Every Last Bit...

So let’s say I’m making brownies. I pull out the box, pour

the mix in the bowl, add the oil and water, then crack

open the eggs and run my fingers along the inside to make sure all the egg white is out…. That last bit I don’t even think about. I've been doing it for so long that it is ingrained in my muscle memory, a reflex. I never thought about this simple action’s significance until my mom shared a story as part of a talk or testimony in sacrament meeting. I’ve forgotten the context in which it was shared, but I remember the details.This action that I had learned by echoing my mother, she had learned by echoing her mother, and my grandmother had learned by echoing her mother.

My great grandmother was raising several children during the great depression. They were poor and all lived in a one room shack. When they had an egg, or another food, they made sure to use all of it.

This policy of using all of something is not unique to my family (I think there’s something in the Boy Scout handbook about using anything you kill); it's a fairly common practice when resources are low.

The Plains Indians of North America lived off of buffalo. The hide was used as clothing or for shelter, in the form of tipis, the meat for food, the bones for weapons, and the list keeps going(scroll to the bottom of the page if you follow this). It was their life-force and they took what the needed and used every part of the body.

Another people, the Bushmen of the Kalahari dessert, learned to survive during the long months without rain and a constant shortage of food. Whatever food they acquired was used to its full capacity. They drank the water in melons, ate the pulp, and used the rind as a bowl. Ostrich eggs were eaten, and the shells used for containers or decorative beads. Roots were dug up and used as a source of water, and every drop of liquid was squeezed out and ingested. The parts of the animals they caught were all used in a fashion very similar to that of the Plains Indians; the meat is eaten, the liquid inside is used for water, bones are used for tools, the hide used for clothing etc. (resource: The Harmless People by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas)

This type of folk knowledge is first acquired out of necessity, but bits and parts can linger long after the initial need has passed. Some of our odd habits have been passed down through generations, the original reasons barely remembered or completely forgotten, but the reasons are there. Ask your parents or grandparents about some of your quirky habits sometime. You might find out that they have more meaning than you thought.