What I’m Grateful For: Food (Part 2 of 3)

Part 1: Sharing Food, Together 

Entire books and research studies (mostly anthropological ones) have been done around the breaking of bread, around sharing food together, communally. Symbolic rituals, from hand washing to prayer, from passing the salt, to leaving it out of the meal altogether (in many parts of the ancient Middle East, if salt was shared by guest and host, then they had entered a covenant, a treaty, that could not be broken) – sharing and eating food together is far more rich and intricate and meaningful than most of us think about when we sit down to the table.

But if when I think about it, there’s a wealth of peculiarities in my own family story – being Swedish by way of Minnesota, we have an overwhelming compulsion to give guests more stuff – more coffee, more cake, more potatoes, oh you must have dessert! – it’s a source of amusement when I step back from myself, as I can see the inevitable coming, as my “offering things” compulsion takes over and the poor guests have to finally acquiesce…. oh the joys of sharing food!

What are your traditions, rituals, or peculiar ways of eating? I would love to hear a good story or two!

What I’m Reading: 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson! Rule #8 Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie.

Ways of speaking and communicating can run the gamut: from little white lies to great big whoppers, from leaving out things that might offend to leaving out news of your recent betrayal. You can lie from omission or commission – you can lie to gain favor, lie to avoid pain, fib to escape the guilt that you ate the last piece of chocolate…. there are so MANY ways in which we all can – and most of us do – tell lies.

But Jordan contends that even the most innocuous and innocent lie is a betrayal of yourself: “If you betray yourself, if you say untrue things, if you act out a lie, you weaken your character. If you have a weak character, then adversity will mow you down when it appears, as it will, inevitably.”

What do you think about this? At first take, I have some objections. But as I keep thinking about this, I am slowly starting to think he’s right. What are your thoughts?

Nick’s Real Estate Tip: Appeal to your clients’ noble yearnings! By allowing your client to be the bigger, better, nobler person they will see the big picture and get past the small stuff. Check out the video HERE

Quick Web Tip: Google has gone through many many changes and updates, remember what it looked like way back when? Well, neither did I until I found this Easter Egg. Pull up a Google search bar and type in “Google in 1998” (without the quotes) and search the web, basking in fond nostalgia.

What I’m Pondering: “How wonderful we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.” -Niels Bohr