Beyond the Tyranny of Now

in #story9 months ago

As I mentioned in my last post I ordered a smoky black tea variety called, Bohea Tea to try from a company that specializes in Colonial American memorabilia.

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The second I broke the seal and opened the tea tin I noticed a very familiar fragrance that evoked a million good memories. The calming scent of woodsmoke, of a campfire radiating warmth and light on a chilly autumn night. Also, Russian Caravan tea.

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When we had our tea shop we carried a strong and smoky variety of black tea called Russian Caravan and that is the exact same thing as Bohea tea. One of the fringe benefits of running a tea business was tasting the product and we did this a lot with the Russian Caravan tea (as I will with this Bohea variety). With a splash of cream and a dollop of honey It was definitely a calming and satisfying cuppa for a cold winter’s night.

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The tea was delicious paired with this homemade chicken, spinach, shiitake mushroom and garlic cauliflower crust pizza that I threw together for lunch. Albeit a little gimmicky, I applaud this company for making the connection between this smoky tea variety and the American Revolution and marketing it as such. The upcharge was more than worth the history lesson.

Learn, Unlearn, Relearn

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Lately, I've been running across these profound quotes at the most perfect of times. The meme above is a fine example of this, hence the title of the post.

There's nothing like an election year to reveal who amongst you are trapped in their own ideological maze even when it no longer serves them. Social media is awash with people unwilling to admit mistakes and bad decisions. Rather, they exhaust themselves defending these bad decisions until the very end instead of being willing to -- learn, unlearn, and relearn.

I feel like this is one of the main problems with not only America but the entire world right now. We desperately need to learn our lessons, have the strength to admit our mistakes, and then move towards effective solutions. Yes, it sounds easy but obviously it's not.

Humanity is going to have to develop this mental and ideological fluidity quickly unless we wish to exist in a dystopian future akin to the ones Hollywood has so generously flooded us with for the past few decades.

Sometimes fiction serves as nothing more than cautionary tale, a crystal ball that we can peer into to see one possible future outcome. The key word there is "possible".

As someone who is approaching the Autumn season of life I wish so much more for future generations. For what it's worth, I intend on using my remaining years to get as many of my thoughts and ideas out there as I can. I've always known on some level these words will be my legacy.

I'm still fairly optimistic that, as chronically dysfunctional as we are, we will be able to turn things around. Possibility, hope, and optimism are very powerful things. We must only be willing to learn, unlearn, and relearn.

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Now for a nice cup of tea.


I Dream

Ahh, stillness,
it is our soul's
natural state
but in this life
we must move
somewhere beyond
the tyranny of now.

The thought of
chasing this
endless summer
is bliss. In it we will find the
space to think and
change the arc
of our narrative.

I want to see
this world through
the eyes of a million people
and a few gurus
who unsuspectingly
drip wisdom from
their very lives, in every
cell of their being.

I dream of meandering
down little alleyways
and twisted streets,
enraptured in a sort of
childish awe of people,
places, and things
in which I've never
heard the name.

These aging feet
still have some miles to travel,
these eyes, so many
sunsets to savor,
tastes of foreign flavors
to satisfy this yearning, so deep.

So let us cast a wide net,
keeping our memories
from dust and all
these ghosts
of pain and of time
and build a life, sublime,
I dream.

EVW


Enjoy the day. Thank you for reading!

~Eric Vance Walton~

(Gif sourced from Giphy.com. Photos are original.)


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Beautiful poem, always a pleasure to read your good lyric . As for the elections, I think that daddy trump returns to the presidency, it's my perception, it's more of the same. I don't think Biden can beat him. I still think he got there by stealing votes, but that's another topic.

Thank you. Trump is favored in most of the polls, I think. I'm hoping RFK Jr. can get on the ballot in enough States to pull off a miracle but it will have to truly be a miracle at this point.

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You've raised a valid point. The concept of learning, unlearning, and relearning is often presented as a straightforward process, but in reality, it can be much more challenging, especially when applied to complex societal life issues .The combination of tea with a delicious pizza is so rare. Enjoy your tea Sir!

Thank you!

That tea looks really awesome. I have never had loose leaf tea like that before. The way you describe it makes it sound like something I would really like though. I might have to look into it. I really like that quote as well. I haven't seen it before now, but I appreciate you sharing it here!

Thank you, Bozz! I'd encourage anyone who is on the fence about tea to try the loose leaf varieties. Almost always the tea found in tea bags is subpar quality "tea dust" that is swept off the production facility floor. The loose leaf teas, brewed properly in tea baskets that allow the leaves to expand during brewing, makes a superior cup every time. A good English Breakfast or Earl Grey is amazing this way.

I used to have a little metal thing I could put over my mug that had like a strainer on it. I think I got rid of it a long time ago though. I don't drink a lot of tea these days due to the caffeine.

Oh yeah, those work too. I think they use those when they brew the tea leaves directly in the pot. The strainer is put over the mug to catch the leaves. The black teas can have about 1/3rd the caffeine as coffee, more if they're brewed strong. I was just diagnosed with a heart murmur so I have to be aware of that now too.

I have some caffeine free green tea at home that I enjoy from time to time. I'm guessing it's more of a naturally occurring thing and they need to do some science magic to make it not caffeinated, so the choices are quite low.

You may want to try white tea. It's super low in caffeine and is made from the same plant as the green and black teas. Some of these white teas are really phenomenal.

I might have to look into that! Does it still have the same health benefits like antioxidents and stuff?

Yeah, white tea actually has more than the other varieties because it’s not processed as much.

I am always willing to learn, unlearn and relearn, it's one of the cool things about life.

Beautiful poem!

Thanks, so glad you enjoyed it!

learn, unlearn, relearn

Sometimes, I really wish it was easy.

But I guess the biggest issue might br to admit to a mistake amongst tese 3 words.\

Been a while since I read some of your insightful post.

It's not always easy!

You very well described a camping night in spring or autumn night ;) I would love brew that tea on the campfire :)

Sitting by the campfire is one of my favorite places to be.

We will keep learning day by day and that is how we can grow and become a better person we should be actually. We learn, relearn and unlearn

A pleasant encounter reading your post (I think it's the first time). I liked the diversity of elements that you integrate in it, from the relationship with that attractive tea, the reflection on the learning-unlearning -demanding attitude and difficult to assimilate by most- and that beautiful and heartfelt poem that you offer us. Thank you and best regards, @ericvancewalton.

Thank you, I'm glad you've found my blog!

Too notch, my friend 👏🏼

You at your finest. The tea serves you well :)

Thank you Nicky!

Drinking hot tea on a cold winter evening is indeed very pleasant. I usually do it in the rainy season because in my country there is no winter. The pizza looks really good. Enjoy your beautiful day, Eric.

Yes, it certainly is. I drink hot tea year round for the most part. The pizza was excellent. I make those a lot, it's so easy and you can get creative with toppings. Thank you, Eliana. I hope you have a wonderful week!

Hi mate, glad the tea has lived up to your expectations, if someone asks me what my favorite tea is, I always say “the stuff the monkeys drink “

Thanks! I have to ask, what kind of tea do the monkey's drink?

Haha, it’s a uk brand called PG tips, they used to dress up chimpanzees and add voice overs to them. The adverts on tv were the funniest ever. can you do me a favor and send me a witness vote, thanks.

learning is the process that never ends and we learn from each and every turn of our life, nice poem.

The quote is pure gold! Love it and thank you for sharing!

Thank you, I'm glad it resonated!

learn, unlearn, and relearn.

So very much needed here in SA!
We're all going to the polls on 29 May and hope that our grossly corrupt government will not come out as strong as in the past.
Those teas sound really good Eric!
If only more people in the world can understand and put that quote into practice!

I love your poetry!
This especially resonates:

These aging feet
still have some miles to travel,
these eyes, so many
sunsets to savor...

I bet! I think it's needed everywhere these days, corruption is so widespread. I'll keep this new Bohea Tea in my weekly rotation for a while. It would go so well with cured meats or salmon.

Lately I've been using quotes/memes that are put in my path as writing prompts and it's been so much fun.

Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying the poetry. I have so many little bits and pieces of poems I've started. I'll be posting this series soon as I wrap some of them up. I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope the election goes the right way there in SA and things start to improve.

People in our city drink tea five to seven times a day in winter, especially for those who work, it is very important

The truth of the matter is most of the time, generally in the world, we see our mistakes but because of self ego, we refuse to learn from our mistakes

Glad to hear the tea ws good. I've never tried Russian Caravan tea. Maybe I'll try to order both of those from here. Could be a fun experiment.

I don't know if people will ever learn their lessons. Well, no, that's not right. I always think people are good. People are just shaped by their environment, and at the moment our environment is overwhelming us with bad things. Even if they ignore social media and "real" media's propaganda, they can't ignore the crushing reality of our Uber-capitalist society in which the capital is increasingly almost entirely within the hands of the 1%, everyone else is getting poorer, and as a result, more stressed, more scared, more overwhelmed, etc. It's hard for anyone to function in this environment.

You mention Hollywood's message of dystopia, which they've been shoving down our throats for the past 40 years. Was Blade Runner the first? Great movie, but it started a trend I'd rather not have. Then again, maybe The Warriors was the first. I guess it was running off the reality of NYC just completely crumbling at the time, but the image it gave persisted. I hope eventually Hollywood moves on to a more positive vision of the future.

Great poem. A pleasant dream!

It would be fun to try the Bohea and Russian Caravan side-by-side.

I tend to agree with your take on the goodness of humanity. Traveling has taught me that most typical people everywhere are generally good and just want to be happy. Their are some bad seeds that are just born that way but usually a person is "trained" to do harm by the environment they're raised in. On the other hand, not everyone is interested in consciously evolving. I heard a quote the other day, "Unfortunately, some people were not put here to evolve. They are here to remind you what it looks like if you don't." The longer I live the more I see there's truth in that too.

With as unbalanced as our society is becoming the deck is stacked against a majority of people. Cryptocurrency was one of the last real tickets out of servitude for a lot of people. The governments of the world realized this and, I believe, this is one reason they resisted it so strongly. We have to, somehow, regain more equality as a society. I don't even know how we'd do it at this point but I haven't given up hope.

You're so right, they've been filling our heads with violence and debauchery for decades. It's a shame too because I think the more of that kind of media we consume and absorb, the more it becomes our reality and is then manifested into the physical world through peoples' actions.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.