Umami

Life is so very precious. We take it for grant. We squander our lives in chasing after, for a lack of better terms, materialistic crap. Never mind personal responsibility. Let’s also not bother in bettering the world. We are completely caught up in chasing after some kind of ridiculous status on par with the flavor celebrity of the week. (Did you know there is a fifth ‘flavor’ we taste? Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Salty, and…Umami!) Then, we allow those crooks on the hill to take from us, and in effect we have allowed them to further divide this country. We are running our health care system and our economy into the ground, because we refuse to take responsibility for our actions.

Okay by now perhaps you are wondering why I keep using “We.” The etiology, the cause, lies in all of us, thus it is and will always be “We.” All the same, the answers rest in our appropriate and decisive action. This week I have spent some time reflecting on our Greatest Generation. Look around you, we exist because of their blood, sweat, and toil. Yes, you can dissect this generation and find fault as you can do any point with any one person or people, but as a whole, they were amazing! We have wandered far from them. Ultimately, I fear for the worse. No amount of technology will correct this fundamental problem nor will empty promises without action.

So I have quite the rant going here. What to do? To quote the famous Yoda (little green guy from Star Wars), “Do or do not. There is no try.” He is right! I believe we should not hang our hat on just trying to do right when it comes to noble and just causes. We must do. We must not accept an attempt. We must demand better from ourselves and responsibility for our actions. We must remember that we are all connected to each other and that we must educate, inspire, and nurture our youth.

Umami is a taste that is generally not directly perceived. However, the aforementioned taste revels with a pleasant savory characteristic. In essence, umami could be described as the glue of our fondest flavors. In “All I Need to Learn, I Learned in Kindergarten,” Robert Fulghum reminded us to revisit the Golden Rule, share, respect, take naps, wonder, question, have fun, laugh. I think he is right…well with a touch of umami sprinkled into our lives to help us along.
So, this holiday season I leave you with a final thought. A child name Mischa was battling with a brain tumor in a New York hospital. Unable to walk, from a wheelchair, this child would wheel around the hospital to see other children who had survived brain operations to remove their tumors. From the wheelchair she would offer words of encourage and hand them a tricycle to ride, a goal to achieve. The surgeon of this child wrote in reflection of observing this brave child:

“It’s how you behave in a ****-storm that shows what you’re made of. ‘Commit Random Acts of Kindness.’ There is NOTHING random about acts of kindness. Compassion is an active verb with moral consequences.” – If I Get to Five by Fred Epstein, M.D.

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Peace. Peace be with you.