Last night while I was chopping vegetables for tonight’s supper, I thought about my service in the Navy. At the time I was a cryptologic technician, which included a security clearance and sounded pretty futuristic. In actuality, I learned how to copy Morse Code: the oldest form of electronic communication available. I haven’t used either my Morse Code nor my security clearance in a job ever since.
It made me wonder whether I should’ve used my Navy training to become a cook. Now there’s a skill that will never be out of demand! The cooks on the ship really had respect, too, because if you treated them right they might get you an extra can of coffee or give you dibs on certain foods.
There’s also a kind of zen involved in chopping vegetables, a meditative state where one simply zones out and lets one’s hands do the work. At the same time, though, listening to Morse can also put one into a sort of trance, with the stream of dots and dashes requiring a certain kind of focus and having a certain kind of rhythm.
At the end of the day, however, no one wants to eat dots or dashes!
