REDI’s Community Engagement Hour: Parts Known and Unknown

Um. Let’s see. I’m writing this bit of narrative as I’m devouring a Banh Mi sandwich. It’s delicious. As I am chomping, slurping and thoroughly enjoying my meal I’m struck by the absence and impact of Anthony Bourdain. For me, and right from the start, he was like a friend that was altogether strange and familiar. And since his passing, and as much as he did in life, the meals that I enjoy these days are the meals that I enjoyed as a child. My Gran’s homemade duck soup or my Great-Grandmother’s barbeque sockeye salmon, and she would make the cedar stick herself and fasten a whole fish on it and cook over an open fire. My Mom’s fresh bread enjoyed with a bowl of beef stew made from scratch, or the egg, bacon and cheese sandwich wrapped in foil that I would demolish on the way to school on the 3-hour return trek from Nitinaht Lake to Port Alberni.

This makes me think about the spaces where we all feel welcome – the kitchen table that you grew up around, your Auntie’s home, a favorite restaurant, a picnic, a smorgasbord, holiday meals – and it is food. Tony said, “when someone cooks for you they are saying something. They are telling you about themselves – where they come from, who they are, what makes them happy.” So, bring your favorite lunch, pull up a virtual chair, and we’ll talk about the bits and pieces of a meaningful conversation, and chew on the many and layered flavors of telling the truth and reconciling for the future.

What Will I Learn?
Anthony Bourdain said, “Perhaps wisdom is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.” So, what we’ll strive to learn about is our potential for curiosity and compassion for and with each other.