Babett's Feast and Difficult Times

Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever. --Isak Dinesen

I like this quote from Isak Dinesen and it really rings true for me--now. Long, long ago, I remember watching a film called Babette's Feast. The story was written by Isak Dinesen and essentially it's about a really great food party. I love to cook. It's my absolute passion. In the movie, this wonderful woman who cooks so well has to live outside her own country in a country which is so cold and so without all the ingredients of life that she knew before the war. When she finally gets a little bit of money she doesn't spend it on herself but spends it on a really amazing party for the people she has been surrounded by during her exile in Scandinavia. When my love was just a very young child, his family would run out of food at the end of the month. To keep from starving, they would collect bottles and have just enough to buy potatoes. They would generally live off potatoes at the end of each month. Over the years of gazing at my beautiful love, I could see the physical damage such hunger caused upon his body. Of course hunger never damaged his view of the the world's beauty. If anything, it was in contrast to the real pain of his life that he was able to see beauty in things which I could not. Oh yes, and he loved food too.
 I am somewhat familiar with Scandinavian food as my two sisters married Norwegians. With several years of practice, I have become somewhat skilled at making lefsa, Norwegian potato bread. My love took me to Sweden several years back and I literally ate my way through that country. Smorgasbords, yes! In the United states, our understanding of Scandinavian foods generally consists of smorgasbords. Few of us know anything about the starvation that Finns and Swedes have faced in history. Not to mention, more people still have no idea how one produces Lutefisk. I know how it is made, but I have very rarely eaten it. When I think about Babett's Feast and the French character of Babette, I have to say that my love lived his life this way. In essence, he lived in exile in this country, although, his name appeared on no black lists and he returned to his homeland many times. He really took  whatever God gave him and he threw a party which was his life. His life was infinitely rich and beautiful and mine was too for knowing him. The next time I have something which seems really troubling to me, I am going to throw a party.