July 2021

By Patrick Robinson

Philosophers have from the very beginning spoken about moderation and balance. 

Aristotle said, “Moderation in all things” which meant then, and now that going to extremes in any way, especially with regard to food, drink, work, or even beliefs is not only unhealthy, but unsustainable.

In 1975 through 1982 an experimental film was made called Koyaanisqatsi which is a Hopi word for Life out of Balance. In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means 'crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living', and the film implies that modern humanity is living in such a way. It has no dialog or storyline. It just conveys a feeling of imbalance as a way to suggest we need to rethink how we are proceeding. It feels that way to me now.

There's hot and then there's cool.

Claiborne Bell is definitely the latter. His company USI Commercial Kitchen at 4611 36th SW, that was featured in Westside Seattle a year ago, saw seven of his tenants, most of those catering based, have to shut down due to the pandemic. Then just as the pandemic was about to end his main freezer, where he stored the product of his own company Seattle Sorbets, failed during the highest temperatures in Seattle's history. Sadder still is that he was out of town and could do nothing about it. "We ended up with nothing but soup," he said. 

But that has not stopped him. He didn't panic. He's getting a brand new freezer and if anything he'll be even more chill, so to speak.