And then there's times...

That I feel mellow.

I went to Publix today to get my Thanksgiving stuff. I'd already baked 8 dozen butterscotch/pecan/oatmeal cookies this morning, and a pork butt was sitting in the oven while two loads of laundry were busily working away.
Everyone was rushing around pushing each other out of the way, shoving past and in front of each other. So... I walked. I held doors. I was soft spoken and polite and careful and even made nice comments to people - who were obviously completely floored. Apparently Saturday is the day to speed through grocery stores and parking lots so that one can bustle home again.

I was thinking...

There is a woman I know who always brags about her cooking; bakes and cooks and treats everyone to everything imaginable. Yet I have always found her food particularly tasteless and store-bought-flavored. The gentle nuances of basil or feta are apparently an unopened book to her. Dry and crusty are adjectives that come to mind when I think about her baked goods. Yet I would never try to compete with her, far less enlighten her, in her little world of make believe. She has no idea that people are simply being polite.She brags about her canned and packaged throw-togethers like they were truly remarkable creations, not even bothering to throw in a little real butter instead of the tasteless spreads or empty fat of shortening.

A friend of mine always says. "You can COOK?" in that incredulous voice. Yes I can. I've been cooking from scratch since I was 10, and picked out my mother's new stove when I was 12, because I was the one who knew how to use it. In our house, it was either learn to cook - or eat grossly unpalatable mush. Besides, cooking from scratch saves a ton of money, adds delicate flavors, and increases vitamin uptake - the reason we are supposed to eat to begin with. I simply don't ram my productions down everyone's throats - partly because getting it out the door before it's eaten is a challenge.

So as I was watching people bustling to and fro, trying to pick out this frozen pie or that one, or debating the pros and cons of this canned food or that, I thought about how these folks would suffer if there were no more microwaves or instant everything, or no fast food drive thrus. It made me quietly sad. So I bought two new window basil plants to cheer me up.