isthisreally

08/29/98

10:30 am

Is This Really About Breakfast?

-Morgan Young

I just made the perfect breakfast. I carefully separated the english muffin, over the sink as to keep crumbs off of the floor, and dropped it in the toaster, setting it on high. I grabbed the single purpose small heavy not-stick eggpan from the pantry, placed it on the stove, medium heat, three specific squirts of oil for lubricating, a dab of butter for flavor. I pull a piece of individually wrapped american cheese from the fridge and lay it on the assembly line. I crack the egg in one hand along the rim of the smooth stout white condiment bowl, immediately beating, nearly to a froth with a table fork. Ch-chunk!! The muffins are up. Down they go....again....they must be gold to the eye and crispy to the teeth. Into the warm inviting pan goes the egg...no sizzle..that would be too hot....medium heat, to tempt the egg to relax. Carefully unveil the cheese as to not tear it. Ch-chunk!! The muffins again...this time properly aged. Quickly, get the heal to the plate! Place the cheese on to start the melting process....folding up each corner so that it all melts on the muffin, not the plate. The crown gets just a little butter to settle into the craters. Small puddles of yellow state that it's time to turn the egg....if there's no puddles, the egg will be too done on it's backside. But, just now, two dances of salt and a half turn of the peppermill. Gingerly, the egg is turned, integrity maintained. Turn off the heat....the burner's job is done, the pan can take it from here. Just a few seconds to dry up the puddles. My trusty '70-ish brown spatula in hand, I bisect the circle...now fold the semicircles in on themselves to make small triangles. Final seconds of assembly.....I place one triangle with the point in the middle of the heal....place the final triangle just opposite making some kind of squished impressionistic bow tie. And now, crown it...let it sit...for just a minute or two...give all these things some time to get to know each other...to meld...into one. How did I do? The crunch...mmm...the liquid cheese, the fluffly egg, just the hint of season...all experienced simultaniously...the tongue rejoices and tells the body, "Mmmm...this is perfect"...but no mention of appreciation. The body hears the tongue as if the tongue were asleep during this whole process. The body says, "do you think perfection is just something that happens?! We put a lot into this whole deal. And the body gets together with the brain to let the tongue know just exactly what all went into making it happy...right here...at the computer.

Yeah, I'm sitting there on the front porch in my barber chair enjoying the heck out of breakfast...really enjoying the taste and texture of it...and on a miniature scale this it is actually great. And then I think, "Do we really think that great things just happen?" Are we that shallow...that unaware...that self-absorbed to think that the great things, herculian or miniscule in scope, are just arbitrary and fortuitous? More goes into life than we want to admit. People are more of an impact on us relationally than can meet the eye. So much of what we do and how we do it is influenced indirectly by our relational family...but too often we don't see the connection...don't realize the impact. Why? Because we would seem less self-sufficient in our own eyes? The world would tell us self-sufficiency is a great thing. If we are aware of a higher calling, we know what a blessing it is to consider ourselves dependent. But what an easy thing to say but a tough bisquit to chew. Being more aware of the people around us is to be less aware of us...of what we've done...of what we've tried to become. But reality is whatever we've done, whatever we've become, is all because of the context in which we've done it. We haven't really come this far by ourselves....our view has just been too myopic. And to that we have to say, the same things apply to God. He has done, does, and will do far more for us than we will quickly & easily admit. One of the sad things is that we cannot credit Him for all his work because we missed it....you cannot recall what you didn't see. Back to the human relational issues...Some of us didn't grow up very well....we didn't grow out of a family we were proud of, or wanted people to really see. To get down to it, we grew up just wanting to get away from our family...to distance ourselves...to become our own entity. But to admit that who we are and what we've become, based on who we've been influenced by, is to go back home.....We thought when we left, we left for good. Yes, we physically have gone back, but since we left, we haven't really gone back emotionally. We locked our hearts up...tight, when we left, thinking this an emotional chapter closed. It turns out it's more of a reference book to be continually revisted to find out why or who "blank" is in your life. Someone said, "You can never go home again." It seems, to really be in- tune with your heart, with your life, your relational world (which includes Christ) we must go home again....and again...and again.



	08/29/98 10:30 am Is This Really About Breakfast? -Morgan Young I just made the perfect breakfast. I carefully separated the english muffin, over the sink as to keep crumbs off of the floor, and dropped it in the toaster, setting it on high. I grabbed the single purpose small heavy not-stick eggpan from the pantry, placed it on the stove, medium heat, three specific squirts of oil for lubricating, a dab of butter for flavor. I pull a piece of individually wrapped american cheese from the fridge and lay it on the assembly line. I crack the egg in one hand along the rim of the smooth stout white condiment bowl, immediately beating, nearly to a froth with a table fork. Ch-chunk!! The muffins are up. Down they go....again....they must be gold to the eye and crispy to the teeth. Into the warm inviting pan goes the egg...no sizzle..that would be too hot....medium heat, to tempt the egg to relax. Carefully unveil the cheese as to not tear it. Ch-chunk!! The muffins again...this time properly aged. Quickly, get the heal to the plate! Place the cheese on to start the melting process....folding up each corner so that it all melts on the muffin, not the plate. The crown gets just a little butter to settle into the craters. Small puddles of yellow state that it's time to turn the egg....if there's no puddles, the egg will be too done on it's backside. But, just now, two dances of salt and a half turn of the peppermill. Gingerly, the egg is turned, integrity maintained. Turn off the heat....the burner's job is done, the pan can take it from here. Just a few seconds to dry up the puddles. My trusty '70-ish brown spatula in hand, I bisect the circle...now fold the semicircles in on themselves to make small triangles. Final seconds of assembly.....I place one triangle with the point in the middle of the heal....place the final triangle just opposite making some kind of squished impressionistic bow tie. And now, crown it...let it sit...for just a minute or two...give all these things some time to get to know each other...to meld...into one. How did I do? The crunch...mmm...the liquid cheese, the fluffly egg, just the hint of season...all experienced simultaniously...the tongue rejoices and tells the body, "Mmmm...this is perfect"...but no mention of appreciation. The body hears the tongue as if the tongue were asleep during this whole process. The body says, "do you think perfection is just something that happens?! We put a lot into this whole deal. And the body gets together with the brain to let the tongue know just exactly what all went into making it happy...right here...at the computer. Yeah, I'm sitting there on the front porch in my barber chair enjoying the heck out of breakfast...really enjoying the taste and texture of it...and on a miniature scale this it is actually great. And then I think, "Do we really think that great things just happen?" Are we that shallow...that unaware...that self-absorbed to think that the great things, herculian or miniscule in scope, are just arbitrary and fortuitous? More goes into life than we want to admit. People are more of an impact on us relationally than can meet the eye. So much of what we do and how we do it is influenced indirectly by our relational family...but too often we don't see the connection...don't realize the impact. Why? Because we would seem less self-sufficient in our own eyes? The world would tell us self-sufficiency is a great thing. If we are aware of a higher calling, we know what a blessing it is to consider ourselves dependent. But what an easy thing to say but a tough bisquit to chew. Being more aware of the people around us is to be less aware of us...of what we've done...of what we've tried to become. But reality is whatever we've done, whatever we've become, is all because of the context in which we've done it. We haven't really come this far by ourselves....our view has just been too myopic. And to that we have to say, the same things apply to God. He has done, does, and will do far more for us than we will quickly & easily admit. One of the sad things is that we cannot credit Him for all his work because we missed it....you cannot recall what you didn't see. Back to the human relational issues...Some of us didn't grow up very well....we didn't grow out of a family we were proud of, or wanted people to really see. To get down to it, we grew up just wanting to get away from our family...to distance ourselves...to become our own entity. But to admit that who we are and what we've become, based on who we've been influenced by, is to go back home.....We thought when we left, we left for good. Yes, we physically have gone back, but since we left, we haven't really gone back emotionally. We locked our hearts up...tight, when we left, thinking this an emotional chapter closed. It turns out it's more of a reference book to be continually revisted to find out why or who "blank" is in your life. Someone said, "You can never go home again." It seems, to really be in- tune with your heart, with your life, your relational world (which includes Christ) we must go home again....and again...and again.