500 words? This week I’ve got nothing.
The last one was filled with unpleasantries. A couple deaths, a doctor’s appointment I unnecessarily feared, a friend’s bad diagnosis, an insulting and dismissive business decision directed at someone I love.
Just bullshit.
It also meant that I didn’t pursue the publishing angle at all, though the last blog post got more comments than any, which surprised me because I feel I’ve written more interesting ones.
But then I saw our family, which means more to me now than it ever did.
Seeing my nieces and nephews brings the sentimental out in an already sentimental guy. I look at them and they’ve got this aura around them that to me, is love. Same with my wife for that matter. When I see her she’s surrounded by it.
It recalibrates my mood like a pre dinner Negroni does my tastebuds. Flooded with feelings, the reason to keep on keepin’ on, for me, is them. I love teasing them. I love telling stories, some real, some made up. Cooking dinner or showing them how to hold a drumstick and play a groove. I love feeling their head on my shoulder with my arms around them just being kids. And while not a parent, it must be similar. I want them safe and healthy and happy and put their interests before mine
instinctively.
I want this toilet we’ve descended into to flush an orange turd and try to put the genie back in the bottle for their sake. That’s not going to happen though. The limbo contest has a new winner every day. The best we can do is to lead by example and elevate the culture. It’s hard not to rise to the bait and lower the commentary. I still do, but less and less allow it to trigger me.
Good attracts good. Evil, evil. Turn away from the darkness and there’s the light.
This type of personal renaissance put things in perspective. Changing my DNA began 30 years ago with a phoenix from the ashes business card in my wallet.
So now, seeing kids makes me want to continue being Uncle Alan. When I started teaching drums to at risk kids, the wise woman running the after school mentoring program told me
“It’s not so much what you teach them, it’s that you’re here… kids need consistency. The last thing they need is another disappointment. They’ve had plenty.”
That was 16 years ago. I’m still going and feel the same towards my students as my family. Some times just showing up is as active as you need to be. I’ve got kids that I taught 10 years ago that come to tell me their dating problems (much to my horror) because they’re comfortable with me.
My eye was taken off the ball last week.
Life happens. How we respond is what’s important.
So reinvigorated from family and students, next week I’ll be back working on moving Home Cookin’- The Stories Behind The Food, forward.
Chef/percussionist/writer/reprobate and lover of all things beautiful & delicious, Chef Alan Lake’s culinary career includes East Bank Club in Chicago; Sunset Marquis in W. Hollywood; Izakaya Hiwatta in Ichinomia Japan and legendary nightclub Purpur in Zurich, Switzerland. Working all around the world for over four decades, he's won numerous awards, professional competitions and distinctions. He’s the author of Home Cookin'- The Stories Behind The Food and The Garlic Manifesto- the history of garlic going back to 10,000-year-old Neolithic caves and contains facts, fiction, folklore, myths and legends (besides 100 recipes).
A lifelong musician that plays 70+ percussion instruments, he coined the term “Jazzfood” to describe his cooking style i.e. “solid technique coupled with tasteful improvisation.” He views his food as he does his music and writing and has been known to bust a pout if subpar in any way.
Its difficult tempering your natural reactive self when getting the verbal equivalent of a sharp shit covered stick thrust into your eye. But as you know the minute you wade into the tide pools of stagnant wet we call social media or just the vanilla day to day news media it is going to happen. Some blatant manipulative lie will be thrust upon you with a vague suggestion of ..maybe truth isn’t important. Its infuriating and deeply unsettling, we’re all used to manipulators but I don’t think many of us are used to witnessing this St Vitus dance of obsequious toadying. I enjoyed reading todays essay, I read it in your voice in my head.
very much agree with and appreciate your insights (he says in monotone baritone)
Yes! appreciate the good things in life and I don’t mean the most expensive but the things that bring you joy.
AND bonus I believe it gives you energy to keep fighting the evil.