Hello, where did the fun go?
Has anyone seen the fun lately?
Whatever radar allowed me to seek and discover fun is now gone or may I say sorely lacking.
I can’t speak for anyone but myself but I’ve noticed more and more that parties, get-togethers and all around good times seem to have disappeared from the planet.
Oh some might say it’s the fault of that evil COVID monster and I’m certain that played a large part, but people seem so conditioned now to just staying at home and well, just being.
Are we all a bunch of Ghandis now? Meditating over what to watch on Netflix? You can’t have a conversation anymore without a friend asking if you’ve seen this or that movie or series on a streaming channel.
Ohm, British Baking Show…Namaste
I can’t believe how many friends have told me in the last few weeks they are very content never leaving the house.
Eerily, it seems it’s all come to pass.
Many years ago Trend Queen, Faith Popcorn who publishes the Popcorn Report focusing on future trends predicted all this.
How did she know?
She wrote that in the future, and that was over twenty-five years ago, people would adopt cocooning as a lifestyle.
Choosing to stay at home and building home media centers and larger kitchens and be more into eating at home. How did she know?
So if she predicted this so long ago is she psychic? Did she know a pandemic was on the horizon?
Was she in the Chinese lab or something?
I doubt that since she’s still alive, but she called it nevertheless.
It seems that no matter where I look, everyone is in a hurry to rush home and cocoon. I know staying in lockdown has changed the human dynamic a great deal, but have we all forgotten what it felt like to just see and interact with others?
During the pandemic most people had their own POD. Family members or friends they felt safe interacting with they saw regularly to keep from completely losing their minds, but now that everyone can go, the get up seems to have gone.
I can’t speak of course for young people who started the decline into oblivion pre-COVID when they chose social media interactions over human ones.
If you want to interact with a young person today you better know how to text.
Even I’ve noticed the preferred way to communicate now is by texting. So many of my friends now text to ask a question, where once it would have been a reason to initiate pleasant phone conversation.
It seems lock down has led to lock jaw.
I understand that sometimes it’s time efficient to text a question to someone, but you can’t gage the tone of a friend’s voice from a text. And no, emojis don’t work the same.
Most people my age can instantly discern from the first hello of a friend whether or not something is going on, bad or good.
Many times hearing a friend’s voice can lead one to probe a bit further and suddenly there is a conversation that was desperately needed to help out with a problem or issue. How can friends be there for one another if they don’t have a clue about the situation?
Perhaps someone should create emojis that hone in on any issue.
Like hands sticking a knife in a heart to signify, “hey I’m on the verge of a collapse here.”
Or perhaps someone tearing one’s hair out to connote a divorce is imminent.
I definitely think there should be one with a crying refrigerator designating difficulty staying on one’s diet.
And of course the hangman’s noose to say, “help, I want to kill my husband.”
A fat belly with a happy face to connote your having a new grandchild or flowers on a grave that says, “call me, I visited a loved one at the cemetery today and I’m a mess.”
Or a woman swallowing an ocean that screams loud and clear, “I’m too bloated to live.”
These are all things we once said to a friend over the phone and talking about it helped the pain or multiplied the joy or whatever someone needed at that moment. Now suddenly we have all retreated into ourselves and a phone conversation seems like too much work.
Sadly, many times we don’t even realize how desperately we need that conversation until we actually hear a friend’s voice.
Emojis can’t talk. They can’t sympathize, empathize or boost someone, or help a friend sort through what is bringing them down so you can lift them up.
Birds stay in their nests, but they sing to communicate and the song is beautiful.
I fully understand that in some strange way the lockdown showed us we can do well on our own, with help of course from Amazon. Yet I’m not certain that silence is all that golden and may be a bit overrated.
Humans need one another or God wouldn’t have given us voices. Oh sure at times the sound of a voice is the last thing you want to hear, but it’s truly what keeps the lines of communication alive and creates a closeness a text could never achieve.
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here when I say when we leave this party called life we will hear silence for a very long time.
I’m not so sure I care to rush the situation.
Sure it’s fun to watch a good movie and down some popcorn with your feet up in front of your own giant flat screen, but it’s also fun to go out to dinner, lunch, or shop with friends. Parties can be fun and sharing a concert or a play together is great even if it’s not so good. At least you have someone to bitch about it with on the way home.
The lock down is over but are we still prisoners of its consequences? Do we need to remember what life was like when we actually talked and socialized with one another? Netflix is no substitute for the smile or voice of a friend so call someone you haven’t talked to in a while and reestablish the lines of communication in the way they were designed. Otherwise Alexander Graham Bell wasted his life and that would be a shame.
Rustic Onion Galette
6 medium onions sliced
¼ cup of sliced leeks
1½ cups of heavy cream
1 small package (4 oz.) cream cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
½ tea thyme
Pastry large enough for a tart shell puff or regular
½ stick of butter
Olive oil
Add olive oil and butter to frying pan and heat
Add onions, leeks and seasonings and sauté on medium heat until onions are just turning brown and beginning to caramelize. Add cream cheese and cream and continue cooking until cream reduces a little and cream cheese melts through well. Taste and add seasoning if necessary. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in microwave and add 1 tablespoon of flour. Mix together and add to cream mixture until thickened.
When done place on pastry and fold sides up leaving a small opening at the top. There is no wrong way to fold a galette just as long as all the sides are folded around the filling. It’s a perfect recipe to be creative. Place it in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes or until pastry is cooked.
You may also use this recipe for tiny tarts for hors d’oeuvres or add mushrooms to onion sauté and extra half and half or milk and make a delicious soup. Also great with some goat cheese or Gruyere sprinkled on top when warm.
NormaZager.com 