Processes

I've recently taken up cheese making. When I first read about how to make it, I learned that there was a process. Each step was purposeful and necessary, and if even one step was omitted, the final product was altered or rendered impossible. If the cultures don't incubate properly, the coagulation never takes place and you've just got a jar of sour milk. If you don't drain the whey from the curds properly, you don't get the right consistency. If you use too much salt, the flavour will be compromised. And, as I learned today, if you leave the cheese cloth laying around, it will fill your apartment with a decidedly noisome air.

I've been thinking a lot lately about processes. Since the only constant in life is change, and since that change is limited to the laws of physics, one can reap great rewards by merely applying oneself to the study of process. It seems to me that the people in life who wield the most power and influence understand two things; the way things work, and, based on that knowledge, how to get the desired result.

The first part of that equation is learning how things work. Everybody eats. But not many people know where their favourite foods come from or how to produce them. Everybody drives, but few know the inner workings of an internal combustion engine. Everybody lives in a building, but few understand construction. Chefs, Mechanics, and Engineers are able to charge great sums of money for their knowledge in these areas, and all it took was the effort to learn.

I've been fascinated with the way things work recently. I've been looking at my favourite things and applying myself to learning how they work, and I've come to find that there is a power that comes from a knowledge of the way of things. It makes one feel connected to the world to know that everything has a process, and that process has been going on since the beginning of time. If you put a seed in the ground, and ensure that there's water and sunlight, then it'll grow. No ifs, ands, or buts. It can help one's mood to contemplate the order of the world. There exists so much chaos, as much natural as man-made, but the order is what brings the stability and safety necessary to prepare one's self for the chaos ahead.