Imperfect timing

This tray is going to be in the bedroom tonight because I have to move the cheese which is in the press (on the right) into the brine (on the left) at 11.30pm. It makes sense to take it to bed, so I don’t need to paddle across the lawn to the truck in the middle of the night to do it.

I am making a new kind of cheese and got all my timings wrong. I would have been better to start it much earlier or later in the day. 
Earlier, and it could have pressed this afternoon and been in the brine overnight.
Later, and it could have pressed overnight and brined tomorrow.
It’s a nuisance, but hardly life and death…

I wrote the words below earlier today for another group of people, but I decided it’s worth repeating in today’s blip.

In the same way as I feel utterly helpless in the face of our resources and climate crises, I am overwhelmed by the violence being reported from various parts of the world at the moment. 


Of course most notable amongst them as far as the media is concerned is the conflict between Israel and Hamas, where it seems that the two protagonists are barely under control, and the people who suffer the most –in their millions on both sides – are those who haven’t chosen this fight. 
 
And I can’t forget the innocents caught up in conflicts in South Sudan, DR Congo, Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia and Somalia to name a few - and the plight of many indigenous and otherwise oppressed peoples across the world. 
 
My soul was therefore somewhat soothed when I found a piece of writing from Dougald Hine this week, in which he reminds us that our role in this world may not be to solve global conflicts, nor to lead the response to existential crises. 
 
“The work that you do – the place where your skills or callings meet the needs of the world – may have no connection to the larger horrors” And that’s okay. My legitimate and most useful place is here Chez Mima to tend crops, care for trees and look after this patch of Earth; for the present, and for whatever lies ahead beyond my presence here.


Dougald goes on to reflect on a saying which has struck a chord with me. It crops up in similar forms in Muslim, Jewish and Protestant teachings (and reminds me how much the great modern religions have in common - at least in their inception).
 
“Even if the world is ending but you have a seedling in your hand, plant it” is attributed to the Prophet Mohammed.
 
“If you are standing with a sapling in your hand when they tell you that the Messiah has come, first plant the sapling and then go out and greet the Messiah” is attributed to Yohanan ben Sakkai, a Jewish religious leader in about 70AD.
 
“Even if I knew tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree” is credited to Martin Luther.
 
With that in mind I have been metaphorically and consciously planting my apple tree today. And I feel better for it.