24 favourites for 24 years

"Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants."
— Margaret Atwood (Der blinde Mörder / The Blind Assassin)

Margaret Atwood wrote these words about 11 years ago – before the advent of myspace, facebook, and twitter. Now, in an era where we can share what we are thinking at the very second it comes to mind with all of our friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers, Atwood’s question is so very prevalent.

So, when I read this passage, I felt a little odd because earlier today I was thinking “hey – wouldn’t it be great if I created a list for my blog of my 24 favourite things and posted it on my 24th birthday?”

My twenty-fourth birthday is in 11 weeks away. I have decided that to celebrate my 24 years on this planet, I would take stock of the things I love – and share them with you. One of the main reasons that I am making this list, other than to celebrate my 24 years on this planet, is because I find myself constantly looking ahead to where I would like to be. Since I am always looking forward or planning for tomorrow, I fear that sometimes I forget to just exist today. So this is me – today. And this way, in the future, I can look back on today and remember where I was.

So, here is how I am going to do this. Every week until my birthday, I am going to share a few of my favourite things and why they are my favourite. Here are two things to start us off:

Blue time:

It’s the time of day you like best: that hour
just before dark, when the colours
and shapes of things seem to forget
their daylit boundaries, so that the sound
of someone whistling in the street is the last pink
light on the horizon, fading through other sounds
of traffic and laughter into lilac, into blue-grey.
(Bronwen Wallace, “Coming Through” 1-7)

Blue time is that time of day, just before the sun rises or sets, where the light bathes everything in a blue hue. This is the time of day that is the most peaceful – a kind of limbo before the day or night. I love Wallace’s description of blue time. It is something I read long after I began admiring this time of day. “[W]hen the colours/ and shapes of things seem to forget/ their daylit boundaries.” It is the moment of potentiality – where anything could happen, or what did happen doesn’t seem to matter as much. This is my favourite moment: a peace that never could exist in any other moment of the day.

Good food:
There are not many things that I appreciate more than creating and enjoying good food. This usually means real food – whole food that hasn’t been spoilt by processing or extra, unnecessary ingredients. This is food that I can create in my own kitchen, and/or share with my family or friends. I think food should be treated with respect – it is the very thing that keeps us going. I think food should be treated ethically – without the perversion of preservatives, pesticides or food science, and I certainly don’t think that our food should be injected with growth hormones and made to wallow in its own feces all day. Most of all, I think food should be simple and delicious – something that anybody could create in his or her own kitchen.

While I think that we tend to eat far too much meat, I am unapologetically not a vegetarian. I think that meat should be eaten sparingly, once or twice a week on average. Even still, I cannot make the jump towards vegetarianism, because I think that people should master the art of balance. Vegetarians don’t necessarily eat better than those among us who include meat in our diets. I know far too many vegetarians who do not eat correctly or ethically at all.

I really, truly believe that meat need not be avoided all together – and one of the main reasons I cannot avoid it is for cultural reasons. Meat is a very important part of Greek cuisine, and something I am not willing to give up. Furthermore, I love to travel and experience new and different cuisine, and meat is a large part of the food culture all over the world. I don’t eat meat very often, mostly because I cannot stand the thought of all the hormones and antibiotics that are pumped into the cows, pigs, and chickens we eat. However, when I can enjoy meat as part of a meal with family, friends, or in a new place, I most certainly will. We should seek balance in our lives rather than fanatically clinging to ideologies. This is not to say that I look down upon those who choose vegetarianism – I think that there are compelling environmental and ethical reasons for avoiding the meat the food industry produces. But I also think that by drastically cutting down on the amount of meat you consume, and trying to ensure that it comes a local and ethical source, one can maintain a very balanced and healthy lifestyle.

Maybe in future "favourites" blog post, I will share some of the foods I love the most - but for now, I will just leave it at "Good Food," because I think that there is a very big and very important difference between food, and "good" food.