Thursday, June 3, 2010

Working Together

There wasn't much on TV last night, we don't have cable, but we managed to stumble upon an episode of Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie. Tasmania was their destination.

The first segment was about Wagyu beef. Wagyu beef. "Wag" means Japanese, or is it Chinese, and "yu" means cow. Think Kobe beef but unlike Kobe beef where the cows are fed on a diet of beer and are massaged, the Tasmanian Wagyus are raised on beautiful lush, green open fields.

The second segment was about a man who grows truffles, which I found interesting because he uses a young sapling injected with microbes to produce the truffles. Instead of using a pig to snuffle out the truffles, a dog is used. While dogs don't care for truffles it was interesting to watch the dog and his handler in the process. 

This segment was followed by a man who smokes salmon. He described the process he uses, which involved three different kinds of wood chips and a secret seasoning. After he plated some newly smoked salmon, I wanted to reach into my TV and pluck one of those luscious salmon spears right off the plate.

What's a meal without dessert? A young, innovative dessert chef, influenced by his mother's love of food and her extensive pantry of canned fruits created two gravity-defying, mouth-watering desserts that would've required a friend to help eat.

There is a point to this post. At the end of the program, I turned to my husband and said, "It's really sad the world can't work together so we all benefit from each other's strengths and abilities. Especially in this day and age."

It seems we're heading in the wrong direction. At the moment, the world seems so engrossed in chaos and upheaval. Even Mother Nature has been pounding our tiny planet with some serious weather maladies, possibly in the hopes of getting our attention to the fact we are rapdily destroying our planet.

It is equally sad in the 21st Century we aren't moving towards getting along and helping one another. Greed and personal agendas seem to be the order of the day.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the people highlighted in this program knew each other but it made me think, and possibly hope, we could all work toward a simple, common goal of helping and working together to make our world a better place.

Namaste
Chris

6 comments:

Birdie said...

Chris, what a thoughtful post! Imagine our planet filled up with people without greed, just pure love and compassion. In the history this has never happened. But it doesn't mean it cannot happen in the future ... what a wonderful place it would be to live - free of greed, violence, anger ... I think it starts with people who are aware of that and as I can see we can find many here on the blogland :-) have a lovely day!

Lisa Johnson said...

I enjoy watching that show too. What's happening to our planet makes me so sad. The oil spill news just hurts to watch. What greed and lack of compassion have done...

SE'LAH... said...

what a beautiful day that would be, when we all work together in this world. a girl can dream, can't she?

Lyn said...

Couldn't agree with you more Chris. Maybe that is our challenge -- to harness the collective knowledge, wisdom and skills of humankind to create the kind of world we all want to live in. What a notion! : )

Thank you for your kind words regarding Africa Calling. I love this space and will be back often.

christina said...

a better place~ yes indeed.
xo

Jaime said...

It's so true. And we all have such diverse strengths, we would all be richer for it if we could just get it together. Isn't all this new technology supposed to help bridge the gap between people? Make the world feel like a smaller place? More connected? I've got to wonder.