Having known a few Mars Hillians in the last decade who have latched on to concept of "community" with a quixotic obsession even more touchingly absurd than that of some people at the little school by the canal, I have endeavored to cook both for my own benefit and to make myself useful to housemates. It is hard to find something more communal in community living than food and to this end I am attempting to master the mundane art of cooking pork bulgogi. If I can compose fugues for solo guitar to the number of 8 then by now I can follow simple instructions on how to cook a spicy Korean dish that includes pork, green onions, yellow onions, and (in my case) prodigous amounts of cayenne pepper and crushed garlic.
It has been a source of some amusement for me what some people consider an approach to community life. One of my associates who is most fascinated by "community" has an interest in community that, paradoxically, does NOT extend to food! Perhaps the fact that he has some kind of hereditary condition in which he no longer has a working gall bladder accounts for this. On account of that I make a few accomodations, even though I admit to having been cynical about his fascination with "community" since ... well, to be honest, I was jaded about "community" being at the little school by the canal and after the glow of honeymoon passed with the anthill of Ares I became even MORE jaded about the idea of community, which I began to realize was a significant problem.
Appropos of nothing the story behind Aeropagus is that one of the sons of Poseidon, who (in varying accounts) either raped or attempted to rape one of the daughters of Ares. Ares killed the son and Poseidon was angry and brought Ares to trial before a tribunal of the gods, who acquitted Ares, thus providing the story for why the Aeropagus is called by its name. In certain regions it would be known as the place that inspired the name of a church founded by a trio of pastors.
There is something strangely fitting that the pagan account of how the mound of Ares was named would fit perfectly into the metanarrative of masculinity presented at the anthill of Ares. A father decides to kill the son of someone important for attempting to rape his daughter. It is interesting how many fathers in the biblical narratives DO NOT do this sort of chivalrous thing. Jacob was apparently going to let Dinah be married to her rapist. David did nothing to discipline Amnon for raping Tamar. Men in the Bible are nowhere near as manly or masculine as the Greeks were if we go by the narratives connected to religious texts. Samson doesn't count because he was lured by foreign women. Then again, I do not see the biblical texts as having as their main interest the exoneration of Greek gods, or even Jewish patriarchs. Instead the story is about how the Jewish patriarchs and the nation of Israel were shown mercy and generosity by the Lord despite the fact that they not only very obviously did not "deserve" this generosity but in many cases initially did not seem particularly interested in getting the things God promised. And a whole generation of them got wiped out in the wilderness ... but I digress.
Now that I am not "plugged in" there I find I'm starting to have a less cynical and more healthy appreciation of communal life. I had to figure out how I could remedy some things in myself and I trust God is using this period of my life to help me providentially learn how to do some stuff I haven't bothered to do. It is interesting to discover that I find it easier to cook precisely when I am not just cooking for me. It may be I spent so much of my life in extended family situations of some kind or another I have discovered that it is hard to be motivated to cook for just me. I don't cook for fun and though I may eat comfort foods or eat and find enjoyment in it I am not a foodie in the sense that say, Remy from Ratatouille is.
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