You Tell Me

July 28th, 2008

What’s Eating Bob?

I know a lot of my friends thought this blog was going to only be about me cooking because I do enjoy making food, especially for friends and family. But I really wanted it to be more about simple food encounters and perhaps the occasional weird thought I might have and feel compelled to speak out load about. Sometimes I hope, my posts will be about me eating fantastic food. Hopefully in a very expensive restaurant where someone else is paying. But if you have read any of my previous posts you know that I usually eat very simple food. And I never said that the blog was going to be about everything that Bob eats, just a few selected items that I feel like sharing.

But what about What’s Eating Bob? I suppose I could rant and rave about some stupid political candidate or position, but that’s not really me.

I’ll tell you what. I think the best thing to do is to ask questions and let someone smarter than myself (not hard to find) explain some of the strange stuff I see in the world around me.

How come the Jewish People, the Christians and the People of the Muslim faith cannot seem to come to some sort of God ordained peace among themselves when they all have such strong roots in the Jewish Bible? The book that was always refered to as the Old Testament when I was a young man.

This is a book that I have read and truly love. It is certainly one of the fundamental artifacts of the history of the world and a piece of art without peer. But even though it is a major building block of all three major faiths of the western world they cannot agree on a common understanding of it. In fact, many people of all three faiths insist that not only is their interpretation of it right but everyone else should agree with the way they see it?

Everyone picks and chooses what they want from it and ignores what they do not want to see. That is fine with me but please don’t tell me that everyone should agree with your way of seeing it. It is hard not to think that the book has caused more trouble then it’s worth.

Here’s a really simple idea.

How about every chance you get you try to sit down and eat a meal with another family. Preferably a family that believes in a different faith then you do. One who eats foods that you have either never eaten or seldom eat. Better yet, how about you invite your neighbor who you never speak to, to join you for a very casual meal of whatever you happen to have on hand.

I believe that all families all over world share some very basic values.

All cultures want their children to be safe and to have a positive future.

All people want to breathe clean air and eat safe food.

All people enjoy some sort of art or music.

Sit down and break bread with that strange family across the street. Learn your neighbor’s name and he will never be that “guy or girl” who seems so different than yourself. You just might find out that even though a person is different than yourself, they really are not all that strange. They probably like at least some of the things your family likes.

Every faith and society has extremists. These people are in the minority by the very definition of being extremist. The average person who is raising a family and trying to save money, if they can, wants their children to be safe and they want their food and air to be clean. Just start with the simple stuff.

If you love your neighbor as you do yourself that’s a beginning.

If you see that your neighbor is not really so different from yourself, it’s not too much of a leap to fulfill that admonition from the book that is revered by all three western faiths.

I guess it’s just too simple. Ok, then answer me this, why does God not make things simple for us when most of us are so unbelievably ignorant?

You tell me.

Sometimes it eats at me.

Entry Filed under: What's Eating Bob?