Time with my young cousin

I want to write a post, I promised myself to do it today and I can not find a subject that would interest me and consequently my potential readers. If I do not find a subject that I am interested in, I will write about whatever it may be in a wooden type of a manner. This would not be good at all. At the same time my self-respect and self-esteem rest on six pillars according to Nathaniel Branden. One of the pillars is the practice of living purposefully. In my case it is to be aligned with my goal of passing knowledge and experience through writing and coaching. Writing systematically in this blog is a part of it. It is my exercises in writing. Since today is Monday and this is a small New Beginning, I want to keep promises I gave to myself this morning.  So, here it goes…

The last few days were very interesting and full of new thoughts and experiences. I had a young visitor, my nephew, who stayed with me few days. It is interesting and stimulating to observe and talk to someone who is at such a different stage of life. He has great plans for life and is passionate about chemistry. His studies revolve around developing a substance that may be helpful for people suffering from Alzheimer’s. It seems that chemistry may be fascinating. It was not a subject that made me excited when I was at school or at uni. I now realized that the science of chemistry can have many interesting applications if put in service of humanity. I also have realized that good young chemists may use the science in not too much scientific ways and have a lot of  fun with it.

So we talked a lot, walked, watched movies, cooked, tried new beer and wine, exchanged experiences regarding heart palpitations… It was quite a bag of different subjects and activities and it was fun.

Times and ways of young people obviously changed since I was 22, the age my nephew is now. I like the young people of today a lot. Their way of thinking is so different to that I can recall from the past. They live in a different world, of course. The internet and other technologies shrank the distances, things are instantaneous, one can organize the whole summer holiday sitting in the kitchen and drinking tea with an aunt. And the aunt may even not be aware of what is happening in the background during a seemingly uninterrupted conversation.

Interest in cooking spread across the world. Australia has its My Kitchen Rules and Master Chef cooking competition programs, I promise myself not too watch them any more but so far unsuccessfully. The competitors are mainly young people and they have very good cooking knowledge.  Their techniques improve with the program duration and are quite sophisticated. My young nephew and his even younger brother are very interested in cooking and quite often cook family meals. The roles have reversed. I love it! I had an opportunity to savor a great salmon cooked by Piotr. It was marinated and then cooked in a pesto made of basil, mint, limes, pine nuts, peanuts and honey. Fantastic!

That is what this perfect dish looked like. It was accompanied by Hasselback potatoes a Swedish way of preparing spads.

During my sojourn in Poland, I will have some more opportunities to meet young people. I am looking forward to it.