Reflections on the Value of the Industry I work in

The day begins before five o'clock in the morning. It is cold, and dark, but I am fairly alert. I exit the bedclothes, turn off the air-conditioner, enter the washing area, and urinate. Washing my hands, I glance at myself. I remove the beanie from my head which was recently shaved, but I retain the other clothes on my body. I speak with a friend in the next room. Then I proceed with cooking and cleaning.

Indian mustard leaves are in stock. I store half a packet for future use. Of the stalks I do remove, I pluck off each leafy stem and place it in a colander. I discard the leafless trunk - a small luxury, but it is early, I am troubled, and I do not feel charitable. Water is heated in a pan - I try to calculate the energy required to raise 300 milliliters of water to boiling, and I figure it is about 21 kilojoules. The local rate of electricity is about $0.072 for 3.6 megajoules, so [following a little calculation, as my head is slow] I guess that gives us about 260 kilojoules per US cent - so given the inefficiency of the induction cooker and teflon pan in my setup, I guess the price of cooking was perhaps... a cent. Now this is the sort of home economics that kids should be learning, but I don't remember it being in the school syllabus, back in the day. The leaves are dropped into the boiling water and the power is cut. Then I plate them, with chopsticks, one stem at a time.

Mutton cubes which have been defrosted, are trimmed of marbled fat - some fat is refrozen for future cooking, the rest oils my pan and I discard the unmelted portions. While the meat begins to sear, I begin to wash cooking utensils and dishes. Then I remove the smaller fragments of meat before they burn, then I reduce the heat and cover the larger chunks of meat to allow them to cook more thoroughly. As I am washing the tools, I find a bowl of grass seeds on the counter that my friend is attempting to germinate. I see little bubbles in viscous liquid, and being suspicious of the contents, I sniff the bowl - it seems that yeasts may be beginning to ferment these. I find the instruction manual for the seeds and find that these have been in the bowl for too long, so I rehome them between tissues in a salad bowl, covering it with a plate.

After all the cleaning, the meat has rested and is nearly cold. I wash up, and think about the nature of cooking and cleaning. These are rudimentary infrastructure that may one day be fully automated, but at this point in history, we depend on human labour for it. Not new thoughts. I am simply reminded about the importance of what I do as a businessman.

I eat my breakfast with a mug of refrigerated water. I wash my arms and feet. Then I update my friend on the seeds, and I return to my desk to begin the high-value part of my day's work.