1. Evidently, my brown rice scramble, with two eggs and grated cheese on top and a side of cottage cheese was not a sufficient breakfast this morning. I finished my workout in CdA feeling wobbly. I sat for about 10-15 minutes. Claudia offered me a 4 oz container of orange juice in case my blood sugar was low. The juice helped, I rallied, and drove, without a problem, to Fred Meyer. When I finished my small shopping trip, I chomped greedily into a Cosmic Crisp apple and ate some nuts. I drank a pint of water. Ah! Before long, I felt totally revived.
Going forward, I am going to pack some food to take with me to both the rehab gym and the Fitness Center, probably a cut up apple, some cheese, and some almonds or cashews so that if I have this experience again, I'll have some fuel on hand to energize myself.
2. I've been thinking a little bit about Joseph Campbell's famous imperative, "Follow your bliss". My mind has been traveling back to when I was in graduate school, especially the years following my two school years (1982-84) working as an instructor at Whitworth. I was doing two things that energized me, that roused my passions, that gave me a sense of purpose and joy: I was teaching as a grad student and I was learning how to cook.
I never did find bliss in writing scholarship.
I enjoyed studying primary works and reading scholarly treatments of those works, but translating my studies into the substance of what I taught in class blissed me out far more than writing papers or trying to write a dissertation.
I didn't have a car from about 1982-1988. I borrowed others' cars sometimes, but mostly I got around either by foot or riding a bicycle.
I lived near downtown Eugene close to two natural food stores -- Kiva and the New Frontier Market. When I shopped for groceries, I carried them home, some items in a backpack, others in a bag.
Often when I should have been researching and writing, my mind was more occupied with what I would cook when I arrived home, what recipe I would try out from Recipes for a Small Planet, any one of Mollie Katzen's cookbooks, from Laurel's Kitchen, or from Nikki and David Goldbeck's American Wholefoods Cuisine.
Not once did I think I'd try to turn my bliss for cooking into a vocation. Nor did I ever have any aspirations to cook gourmet food. I enjoyed then, as I do now, cooking simple meals.
A couple days ago, I learned on Facebook that Mark Stern, a former student of mine, who also became a friend, is retiring.
Mark followed his bliss for cooking. When he was a student of mine in the early 1990s, if I remember correctly, he was cooking food for a food bar at Sundance Foods in Eugene. Later, he operated a very successful food cart, serving soup, on the U of O campus and later he opened a brick and mortar restaurant near 5th and High called Soup Nation.
Concurrently, Mark also ran a superb catering business called Carte Blanche and, in the last few years, as best I could tell, Carte Blanche was the sole focus of his work in the food industry.
"Follow your bliss."
I did that for all the years I taught. I sometimes found administrative things outside the classroom less than blissful, but working with students, whether as a group or in individual conferences always vitalized me with some degree of bliss.
I have further followed my bliss at home as I continue to cook non-gourmet meals, try out new things, and return again and again to the meatless cooking that got me started forty years ago.
I don't know this, but I imagine Mark Stern's retirement will come as a disappointment to his customers and clients who, over the last thirty years or so, have enjoyed his superb soups and his artfully presented and delicious catering offerings.
I also know that sometimes following your bliss means leaving a long experienced bliss behind.
That's what I did when I retired.
I wonder if Mark is having a similar experience.
I won't presume to know, but I've always been very happy for his terrific career, for the way Mark followed his bliss.
3. Thanks to HelloFresh, we enjoyed another simple, delicious, and meatless dinner tonight. And it was blissful to prepare. I fixed corn chowder and Old Bay toast. The chowder's combination of green pepper, scallions, sweet corn, and russet potatoes made it both flavorful and comforting. I could easily make this chowder on my own, especially with the help of the HelloFresh recipe card.
No comments:
Post a Comment