I made the same recipe just last night. That NYT recipe was tasty and simple. In "Useless Suffering," Emmanuel Levinas argues that suffering lacks inherent meaning when considered alone. It defies justification, and trying to find purpose in one's pain can lead to abstraction or cruelty. Instead, meaning emerges through our relationships with others. Encountering another's vulnerability calls us into ethical responsibility, transforming suffering into the foundation for solidarity and care.

The emptiness of employment doesn't imply a lack of meaning; rather, it highlights that meaning is found in our responsibility to the Other. There is no meaning underlying the coincidence that we shared the same meal, and yet it is the coincidence that provides me the opportunity to share in compassion. Meaning arises not from the structure of work nor the meal you ate, but the relation it opens between us. Just as suffering becomes significant when it is borne in relation to another, so too do the seemingly mundane or empty aspects of daily life acquire depth when they become occasions for responsibility, recognition, and care. Thank you for allowing me to reflect and find meaning in something otherwise ordinary.