Frederick Douglas, Promoter of
Creative Conflict

The last two nights I have used Indian spices and methods of cooking to create dishes with food, including meat, that we have on hand. Last night when my wife, who does not like hot spicy food, was not home for dinner I cooked a hot and spicy Chorizo sausage and potato meal using Indian spices and methods of cooking. Tonight when my wife was at dinner I cooked a broccoli and bratwurst stir fry with Indian spices and some rice in the rice cooker using lime juice. My wife said it was very good and asked me if this was my own creative recipe. When I said yes, she jokingly said to me: “Well I guess we will never have that again.” This line comes from the days when my wife did most of the cooking and after a particularly creative and delicious dish I used to jokingly say the same line. There is some truth to it since in creative cooking, when you use what you have on hand, seldom do you create the same dish the same way again. This new wave of creative cooking I owe to my visit to India on the Pilgrimage of Peace and my friend there Dr. Kranthi.

Feeling creative today I shopped at the Middle Eastern store in town and picked up some of my regular items, like freshly baked pita bread and feta cheese, and a few new ones to use in creating a new dish. Look for this store on the Just Trade.

Not only can cooking be creative but so can conflict. I recently have mentioned in these posts how some people “just do not want to know” about something. Most will not admit it and just ignore statements they do not want to hear. They feel to acknowledge a conflict of opinion is not good. I feel conflict can be creative and lead to something new. So today I started writing a top 10 list of statements people do not want to hear. Hopefully I will have something for everyone, liberal and conservative, those promoting peace and war. I will publish the list soon. However, my experience is that when persons hear something they do not want to hear they just ignore it directly or marginalize the messenger so they can ignore the message.

For example, recently I sent an email out to a large number of peace groups and activities asking them: “Why is the peace movement keeping quiet about the escalating war in Afghanistan and the bombing attacks on Pakistan?” So far I have just heard from two persons and no groups: one who is really doing something agreed with me, and another, who is part of a very large national coalition of peace groups, told me how they are talking about doing something. I thanked them both, but what about the rest peace groups and activist who are keeping silent on this issue?

Being a peaceful agitator is a difficult chore. But without creative cooking and creative conflicts life would be very dull.

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