On Syracuse Grows

Syracuse Grows.

This organization formed in spring of 2008. I wasn't around during the early early inception, but as I understand it, the impetus was to create an organization that could pool together all the resources of individual community gardens around the City of Syracuse, and have them speak with a unified voice to the Powers That Be. It's an awesome idea and the organization has gotten a lot of great things done in the past year and a half. Off the top of my head, we have helped start at least three new community gardens, with one garden donating all of its food to food kitchens and food pantries. Definitely inspiring in this day and age.

Now I am on the steering committee for this organization and I'm not quite sure how that happened. I think it's because I show up to all their meetings?

Joking aside, I am committed to Syracuse Grows because I believe in community gardens and urban agriculture. I am also involved because I want to make sure Syracuse Grows and Slow Food CNY work hand-in-glove. It would be so easy for our organizations to work at cross purposes and I think I would cry if that happened. To that end, we are doing a joint "Fall Harvest" potluck. Both of our organizations will be presenting about our success and accomplishments during this past growing season. October 18th people. Mark your calendars.

In some ways, Syracuse Grows has a foot up on Slow Food CNY. We've hired a strategic planning consultant (funded by a state grant) to help us define who we are and what we want to be. We just started this past week, but it's shaping up to be very, very interesting. And honestly, I may steal some ideas and cross pollinate them with Slow Food CNY. (Get it? Cross-pollinate??)

In all, this is a laid back, knowledgeable and fun organization. Not being the Chair or anything, I'm able to relax a bit more and go with the flow. I step up when there's something I'm interested in, but I don't feel like everything rests on my shoulders like it does for Slow Food CNY.

A Random Reflection

I have played around with haikus, but usually eschew poetry. However, I was looking through my old notes and saw some really poetic stream of consciousness writing. I though I would share:

Let the words express form and the
goals seek
union. Never cherish that which is lost,
And hold dear the beauty of the moment.
For loss lays quet duldrums through the mind.
Better listen to life's soliloquy:
The rapture of love, and the thrum of joy,
Glistening, shining, dancing, sparkling,.
But the heart remembers, yearns for the lost.

Then seek with the mind the balm for the heart.
Listen. Listen, hear and understand loss.
Map out the despair while holding hope's light.
And of life's drudger that chains you down,
while seeking to find the source of despair?
Pause,
reflect,
and focus.

Walk straight, head high.

On Slow Food

A third posting about the my aspects of my life. See the full list here.

This time I am tackling my involvement with Slow Food USA. Last week, I started writing a posting about my role in food activism, but ran away screaming. Without a question, food activism is the most vibrant part of my life right now. It made it impossible to narrow down into one post. So I am just focusing on Slow Food USA right now. I'll post the others soon, and separately.

Slow Food USA is part of Slow Food International, a global movement that encourages and preserves indigenous food systems. Basically, it's about a combination of heritage breeds, supporting local farms, providing everyone with access to good and healthy food, and cooking for yourself. Their motto is that they promote "good, clean and fair" food.

In my opinion, that broader mission statement did not translate well to the USA. Slow Food USA became an organization of high society snobs. It was about expensive food. It was about prestige based on obscure breeds. It was about using words like "erudite" and "bouqet." Not that there is anything intrinsically wrong with that, (I am growing a pawpaw tree, after all)but it was not for me.

Then a little over a year ago, Slow Food USA started changing. They got their first national President who made it very clear that food is not "fair" if not everyone can afford it. Food is for everyone. Now that WAS for me. So, per urging of a few friends, I got a local chapter of Slow Food started: Slow Food CNY. Given that must of the legal framework is handled by Slow Food USA, this wasn't too difficult to do. Slow Food CNY is just a branch of the main organization (yes, I should know the legal term but I don't).

Anyway, somehow, because I organized it, I am now the Chair / President. On a day to day level, this means I have become some food information funnel. I pass and forward emails along like no one's business. I send out announcements. Honest, things are a little rough right now because I'm still trying to figure out who does what, and even figure out what needs to be done. However, I am confident it will all work out because I am not alone in this. I have an awesome and passionate board.

The Slow Food CNY chapter board was elected at the end of spring, just in time for summer vacation wackiness. It's been difficult for us all to sit down together, but now that summer is passed, I foresee awesomeness. Despite this whole "ships crossing thing" we have done awesome work. We just had a very successful eat-in in Elmwood Park, are in the middle of a national "Grow the Movement" drive, and we are planning a joint pot-luck with our sister organization Syracuse Grows.

I know there are still challenges ahead, but man! Who doesn't want to be in charge of an organization where almost every meeting inevitably turns into a potluck of tasty awesome food? That's right. Contain your drool, please. Go into the kitchen and make yourself a meal, or sign up to Slow Food USA and get involved with your local chapter. :-)

(Did I mention you can sign up for Slow Food USA on a purely "sliding scale" level for this month only?)

Finally - Imagine if I wrote about three other organizations in this post. You all would have killed me.

Observations on the New York State Fair

The New York State Fair is a surreal experience that erupts from the industrial waste deposits just west of Syracuse. In many respects it is like a mushroom. It appears only for a few weeks when conditions are just right, only to shrivel up and lay dormant until another year hence.

The Fair is all about spectacle. The rides, the animals, the food and the performances. But the people itself are just as much of a spectacle. While there is a $10 fee, you can find people from all walks of life, and you can come across the most interesting things. That's right, in this post-modern world, you too are part of the show.

I have joked with my friends about creating a bingo card or scavenger hunt list that captures the essence of the event. Some items in this list are core Fair experiences, while some are unsettling, creepy, or just obscure. Read on for my first draft of what I am calling the Underground Scavenger Hunt for the New York State Fair

People

• Meeting someone wearing leather clothing with tassels
  
• Seeing a pregnant woman smoke (half points if it's a mother smoking with children)
• Meeting someone with a mullet
• Meeting someone wearing animal print clothing (extra points if it's a full outfit and extra, extra points if they are mismatched, like a leopard-print top and a tiger-print bottom)
  
• Encountering someone angrily muttering and arguing with him/herself
• Watching State Police officers dance on top of a four story tower
• Finding a squad of people driving around together on scooters
• Cataloging up to 10 people wearing different uniforms (Police, Fire, DEC, etc)
• Having someone try to sell you a spa
• Finding someone wearing clothes that are not appropriate to the season (example: a winter jacket)
• Two people wearing matching outfits
  

Animals

• Finding testicles larger than a softball
• Finding some white-supremacist sheep
• Petting a goat
• Watching an animal defecate
  
• Finding a chicken that looks like a drag queen (you will know it when you see it)
  

Food

• Drinking milk from the Rainbow Bar
• Eating a Gianelli sausage product (this one is kind of a given)
• Eating something fried (also easy)
  
• Eating custard ice cream (a must!)

Miscellaneous

• Starting at the butter sculpture for one full rotation without someone jostling you
• Finding leather clothing with tassels for sale
• Finding animal print clothing for sale
• Watching someone make a product from scratch
• Getting a picture of yourself as the Dairy Princess
  

Phew. That's what I've got for now. This will be a work in progress until next summer, when I intend to unveil the official 2010 New York State Fair Underground Scavenger Hunt.

On Being Family Member and Being a Friend

The second of many posts reviewing different aspects of my life.

I have a big family and I have lots of friends. If facebook is any indication (which it honestly isn't) I have nearly 900 friends. I feel blessed to consider so many people friends. Many of these people are guys I have met through my fraternity. On a completely selfish front, I love know that, through my own networks, I could find a sofa to crash on no matter where I am!

So some might say I have quantity, but not quality. This is not true! On this end, I feel even more blessed. An extreme example, I have friends who I have known since we were all 3 years old. I have no memories that do not include these guys being in my life. They are like family. There are also friends from grade school, high school, college and grad school that I consider true, strong and lifelong friends. They know who they are.

I rarely talk to these friends however. Maybe every couple of months I will talk to most of them, with my closest blood family getting a call every other week or so. I realize that unless people are actually physically close to me, I don't make a big effort to reach out. I don't like talking on the phone, nor sending long emails. (Heck, I barely even write these blogs, which are essentially letters to myself). Does this make me a bad friend? I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I can't get the quote out of my head:

"How we spend our days, is of course, how we spend our lives." - Annie Dillard.

I spend my days with the people who are immediately close to me, not the people who have shaped my life. If anything, this is where I give myself most criticism as a friend and family member. Because, when it all boils down, all of these relationships are built on one thing: communication.

Weekend Travels

As a follow up to the post about multiple hats (or facets if you prefer), I want to share with everyone how this manifests in my life. Below is a list of my weekend events for the next few months. I just wrote this out for a friend who is wondering when to visit.

9/11: Nothing going on this weekend. Phew!
9/18: Park(ing) Day is this Friday.
9/25: Husband has a test this Monday, and I'm hopefully a pannelist with the 40Below summit that Friday afternoon / evening.
10/2: Travel to Jersey to visit my inlaws.
10/9: Plans to go camping this weekend.
10/16: Going to Rochester, and a Slow Food (and hopefully Syracuse Grows) potluck on Sunday, and husband has another test on Monday.
10/23: A weekend off!
10/30: Halloween weekend. Giving out candy to the kids!
11/6: Travel to Boston.

There's also other stuff that hasn't been completely confirmed yet, such as when a certain West Coast friend is coming out to visit. ... and I probably am forgetting other things too.

Anyway, off to the Eat In.

My Working Life

So I'll start with my job. Employment. Work.

First off, I have to say that I am very, very grateful to be working. Even better, I am in a field I feel passionate about and ideally, my job can have a real impact on improving people's lives. However, I frequently find myself frustrated by ... well .... by reality. It's a government job and a tendency towards bureaucracy can slow things down to a crawl. I feel like I have to exert enormous amounts of energy to move my projects even slightly forward. Or, in a similar manner, I will dash ahead make all sorts of progress only to find that the nature of the project has completely shifted beneath me. As you can imagine, I find it hard to be productive. I don't like being less productive than I know I can be. I get frustrated. I get depressed. And I want to do my work even less. I feel like I will be wasting my time, energy and talents. I find it especially sad because the work itself is fascinating.

I realize that in this day and age, more people have access to more jobs than ever before. People do have the ability to choose so many things. So far I have chosen three different jobs and have yet to love any of them. Each one I have been passionate about, from geology, to GIS, to planning. I started off incredibly passionate about each field, but the passion quickly cooled. Don't get me wrong: I have loved and appreciated the things I learned, but ultimately I feel unsatisfied.

Is this a pattern? If I move into a new field, will I love it at first, and then feel unfulfilled? It makes me afraid to seriously consider doing something different. As seen from my last post, I have many different passions. But if I take the leap to a new field, will I just wind up unhappy again?

"Chose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

I don't know Confucius. I hear you, but I just don't know.

Life Review

So it's been a while since I wrote here. I've noticed that there is a definite positive feedback loop regarding blogging. When I blog, I tend to blog more often. When I don't blog, I tend to blog less. Clearly the latter has been the case this summer. To this end, I am going to go through my wardrobe of metaphoric hats and review my life at the moment. Instead of write one super long blog, I aim to post a bunch in the coming week about all of the different hats I wear. Here is a list of all my hats off the top of my head. More will probably appear:

• Employee
  
• Family Member
  
• Local Foods Activist (includes a bunch of hats: Slow Food CNY Chair, Syracuse Grows Steering Committee Member, CSA Planning Group Member, CNY Food Policy Council Organizer)
  
• Neighborhood Resident
• Home Owner
  
• Engaged Citizen
• Beekeeper-In-Training
• Married Man
• Gay / Queer Man
• Physical Human Being
  
• Gardener / Wanna-Be Hobby Farmer
  
• Writer / Artist
• Musician / Singer
  
• Dungeon Master and Gamer
  
• Pagan
• Twenty-Something
• 40Below Member
  
• Delta Lambda Phi Fraternity Brother

Ugh. I could keep going but I'm going to stop. I'm getting disgusted with the number of various hats I wear. Needless to say, this outline should give me plenty of fodder for future postings.