Ta Da: Kimchi Is Theater

I believe we can imagine ourselves successful, lucky or brilliant or boring or irrelevant or damaged  or perfect – even rich or poor. “You can change the world with a hot bath” writes Anne Lamott in her recent book,  Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace.  And maybe it takes more than one bath but a routine of baths.  Here’s the deal.  Kimchi is beneficial to your gut, yummy, and enhances a laundry list of dishes – Korean and more. But that’s only part of the equation.  The veggies I use are oftentimes the ugly ones from local farmers – organic mostly – the ones  nobody wants even food banks or restaurant  soups or stews.  My daughter’s discards.  They’re Orphans.  But,  ta da, these offerings from the earth pay into your nutrient bank and offer more than joy and health.  They connect to Korean culture and people, to longevity, to knowing transformation firsthand and if, like me, you make it with your own hands, the cabbage becomes your partner which brings to new life what was once transformed by age or drought or flooding into a miserable looking field crop. And now it’s not. It’s lovely.  It’s the stuff to sweeten up life for now and for tomorrow. Or at least I imagine it so.