Ping, ping, ping,
Ping! Ah, finally. Whew! My first efforts at canning are sealed. Relaxed
now, since the pressure canner did not , in fact, blow up – though
I was prepared to evacuate for the long ninety minutes– every muscle
ridged, ready to respond to the command to flee. But, thank God no
need. I step back and admire my first four quarts of canned hamburger,
an unfamiliar meaty aroma still hovering in the house; perhaps more
accurately described as "clinging".
Yick!
Proud as I am, of my efforts, the truth is, the results look disgusting.
Never mind, in the dead of winter – the bony knuckles of hunger knocking
at my door, I'll see these jars not as science experiments gone awry
but as life giving sustenance. And anyway, tomato sauce used liberally
can make anything look better.
Now, backing off from the smaller view of four, still bubbling jars
of gray mystery meat and see the larger view of the kitchen where
these miracles were prepared.
Oh my.
In the throws of the process I have used every possible surface,
three large pots, two small pots, four dishtowels, three large wooden
spoons, one Pyrex dish, two canning books, the pressure canner and
perhaps five gallons of water. It gives one pause. It makes one wonder,
how important, in the scheme of things, is hamburger, after all.
As I begin the task of cleaning up I mull this over and before the
last pot is washed, dried and stored away I come to this conclusion:
what is important about canned hamburger is that I have learned how
to do it. In this Information Age we have become so dependent on artificial
intelligence, we have let go of and forgotten the most basic skills
of survival. We lean on and trust our welfare and well-being to devices
of questionable reliability in the ambiguous name of progress and
advanced civilization.
In the past half year, spent in a vigorous learning curve, desperately
regaining a mere portion of the skills my mother took for granted,
I have also rediscovered what is more important than vast amounts
of superfluous data. I have been reacquainted with the instruction
and testing of my willingness to learn how to learn to be self-sufficient.
Interestingly enough, this, in turn, has drawn me closer to God. For
is it not our willingness to accept the responsibility for ourselves
that reveals to us our responsibility to God and what He expects of
us? We do, after all, have a commission to seek to be worthy. It is
the least we can do with what God has blessed us with.
One thing is for sure – it makes no sense to be helpless. How much
wiser it is to be prepared for contingency; how much more valuable
is self-reliance over dependency? Four quarts of hamburger waiting
in my pantry isn't much, I can eat them, regardless of what happens.
But learning how to can has reacquainted me with my willingness to
be held accountable for what happens to me.
Both humility and self-esteem experienced simultaneously.
Amazing.
