RECIPES FROM OLD SOULS

As a child I was confused why my birthday, on New Years Day, was a major international event. Other kids didn't seem to have the whole world celebrating their birthday. I thought I was special but not that special. In any case I did realize fairly early that it was by pure chance that another year was delivered from the bowels of time as I was delivered from mother's womb. 

New Years Day, another year for both the planet and for me. I am SIXTY today. Who would have thought? Certainly not the child, nor the teenager, or the wild child of the Seventies, or the father and now the grandfather.  I'd never really thought that I would turn thirsty let alone SIXTY. Mortality was still vaguely inconceivable up until my father's death when the reality that each future moment moves relentlessly towards the current one hit me in the guts. My Dad's death, as fate would have it, was on this day two years ago. So I now celebrate my birthday not only with the planet but as the Day that Dad Died. 

In my book I recounted an incident with a frog on New Years Day and won't repeat it again, not when it is so easy to go to the Corner Store and buy The Electronic Swagman. That's called a hint in case you missed it.

I'll tell you another New Years Day story though but first a warning. If you thought I was a nice guy you might be disappointed.

I was alone in a remote wilderness called the Blue Gum Forest which lies at the bottom of a Blue Mountain's valley. To get to the valley floor involves a difficult descent of 1,000 metres. It is a bloody hard walk and especially with a heavy pack on your back if you are camping overnight. On the beautiful New Years Day an extremely overweight man, with an extremely heavy pack, suddenly emerged on the last stages of the descent. Each step was as confident as boy on his first date. If you can imagine two jackhammers with jelly wrapped around them you would come close to the image of his legs. My God did I laugh. Yes, I know I shouldn't but it was so funny. Here was man's inhumanity to himself. Here was hope springing eternal and without any reason at all to think it should. Here was the futility of the New Year resolution in all its wobbly-legged pathos.

I decided to never make another resolution again. And I haven't. But I have an idea that you might just like.

Talking to my friend Chrissie from the Megalong Tea Rooms I found my head spinning with her wonderful stories. She told me about her father Keith who ran the local timber mill for 60 years, hauling fallen logs out of the remote Burragorang Valley. She told me how the old man, now 90 years of age, came out to watch some workmen replace a telegraph pole a little while ago. Keith had put that same pole in the ground some fifty years before. The workmen ignored the old man.

I told Chrissie about a German man I had met the previous day who had been a child of ten when the Russians stormed into Berlin. His friend next to him was selected at random by the drunken troops and told that if he could drink a bottle of vodka, he wouldn't be shot. The young boy could only drink half and a bullet splattered his brains over his classmates. 

On it went.  Some stories told of lives which bestrode cataclysmic events like a world at war. Others, equally moving, were simple reflections of simple lives.  I left with about five books to write: The Pole, The Bottle of Vodka and others.

Days later, another story told to me by my Brazilian friend Clarissa sparked an idea of how we can capture these lost lifelines and wisdom. It was a story of food as an expression of love. In the tradition of Like Water for Chocolate Clarissa's grandmother spent months preparing food for Christmas. Gingerbread houses were adorned with crystallized rockmelon. The old woman's recipes involved love, tenderness and skill and Clarissa can still taste all of them in her heart. 

So here is the challenge for the New Year. It is not a resolution mind you but an invitation to tell some stories. The first series is tentatively titled RECIPES FROM OLD SOULS. There may be stories locked away that are best told and shared. 

Thats about it. Its just an idea but it is easier than walking down a cliff and a great way to start 2013. 

c ya

Raymond & Tommie

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• The story should be between 500-1000 words.
• The theme is to celebrate a person's life and their passion and love of cooking. A photo would be great. I might edit the image with a B&W or sepia tone. I promise I will do the best job I can. 
• We will publish the story on Facebook and on the Guest Blog. Maybe as a weekly post if we get a good response.
• This is only open to Swaggys. It's easy to become one and it has discounts and offers and all types of stuff to let you become more involved in our journey - http://www.electronicswagman.com.au/members/register.asp
• PLEASE SEND STORY & PICTURE[S] TO ELECTRONICSWAGMAN@GMAIL.COM