Work

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I've been paying my dues in terms of work, which I haven't blogged about much here. Long story short- I was an Americorps volunteer, which I didn't blog about because they kick you out of the program for expressing political opinions (among other things). Now that I can't get kicked out I can honestly say WTF was I thinking? Living on $1000 a month is tough in NYC (why do you think I was so obsessed with offal?) and being on the government dole is immensely demoralizing. I'd rather talk about binge eating or how I recently burned a bunch of short ribs than that experience. But in the end it got me to NYC and now I'm no longer doing it.

The good news is I quit. The bad news is that I hit a string of bad luck with housing and whatnot and now getting on my feet financially is imperative. Now I'm running up against the fact that the human body just isn't built for sitting in front of a glowing rectangle by yourself for eight hours a day. It sucks- hopefully I can get myself out of this mess. I wanted to write something cheery like "sorry I haven't been posting much, here are some random links!" but it gives me an excuse to meditate on work.

Humans, like all other animals, have always had to spend some percentage of the day making ends meet. However, hunter-gatherers do not work as much as employed New Yorkers and their work is of a different nature. It's random, social, and both mentally and physically stimulating compared to most modern work. This article argues that their work is more like play.

The huge irony here is that the paleo movement is largely composed of nerds who work computer jobs. Perhaps we are trying to make up for that highly unnatural profession by otherwise living healthily. Perhaps we are wrong...stress and sedentary life are as "un-paleo" as bread or Twinkies.

Most of us make big plans for the future, hoping burning midnight oil to finish websites will help us someday escape into the great outdoors. Recently my family got in touch with a long-lost cousin, who worked at a large computer company for 35 years. He now has a massive farm - with the largest collection of a certain type of rare fruit trees outside a university setting. It's kind of weird to learn this because I've always been ag biodiversity nerd myself, as the orchard catalogs crumpled on my nightstand will attest to. I read them at night to relax- marveling at all the beautiful trees that exist and dreaming of planting some seedlings myself before I get to old.

My family has now laid the groundwork for a farm in the Midwest, but I want to still work hard and stay on my feet in case things don't happen as planned.

Until then, I've had to Leechblock Google Reader and Paleohacks, work on the weekend, and I finally understand the popularity of raw meat with the NYC crowd. When you are working all day, sometimes it's a pain to braise a tough cut. A bison tartare seems mighty tempting...