Setting the Terms
I'm starting a blog about food. The standing of food in current culture, what food means to me, what it means to others, what I'd like it to mean for everyone, etc. I'm writing from the perspective of a participant in food culture rather than an active contributor. I've had a brief time involved in a high-end butcher shop but that hardly justifies what I'd consider an experienced perspective.
Instead, I write as someone who has consumed food his whole life, food culture for the past 8 years, and watched the appreciation of food progress and warp into something that can be beautiful, repulsive, and compelling, all at the same time.
I'm doing this so that I can determine how I want to approach food, if I want to at all.
Food means a lot to me, so much so that the very fact that I have to consider whether or not it's something I want to pursue is regrettable. But, when I take a step back and view the state of food in everyday society, it's impossible for me not to consider the question.
And, especially as of late, for no particular reason I've found my thoughts on my pursuit of food going in circles, unable to progress past certain focal points whose establishment I think necessary in the development of an overall philosophy of food.
When struggling with a challenging mathematical proof during my time in college, I found that laying out all the pieces of evidence I had before me on paper helped me greatly in reaching the solution. Similarly here, I hope to dump all my thoughts on the aforementioned focal points out onto this virtual paper** so that maybe the dots will connect themselves and I'll arrive at the end of my documentation with clearer eyes than ever before. Boom. No one will have to know that behind the egg on toast I'm serving them is pages and pages of treatise on food.
In the end, I'm doing this so that I can clarify my own philosophy on food (to myself) and reach a solid ground in my relationship to food. Then, with that relationship concrete and my understanding clear, hopefully, maybe, I can determine if, how, and when I want to approach food.
**I had a really heavy internal debate on whether to use a paper and pen for my thoughts or a digital blog. The pen and paper had a portability which was excellent, and honestly a somewhat romantic image associated with it (the man journaling in a cafe). But it was bound to be disorganized, harder to navigate, and the romantic aspect might just lead to self indulgence which would cloud my thought process. The blog, even though it necessitates me staring at a screen for additional hours of my day, should be cleaner. And, deep down inside, I think there's maybe a voyeuristic quality to it that I like.
Instead, I write as someone who has consumed food his whole life, food culture for the past 8 years, and watched the appreciation of food progress and warp into something that can be beautiful, repulsive, and compelling, all at the same time.
I'm doing this so that I can determine how I want to approach food, if I want to at all.
Food means a lot to me, so much so that the very fact that I have to consider whether or not it's something I want to pursue is regrettable. But, when I take a step back and view the state of food in everyday society, it's impossible for me not to consider the question.
And, especially as of late, for no particular reason I've found my thoughts on my pursuit of food going in circles, unable to progress past certain focal points whose establishment I think necessary in the development of an overall philosophy of food.
When struggling with a challenging mathematical proof during my time in college, I found that laying out all the pieces of evidence I had before me on paper helped me greatly in reaching the solution. Similarly here, I hope to dump all my thoughts on the aforementioned focal points out onto this virtual paper** so that maybe the dots will connect themselves and I'll arrive at the end of my documentation with clearer eyes than ever before. Boom. No one will have to know that behind the egg on toast I'm serving them is pages and pages of treatise on food.
In the end, I'm doing this so that I can clarify my own philosophy on food (to myself) and reach a solid ground in my relationship to food. Then, with that relationship concrete and my understanding clear, hopefully, maybe, I can determine if, how, and when I want to approach food.
**I had a really heavy internal debate on whether to use a paper and pen for my thoughts or a digital blog. The pen and paper had a portability which was excellent, and honestly a somewhat romantic image associated with it (the man journaling in a cafe). But it was bound to be disorganized, harder to navigate, and the romantic aspect might just lead to self indulgence which would cloud my thought process. The blog, even though it necessitates me staring at a screen for additional hours of my day, should be cleaner. And, deep down inside, I think there's maybe a voyeuristic quality to it that I like.
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