Study Abroad: the sincerity of cheese.

I recently went with a group to a cheese factory in Rébénacq, which is in the Pyrenees Mountains, to a cheese tasting at a farm where we were able to see all of the goats and sheep, as well as where all of the wheels of cheese are kept to age. Looking up at all of the old buildings that were at least 100 years old, eating cheese and bread after hearing about how the shepherds herd their sheep at least 50 kilometers to and from the mountains each year on foot, I was struck by the authenticity of it all. 

Authenticity is something that I strive to achieve, but I often lose my way and become lazy in my endeavors. I struggle to be genuine to myself: to pay attention to how different things affect me. Yet, it is so important. I could see magnificent monuments or glorious paintings, but it is all meaningless and trifling without authenticity and sincerity. I have to remind myself to ask, "how does this undoubtedly gorgeous view make me feel?" All to often I forget until after the fact, and wish that I had paid more attention to how it affected me before hand. 

Somehow, I managed to calm my mind and marvel at something so simple as cheese. But it's not simple, is it? There is so much experience and technique passed down through the hundreds of years poured into that one wedge of bliss, made in the mountains from the milk of goats and sheep. 

What a crazy, wonderful world we live in.