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fabrisseI want advice.
There's an open position at the Boys and Girls Club that I'm interested in. The problem is that it would be doing something that I love as an amateur -- cooking -- and turning it into my livelihood.
The club is going to be participating in a wider program for good nutrition. The position is predominantly food planning and preparation, but will involve some accounting and quite a bit of community liaison work.
The thing is most people have no concept of how to cook seasonally. None. We've become so used to the idea of being able to get what we want when we want it (sure, we might have to pay a little more) that very few people can do the seasonal planning. I know that I can.
What's more, I know that I have recipes and resources for taking "unpalatable" vegetables and turning them into something that people can love. Part of the program contributions are coming from an organization called America's Second Harvest -- so it's completely possible that a crate of beets could be passed along to this place and need to be used immediately.
The HR person I talked with said something like "These people will be happy with a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. It's been so long since they've had a hot meal." But I watched the public schools in Belgium serve three course meals at lunch for about $3.50 per person per day. Grilled cheese and tomato soup should be the very last resort.
The downsides to this are the stresses. Physical stresses include lifting heavy pans, blisters from chopping, and fatigue. Mental stresses include "what if they don't like it," the constraints of supplies, the fear that I'll stop loving something I love.
Advice? Questions, queries, comments?
There's an open position at the Boys and Girls Club that I'm interested in. The problem is that it would be doing something that I love as an amateur -- cooking -- and turning it into my livelihood.
The club is going to be participating in a wider program for good nutrition. The position is predominantly food planning and preparation, but will involve some accounting and quite a bit of community liaison work.
The thing is most people have no concept of how to cook seasonally. None. We've become so used to the idea of being able to get what we want when we want it (sure, we might have to pay a little more) that very few people can do the seasonal planning. I know that I can.
What's more, I know that I have recipes and resources for taking "unpalatable" vegetables and turning them into something that people can love. Part of the program contributions are coming from an organization called America's Second Harvest -- so it's completely possible that a crate of beets could be passed along to this place and need to be used immediately.
The HR person I talked with said something like "These people will be happy with a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. It's been so long since they've had a hot meal." But I watched the public schools in Belgium serve three course meals at lunch for about $3.50 per person per day. Grilled cheese and tomato soup should be the very last resort.
The downsides to this are the stresses. Physical stresses include lifting heavy pans, blisters from chopping, and fatigue. Mental stresses include "what if they don't like it," the constraints of supplies, the fear that I'll stop loving something I love.
Advice? Questions, queries, comments?
no subject
Date: 2003-11-05 08:35 pm (UTC)I think this job could have a lot to teach you, but the question is whether it's what you want to learn right now. Or, as I've come to think of it, whether this is the butterfly you want to chase.
In the field of music, we sometimes divide the world into "pure" or "real" music on one hand, and "utilitarian" music on the other hand. Pure music is the purely artistic stuff, which exists solely for the sake of being art. Utilitarian music includes all music which exists for other purposes, including dance.
I see a very clear analogy between cooking and music in this. This job is about utilitarian food. That doesn't mean that there can't be artistry, but that the standards by which it will be judged will not be the standards of pure art, but the standards of utilitarian art. The extent to which you would be able to be happy in this job would be a function of how well you could work to that other standard.
Submitting yourself to a standard of utilitarian art is just about the best of all possible ways to master your craft. There's nothing like it for truly mastering technique and repertoire. This really is how one goes from being a talented amateur to a skilled craftsman.
This is basically the story of my life; I put my art in that crucible, and it came out much refined. I did dance music for 10 years, and the results were not only better technique in specific, but better sense of technique in general. But that has to do with where I was at that point in time. I don't know where you are in this point in time. I was at a place where I didn't need to focus on being more expressive or artistic, I needed to learn how to be more consistent and thorough, and how to produce on demand.
So taking on this job would ultimately result -- if you survived in it -- in a much deepened relationship with your craft. I expect it would be rough going at first. The adjustment is usually pretty hard on the ego; I know a lot of musicians who couldn't make the conversion. But if you made it through the first year, you would probably learn an immense amount.
The question then is: is that where you want to go with your life right now? Is that where you want to go with your art, and is that the role you want this art to take in your life?
The way it looks to me is that this job has some really big costs; it may have some really big pay-outs. The questions are: can you afford the mortgage? and is this the house you want to live in?