Gently stir in a raw egg an 1 tsp honey or 1/2 tsp sugar
Some people think that raw eggs can increase your libido, but believe me, that was not on my mind as I got the ingredients together. Going into this I was a bit nervous. Maybe even scared. Can you say salmonella? Raw eggs are almost never a good idea. Most places, you can't even get a real Caesar salad with the raw egg. But I reminded myself that this experiment was for the good of science. Sort of.
Well first off, I used a whole bottle of beer, since it seemed a bit of a waste to use only 3/4 os a glass. It took awhile to settle, which allowed me to in turn settle my nerves. The egg yolk sank to the bottom of the glass almost immediately, as did the honey. I stirred it gently, very gently, so it took awhile to get the egg to break up and mix well throughout the beer. I guess gently is subjective, since it seemed like a bartender would never take that long to prepare a drink. I was in no rush though. I'm not Rocky Balboa training to fight Apollo Creed, so I could take my time getting to the drinking the egg part of this. All kinds of floaters formed, a veritable storm of egg particles swimming around. You may be able to see them in the photo.
The honey really sweetened the stout, but I really couldn't taste the egg. I think raw egg doesn't have much flavor anyway, although I have no point of reference. All I could notice was that this just made the beer thicker.
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It was actually sort of bland, and made for a very thick beer. I've never had mead, which is fermented honey and water, sometimes with grain mash and can be flavored with hops. Not sure if this was even close, but it's what I think of when I think of mead. I was glad the the experiment didn't end in me huddled over the sink, retching up all the hard work here. That's a positive. On the negative side, I certainly didn't feel horny.
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Yesterday I wrote a little introduction to Tetrapharmakos, or the Greek "four-part cure". Today I wanted to write a bit about the first of the remedies.
Don't fear god
Epicurus didn't believe in the traditional (at the time) concept of god or gods. Most people worried about whether or not the gods were concerned with the actions of humans, and how they should honor and worship them. Many people still do. Epicurus thought of the gods as a hypothetical state of bliss rather than actual beings. The gods were indestructible, invulnerable, and unconcerned with anything beyond the bliss and happiness they represented.
Although it is a bit odd to think in those terms, if you can think of god, or whatever higher power you may believe in, as a perfect state of happiness that is more an ideal than a being, you can then lay aside the notions of devotion, or worship, or how observant you need to be. God is happiness, and exists to be happiness, nothing else. You can't change god, since you can't change an ideal. Since you can't change or influence an ideal, you don't need to waste energy in your life trying to change it, to alter it's perception of you, to please it in any way.
Think of how much time and energy you could have extra every day. Even the least observant people think of how their actions are perceived by god, even on unconscious level. Wasted energy, Epicurus said. There is nothing to fear from an ideal of happiness and bliss that doesn't notice you. So don't waste the energy in fear of doing the right thing in front of god. It just creates anxiety that is an obstacle to your happiness.
Part 2 tomorrow
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