Stove

Today, I am grateful for one of our most-used kitchen appliances (or appliances in general), the stove. I would say 99% of the meals we eat involve heating something up either on or in the stove. My morning ritual involves heating up water on one of the electric eyes to make tea (and later in the day—coffee). We scramble eggs, fry up potatoes, make stir-fry, cook pizza, whip up pancakes, and any other number of delicious meals we create to sustain us.

(photo as it appears on http://www.savonappliance.com/images/featured/white-stove_570.jpg)

It can be challenging for me to force an excitement about something so mundane and so seamlessly integrated into my life, so one mental exercise I try is imagining what life would be without it. So let's picture life without a stove. It basically leaves me with two options (three, if we get creative): cook over an open fire or eat everything raw. Now, don't get me wrong, I love cooking over a camp fire on the weekend or roasting marshmallows, but cooking every single meal like that would be exhausting. At the very least, I would be out there three times a day fastidiously arranging the firewood, tediously trying to get the stuff to stay lit, and only then actually cooking the food. And what happens if it's raining outside (as tends to happen quite often in Florida)? Or what if I get a late-night hankering for a cup of tea? Life suddenly revolves around preparing food.

Sure, I would survive with the open flame or raw food diet, but, man, it would make things more difficult. Instead, I just shuffle my way to the kitchen, turn a knob with my eyes still half-shut, and—boom—I have water heating up on an extremely-focused heat source. Or—boom—I have a perfectly cooked fried egg with a side of home fries. And all of this without leaving the comfort of my own home; without having to battle the rain, sun, cold, mosquitoes, or humidity every time I want something warm. So thank you, stove, for making my life so much easier. Thank you for providing me with hot food and beverages with so little effort from me. You easily accommodate my diet of cooked food and help make my meals delicious (Thai curry?). And you allow me to spend more time focusing on more important things, like getting this translation done. Keep it up.