Why artisan bread is best

We spent the morning with the Daughter Person at a Marine Mills Folk School class on sourdough baking. The fact that we are in the midst of a period of "April (rain) showers" meant we weren't torn between the class and being outside enjoying a rare burst of pleasant weather. We learned a few things but mostly got an opportunity to practice working with a slightly different kind of dough and finally see someone actually use the dough-shaping techniques we've only seen thus far in still pictures.

how can we tell if this loaf of artisan bread is better
than the other one on this page?

Photo by J. Harrington

The loaves of bread we baked this morning have different flavors than the ones we've been creating over the past few years. Not necessarily better, but different. That's often a difficult concept for us to wrap our head around. Different can be different without being better or worse. That can be a slippery slope. The next thing you know, we may be discovering that, just because something isn't to our taste, doesn't make it bad or worthless or useless. Have you noticed that, as we've become less civil to each other we've become less tolerant of each other? Or, is it the other way around?

This Spring is different than any other Spring that's ever been. We've never been this age. The weather has never been exactly as it is now. Buds have burst earlier or later. Flowers have bloomed sooner or later. Migrations have occurred earlier or later. It is only we humans that seem determined to do something like celebrate the Fourth of July every July fourth or every Christmas every December 25. But, other humans in other countries celebrate independence on dates other than July fourth and Christmas hasn't always been celebrated on December 25. Does that make those variations better, or worse, or wrong? We think not.

how can we tell if this loaf of artisan bread is better
than the other one on this page?

Photo by J. Harrington

So, do we need to figure out how to bring back tolerance to increase civility, bring back civility to increase tolerance, or does it have to be concurrent for both?

The preceding has been brought to you by our continuing efforts to live in a "Yes, and" or "Both, and" mode instead of the binary mode of simple right and wrong we've been indoctrinated into for most of our lives. If you have trouble understanding and agreeing with us about this, it may be because you truly believe that either vanilla or chocolate ice cream is right, while the other is wrong. Really?

from The People, Yes

By Carl Sandburg

Lincoln? 

He was a mystery in smoke and flags 

Saying yes to the smoke, yes to the flags, 

Yes to the paradoxes of democracy, 

Yes to the hopes of government 

Of the people by the people for the people, 

No to debauchery of the public mind, 

No to personal malice nursed and fed, 

Yes to the Constitution when a help, 

No to the Constitution when a hindrance 

Yes to man as a struggler amid illusions, 

Each man fated to answer for himself: 

Which of the faiths and illusions of mankind 

Must I choose for my own sustaining light 

To bring me beyond the present wilderness? 

       Lincoln? Was he a poet? 

       And did he write verses? 

“I have not willingly planted a thorn 

       in any man’s bosom.” 

I shall do nothing through malice: what 

       I deal with is too vast for malice.” 

Death was in the air. 

So was birth.

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