27 March 2011

Today was awesome because I started reading one of my favourite books again.

As many people do, I go back and revisit my favourite books from time to time, like you do an old friend.  And from within the familiar pages of my beloved hardcovers and paperbacks, such as The Count of Monte Cristo, 1984, and The Princess Bride, I always manage to come across a passage, phrasing, or quotation that feels new.  Perhaps I was a little tired and my eyes were heavy the last time I was on these particular pages and the words barely registered... maybe my emotional or mental state is different than the last time I read the book in question and words that never jumped out at me before now make so much sense... or it could be that I've started relating to a character I never identified with before.

Discovering wonderful "new" bits to the books I adore is always exciting, but what I love most is reaching the moments that I love most.  When Edmond Dantes first meets the Abbé Faria while wrongfully exiled and imprisoned in the Chateau D'If.  When Julia slips Winston a piece of paper and he unfolds it to discover the words, "I LOVE YOU."  When, after listening to Vizzini proclaim several accomplished feats to have been "inconceivable!" Inigo finally comes to the conclusion, "You keep on using that word.  I do not think it means, what you think it means."

My favourite travel/lifestyle/philosophy book is "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel" by Rolf Potts.  From cover to cover it is full of the most brilliant advice, anecdotes, profiles of people like Jack Kerouac, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau, and the most inspiring, thought-provoking, soul-searching quotations by them and many other of the world's greatest writers, thinkers, philosophers, and travelers.

I love this book.  I LOVE this book.  I've read it and re-read it so many times.  I've bought extra copies and given them out as gifts to friends whom I thought could use the inspiration, or sometimes, just because I wanted them to understand me a little bit more. (Many years ago, I even wrote a short recommendation for the book that was published on the Matador Network and can still be found there today.)

When my ukulele and other belongings arrived from Nelson, BC last week, Vagabonding was among the most prized possessions to return.  I never travel anywhere without it, always pulling it out of my rucksack for an extra boost of energy on the road or to share the wisdom of its' contents with kindred spirits (or doubters) I meet along my way.

Tonight, as I picked up the book to continue reading, it flipped open to a random page and my thumb happened to land on a wonderful thought that I'd like to share with whomever may be reading this:

It is easy in the world to live after the

world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to

live after your own; but the great man is

he who in the midst of the crowd keeps

with perfect sweetness the independence

of solitude.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"

(from Vagabonding by Rolf Potts, Villard Books, 2003)

(What made your day awesome?  Tell me in the comments section below.  Reading it will be one more awesome part of my day!)

21 March 2011

Today was awesome because John Lennon taught me how to cook rice "the proper way."

I struggle with rice.  Oh, I love rice... it's one of my all-time favourite grains... but unless it comes in a big box, proudly named after how rapidly you can cook it, I never seem to get it right.

I think it's hereditary.  My mother gave me curly hair and the uncanny ability to constantly screw up boiling something in water.

After a couple of unsuccessful stove-top attempts, my housemate Darryl offered me the use of his Cuisinart Rice Cooker.  "Foolproof!" he says.  "Add the rice, add the water, flip the switch, walk away.  When the rice is ready, the switch will automatically flip over from 'cook' to 'warm.'  Enjoy."

Ok.  Easy enough. 
Add the rice.  Done!
Add the water.  No problem.  I'm pretty good at this.
Flip the switch.  Piece of cake, did it with one finger.
Walk away.  Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot.  No worries there.
When the rice is ready, the switch will automatically flip.  Hm, so it did!
Now, enjoy... this mushy clump of half-raw, half-burnt rice.

Foiled again, I returned to the sofa and pulled "Memories of John Lennon, edited and introduced by Yoko Ono" on to my lap.  A collection of letters, stories, photos, sketches, and poems from John's friends, relatives, acquaintances, and admirers, sent to Yoko.  I was reading an entry by Klaus Voormann.  An artist and musician who befriended the young Beatles in their early Hamburg days, which led to a lifelong creative partnership (including the cover art for Revolver and The Beatles Anthology).  Klaus is recounting one night at John and Yoko's apartment in The Dakota building in New York.  A few pages into the tale, John said, "I'll show you how to cook rice the proper way."

Really!?!?  Only minutes after my own disaster, John Lennon- a man who has inspired me and influenced me in countless ways- is now going to teach me how to successfully make a pot of rice!  I couldn't believe the timing.  So perfect!  What an amazing world!

I'll share his method with you now:

["Now, watch me very closely."  Out of one of the cupboards, he pulled out a pot, in which he poured a few hands full of brown rice.  "And now comes the important part!"  John's face was serious when he filled me in to the art of rice cooking.  "Now you have to put your hand on the rice.  Like this, you see?"  He moved over a little to the side so I could have a better look into the pot.  John was putting his right hand into the pot on top of the rice.  "Now you pour the water over your hand, but please wash before you do that!"

"You mean the rice or the hand?"

"Klaus, I ask you!  Of course the hand.  So don't touch the rice with dirty hands."  He took a can of water and poured it into the pot.  "You only pour as much water into the pot until the back of your hand is covered with water.  Now watch me closely--like this."  He slowly let the water run over his hand.

"By watching your face, I would assume this is cold not boiling water."

"Very well observed, my boy.  Don't try to be funny now.  I don't go for German jokes.  Now you add a little salt, like this, and then you let the whole thing simmer and when the water has evaporated, then the rice is ready to be eaten."]

Thanks, John!!! And Klaus and Yoko for sharing.


(What made your day awesome?  Tell me in the comments section below.  Reading it will be another awesome part of my day!)