Tags
Argentina, ¿qué falta?, Christmas Eve buffet, comino, content in whatever circumstance, empanadas, Joyce's taste test, living with lacks, we all have our lacks. . . deficiencies, what's missing?
While working this morning on the filling for the empanada I want to serve at our family’s Christmas Eve buffet, I periodically tasted it. It is a habit I learned from watching Joyce when she cooked. Her taste buds were so acute that she knew right away if the pie mix needed more sugar, or if the soup needed more salt or pepper. When making the empanadas, she could by tasting know immediately if there still wasn’t quite enough of the spice comino in the mix.
While doing some of that “tasting test”, obviously without the talent Joyce had, I realized I had kicked into Spanish. “Empanada” in English could be translated as “meat pie”. (By the way, click Argentine empanadas to see what Google provides when you search for images of Argentine empanadas. If that page doesn’t make your mouth water . . . Um Um – good stuff). Now back to my point and where I ended up mentally going with images of the empanadas that in my case will come out of the oven tomorrow afternoon.
While Joyce was doing her taste test on the empanada filling, I imagined her giving me a little taste, and humoring me by asking, in Spanish, “¿Qué falta?” What’s missing?, Anything? More . . . ?
That little word “falta” was a verb we needed to master when speaking Argentine Spanish. It works for so many contexts. We could be driving to Cordoba, and one of our daughters would ask, ¿cuánto falta? (how much longer?. . . We could have a meetings scheduled for the professors, and when it was time to begin, someone might say, ¿quién falta? (who is missing?) When something or someone is missing, something or someone “falta”
This morning, when making the empanada filling, I allowed that question to roll around in my mind. The question brought to my consciousness various thoughts about “what is missing”. If you have periodically read the Musing and Observations posts, you’ve seen that in my life Joyce is missing. (Falta Joyce). But, I am not going that direction at this point. I am thinking more globally.
We all have our lacks, our legitimate but unfulfilled needs. We have our psychological deficiencies, a circle of loyal friends that is smaller than we wish it were, a schedule that lacks organization or self-discipline, a diet that lacks balance, a marriage that lacks tenderness and/or loving care for the spouse or from the spouse, a spirituality that lacks vitality, or perhaps lacks something much more serious, the presence of the Lord Jesus. We live in a multiple dimensioned reality that is less than our aspirations, our hopes and our dreams.
This is not the place and I am not the person to propose some simple solutions or a Pollyannaish view of life. On one hand, some of the missing things can be taken care of with diligence and correct thinking and behavior. On the other hand, some needs are simply going to go unsatisfied. Some lacks will be with us our entire life. Some dreams will never be anything other than a dream. That is the reality we inhabit. Can we be spiritually healthy and mentally stable living with the lacks we wish we did not have? The short answer, but the true answer, is “Yes”.
A man who lived with lacks, and finally lacked a head (he was decapitated by orders of the Roman emperor), summed up in these words his approach to things that were missing in his life: “. . . I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. (The apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians 4.11 in the Bible – New International Version) The operative word is “learned.” With time and diligence, we can learn to be content with our unavoidable lacks.
We have God on our side, and the alternatives are dead end streets.
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Jackie Larson said:
Hi Vernon, we wish you and your family a Blessed and Merry Christmas. Jackie & Al Larson
stertin said:
Jackie and Al – Thanks very much for the Christmas wish. And the blessing part? I will joyfully receive all that is available.
For you and your family, I also wish that this Christmas season, and particularly tomorrow, will be full of the joy that shirt tails on our Savior’s love to and for us.
Have a rich and delightful Christmas!!! . . . . . Vernon
Josue Fernandez said:
Thank you, dear Vernon, for this post. Like a spoiled child we want to have it all.
Trust you had a wonderful Christmas and new strengths for this new year.
Greetings from Cordoba, Josue y Lily
stertin said:
Josue, thank you for your interaction with the post. With life’s experiences, I am coming to understand that our human plight is as much describable by what we don’t do (lo que nos falta), as by what we do. Morality comes into the picture on both sides. When young, I tended to think otherwise. Why I thought that way is a story in itself.
I hope your New Year has begun well. Greetings to both you and Lily. Y, abrazos fuertes.
Vernon
Bob & Sue said:
Thanks Vernon, for your insights which were DELICIOUS!!! BTW hope your empanadas turned out great!! Bendiciones, Sue y Bob
stertin said:
Sue, thanks for your comment on the post. I am glad you found it of some help. As for the empanadas, they came out quite well, all 5 dozen of them. But, with 17 people for Christmas week, we needed all of them!!
I hope your new year has begun well, and be blessed.
Vernon