ISBC 5 - Hope is Not Cause and Effect
Chapter 5 in Hope: A User's Manual
[S]ometimes want hope to be like this: basically reliable, a straight line from cause to effect. If a cook knows their way around a kitchen and can follow instructions, they will generally yield a predictable result. The life of a cook is studded with occasional failures, and there’s always more to learn, but the basic procedures are fixed. Assuming good ingredients, a trustworthy recipe, and competent skills, you will get an edible result. But I suspect a truly robust hope is more like gardening than baking.1
A few weeks ago, I was listening to an episode of one of my favorite podcasts, StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and he was interviewing Dr. Kate Biberdorf, aka Kate the Chemist . At one point in their conversation , Kate shared about how she understands baking to be like chemistry where precise amounts are essential and it is important for a recipe to be followed for the baked object to come out as hoped. But she then shared how cooking, on the other hand, is much more of an art. Yes, there are recipes and yes they are excellent (and necessary) guides, but there is much more of trusting one’s feels when cooking. MaryAnn shares similarly for gardening in the quote above.
For me, the art is in one of my current hobbies - smoking. Not smoking cigarettes or other things but smoking meats. Over the last few weeks, I have smoked a lot of pork butts - some for a church Pentecost Potluck and then a bunch more for our youngest child’s graduation reception. In fact, I think the full tally was 14 pork butts when it was all said and done.
Yes there is a process I follow and there are key steps along the way. Yes, the smoker’s ideal temperature is about 225 degrees and yes there are steps to managing “the stall” and yes there are things like rubbing the rub into the meat and how much charcoal to use. I could keep going. But there is a lot of “this just feels right” in the process as well.
How much rub do I use on each one? Well, when it seems good and covered.
How long after rub before I start smoking? Can be a few hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours. See what works best for you. I like 24 hours or so.
How long does it take? Well, that depends on the size and composition of each cut of meat and interactions with the heat and moisture in the smoker that happen inside the smoker
How many pork butts should I cook? There are guides but it depends on the number of people, their appetites, how good the BBQ is (BTW, BBQ is a food, not an event).
I had a conversation with my father-in-law after he had some of the pork pretty much right after it was pulled apart (when it reached the magical number of 204 degrees and rested for about an hour). He wanted the specifics and the best I could do is share a story of how I did it. But it will depend on his smoker (which is different from mine) and a bunch of other things that he’ll just have to get a feel for when he tries it himself. It is an art that grows with practice.
As you read further on after the quote above from MaryAnn you’ll see how she shifts from the predictable thing of a hard-and-fast recipe to the art of gardening and how that speaks to how we practice hope. But there isn’t a hard-and-fast recipe to hope. It is about practicing hope day after day in our unique bodies and minds and experiences and settings. It is about our unique personalities and ways we interact with the world that influence how we experience hope, how we practice hope, and how we share hope.
But the more we do it, the more it becomes something we can just do, and like this BBQ, it can be sooooooo good.
How have you learned to practice hope? What are small steps (or big ones) that you take? Also, what is your go-to BBQ rub? Mine is pictured with the pre-cooked butt above - Big Bob Gibson’s Alabama BBQ...
Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed
McKibben Dana, MaryAnn. Hope: A User's Manual (p. 33). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
I don’t really know how I practice hope, but I always have, on a cellular level. Perhaps my infant baptism bathed me in the Spirit of God which, to my understanding, is HOPE. I suspect it came even earlier. Even though I was conceived in trauma, I was ALSO conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit—and therefore I know I was ALSO conceived in love. I have always carried hope in my soul. I don’t know HOW, but I know that I DO. And I am forever grateful for that HOPE.