Go ahead...make my dinner

The aroma of sweet failure fills my nose. The onion, garlic, basil. The sounds of boiling pasta and stirring sauce fill the kitchen. I, the "captain" of this meal, have been relegated to toaster man.  Portuguese say they have the best cuisine in all of Europe... hard to disagree with. It is an art, an occasion.

Never tell a European you are going to cook dinner, and then pull out jars of sauce... never... seriously.  You will be making a trip to the market, then you will watch as THEY cook you dinner. And the sauce? From scratch. The toast, well that is for garlic bread,  rubbed with a garlic clove,made with olive oil, not butter, and sprinkled with basil. The sauce is made with "sub-par" tomatoes. Who cares, it's the best I have ever had. Sweet, almost fruity. The dinner is fantastic, lessons aplenty learned, for both cooking and life.

How often do we substitute the real fresh things for the "easy" convenient things. How many experiences in life do we get from a jar, instead of making it from scratch. We can take more time, I think, to slow down and take the long road journey. The ones where it may take more effort, with less worldly gain. We may have conditioned ourselves to picking up jars in life, instead of spending just a little more time to create from scratch. Our relationships, our art, our lifestyles, our projects, our work. We are bound by the chains of enculturation and habit, be they breakable as to our will.

Sometimes we need to be shown the road slowly traveled, one that may not take as long as we think it would, or will take longer than we think. But distance is not so challenging as the experiences are precious. I think it is time to slow down our paces, start from scratch, even if just a few things in life, one at a time.

Walking through the town of Alvore, we are struck with the livelyliness of the late night. I cannot help but notice the traditional lifestyle layered behind the skin of international influence, Irish pubs, American steakhouses, Jamacan bars. However, the Portuguese spirit has resolve, it has staying power.The Portuguese have traveled the world giving and recieving. They have brought worlds to their front door. Tourism has brought fancy lights and cuisines and clothes. But you will be struck by the old, the traditional. the Portuguese way. No encroachment, economy, generation, no cultural force will cover this face in the streets, like an old friend in the crowd, you cannot miss.

"For it is in giving that we receive."-St. Francis