Occupying the Plot

I was reminded by Facebook Memories that it has been a year since being out at the Los Angeles Festival of Books held on the campus of USC. Going to the Fest helped me zero in on writing in what are my niche areas of craft (food, beer, and coffee) in the larger context of culture with some theological and philosophical seasoning. Still haven't received that traffic ticket for making a right turn without first stopping. I got that photo flash...

In the 365 days since L.A., I have had four essays published in reputable magazines with national audiences. I am even getting paid or in the case of my Jamaica coffee essay, bartered with the editor to be paid in coffee beans! That was cool! Coffee Lovers Magazine is out of Seattle of course and it has been fun to delve into that cup of coffee culture more deeply. My essay about Jamaica Blue Mountain and it legendary coffee is sooooo loooong that it is going to be published in three or four installments in upcoming issues in addition to Part 1 that is already out there!

I have been very targeted in my pitches to these magazines and it has been refreshing to not only get a reply acknowledging my proposals but to actually get published. There was a time that my pitches would enter an abyss on non-responsiveness. Now, when I contact a media entity, I hear back and since a year ago, the replies have mostly been positive. I did strike out with Food and Wine with a pitch to write about the Vietnamese food here in Lancaster (surprisingly excellent, a legacy of the war and resettlement) where it essentially became a tautological argument that the only people who write for F and W are people who write for them.

Since I grew up on the Main Line of Philly and have a Ph.D. from a world-class university, I refuse to be demeaned by the NYC media elite. I may be out here in the middle of nowhere but I have cred.  

I also have continued to develop some regional attention for my school counselor work with college and post-secondary issues. That is the day job. I should be interviewed by the local Fox TV affiliate Wednesday concerning the idea that not all students need to go to a four-year college to be a success in their professional and personal lives. College for all is a dumb strategy for a lot of reasons...the primary one being that our economy does not require all to be college-educated.

The ratio is 1:2:7. Our economy requires one person out of ten to have a professional degree (M.D., J.D., Ph.D., MBA), two to have college degrees (B.S. or B.A.), and seven to have some form of post-secondary vocational credential (auto mechanics, allied health, HVAC, etc). I don't think that there are not other reasons to go to college besides the occupational rationale, but with the debt that students and parents are incurring and the lack of job potential for those college degrees, it makes sense to go slowly into the post-secondary realm and not just float with the tide into to college, where more than half of the students fail to graduate within 5 years. Or, if they do graduate, face limited employment opportunities.

Debt combined with poor job prospects is a double-whammy. And, don't live in a town where scholars rule. Plumbing problems don't get resolved by Plato.

My writing is a good example of doing something that brings me meaning but maybe not a whole lot of money (or coffee beans). I write because I like to write, think I have something  to say, and based on the metrics, a sizable audience agrees. I may not make a million dollars doing it but it brings me joy and hopefully brightens the world of others to one degree or another.  I am really happy to be out of the confines of the Christian market with my work (both day-school counseling and night/weekends/summer-writing) because I honestly felt it stifling. Like a hothouse with little breeze and water.

God has called me out into the world as it is and prepared me for it. I deal with a lot of dark things in my job as a school counselor, things that might shock the churchy folk. So God has told me to occupy a space and tend it well, cultivate it as it were.

What brought about this reflection is a small plot of land in the front of my house. I have been trying to redeem if for years with flowers and even herbs last year, and frankly my heart is not in it. The plot gets too little sun to be productive, although the chive plant from last season not only thrived last summer (Thriving Chiving) but made it through the winter intact and is back growing. What it essentially has become is a battle between the legit plants and the weeds and crabgrass.

A couple of Saturdays ago as I was waiting for my buddy to arrive for a wild night in Elizabethtown, I dug out about twenty pounds of weeds with a shovel from the small little plot of dirt and now I am planting just some grass, figuring that occupying the plot with grass is better than having a spot where the good and bad plants conduct their own little mini-Armageddon, I find the green of grass peaceful, much like the blue of the sky. Intrinsically beautiful but not necessarily commodified. The grass will absorb the run-off water and keep it out of the foundation and basement, so it does have that functional piece. Plus, my neighbors won't frown on the rampant weeds.  

I have other gardens to tend out back including Barnabas Gardens (a hop garden planted where I used to dump my former cat's litter box and cat shit about 15 years ago) and the vegetable garden of kale, peppers, and tomatoes further back. I have other gardens to tend and part of life is directing our energy to things that matter most and making due elsewhere.

What is your plot? How can you occupy it until Jesus comes? I never made a connection before between a plot of land and the plot of writing. I am going to have to ponder that some more.