Finding Beauty in a Bowl of Soup

Eating soup is unlike consuming other kinds of food. It’s not just nourishing; it’s also soothing. Soup calls our better, more peaceful selves to the table. Its liquid base and simmered ingredients do not respond to violence — a knife (slicing, stabbing) or a fork (poking, puncturing) — but to something more gentle. A bowl of posole requires soft spooning. A warm stew will humble you. Spoon too abruptly, and soup will spill and burn you. Soup takes patience and time. It slows us down.

By Major Jackson
Visuals by Hélène Blanc
New York Times