We Begin Again

J.D. Hildbrand, my friend, mentor, and ex-boss, used to sweep into the office on Monday mornings with a cheery, “Happy Monday!” According to J.D. the great thing about Mondays is that you aren’t behind yet. It’s a new week and you’re starting fresh, whereas on Friday you’ve completely failed to achieve some of the things on the week’s list, failed to complete others, and in general have to admit the week wasn’t as productive as you’d planned.

J.D. never quite convinced me of his approach. For one thing I never went to bed looking forward to getting up early on Monday and always went to bed looking forward to sleeping a bit late on Saturday. And besides, Saturday was my shopping/cooking day. It was the one day a week that I really made an effort to relax from my typical 10 – 12 hour days. I even usually worked on Sunday for a few hours, but while I might do a bit of work on Saturday it took a back seat to food and cooking.

I‘m not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions. The only one I’ve ever kept was to quit making them.

These days, self-employed, getting a day off is even harder. A few months back I decided to make a real effort to take Wednesdays off, but that hasn’t worked so well. I end up saving errands for Wednesday instead of doing them now and then during the rest of the week and so instead of relaxing I become frazzled from dashing about town.

Nevertheless, as my friend Bob del Grosso noted today in A Hunger Artist, “Billions measure their lives and behavior against abstract ideals that they know they can never reach. I don’t see why I need to be any different.” Then he sets out to delineate a set of propositions for eating well, thoughtfully, ethically, and healthily in an article named “A Fanatic’s Proposition.”

Bob is a careful thinker, beautifully educated, articulate, a trained chef (and trainer of chefs), and a bit of a fanatic on food. What more could one ask for in a colleague? And he’s entirely right in his general proposition: Simply because I haven’t yet succeeded in taking Wednesdays off, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t continue to make the effort. And that brings us back around to J.D.’s “Happy Mondays.”

Calendar beginnings, however arbitrary they are, have a certain power. How many people begin a voluntary diet change on a random Thursday compared to a Monday — or the first of the month? How many people make Easter resolutions? These arbitrary but dependable calendar demarcations matter.

I’m not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions. The only one I’ve ever kept was to quit making them. But the New Year, more than any other calendrical boundary encourages both reflection and anticipation.

For me, the past year was a period of solidification – of a foundation curing and setting. The goal of making my living as a personal chef essentially came to an end as both the economy and my own inabilities as a salesman/marketer left me only teaching classes and catering small parties. But in point of fact, I enjoy these two activities far more than spending a day or so alone in the kitchen preparing too-many dishes that I then cram into containers and freeze. I’m a show-off and teaching and catering support this inclination.

And, too, my food writing has expanded. Trying to make a good living as a food writer is probably a fool’s errand, but I’m managing to survive (with the occasional cooking class and party) and it’s clearly time to make a more concerted effort to increase the number of one-off articles I write.

I will continue my only successful resolution and make no new ones, but as Bob suggested I can aspire to more, set higher goals or refine existing ones. And, as always, I can love those I love, laugh at every opportunity, and, above all, eat well celebrating that particular aspect of the universe I have some control over.

Bon appetit.

Technorati: Food | essay | kevin d weeks | seriously good | New year

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