Lessons from the Grill

by Richard Reeve on July 12, 2009

in @CCSeed

Grilling Drumsticks

Grilling Drumsticks

“…a symbolism of cooking which parallels the vision of Zosimos, who saw, in the “bowl” of the altar, people being transformed in boiling water.” Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par. 200.

When we commit ourselves to the analogical mode, it’s funny how an unexpected insight finds relevance way over in a different part of our life.  Tonight, for instance, a case in point while standing at the grill.

What does it take to cook the meal till it’s done?

I’m not much of a cook.  Each spring when it’s time to start cooking on the grill I need to relearn the same lesson: cooking things long enough.  The first few times I always end up needing to restart the grill and throw the food back onto fire. And it’s not just for a few minutes.  My instinct is so far off it usually means doubling the time I allowed for.

As the season progresses I learn to observe the subtle changes that take place when the meat gets cooked thoroughly,  like the shrinkage that occurs.

Tonight while allowing the needed time to unfold, I was considering a deficiency in my blogging as I look to improve my work here moving toward the one year mark.  I tend to hit publish to soon, before a post has time to cook thoroughly. Then I run back into the edit mode trying to clean things up, realizing some missed points, missed opportunities for links, and the ever present misspellings.

There’s a clear alchemical reference here.  Pulling things out of the fire to soon interrupts the potential transformation, effectively ruining the whole procedure.  Have you noticed that keeping the contents on the fire a bit longer tends to result in a better meal for everyone involved?

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  • Well, this one made me chuckle. Indeed, impatience runs rampant. It often strikes me that willingness to allow things to come to their own fullness in their own time is something I've only recently begun to understand ... and I'm pretty old!

  • Glad to hear you are finding the humor...Having to take the uncooked food off the plate has become a standing joke here indeed.

  • I think it depends on the meal.

    Just like I prefer a really nice cut of beef to be served rare, I also love to see a raw post added to a blog on occasion. But just as I would only order rare on an expensive steak, I guess this only really applies to those extremely valuable insights that have that uncensored mix of passion and flavour.

    We adapt artwork based on the materials, we adapt our cooking methods based on the ingredients, and I guess we must also adapt our wirting/publishing based on the impetus that drives each piece of work.

    Regular reader, but not a regular responder - just wanted to say thanks for the posts Richard, and for the thoughts that come with reading them.

  • Thanks for the great insights. You are right. I'm really just
    speaking to my own tendency here. I love your analogy to the value of

    the rarer results.

  • I think the term "half-baked" applies here. Something like our students when they don't finish their program. -Lon

  • That's a good analogy Lon. The alchemical idea is the same,
    insufficient heat and the process never occurs or gets off the fround

    so to speak...and then there's the idea concerning half measures as

    well...

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