Feast: A Tribal Cookbook

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So here it is from us to you: our first collection of many ways from many tribes . . . new tools, workable systems, shared thoughts, and warm foods which have nourished and fed us all for many years and which will give us all the energy to go further.

5 ROCK CITY ROAD

All things have need of nourishment from above. But the gift of food comes in its own time, and for this one must wait. The ICHING's fifth hexagram (above: the abysmal water, below: the creative, heaven) shows the clouds in the heavens with food and drink. The rain will come in its own time. We cannot make it come; we have to wait for it. The idea of waiting is further suggested by the attributes of the two trigrams . . . strength within, danger in front. Strength in the face of danger does not plunge ahead but bides its time, whereas weakness in the face of danger grows agitated and has not the patience to wait.

THE IMAGE

Clouds rise up to heaven:
The image of WAITING.
Thus the superior man eats and drinks,
Is joyous and of good cheer.

When clouds rise iii tire sky, it is a sign that it will rain. rain. There is nothing to do but to wait until the rain falls. It is the same in life when destiny is at work. We should not worry and seek to shape the future by interfering in things before the time is ripe. We should quietly fortify the body with food and drink and the mind with gladness and good cheer. Fate comes when it will, and thus we are ready.

5 ROCK CITY ROAD

No one could ever agree on a name for the restaurant, so it just got called by its address. I guess that's pretty cosmic because the number 5 hexagram in the I Chingwaiting (nourishment); so it will be 5 Rock City Road. I don't really know how to put a restaurant together from scratch . . . I only try to keep turning out food that people can get feeling high from, and it's not hard when you use the food I do. It is all good whole grains and as much organic produce as we can find or grow ourselves.

The restaurant family has fluctuated a lot in the year that I've been here and every new person who comes to help brings strong energy to continue the work the family has started. Those who don't really want to contribute, well, they usually get bored and leave, or if they can't seem to make the move, someone in the family gives them a nudge to help them along. I know this restaurant can't work unless everyone involved is consciously aware of the work necessary to keep flowing smoothly. We have had so many meetings about this, and it is the biggest problem for everyone to work out. The hardest role to play in these family games is the decision-maker or foreman or whatever you want to call it (maybe wagonmaster). You've got to work out a way to keep your spiritual self alive, strong enough to order people, and still be detached from the role of ordering. Staying high has been the hardest thing to work out for all of us. We have the dualism of wanting to split for the woods and yet we don't know enough to live out there very long without the society which has so heavily imprinted us . . . it's not good or bad, it just is. We keep trying to confront each other when a personality "wiggle" happens, but sometimes you can get real knotted up inside and the trouble builds pressure . . . you want to say something about something to someone, but all of a sudden you wonder if maybe it's not your ego coloring your perception of a friend's actions, and you keep it inside to protect yourself from being wrong. Well, that's when it's got to blow, so you can get it out of your head where you can see it. And that's what we're doing, and when we're not doing that, we have this restaurant.

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