Cracking walnuts
It’s cheaper to crack walnuts than buying peeled ones. For a long time, I still thought it made sense to purchase them. I had the money for it, so I could use my time to engage in other activities instead. As I started travelling and got exposed to various life styles, this view got questioned more and more. When my child was born, the answer became straightforward.
I decided to have children to take care of them and facilitate their growth. The more time we spend together, the stronger connection we create. Therefore ideally I include my child in most of my every day activities. Working with computers–the paid work I do–is not such. The less paid job I do, the less money I earn, however the more time I gain to spend with my child. My life time in this world is a very limited resource after all. With less money, I cannot afford to purchase peeled walnuts any more. I need to crack the nuts myself which, turns out, is a perfect activity to do together with a child. In fact, it’s a job that I can do remotely, from home, and part-time. I have absolutely flexible working hours. Something everyone strives for at COVID-times.
Further contemplations:
- Eventually I can forage the nuts myself. Foraging is still, and probably an even more fun, activity to include my child in.
- I can use this opportunity to let them see where food comes from, what it takes to grow your on food. In fact, this eliminates a whole set of discussions around food sources in my life. My food suddenly becomes organic and local.
- Cracking nuts can be done outdoors. Harvesting them must be. It encourages to spend more time in nature in fresh air. It’s a great example for stacking functions–a principle for resilience promoted by permaculture design. It also creates opportunities to observe and learn from nature, and help my child build a universal, cosmic identity.
- Both harvesting and cracking nuts can be done together with friends. Even more functions combined. The line between work and life are now really just a matter of perception.
- Finally, the more tasks I insource, the less I’ll depend on paid jobs provided by others. The more responsibility I’ll be able to take for myself, the more autonomous I’ll become in food and other parts of my life.
I wish my father told me this when he tried to convince me to help him crack nuts when I was a kid. (He wasn’t a man of words.) I was frustrated that, instead of playing, I had to stay after family dinners and crack nuts. Why don’t we just buy ones that are already peeled?, I wondered.