From our ed’s desk: Why you have to buy our June issue

The term “aha moment” is one I tend to use sparingly, because it’s been my experience in life that shortly after I think I’ve had one of these revelatory realisations, something happens to undo it all, thus unravelling my newfound resolve as quickly as a kitten does a ball of string!

As I recently discovered, there’s a term for this humbling, and admittedly frustrating, fact of life: aporia, which stems from the Greek word for puzzle. In his book, Aporias, Jacques Derrida – the late French philosopher and founder of the “deconstruction” movement of critical thinking – summed up aporia as a condition in which the factors that contribute to making something possible are the same ones that make it impossible. But wait… isn’t that a paradox? Apparently not. A paradox is defined as a statement that contradicts itself, whereas aporia is “an expression of deliberation with oneself regarding uncertainty or doubt as to how to proceed”, according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary. Goodness, mankind can complicate things sometimes.

Perhaps the simple truth is that life is all about balance and adding a little of whatever ingredient is needed to keep those proverbial scales from tipping too much on one side. Certainly, that’s the way I am trying to see – and appreciate – it as I get older. Oh my! I think I’ve just had an aha moment – and hopefully not an aporetic one, as I have no inclination to deconstruct things right now (with respect to Jacques Derrida).

What I am inclined to do at this point in time (and page space, which I am running out of!) is to wax lyrical about the abundantly honest and down-to-earth appeal of this issue, from our cover that beckons you to sit down, relax and share a cocktail and cheeseboard with friends and family, to a Father’s Day feast of pub grub (page 64) reinvented with a bit of fanciful flair. And with our nod to Italy this month – in the soulful and evocative skills class with Luca Di Pasquale (page 40), our feature on pimping polenta to perfection (page 46) and Joburg’s il Contadino eatery (page 74) – it’s clear to me that the simple pleasures in life really are the best.

So, without further ado: eat, enjoy and exhale…

Andrea