Last night I went to a really lovely dinner event hosted by Cville’s New City Arts. The objective of the ‘Round Table Hay-bail’ lecture and discussion was to get people together to talk about gardening.
My neighbor and friend, Philip, introduced the Round Table series as a time to get people together to talk about things they are interested in, and to recognize that these things-these “hobbies”-aren’t necessarily related to the work we do.
Three young women who run a CSA farm on the gorgeous property of Morvan were the speakers.
The dinner was pot-luck and had every color and size of tomato featured. Beer was supplied by Beer Run. I mostly drank the delicious Lagunitas Dogtown Pale Ale but had to try this La Folie Sour Brown Ale, it had my name on it afterall! 😉
Sadly, our tomatoes are on hiatus at the moment so instead I featured garden basil and local peaches and figs in my dish.
- smoked mozzarella
- fresh basil
- peaches
- balsamic figs
It was the second time this week that I made these, such a tasty combo!
We were encouraged last night to start conversations with strangers about what they are interested in, “which is not necessarily achieved by asking ‘what do you do’ “. Even when you love your work it’s important to value your hobbies!
Beautiful post, like always, Faith.
I loved this:
“We were encouraged last night to start conversations with strangers about what they are interested in, “which is not necessarily achieved by asking ‘what do you do’ “. Even when you love your work it’s important to value your hobbies! ”
I had been thinking about this lately, as I read that non-Americans are really off-put about Americans asking that as a way to introduce themselves. I have to agree…because honestly, I’d say, “I go to work at a job I dislike and has nothing to do with my career aspirations or interests” – which would just make me sound hateful 😉
Fantastic! I hate telling people what I do for work (it’s not what I want to be doing and I am working on changing that). I would MUCH rather talk about my hobbies. And to be honest, for the most part, I don’t want to talk to someone about what they do for work either. Hobbies are much more interesting! When I am not at work I want nothing to do with it. It’s not the real me. I don’t even like wearing my work clothes when I am not on the job.
Kudos for other people realizing that there is so much more to a person than their job!
I am so pleased that “I am interested in” what “my work” involves. There are surely other things that “I am interested in”, and glad to talk about those also.
Those peach-mozzarella-basil-figs skewers look AMAZING! I can almost taste the sweet/salty/herby combo right now…
And I agree with the other commenters – how refreshing to talk about interests/hobbies and not just “jobs”… because we are so much more than our jobs.