A bag of chips

This is an unremarkable bag of potato chips.

They are of the salt and vinegar variety.

I’ve been reading The Tao of Pooh, which is an introduction to Taoism.

It kicks off giving some context and vinegar is involved…

From Wikipedia:

The Vinegar Tasters is a traditional subject in Chinese painting, and later spread to other East Asian countries. The allegorical composition depicts the three founders of China’s major religious and philosophical traditions: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The theme in the painting has been interpreted as the three men tastes vinegar to reveal their perception on life.

One man reacts with a sour expression, one reacts with a bitter expression, and one reacts with a sweet expression.

The three men are Confucius, Buddha, and Laozi, respectively.

Each man’s expression represents the predominant attitude of his philosophy: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering due to attaching possessions and material desires; and Taoism saw life as sweet due to being fundamentally perfect in its natural state. Another interpretation of the painting is that, since the three men are gathered around one vat of vinegar, the “three teachings” are one.

I don’t know about all of that, but the chips were pretty good!

An ink drawing of men tasting vinegar
The Three Vinegar Tasters – Kano Isen’in