olympic ducking

i have observed ducks for quite some time.

sometimes, two of them have a fight.

afterwards,

tension still in the air and body,

they move away from each other,

dip their head under water, rise up, shake their body

from head to tail feathers,

and

tada!

tension gone,

free again.

It’s pretty neat.

We humans would be well-served to exhibit similar behavior.

In the meantime,

it could be wise to have an imaginative DJ around,

like at the olympics.

Watch the ducks go at it from 09:50,

and hear the DJ and John Lennon defuse the tension:

So, when in a fight, wait for a DJ to solve your problems,

or maybe just learn to shake your tail feathers.

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always never works

always never works

never also never works

but always sometimes works,

and sometimes never works,

and almost always,

sometimes always works.

wait, what?

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specially ordinary in a 旅館

a short documentary about a ryokan,

a traditional Japanese inn;

this ryokan, called sakamoto, after its owner (like the composer);

but here, the art form

is food

(and hospitality)

:

‘while this guesthouse is certainly for our customers,

(shinichiro sakamoto) cooks what he want to eat,

and he designs rooms where he would want to stay

it’s not so much about “for the customers”

but rather doing what he enjoys most.’

when creating (art),

the audience comes last.

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‘it sometimes takes an absurd amount of time, but,

there’s a unique depth that cannot be achieved instantly

that’s the beauty of it’

Time and attention as ingredients.

This reminds me of the great episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table where they follow Jeong Kwan, a 60-year-old Zen Buddhist nun who prepares vegan meals for her community (and the occasional visitor) at Baekyangsa Temple, which is located 169 miles south of Seoul.

Soy beans, salt and water, in harmony, through time. It is the basis of seasonings, the foundation. There are sauces aged five years, ten years, aged for one hundred years.

Time and attention, as opposed to ‘instant’

‘instant quality’ then, impossible (?)

Back to the 旅館

every morning, sakamoto decides what he’s going to cook that day.

or maybe, the day decides.

more likely, it’s a conversation.

I want the local ingredients to shine, so I try not to let the cooking get in the way.

a conversation

with the place itself,

through food

through tradition

Connections, connecting, i read an article, more connections…:

Shinichiro (Sakamoto) learned the art of cooking in part from abbess Murase Myodoni, a Buddhist nun who is the head of Gesshin-ji, a Zen temple near Kyoto. Like the acclaimed Korean nun Jeong Kwan (who was featured on the Netflix show Chef’s Table), Murase was known throughout her country for her vegetarian Buddhist cuisine, called shōjin ryori in Japanese. 

let’s close this circle with a portal

final thoughts, from Jeong Kwan:

Creativity and ego cannot go together. If you free yourself from the comparing and jealous mind, your creativity opens up endlessly. Just as water springs from a fountain, creativity springs from every moment. You must not be your own obstacle. You must not be owned by the environment you are in. You must own the environment, the phenomenal world around you. You must be able to freely move in and out of your mind. This is being free. There is no way you can’t open up your creativity. There is no ego to speak of. That is my belief.

photograph Daan van der Velden

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