Country Cookin' in a Dutch Oven

This is how my mind works:

I was cooking dinner the other night.  I went to the cupboard.  There were two pans there.  The first was rough and cut up.  It was blackened with years of grease and heat.  The other was a pristine, shiny silver.  

Brand new items--like a freshly fallen snow--are so beautiful in their purity I often have difficulty using them.  I want to preserve them that way for as long as possible, even if it means more work or going out of my way.  Then, I have to buckle down and consciously remind myself these items are there to be used; there’s no point having them otherwise.  A pan made for baking does no good left in the cupboard.  

The old pan looks as though it can’t sustain.  I’m afraid my meal will become a blackened, stuck-on mess if I use it.  It’s probably time to retire.  

I think about all this old pan has seen.  How it’s been thrown into the fire, washed, greased up, and thrown back in again.  How much it’s been asked to withstand, how many different meals and uses it’s been asked to accommodate.  Each scratch a scar, each grease stain a memory.  

It too could look shiny and new had it been left in the preservation of the cupboard its whole life.  But, would it have lived?  Would it have filled its intended purpose?  Blackened, withered, and barely withstanding, at least it has fulfilled its destiny.  

Withstanding.  This country.  What of the destiny of this country?  

Are we on the verge?  History and nature both teach no empire can last forever.  Eventually, what rises will fall and must be rebuilt.  Is it time for the American phoenix to be reborn from its ashes?  

We have been thrown into the fire again and again.  We have greased our way through trying times.  We have accommodated more than we thought we could, adding additional ingredients and new recipes to our repertoire each passing year.  We are stained, and withered, and scored, but with good cause, as it was our intended purpose.  But, have we reached a point of uselessness--is it time to be thrown out--or are we sagely savory?  

Has the time come to start over?  Have we become so sticky that it’s time to retire and renew?  Have we accommodated so much we’re burgeoning at the seams?  If we yell anymore are we going to explode?  Is it time to bring in the new pan?  A new plan?  New Deal?  Something silvery to catch all the tasty drippings and baste the bottom of the next 250 years?

Food for thought.

Then...*DING*  Nope!  Actual food!  Never mind.  Nom, nom, nom.