A Ramen Inspiration

Looks like we're up to part five. Here are parts one, two, three, and four.

After I wrote yesterday's post, I thought "now wait a minute, Blue. How can you be said to be appropriating anything if you're not trying to be anything but yourself?"

This was after I had come home from rehearsal and made myself a small meal of ramen noodles stir-fried in garlic, ginger, and cayenne (in lieu of the dreaded "flavor packet"). It tasted... well, I don't know if it tasted like anything Madhur Jaffrey would have cooked up or not. I know it tasted exactly like something I cooked up, and it tasted good enough for me.

And I sat with my ramen and spices, in my pretty pink bowl with yellow cats dancing around its periphery, and thought now see, this is exactly what it is. It's a representation of everything in my life up to this point. It's not trying to pretend anything, or claim an authenticity it does not posess. It's just... me.

(This epiphany was sparked, in part, by a friend who suggested that I stop worrying about trying to do everything "correctly" -- trying to make sure I wasn't too appropriative, trying to make sure no one felt threatened by my attempts at learning about another culture, etc. -- and just be myself in every moment.)

So... can I get away with this? The other problem is that I'm not quite sure what "performing authenticity" means. It's the sort of term that gets thrown around, now and again, in the theatre but never really discussed. And the magical internet is no help.

So I either need to find out more, or take my friend's advice and just have a ball being myself. The latter sounds more fun, doesn't it? Not to mention screamingly less self-centered (always focusing on how I appear to other people rather than the interaction of the moment). I suppose time will tell what I do... :)