fabrisse

I'm tired, y'all. The District of Columbia has a larger population than Wyoming. Wyoming has two Senators and a Representative in the House. They paid $3,828,379,000 in gross income tax for fiscal year 2012 (per Wikipedia. I know.)

The District paid $20,747,652,000.

We pay more in income tax than Montana, Wyoming, and both Dakotas combined ($19,013,215,000 for all four of them vs $20,747,652,000 for the District using those 2012 numbers).

But the death of Marion Barry and the Ferguson protests here (which have not erupted in violence) are getting dismissive comments about our being "like children" who "lack any capacity to govern." If we weren't a predominantly black city, I don't think anyone would use those phrases.

We have more Ph.D.s per capita than Cambridge, MA and three wards with a combined illiteracy rate of 27%. We're trying to combat the latter, but it's not easy. Generations of people who were never encouraged to read, who lost their children to AIDS (one in five DC residents is HIV positive -- per a study from 2011, it's probably less now because the population has increased) and are now trying to rear their grandchildren and, in some cases, great-grandchildren.

The thing is, some of the policies that would help our situation are opposed by a conservative Congress. We've lost our needle exchange programs which is part of our Medicaid (paid by our local taxes; this isn't federal money) because Congress has interfered. Ditto some of our abortion rights. If Congress doesn't like something we fund, they can stop it. They can't in Boston or Chicago or any other major city, but they can here. But we're "like children."

Art

Just for the record, not all my food posts will be specifically about cooking. I may do "In praise of vegetable X" or why I'm not a successful vegetarian or depth vs width of pantry. I've already planned to write about cookware, hot peppers, cook books, adapting recipes to taste and diet, restaurants, and chefs both on TV and off.

Cookery is my art. It took me years to say it and longer to believe it. It is also a craft, one that can be taught and enjoyed at a wide range of levels.

siderea has written about the role of the amateur in art, and her insights helped me view what I did as a craft and what I aspired to achieve with it as an artform.

The reason this is coming up has to do with a drawing class I'm taking. There's a woman in it, about a decade younger than I am, who comes from a family of artists. She's related to Klee. And she's been told she can't draw, which is fine, many people can't. (In the interests of full disclosure, I'm probably the worst in the class. I have to admit, I kind of like what I'm doing, though.) But she's also been told, because she can't draw, that she has no art.

Her hobby is designing gardens. She consults on garden design all over the city. She can make anything grow because, as she says, she understands how plants work. Her eyes light up when she talks about digging new ponds for the home she shares with her boyfriend. For the past three weeks, she has continued to assure me that she has no art.

Never mind that I and many others will walk barefoot over glass to see a Capability Brown landscape. It's not art because it can't be hung on a wall. It's not art because it's ephemeral.

Cookery is even more ephemeral. No two meals are the same even if the same ingredients are used in the same proportions. The meal is made and then disappears to feed the bodies of those who share it.

So this is where I thank Lucy (and to a lesser extent the Professor) for looking at me askance when I was lamenting that I would never have pretty garb and saying, "But that's not the muse that rides you." This is where I thank arthurthedented for saying he didn't like to eat out at fancy restaurants because I was a better cook. This is where I say thank you to siderea for a casual reference to cassoulet at a restaurant that wasn't as good as mine. Thank you to moria923 and thorbol who asked me to make them Valentine's dinner (among other things).

I want to say how much I appreciate everyone who has ever let me use your kitchen or your money to create a meal or who has come to dinner at my place when all I've said was -- "I'd like to try a new recipe."

Cooking has been my craft for nearly forty years. (I started cooking for a family of four when I was ten.) Developing my skills will never be finished. For just over fifteen of those years, I've been developing my craft into an art.

I'm proud of that, even if I can't draw.