Aesthetics, Labour, Spirituality, Health and History

Today in class we talked about the aesthetics, labour, spirituality, health and history behind an activity. Because my activity is of course cooking; below is what I have related back to cooking. 


Aesthetics
Cooking can please many senses. The smell of fresh baking wafting through the house is bliss! Also the taste of new recipes and also old favorites is amazing. The sight of food in the frying pan with all the colors of the different vegetables together or the rising of a cake or muffins in the oven is very pleasing. There is also nothing like waking up in the morning and hearing the sizzle of bacon in the pan. 


Labour
Food is grown all over the world and harvested to send to supermarkets and other food stores. Farmers make a living growing crops or animals so that we are able to use these for cooking. "Whether in the world of man the gatherer of food or in our own world, the man is not free whose life is totally absorbed in labor. His energies are spent in response to necessity, under the aegis of forces that he does not set in motion and cannot control" (Green, 1968,np). No matter how advanced technology gets there is always going to be a need to grow and supply food. Cooking is no longer a job to me as it was before this paper. Work is described as an "activity which corresponds to the unnaturalness of human existence" (Arendt, 1958,np).


Spirituality
At Christmas there is an expectation in my family that there will be a large feast at dinner time to celebrate the day with family. The build up for the day begins days earlier as we do the shopping for food at the supermarket and begin to cook deserts and starters the day before. Everyone helps out or brings over something that they have cooked when they come over and no one seems to mind as it is all very exciting and built into who we are as a person (our spirituality). Cooking can be used as a excuse to get together and celebrate the year and enjoy one another's company. 


Health
The consideration of health is very important with regards to cooking. If someone has allergies then it is important to check ingredients properly to make sure there are no traces of the item in the food you are about to cook. Also it is important that you eat healthy foods especially if you are in the 'at risk' population and have high blood pressure for example. 


My history of cooking
My earliest memories of cooking will be watching my parents cook when I was very young. I always marveled over how exciting it all looked and wanting to be able to cook myself. I received a plastic set of food and pots and pans etc. for Christmas one year when I was young and loved pretending that I was cooking everyone food before presenting them with a plastic plate and knife and fork so they could enjoy their plastic peas and mash complete with a plastic sausage. This all went so well that when my younger sister received a toy cash register I suggested (or rather enforced) that we team up and open our own restaurant- she worked as a waitress while I completed all the cooking. I later went on to graduate my excellent cooking skills to work with actual food helping my mum prepare nightly dinners. I loved doing this and even if it was only peeling potatoes or doing jobs that my mum didn't really want to do I gratefully accepted and she gratefully gave these tasks. Eventually these skills gained as a young girl went on to get me a job working at the local ice skating rink cooking the fast foods such as chips and burgers for the ice skaters to purchase; at last my skills gained working in the kitchen of my very own restaurant as a young girl were paying off! 


References: 
Arendt, Hannah (1958) The human condition. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Green. T.F. (1968) Work, leisure and The American Schools. New York: Random House.