“Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water” is not only a scary thought, it is true. I think I had to be about 30 before I understood the real meaning behind one of my Grandma’s favorite expressions. She would say it every time I tried to throw away something of value.
Her idea of what held value and my idea of what held value was very different, the most common example: Bones. She liked to keep the bones…no, she wasn’t a geriatric anthropologist… like me, she loved to cook and she knew bones are the secret to some of the best leftover meals you could make.
Let me start by saying I think leftovers get a bad rap. Some things are just better the next day….lasagna and chili are two that come to mind.
But if you start a soup or stew with leftover bones you can’t go wrong. There is just something brought into the broth by simmering bones that cannot be described and to think at one time I tossed these valuable tasty bones into the trash without a second thought breaks my heart. This got me thinking about what other valuables we might be tossing aside without a second thought….
I was just discussing relationships the other night at a dinner party. It was decided that too many people do not value old friendships, relatives and spouses the way we should. We have become a throwaway society. By tossing out these seemingly “insignificant” connections to people is “like throwing the baby out with the bath water.”
Maybe social media is partially to blame…why “value” a friendship when I now have a zillion friends on Facebook? Why have a conversation with my relative on the phone or in person when I can just send a quick PM (private message) and be done with it? There no longer has to be an “art of conversation”…. it’s all typed through our fingertips.
I find myself stumped sometimes during a “real” face to face conversation as my brain cannot seem to keep up with the verbal thoughts of the other person when I hear them. It is so much easier when I read “conversations” because I can go back and re-read what they “said” before I respond and hit reply.
But some of the best human connections and ideas come from conversation. Sharing our thoughts and feelings in a way you could never do on-line or in an e-mail. Consider these relationships like the good solid “bones” in a soup. They just give it better flavor. Please make 2014 the year you don’t “throw the baby out with the bath water.”
In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
Albert Schweitzer
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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