Anyone who knows me knows that cooking, and food, are a big part of my life. I love to cook and I love to eat. I don't know why, but I'd like to think that it is because I have always been around food, always been around cooking. Growing up in Peru, eating is much different than it is here. Food is something that brings the family together, brings people together. It is a time to sit down and talk, a time to share with those we love. And I think I have forgotten about that part. Lately, eating has become more-so something we have to do, we sit in front of the TV and eat, and don't talk to each other. I don't really know why, maybe we became complaisant about things, each other, who knows. But cooking, that is a different story. My love for cooking is something that I grew up with. I have been cooking all my life that I can remember. I know I get that from my Dad, but I also get it from my Grandma I'd like to think. Always being around her growing up, her cooking at her house; those are great memories. But it was when I moved to the US, and being more around my Dad, that I really started to take it more seriously and started to, I guess you could say, get better at it. And trust me, I have loved to cook well before it became cool, it became mainstream. I love to cook and I cook pretty much every day, for me and for my wife, for my family. I'd like to think of that time as a time where I can relax, be myself. I love that I have that in my life, but I also know that I can be very controlling in the kitchen, evil! I know that I need to let people in a little more, let them help me if you will. Cooking should be a family thing, it should be something we enjoy doing with other people, with those we love, that only makes it more fun, more rewarding.
But why do I say that love is a lot like cooking? Is it really? I honestly think so, and like I said, the reason being that you're either all in or not in at all. Cooking is something you have to be passionate about, it is an art, I think. I see my Dad cook and I can honestly say, cooking is an art. We have to put all we have into it, to get the real essence of food out. The same happens with love, with marriage, even with friendship. We have to give it our all, we have to be fully committed, we have to be passionate about it. I know that if this marriage is ever to work out, ever, there will have to be passion involved. And I don't mean that in the romantic sense, I mean it as a passion that you want something so badly that you are willing to do anything for it, anything to achieve it; as an athlete would, you could say. I've said it a million times, love and marriage are very hard, are a struggle with someone else, a constant give and take, a constant compromise. And it is a two sided relationship, all those things have to come from both sides. I guess you could look at cooking the same way. Cooking is hard, cooking is a struggle, a struggle to learn what goes with what and what doesn't. I know in my life I have made some really bad food, but I learn from it and move on, learn not to do it again. Love is the same way, we make mistakes and we learn from them, we move on and we don't make those mistakes again. But I think the key to both is realizing that you have made a mistake, accepting it and facing it. I don't know what is on my wife's mind, I really don't and I wish I could send a minion in there to look and let me know! But does she realize she made a mistake? Has she realized that before? I don't know, and to be honest it doesn't matter until I hear it from her. Think about all those cooks and chefs who make terrible food but think they are great. Until you accept your mistakes, you cannot become a better person, a better cook. Learning to accept mistakes is part of growing up, part of maturing and part of learning how the world really works. We all go through that phase and it is tough, but we learn it is the right way to live life.
I want to leave you with this, we have to focus on the purity of love and marriage and try to leave distractions aside, try to forget those little things, that sand I talked about a few days back. Think about it this way, think about it as a turkey with stuffing. The turkey represents love and marriage in their pure state, and they are beautiful things; a turkey is a beautiful thing. But then you add stuffing inside and to be honest all you do is add mass to the turkey, unnecessary things to the marriage. All that happens in the end is the turkey takes longer to cook and ends up dry. Think of a marriage the same way, the more unnecessary things you add to it, the more it will dry out. I know that now and I know, if that day ever comes, that there are things that need to change, work to be done, stuffing to take off. Always keep that in mind, leave the turkey alone, it is great just the way it is.
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