Author: Michele Minehart (Page 267 of 311)

but i need to perseverate on farming.
(*dear google, “perseverate” is not in your spell checker. please adjust).

about a week ago i couldn’t sleep for, oh, 4 hours, so i had to just lie there with my thoughts. sometimes this is good company, sometimes bad. this particular evening it resulted in a somewhat random IM conversation with a coworker. it went a little something like this:

Me: i have a non-work related question when you have a chance.
DW: fire away.
Me: what if all the farmers stopped growing soybeans and the feed corn that we don’t eat and instead raised broccoli and green beans?
DW: there would be a total global collapse – why do you ask? (*exact quote)
Me: couldn’t sleep last night. figured you’d prefer i waited until today to ask.
DW: strange things keep you up at night
Me: well, i was thinking about how to explain to the babysitter my weird preferences for feeding henry non-processed foods
DW: I see – so no red meat for Henry. ever.
Me: no, he eats meat. but we bought a local, free range cow.
DW: so you think that cows should eat brocoli?
Me: not necessarily
DW: but without supplemental feeding demand would outwiegh supply
Me: well, we could eat LESS meat
DW: well, maybe YOU could eat less meat. i can’t.

the conversation went on and was quite good about the possible effects of changing farming practices. it should be noted here that the entire conversation was held while i ate dark chocolate m&ms. but here was my main point that caused me to not return to sleep that night: it seems as if our agricultural decisions may, perhaps, be driven only by the dollar and not actual gastronomical needs.

I find it incredibly interesting that a company, such as pepsi (pepsi is always the bad guy because i love diet coke too much) can buy ingredients, such as high fructose corn syrup, which required significant proccessing – aka, labor, technology, packaging, shipping – then put the ingredients together, package, distribute AND STILL purchase million dollar superbowl ad spots while only charging $1 for its product (and note, you can buy that product in jumbo 2-liter size or in handy 20-oz gas station size, all for same said low price. what a sham!). $1! but say you’d like a bag of grapes. no packaging other than a plastic baggie, and the last time i saw a grape commercial was… *cricket, cricket.* DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH A BAG OF GRAPES CAN BE? i have a fb “friend” who quoted a price that was well-over several 2-liters.

Now, i grew up “down on the farm.” My college education was purchased in beans and i’m appreciative. but that doesn’t mean i can’t question the system. a large majority of midwestern farmers grow corn, used primarily for feeding livestock, or soybeans- and until my sister had a brief stint of vegetarianism, i had no idea what THOSE were used for. but they’re everywhere. so why do we grow them? a brief (but work-time, so limited) google search points some fingers at government subsidies, and my buddy Michael Pollen might agree (from the tone of his writing). but what if… WHAT IF we grew broccoli and green beans instead? foods that people actually eat to nourish their bodies.

it was at least 4 hours i didn’t sleep, so i can keep going. i even thought through the logistics. i’m not sure a combine (the noun, not the verb, for you cityfolk) would be useful in harvesting broccoli, but it could still work with green beans. then there are the veggies that require digging – such as potatoes. but isn’t this an opportunity for technology to be birthed? to come up with a way to harvest healthy foods that don’t come at the expense of 12-year-old minimum wage hands? (though i would argue that our society’s kids could use a little more manual labor through adolescence).

i’m thinking of my own hometown now. what if all the farmers took some time off of corn and beans and instead raised fruits and veggies. now, DW is correct – the cows would go hungry. but those are typically industry farm cattle where the cows aren’t that happy living in a 2×2 square, so let’s just stop mass producing our meat (and trying to make it bigger and more cost efficent by altering the hormones God gave it). i think we could do a little less in our diet. even the FDA says that an actual serving of beef is the size of a deck of cards, not a steak the size of a serving platter. i’ve read “somewhere” (bad blogger! not giving references! i’m guessing Runners World) that going veg 2 of 3 meals or 4 of 7 days a week is very restful and healthy. and since we’d be farming broccoli, there would be plenty of that to fill the plate.

So, that’s just one sleepless night in the world of me. i hope tonight the sandman makes another visit. this is just too much.

right now i’m really enjoying my job. i haven’t said that in a while, but it’s true. i’ve even been placed on an account that has been quite messy, but thanks to a great team and account manager(s), i have only hated about 2 days of it. not bad out of 2+ months! it helps that i’ve been getting some positive feedback from the client i’ve been working with… you can try to act like it doesn’t matter, but when you do something well and others acknowledge it, it really does mean something. it feeds the fire, even if it’s just flickering at the moment.

some things are changing at the company and i think we’ll see some huge improvements on the initiatives to create a better work/life balance. nothing is ever perfect and clearly there will be times to work more, but i do see change coming. so there have been several danglings of full-time carrots in front of me, which has led to a lot of soul searching.

the past few years have caused me to need to work more. but now we’re on the brink of jj’s graduation and a full time job, so it becomes a question less of needing and more of wanting. for a little while i haven’t really thought about what i wanted career-wise, other than stable health insurance. i’ll likely take my time getting back into work after #2 arrives simply because we can spend lots of quality time together as a family this summer before jj starts the teaching life. but come fall, then what?

prior to about 2 months ago, i figured i would resume working about 2 days a week – enough to supplement the income a little (perhaps enough for a Y membership?!) and get me out of the house. i know i’m not built for 24/7 mommy-at-home life. and now that i’m enjoying work, i’m prone to wonder if i could really enjoy working like i do on a regular basis.

however, working as a full time staffing associate has never been my aspiration. i’ve started to ask myself the bigger questions, like “where do i want to be in 5 years?”. could i be happy doing what i’m doing now in 5 years? perhaps. is it what i feel called to? not necessarily.

i do have several things on my list that i’d love to get cooking. this year i will dive into the 30-and-over pool and i don’t know if i want to spend that much time swimming in my current role. maybe it’s time to take a few steps that would get a what-if rolling into a ball of could-be.

i feel almost caught in a limbo of safe vs wow. i could do what i’m doing and be safe. it’d be a nice income, it would be enjoyable, i could be good at it. then there’s the other stuff… the dreams. they could be disasterous. i could find out i’m no good and that i don’t know what i’m doing. it could pan out into nothingness, both in terms of “success” and income. and i wouldn’t be one bit suprised. and honestly, there’s nothing wrong with safe. if you know me, that’s where i usually live. i’m happy with safe, comfortable. i know it well.

or it could be something wow. it could light a spark in me much brighter than what’s been burning the past 3 years. it could fulfill me and put life and energy into parts of myself that i didn’t know existed.

or it could even end up about as inspiring and exciting as working a 40-hour/week job that i’m good at. i could look back at it and say, “all that work, and i could’ve been just as happy doing what i started with.” but i’m sure miley would chime right in with some crecendo about it always looking for another mountain.

i think there probably needs to be some reflection, along with discussion with my counterpart. we’ll need to think of big pictures, family goals, and the greater good. it’s just a lot to consider right now. i still have 3 loooong months of being pregnant left, so there’s plenty of time to weigh the options. but it’s something that can begin to feel kind of heavy if you let it weigh you down.

thanks to a 2-day training and a feedback “roundtable”, i’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of my current job, and in vocations where you deal with people in general. i think i narrowed it down to 2 basic principles. these have been adapted from youth ministry, believe it or not, but i have yet to find a service position where they’re not true.

1. repeat yourself at least 3 times if you want them to think you mean it.

2. they have to know you care.

i’m trying to decide if there’s really anything else out there that could make you more successful, but i haven’t come up with anything. seriously. give clear communication and a lot of it, and help people realize that you do it because you care: this has greater impact than checking a box off a to-do list.

i sat through 16 hours of training (albeit helpful) but those hours could be narrowed down to the 2 rules.

did i miss anything?