Plans: Carrot, Sweet Potato & Sunchoke Soup

I was thinking, as I rode my bike rather recklessly the other day, about how much we rely upon the reactions of other people. As I sped down the hill at Hallesches Tor, I skimmed past a man weaving his way along. He was whistling, his step in lazed anti-tune to the sound. And I, too, was feeling the spring breeze in Berlin, letting the bike, brakeless, coast. We were close as I passed. I heard his tune; he surely felt my speed ruffle it out of place.

We expect someone in a straight line to continue in a straight line, without thinking that perhaps their plan had been, all along, to veer suddenly to the left. We continue on our way, taking for granted that the other person’s path runs smoothly within our plans. So we plan and we plan and paths snake along in perpendiculars until one day, they don’t. The man on the sidewalk veers to the left. You crash into him on your bike. It wasn’t the plan.

I don’t want to write a metaphor for happenstance. I just want to observe that we are constantly assuming the outcomes of others’ reactions, when those other people are planners themselves, planning our reactions back at us. It’s dangerous to do too much planning at fast speeds. Dangerous not to allow the veer its own possibility of chance.

We are natural planners – and it is good so – otherwise, how would we build cities, invent, bring our creations into being. We plan our lives, our futures, and these things are good. Still, we can plan and plan and plan and still plan a reaction wrong.

We’ll never drive less recklessly down the hill past Hallesches Tor. We’ll always assume the man to the left will walk in a straight line. We’ll plan for him, just as he plans that we’ll drive by. Until one day, we don’t.

Spontaneous Soup (aka Carrot, Sweet Potato & Sunchoke Soup)

5-7 medium-sized carrots
1/2 sweet potato
3 Jerusalem artichokes
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. curry powder
Salt & black pepper, to taste
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 bouillon cube
1/2 cup heavy cream
Parsley, to garnish

Coarsely chop carrots, sweet potato, and Jerusalem artichokes and set aside. In a soup pot, heat olive oil and butter. Sauté yellow onion until translucent. Add other chopped vegetables, cumin and curry powder, salt, loads of cracked black pepper, and cayenne pepper, and cook until vegetables are softened. Cover vegetables with water and add bouillon cube. When water reaches a low boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes. Blend soup either with an immersion blender or by transferring to a blender. Return to pot, add heavy cream and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Garnish with parsley.