The Chariot Rider

You felt it for the first time in your playground days when the popular recess fashion was your vulnerability and your mothers love. One day, you showed up at the park as usual and it became clear that fashion trends had changed, and your vulnerability was teased and torn and made to run home crying. Your mother’s love was no longer enough. You vowed never to show your vulnerability again and you buried it under an armor of designer clothing or cult fashion. You painted a fantasy world for yourself where you could never again feel hurt.

You let flattery be your guide and traded your values for others loyalty. As the years went on you realized the fickleness of human loyalty and you imagined your own depreciation. You entered into a circular arena driving a chariot of horses each working toward your own material perfection. A dainty white horse for vanity, a tall black stallion for wealth, you had as many horses as you had hats and you drove them all. From the pulpit of your chariot you whipped your horses until they galloped and frothed to be better, faster, stronger. Soon you became your own horses. You felt the sting of the whip driving you and the sweat on your brow and the dirt beneath your hoofs as you ran and ran into exhaustion. You lost your former self in a cloud of dust. You had become your accomplishments, delicately balanced on the whimsy of the crowd you imagined around you.

One day, you collapsed into exhaustion. 

As the dust began to settle in the arena, you found that the stadium was empty. The cheering crowds had long since moved on to another attraction. The only noise to be heard was the gentle sobbing of the little child with hurt pride who was afraid to be vulnerable ever again. You found yourself sitting face to face with this beautiful, angelic little creature, and saw how all this chaos was needlessly created. The one thing that you were trying so hard to protect, to shield from the horrors of life and people, was stronger than all of your armor. You held the tender thing in your arms and fed it with your own love, and it became your greatest strength.

 Rinse and cook ½ cup dry quinoa. To cook, heat 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil in a small saucepan until hot and add the rinsed and drained quinoa (I rinse it 5 times to get the bitterness out). The quinoa will sizzle a bit if it is still wet. Toast it for a few min, stirring. Then add 1 cup water, cover and bring to a boil. When boiling, reduce heat and simmer until the little tails sprout and the water is mostly gone. Then uncover and stir until all water is evaporated.

 In a frying pan heat 2-3 Tbsp toasted sesame oil and a little salt. Add 1 small head diced green cabbage. Add 4 cloves garlic minced. Add 1 diced zucchini (when you cut into the zucchini make sure to look at the floral pattern of the seeds, stunning!) While the cabbage/zucchini is cooking, peel and slice 3 long skinny carrots and add to the mixture. Cook for a few min, just before the carrot loses it’s crunch, turn off the heat and add the quinoa to the frying pan. Add 1 cup chickpeas. Allow to cool and sprinkle with salt, 2 tsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp rice vinegar and 1 Tbsp ume plum vinegar. Serve cool or room temperature.

 Christina’s vote: “Exotic and down home at the same time”