{"id":5316,"date":"2020-03-03T12:41:17","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T03:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/?p=5316"},"modified":"2020-03-03T18:13:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T09:13:50","slug":"my-mother-could-cut-up-a-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/03\/my-mother-could-cut-up-a-chicken\/","title":{"rendered":"My mother could cut up a chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Not far from\nmy house, beside the lotus pond, kawazu<\/em>\ncherry trees grow along a walking path. There are more than sixty trees on each\nside of the path, so it\u2019s a nice little stroll\u2014and a nice<\/em> stroll. The other day, the trees were in full bloom. The bees\nwere mad with bliss, and the mejiro<\/em>,\ntoo, were caught up in the heavenly harvest. The mejiro<\/em>\u2014green bodies, white rings around their eyes, smaller than\nour local sparrows\u2014flit from branch to branch, hopped from blossom to blossom,\ncontorting their bodies in whatever way necessary to position their beaks for a\nstraight jab down into the cherry nectar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly I\nsmiled. I remembered something I\u2019d overheard a while back. Two women were\ndiscussing cooking, in particular how to deal with a recipe that called for \u201ca\nwhole chicken.\u201d One of the women said that she only bought pre-cut breast\nmeat\u2014and was \u201cgrossed out\u201d if she had to slice it up. I assume that she meant\n\u201cbefore she cooked it.\u201d The other responded by saying, \u201cMy mama could cut up a\nchicken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wasn\u2019t\nlistening all that carefully, so I might have missed an important segment of\nthe conversation, and just maybe I misinterpreted the second woman\u2019s\nintonation. It\u2019s possible that she meant, \u201cMy mama was better than anyone I\u2019ve\never seen when it came to cutting up a chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But what I actually\nheard was this: \u201cMy mama could cut up a chicken. I<\/em> don\u2019t know how, but she<\/em>\ncould. I<\/em> wouldn\u2019t have the slightest idea how to go about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I\nthought that if we have come to think that cutting up a chicken is some\nmiraculous ability that we as fully developed and elite animals are no longer\ncapable of (have gratefully outgrown, some might say), we are in serious\ntrouble. If we have come to believe that unquestionably doable things are in\nfact undoable, then we truly are lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s\nwhy it\u2019s important (even if you choose<\/em> to purchase pre-sliced, skinless\nchicken breast) to know that you can<\/em> cut up a whole chicken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You may not have the instinct a mejiro does, but your fingers are not made in such a way that they cannot learn to use a knife, and with a bit of practice, a bit of trial and error, you can indeed become a chicken cutter-upper par excellence. After a while, if you do choose to become a cutter-upper, it might feel<\/em> like something you have an instinct for\u2014at least something you can do easily and well and with clear purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, it\u2019s nice to learn how to do things you\u2019ve always thought you couldn\u2019t. To develop an instinctual feel for a particular task. To surprise yourself with what you, a single individual, are capable of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In this age of specialization, we are much less likely to be doing something completely by ourselves than folks were hundreds of years ago. We are more likely to be a part of a system, a system whose processes and purposes we cannot always control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nope, I\u2019m not against teamwork, not against pooling talents. But there can be a negative side to joining a team you can\u2019t quit, a negative side to relinquishing control over what you want your efforts to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So, for what it\u2019s worth, here\u2019s how to cut up a whole chicken: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get a good knife. Place the chicken, breast up, on a good cutting surface. Slice into the skin between the legs and the body. Feel for the joint. Pull on the leg, pop the leg bone out of the joint, then cut the leg off completely. Following the fat line, cut the thigh from the drumstick. Feel for the middle of the joint, as necessary. Repeat with the other leg. Slice the skin between the wing and breasts, feel for the joint, and cut on through. Repeat. Identify the fat lines running between the backbone and the breast. Cut. Keep cutting through the ribs. Some people like to use scissors for this part. Put the backbone and attached meat in your soup pot. Place the remaining double-breast skin-side down. Cut into the little bone in the middle of the double-breast. Flip the breast. With the palm of your hand break the breastbone. Cut the breast in half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In Walden<\/em>, Thoreau wrote, \u201c[M]an\u2019s\ncapacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by\nany precedents, so little has been tried.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s so\ntrue. So<\/em> little has been tried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I was\nsmall, people used to say, \u201cCan\u2019t<\/em> never could do anything.\u201d I no longer\nlive in an English-speaking country. I don\u2019t know if they still say that or\nnot. But I hope they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surely they\ndo.\n\nAnd we\nshould listen. Because we are capable of so many things.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

(from Persimmon Dreams: When you\u2019ve got a spare moment, check out our music\/nature videos on our \u201cPersimmon Dreams\u201d YouTube channel, or Steve\u2019s books, When a Sissy Climbs a Mountain in May<\/a> and Along the Same Street<\/a>, available on Amazon, or directly from us. And if you enjoyed this post, consider sharing with others. Thank you!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not far from my house, beside the lotus pond, kawazu cherry trees grow along a walking path. There are more than sixty trees on each side of the path, so it\u2019s a nice little stroll\u2014and a nice stroll. The other day, the trees were in full bloom. The bees were mad with bliss, and the … Continue reading My mother could cut up a chicken<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5327,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5316\/revisions\/5327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}