Flowers is the one I remember the most from my first reading, because it was so clearly deliberate from beginning to end. He builds tension, waxing long about the violence all humans do towards flowers, the only thing that can’t defend itself, only to end the chapter with, “In such instances we see the full significance of the Flower Sacrifice. Perhaps the flowers appreciated the full significance of it. They are not cowards, like men.”

I think he knew how he was going to end the chapter before he wrote the beginning. He was trying to make a point of appreciating the ephemeral and “defenseless” quality of flowers. Keep in mind, this was also written in 1956, following WWII where so many “flowers” (a term sometimes used for kamikaze) and also when children were being born with birth defects because of mercury. I would be more surprised if the author held no sadness or bitterness. Was there more than one meaning he was trying to get across with his book? I don’t know. I haven’t gotten to the biographical sketch, yet.

Lol.

We had a good day here today. Pretty lazy but we did do some things. I started reading The Book of Tea again and did some knitting. For dinner I made a very delicious, “Kung Pao Pork Surprise,” a.k.a…. clean out the fridge of unrelated leftovers…
one onion
celery with the bad bits cut off
sauted in saved bacon grease
leftover pork
leftover breakfast sausages
leftover cooked carrots
the tail end of a bag of frozen sweet peppers
the last of a jar of roasted peanuts that my husband doesn’t usually eat because the bottom of the jar is too salty (these got the salt washed off before putting the peanuts into the mix)
dried cayenne peppers saved from my garden and a bit of pepper flakes
two dried up old mushrooms
leftover pineapple chunks in light syrup
soy sauce
a little Kung Pao sauce from Aldi
about a teaspoon of natural sugar
cooked until the sauce was thick
and served over leftover white rice because my husband always cooked a half cup dry rice per person instead of a quarter cup, lol. Mountains of rice!

I felt really happy! My “boys” loved it and I got, let’s see… one, two, three, four,… five containers… no, 6 as I forgot the rice…out of the refrigerator, plus the peanut container and a bag out of the freezer! We have space again and it was yummy and different! 😋