Donde No Hay Cook

       Here is where I talk about my latest food and drink experiences. I think a lot more about these things now because I keep trying to quit cigarettes and have to learn to live without cigarettes. The old definition of "The Good Life" was an Epicurean concept that no one was going to come in and make people treat each other decently and no one was going to come in and make them enjoy themselves, though people are always trying to do both to all of us all of the time. So it is important for people who care about these things to take extra care to treat others as we would wish to be treated, to take at least a little care of our health, and to enjoy ourselves,, because no one would buy Snapple Tea if it were more expensive than Lipton or it didn't taste as good or, some would say, better.
        I call this entry "Donde No Hay Cook" ("Where There Is No Cook") because all too often young people grow up fending for themselves without a set dinner time even when the family can afford to, skimming cheese from a three-thirds empty refrigerator and having your parents yell at you (Been There). People benefit so much when someone in the same age bracket guesses from institutional experience when a quote-unquote "family dinner time" is supposed to happen and says, "Dammit! I'm going to cook something. Where's the recipe book?" That's why they say it's never too late to have a happy childhood, because if you still have a spark in you or if one can be awakened with words or music, you can awaken to all those old childhood longings and begin to use your brain to plan how to meet them.
       The I Ching has this wonderful hexagram of The Corners of The Mouth (#27) and I can never exactly interpret the text once and for all, but it always turns up for me when I'm asking if a new woman friend is going to turn out to be a girlfriend (meaning, Will we have sex?). What the hexagram says to me is it's like a person with terrible desire looking to another and finding a person with an equally strong different desire that doesn't meet the first one's plans. Can the two be friends?