Chapter 5- Economy

CHAPTER 5

Economy

Dietary Exercise Suggested:

(To be incorporated within the usual routine)

The making of breads, cakes, pizzas, porridges, soups, stews; all dishes which are comprised of a compound of ingredients, all going together to make the one.

Table manners to be learnt and put to practice (yes, even formal table manners for the etiquette-ritual-dance of it within the table society).

Commentary:

As the science of Economy foremostly teaches one of the outcomes from interdependent exchange, we may experience this in those foods which are combinations in recipe - proving just what this form of harmonizing can bring; and hopefully, deliciously!

When we ‘break bread together’ this is done in the spirit of such combining being recognized. The single unit in which our friendship or society may go to form, is of course part of that greater whole, the larger community of the Humanity which is of this World. Then, also we may add, the Humanity and its friends who have supported us from the past, yet whose presence might not be at the ‘table’ with us - though being those generations who have preceded that of our own. The men and women from which this world has grown, we can acknowledge also.

We can be mindful of this in the simple enjoyment of taking the individual ingredients and finding the order in which they are introduced to one another - watching the cake rise, the bread bake - and the pleasure that it brings to others in the eating. As simple as it may sound, these are examples of the tasks which were once given to every household to take into their consciousness and live with daily. In this, individuals have been self-taught in the past, in the basic and solid virtues shown to them firsthand since they were very young, yet old enough to stir a mixture.

With the invention of the ‘cake-mix’ (where all of the ingredients except the fluids are together in the one box) there also became a ‘shrewdness’ which was not hitherto known to the otherwise straightforward economy within the household - sadly a departure, because the process was now denied to the baker in its entirety, and it therefore became something of a nonsense to the consciousness thereafter.

Boys and girls will grow up believing that much economy around them can also be premixed in part - that certain steps, procedures and participants do not have to be known, but just incorporated by someone else, somewhere, regardless. They are now content not to know, and not even to be able to conceptualize a process in the whole.

For us to appreciate every component that contributes we must firstly perceive its existence. The manager who does not know his foreman’s staff personally cannot appreciate the enterprise he has or could have to make a complete and prosperous business. It adds to yet a further lacking in the awareness, which in this instance will reflect in the overall attitude and prosperity throughout all transactions to follow.

The practice of table manners is beneficial in two aspects: in the attitude it predisposes the participants to, and in the joy of a table community taking part in something together.

Routines usually assist us to conduct ourselves without the same conscious effort it might require if we did differently each time, but in respect to those routines which are conjointly conducted there is actually a keener consciousness resulting from the act. 
 

An example of this is in tea drinking. Think of those times in which you have taken a tea-bag or infuser and hurriedly, without formality, added the water and so forth - now, compare this with the full entourage of tea-set and tray, and the deliberate, orderly, mindfully, and even gingerly way this beverage is produced - and compare the flavor and the awareness - the awareness leading up to and during the savoring of that drink. And so we may prove to ourselves that just by adopting certain well thought out rituals at the meal table we may also enhance the entire experience of that which we have.

An enjoyable task can be to design such table politics according to each and their suitability - to depart from the Victorian ethos of behaviour and make-up an entirely new set of ordinances to be observed. They may be as simple as agreeing to who sets the table and whether or not it is acceptable to fart in the company of others. For the economically unsound there can be this introductory conceptualization, just in the exercise of examining the table community in this manner.