Lessons in Chemistry

Photo by Kristine Tumanyan on Unsplash

Hello hello dearest friends,

As always so very grateful to have found this community which makes easier for us to connect.

It is a beautiful beautiful Sunday here on the island, one of the islands out of many that our city has to offer. I took quite a bit of time to myself this morning and listened to the birds, waited patiently for Mr.Sun to show up and he has shown up brightly so. It might look that summer is again around the corner at least in Hong Kong ,don’t you think?

I do appreciate this day even better so as yesterday I took a day off literally and became best friends with my bedroom, sleeping off, and just doing nothing.Until later in the evening where my brain started to feel a bit awaken and needed to consume something besides reading. A passive mode implemented with great success would say. And oh so much requested so by my body. Not sure about you, but I am still in progress of understanding all the messages from my body instead of fighting pretty much to also be active as my mind demands of myself especially on a Saturday - for some reason. “of you should go for a walk”, “ oh your should go to beach, why else have you moved here for” , “ oh, you should get flowers and veggies, yeah, go to the wet market please ” , “oh, sunshine is good for you ,go out in nature”. “Do” kind of messages. I totally agreed to the voice and all above messages in my mind yesterday morning and yes, I have been acting out on them until I got back home and never felt more exhausted.

It is worth mentioning that my revival yesterday evening came also after cooking an improptu dinner pretty much in almost a “silent meditation” mode. And, yes …that was one of the secrets I wanted to reveal today here. More to follow…. First, let’s take an onion and start peeling it off ….one by one.

Upon my revival , I also became quickly fascinated with “Lessons in Chemistry” which can be found on Apple Tv. For pretty much a lot of reasons which might not exactly include my passion for chemistry or science. A series with Brie Larson, Lewis Pullman, Aja Naomi King about Elizabeth Zott’s dream to become a scientist in the 50’s in a field not only dominated by men, but also in a time when women’s place was only supposed to be “domestic”, to eventually wait happily at home for her husband with the perfect cocktail and perfect smile full of love and gratitude. “How many female scientists can you count” she asks “Marie Curie” , he replies. “Yes, and anyone else? “ ….. nothing came up further.

Lessons in Chemistry

The series touches on so many subjects and we can take so many angles of it and talk for ages. And mostly also because it is not only the 50’s. We can even face many aspects of it today. Being a smart woman. Being a creative woman with innovative ideas. Being a woman who breaks the stereotypes and lives an independent life. Being a woman standing up to her truth. Being also a kind woman. Or an angry woman when sadness does not find refuge anywhere else.

The series spoke to me in all above ways where I could find myself represented. But not only because I am a woman. Society norms, written or unwritten have affected and they are still affecting women all around the globe, however I would also taking it a step further as society norms still are made pretty much daily, old or new and affect people in general. Dominance of some group over other.

The series is also kind, very smartly written, it got many twists and tenderness in the twists. The characters and the acting is absolutely stunning. I had to rewatch few scenes. Loved Lewis Pullman - for his acting. Loved also his role and what he was standing for. I guess is the first time I watch him. I was a bit more familiar with Brie Larson’s work before and she is so good.

To be honest,I would like to take some classes from her role. One of it is how to respond almost single minded to tons of trials of detours and staying classy in one’s vision. This mini-series delivers this brilliantly. Elizabeth Zott reaches that point also gradually and gains a clarity in who she stands for after few losses. It is also a beautiful contrast between precision, formulas, planning, exact measurements and perfectly clear explanations to a lot of phenomena and life and ever changing moving parts of life. How we fell in love, how we meet our soul mate, how we learn to say “I love you” only much later, and how we re-invent ourselves in this process over and over again. The detours have to be detoured too.

I loved one of her neighbour’s mantra - we practice it too quite a bit literally. “When you think you cannot do something or take it it anymore, you just see you can just do a tiny bit more” - “we expand” - that was the mantra. Please go and watch by yourself- it is definitely better delivered in the movie.

I might not have been a big fan or perfect student of chemistry or physics mostly because I do not have a memory for things like this. It is a fascinating world and I do admire all scientists who help our progress in general. Their research in the “Lessons in Chemistry” was around DNA and it was thrilling….. until few things happened….I am still curious about how it will go as have only reached the half of it.

I guess on the good side and how I related deeply with it was that I am a big fan of improvisations, experiments, spontaneity and using my “smarts” to create something or just observe. Test and error. Test and good results. Test and see.

And as it happens, as we all have to pay for bills and things manage income versus expenses (I just decided I will go back to a manual expense log and totally loved her handwriting andstyle).… Elizabeth Zott still ends up in a fancy kitchen, on a TV set, delivering chemistry classes to women eager to learn but also enjoying cooking. She has always loved cooking and took her time to cook diligently a nice dinner as part of her ritual coming back from her first work as a tech lab. I loved her non negotiable ritual of setting her table, using nice utensils and cooking a healthy good dish just for herself initially. It is one of my most reliable rituals growing even stronger over the years.

So, Elizabeth - takes the tools that society finds suitable for a woman and promotes science, promotes also empowerment, promotes creativity and gives tools to other interested people. Here she starts with the key audience women, despite the fact that the studio owner wanted her to be super sexy mainly for the husbands ! …. Idea dismissed :)…. And we have a show called” Dinner at 6.30” …the lasagna episode is wow….(hence the raw lasagna ingredients photo I have selected for today). It has always been challenging recipe for me ever. Lol. Maybe not experimenting enough on it….

I am not sure I have even written so long about a mini -series. I am still in the midst of it all and absorbing the brilliance of it all.

Another twist in the plot that I loved so much is Elizabeth’s dog. His character is called Six Thirty as he would wake up Elizabeth with a sharp precision right on time every morning at 6.30am. I would very much like to learn how they have trained this puddle to act so well - I wonder the tricks behind the camera to catch him in all key scenes so there, so present, so alive. Of course, he is important as well in the entire mini-series….and will say no further- it must be watched. His real name should have been mentioned in the description too along the main characters. That much I can firmly say so.

I almost feel an obsession tingling through my veins to get back where I have left and binge-watch all of it this morning….I have decided to reserve this pleasure for days when I need the support most and could be only found from a smart and strong woman who stands firmly on her own.

The secret of cooking for me is the secret of discovery and the secret of creation and as it has been often quoted “ to pour your heart into it”. I do not use the science much and I almost always channel my heart in the entire process. The other secret of cooking (in my case in particular) is that I barely have either all ingredients or sometimes I just improvise on the spot - with whatever I have available. It does feel very similar to a meditation, it is a ritual I practice to also ground myself, to express myself creatively and to of course delight myself or others in the deliciousness of it all. Is so much so similar to any form of creativity for me. Pretty much the same feeling and little excitement as when I write to you here on Sunday mornings, raw and sharing deeper truths under this form of monologue.

On another note, I just remembered I have been intrigued years ago by another book called The Science of Cooking, happily still surviving my book decluttering episode from last year when moving houses…. More “to do” on my reading list for the holidays…..or “to read” list… growing faster and longer. Having a hard copy does help as might be useful also as a lullaby just for other Saturdays when I have to literally rest my body. Not from imagination or day dreaming, oh, no- definitely not that part!

Have a lovey Sunday and why not, even enjoy a nice lasagna….. made by a skilful chef if possible with the proper amount of science.