Learn the Ways of All Professions

[mikeralls]

I just got done reading Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain. It's a biography of a chef. So in the spirit of "Lean the Ways of All Professions" here are my notes many of which I think show the ways being a chef can be applicable to other careers.

mikesbooknotes.blogspot.com/2007/09/kitchen-confidential-adventures-int-he.html

Also, Anthony has these thoughts on the writings experience;

303. On writing this. “It feels somehow shifty and . . . dishonest, making a buck writing. Writing anything is a treason of sorts. Even the cold recitation of facts – which is hardly what I’ve been up to - is never the thing itself. And the events described are somehow diminished in he telling. A perfect bowl of bouillabaisse, that first, all important oyster, plucked from he Basin d’Archon, both are made cheaper, less distinct in my memory, once I’ve written about them.”

Do you find that to be true? Are your memories diminished or embiggened by writing about them?

If anyone else has any notes or thoughts on other professions, and lessons that we can learn from them, perhaps this thread would be a good place to post them.

Cheers,
Mike

[Steven Barnes]

I've certainly never felt my memories are cheapened by writing about them. I often feel frustrated that I can't convey my actual experience more fully with words, however. A chef is used to dealing in the tangible and immediate. Tastes and smells are so primal! Perhaps it's the act f abstraction into language that disturbs him...

[mikeralls]

Sometimes I've felt like after I write a memory down I remember what I wrote better than I remember the memory itself.

[marylahree]

I believe that writing about one's memories can be emotionally cleansing. I don't feel that it cheapens them in any way. I do, however, tend to remember more as I write more.

Mary

[Steven Barnes]

Writing inevitably corrupts memories in some ways, but preserves and strengthens them in others. I think it's worth the risk.

[marylahree]

I suppose I'm not understanding how writing corrupts memories?

[Argent'horn]

Mary, overlaying artistic expression onto any experience changes the experience. Taking photos changes the way you see things; perhaps for the worse for some people. I have a friend who was for years an avid photographer, but who gave it up because he realized that it interfered with his enjoyment of the visual experience for himself. Writing about memories is probably even more corrupting. Inevitably, when writing about an experience one will emphasize some parts of the memory while ignoring others. The consequence is that the memory itself is distorted to conform more to what is written. There is nothing to be done about this, in a sense, since memories evolve even without being written about. However, writing about them speeds up and alters the process. (When I first replied to Mary's post, I had not realized that there were other earlier entries in the thread. Here is my contribution anyway.)

[marylahree]

Thank you, Argent'horn. You gave me an informative answer that does help me to see where others are coming from. Smiles, Mary