Ridiculous Salt

Greetings Dear Reader,

I use salt in cooking but rarely use table salt on my food.  If I buy one of those giant warm pretzels I pick the salt off of it.  I have close family members who salt almost everything they eat.  Regular table salt is very cheap.  I can buy a 26 ounce container for about a dollar. 

Salt permeates our lives.  It is a humble all-purpose seasoning that enhances other flavors when used properly.  It is used for things like making homemade ice-cream, taking fancy baths, and melting snow.  It cleanses, preserves, and burns.  It is a simple element that in too much quantity can be dangerous.  One can get salt from mines, mountains, and seas.  I prefer sea salt for cooking but have been known to use common table salt as well.

Yesterday, whilst shopping at one of my favorite stores I encountered salt that was both ostentatious and ridiculous.  I mentioned that one of the characteristics of the humble simple salt is that it is cheap.  I encountered salt yesterday that sold for $14.99 for 7.5 ounces.  Compared to my 26 ounce simple salt this is a very steep price incline.  This salt claimed to be artisan salt.  It came in about two dozen flavors and many colours. 

Let us compare for a moment.  My simple umbrella girl salt costs about 19 cents an ounce.  These artisan salts sold for $1.99 per ounce.  Now I admit that my simple salt only comes in a blue cardboard container, but it still stays fresh and pours just fine even when it is raining out.  The fancy salt comes in a corked class jar that probably cost more than the salt inside.

I ranted about this for a bit yesterday.  I even looked it up on line to see if it was just this grocery store or perhaps a regional thing.  To their credit the store is cheaper than other prices I found for the same salt.  I found costs ranging from $15.99 to $26.92 for the same 7.5 ounce jars of fancy salt.  I really think that even writing “fancy salt” is oxymoronic.  I know that we need new things to titillate and stimulate us.  I also think that messing with salt so much that we have to charge great amounts of money to feel good about buying it is just plain ridiculous.

And then my mind made a connection that smacked me around a little.  You see, I should not be surprised at the change that is overtaking salt.  Have we not already done this in another area?  Christ told us we are the salt of the earth.  He explained that salt that is flavorless is also worthless.  I am sure he only had common salt in mind here but what have we done to make the message of Christ available to the world?  We have pumped it up with fake flavor and packaging.  We have made the gospel of Christ an artisan gospel that is too demanding and far too fancy for the common man.

Why should I be surprised when the church cannot communicate Christ when the trappings they have placed around him make him as inaccessible as fifteen dollar salt?  Christ made the gospel so simple to embrace.  We approach God in faith.  We love him with all our heart, soul, and mind.  We love our neighbor.  Anything beyond that is either curiosity or fluffery depending on our approach.  I have seen people turn their backs on the church because of this artisan gospel that is really the simple stuff with too much dye and false flavor.  Hopefully I can remember this well enough to live out a simple gospel that welcomes everyone and is not a burden to embrace.    

My God

People -- what have you done -- locked Him in His golden cage.
Made Him bend to your religion -- Him resurrected from the grave.
He is the god of nothing -- if that's all that you can see.
You are the god of everything -- He's inside you and me.
So lean upon Him gently and don't call on Him to save you
from your social graces and the sins you used to waive. – Ian Anderson

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."