Cooking

Creative cooking can produce a fine meal; however it can also lead to an unsavory one with unwanted leftovers, or it can be so unpalatable it forces you to start all over again from scratch. Elbow's cooking methods are calling to me in these pages, but I have always been so preoccupied with cleaning or tasting as I go. I don't like to make big messes or to have to sort through them before settling down to partake. This is unsettling to me, but I am convinced that using lots of paper is better than using too little. Compared to not cooking at all, or cooking too little, I’d rather make the mess. At least then I have a place to begin to merge ideas, instead of staring at a nearly perfect blank page or empty refrigerator. That is certainly more unsettling than trying to clean-up thoughts and ideas from the pile of words on paper.

What I like most about this practice is that it is active. I think great thoughts as I drive long commutes each way to and from school, but until I put those thoughts to the page, they are nothing. I seem never again to be able to conjure those same “brilliant” thoughts I had on the road. This frustrates me further. I believe practicing the cooking method is one way to work through those tiresome episodes of waiting for the thoughts to magically re-appear. I will just have to get better at ignoring the mess behind the restaurant's swinging kitchen doors and look forward to the enjoyable meal ahead.