Tell Finn that one of the most famous traditional dishes in Iceland is "Putrified Shark". Simple recipe, and I'm not making this up.
Take one Greenland Shark and bury it in sand. along the beach.
Wait till the shark putrifies (he'll love having that wonderful new word in his vocabulary.)
When the shark has been buried in sand for the right number of weeks, you can dig it up and it is no longer poisonous. Yum. You can eat it.
Icelanders like to eat little cubes of putrified shark, like a ripe cheese, with their traditional alcoholic beverage, "Black Death", which is vodka flavored with carraway seeds. But Finn is too young for that.
“Television numbs the mind. Candlelight, I have found, calms the mind. Television offers distraction and agitation. Candlelight offers focus and peace. Television causes a physical space to recede and disappear from our awareness. Candlelight brings a physical space to life, warming it, massaging it, continuously reinventing its every surface and corner. Television, we all know, facilitates wasteful time. Candles, on the other hand, facilitate restful time. No candlemaker has ever declared sleep to be his primary competitor.”
I had no idea that Old English is still being spoken somewhere. That makes my heart skip a beat.
Great food for thought about candlelight and TVs. One of my winter practices this year has been having a strict curfew time for myself...it's easy to push the horizon of sleep out further and further thanks to electricity, and it never leaves me in a good space.
Thanks for sharing my Candlemas rambles - oh how I love this holiday!
It’s been helpful! But I’m on the hunt for an alarm that isn’t via my phone, and also isn’t the shocking alarm clock beep. I realized I need a few layers of reminding before curfew, so I can end All Creatures, get some reading in, and then have lights out. 😂
Reading the Hearth & Field article may have begun something of an avalanche in my heart.
I grew up watching tons of TV, like most children of the 80s, but when my wife and I got married in June of 2002, we decided we did not need to own a television set. Those six months were great, for a lot of reasons, but not having a TV was part of why they were so great. Then, we were gifted one by my in-laws that following Christmas, and we fell right back into religiously watching programming, as if those previous six months had never happened. Then we raised a child to adulthood, one who still lives with us while attending college. She is now a young woman who sees TV as a normal fixture in a home (anyone remember Baby Einstein videos?).
More than two decades of TV, video games, and streaming services later, my relationship with screens is exactly that of the relationship between Gollum and the One Ring–I both love and hate them. If it were all my decision, I think I could easily walk away (in fact, cold turkey might be the only way I could successfully do it). But I don't know if I have the gumption to say, "Guys, I don't want to watch TV with you any more," partly because it's one of the things we do together, but also because it's not all that true. I think that's what bothers me the most. I wish it were true. I wish I really, truly wanted to give it up.
If I were sitting down with someone, and they were using the terminology I used above to talk about drinking wine, eating foods that are horrible for you, gambling, viewing pornography, etc., my mind would immediately want to categorize them as an addict. It's troubling.
Five years ago, I walked away from regular smart phone usage. I've celebrated so much victory in that area, and after sitting with the article, it felt kind of depressing to be confronted with such a seemingly-latent yet potent reality. And then, my mind remembered what St. Paul said in his epistle to the Romans, that it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. If I could have categorized the article as "hippie" or "crunchy" or whatever, I could have compartmentalized it and walked away. But you cannot categorize the kindness of God. You can only wrestle with it, like Jacob wrestled the angel. And all the while, God is laughing from his belly that same laugh that came out of me when my daughter was trying to learn to walk and fell, over and over, on her diapered butt.
I don't know what will happen next, but thank you for sharing that article.
It was so fun chatting with you for the podcast, Tsh! Thanks so much!
It was a delight!
Hey, Tsh
Tell Finn that one of the most famous traditional dishes in Iceland is "Putrified Shark". Simple recipe, and I'm not making this up.
Take one Greenland Shark and bury it in sand. along the beach.
Wait till the shark putrifies (he'll love having that wonderful new word in his vocabulary.)
When the shark has been buried in sand for the right number of weeks, you can dig it up and it is no longer poisonous. Yum. You can eat it.
Icelanders like to eat little cubes of putrified shark, like a ripe cheese, with their traditional alcoholic beverage, "Black Death", which is vodka flavored with carraway seeds. But Finn is too young for that.
Aren't boys wonderful!
Chris
I’ve heard of this! But you’ve made it even worse than I thought it was… Finn will delight in this info. Thanks, Chris!
This right here ... oh yeah and amen -->
“Television numbs the mind. Candlelight, I have found, calms the mind. Television offers distraction and agitation. Candlelight offers focus and peace. Television causes a physical space to recede and disappear from our awareness. Candlelight brings a physical space to life, warming it, massaging it, continuously reinventing its every surface and corner. Television, we all know, facilitates wasteful time. Candles, on the other hand, facilitate restful time. No candlemaker has ever declared sleep to be his primary competitor.”
I had no idea that Old English is still being spoken somewhere. That makes my heart skip a beat.
Great food for thought about candlelight and TVs. One of my winter practices this year has been having a strict curfew time for myself...it's easy to push the horizon of sleep out further and further thanks to electricity, and it never leaves me in a good space.
Thanks for sharing my Candlemas rambles - oh how I love this holiday!
I LOVE the idea of a stricter curfew for this time of year… it feels so natural anyway (I crave more sleep this time of year). Great practice!
It’s been helpful! But I’m on the hunt for an alarm that isn’t via my phone, and also isn’t the shocking alarm clock beep. I realized I need a few layers of reminding before curfew, so I can end All Creatures, get some reading in, and then have lights out. 😂
Reading the Hearth & Field article may have begun something of an avalanche in my heart.
I grew up watching tons of TV, like most children of the 80s, but when my wife and I got married in June of 2002, we decided we did not need to own a television set. Those six months were great, for a lot of reasons, but not having a TV was part of why they were so great. Then, we were gifted one by my in-laws that following Christmas, and we fell right back into religiously watching programming, as if those previous six months had never happened. Then we raised a child to adulthood, one who still lives with us while attending college. She is now a young woman who sees TV as a normal fixture in a home (anyone remember Baby Einstein videos?).
More than two decades of TV, video games, and streaming services later, my relationship with screens is exactly that of the relationship between Gollum and the One Ring–I both love and hate them. If it were all my decision, I think I could easily walk away (in fact, cold turkey might be the only way I could successfully do it). But I don't know if I have the gumption to say, "Guys, I don't want to watch TV with you any more," partly because it's one of the things we do together, but also because it's not all that true. I think that's what bothers me the most. I wish it were true. I wish I really, truly wanted to give it up.
If I were sitting down with someone, and they were using the terminology I used above to talk about drinking wine, eating foods that are horrible for you, gambling, viewing pornography, etc., my mind would immediately want to categorize them as an addict. It's troubling.
Five years ago, I walked away from regular smart phone usage. I've celebrated so much victory in that area, and after sitting with the article, it felt kind of depressing to be confronted with such a seemingly-latent yet potent reality. And then, my mind remembered what St. Paul said in his epistle to the Romans, that it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. If I could have categorized the article as "hippie" or "crunchy" or whatever, I could have compartmentalized it and walked away. But you cannot categorize the kindness of God. You can only wrestle with it, like Jacob wrestled the angel. And all the while, God is laughing from his belly that same laugh that came out of me when my daughter was trying to learn to walk and fell, over and over, on her diapered butt.
I don't know what will happen next, but thank you for sharing that article.