I found this article from the New York Times extremely... heartening? Michael Pollan addresses an extensive letter to the next president, whosoe'er it may be: "you will need not simply to address food prices but to make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on — but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them. Let me explain."

If you've got a good half hour it's worth a read, I think. There may not be anything radically new here to any of you, but following on from my own frustration about the apparent futility of doing anything oneself/as a consumer (e.g. buying organic, going vegan, growing veges) I found it interesting to see the kinds of changes people are suggesting might work on a large (massive) scale. Pollan seems relatively pragmatic, too, about the kinds of changes that might actually be possible - which is why I'm heartened, because the process would be a whole lot easier in New Zealand. Almost makes me want to get into politics.

Allow me to wallow in a little status anxiety for a moment

So, I'm about to change jobs. "Finally", you say, since I've been complaining for a long time about how ill-suited I feel to my current job. To tide me over until I go overseas in 9 months, I have in mind to do something involving a lot of hard work that doesn't use my brain too much and is relatively ethics-neutral. Probably something in hospitality. I have a number of what I think are pretty good reasons for doing so.

All the same, I find myself confronted with some embarassment at this decision, and feel the need to arm myself with a barrage of justifications for when people ask what I'm doing, expecting it to be something fairly impressive, or at least heading somewhere impressive. And, if the justifications fail, I will be needing to steel myself against giving a damn what people think.

But at the same time, I mean, maybe they're right. Maybe it is a bit sad for someone, whose bursary marks left the rest of her schoolmates in the dust, to be waitressing 6 years later. Maybe it's kind of a telling situation to find myself in, showing how little I've really made of myself in that time. Maybe I'll be one of those people that's an example to others of how good grades aren't everything.

Hence I find myself toying with the idea of doing something else again - something that's not what I feel like doing right now, that I've always thought I wouldn't enjoy much, and which may or may not pay better, just because it would line up a little better with how people see me and my potential and the kind of life I should be leading. Which is a little worrying. But, well, these are all real aspects of life that need to be faced, and one does need to make the decision about how important they are.

(picture yoinked from: http://www.resumesnationwide.com/)

Sure...

Katherine: Just these two thanks.
Employee: That's $2. Do you have a Spotlight VIP card?
Katherine: No.
Employee: That's $1.60 thanks.

***

If I've been paying attention to the sermons at my church recently, I should clock up the 40c on my list of 'blessings from God that show he repays us when we're generous'.