I was listening to an NPR report while driving into work today. It was talking about a restaurant in Zurich called "The Blind Cow", which served people their food in total darkness. Yes, you heard me right... total darkness! At first I thought how ridiculous! How can this be such a popular place to eat? That's insane!
The restaurant was started by, if I recall correctly, a priest that deals with sight impaired people that wanted to have sighted people understand their difficulties. The thing that struck me most though, was how the reporter described his experience. He talked of taking something off his plate and starting to eat it, and having no idea what it was. It had the texture of a soft cheese, but didn't feel like it at all when he put it in his mouth. At first he thought it might be a soft meat... a pate or something like it. Then, slowly, very slowly, his senses finally began returning the signals that told him what it was... a hard boiled egg yolk.
Apparently, our sight plays a MAJOR role in defining what we eat. If we have a carrot stick, we have already decided what it must taste like just by looking at it. Without sight, it takes to mind some amount of time to define what we are doing, and that, at least to me, would be an incredible experience -- the ultimate non-attachment to preconceptions.
Just think what a world we could live in if we didn't determine what someone was like just by looking at them, if we didn't have all those structures of how the world is set in concrete in our minds. What a liberating power we would possess, something that would transcend our very notions of existence. But could we do it? Would we ever dare to have that kind of courage?
Gitmo
15 years ago
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2 comments:
i found your blog as we are the only two people who list the movie the scarlet pimpernel 1934. it's one of my favorites and i searched everywhere until i located a copy on dvd to have for my very own.
but anyways, i'm commenting on your blog because i think the idea of this restaurant is awesome. i'm just surprised it's not here in the states somewhere. i bet it'd be a hit in the trendy areas of new york and la.
as a child i used to practice being blind quite often. that and i tried being deaf (much harder to do so i just learned sign language instead), writing w/ my feet pretending i didn't have any hands, etc.
i think playing w/ perception is fundamental to expanding ones consciousness - not a new concept, i know.
You are the first person I've met that actually knew there was a movie called The Scarlet Pimpernel!
I remember in high school (oh so LONG ago!) that there was some class that had people wear a blindfold for a day to see what it was like to be blind, but I never found out what class that was... maybe it should be a required course!
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