I promise I will tie these three topics together.
It has been an interesting week, and I have been remiss in not sharing more. I have had requests for more photos, and I promise I will meet those demands this weekend--it killed me to go into work today, as it would have been perfect for pictures. Tomorrow I will go and take photos, I promise. Before I go on, I have to strongly suggest that you do check out Steve's blog. After giving him a hard time for not writing, he has recently posted several prescient, timely and (as usual) very well written reports. Read them if for no other reason than to see why he was a writer and I was a photographer.
So, tins of tuna. Last week, I went to the local theater guild's annual awards dinner, and had a great time. The company was fun, the food good, and there was a level of comfort there that surprised me. I have thought about this, and I felt this because I have known people like the guild members most of my life. For years, I took photos of them for what seemed like every play that was presented in Eau Claire. Some there were easy to stereotype into certain categories, and most were at least quirky. But in a quirky in a good way, of course! Really. Anyone who has been associated with theater can relate to what I am saying. It was fun to be there.
Best of all, they gave things away!!! Door prizes of season tickets, flowers, and of course, tins of tuna. Cans of tuna very tastefully packaged in a basket. With a recipe book, of course, with more than one recipe for casserole, but for sure the one that you crumple potato chips on the top, just at the end of the cooking time so they provide a pleasingly different texture for the mush below. And I won! I am the proud owner or 12, well, ten now, cans of prime and local albacore tuna. No dolphins included. One went to the band, for what better way to show appreciation to a band than to give them tuna? One went to one of the table guests who was eying the basket covetously. She missed the commandment on though shall not covet your neighbor's tuna, I guess. I feel rich beyond my experience. I have never felt so flush that I could afford to own that much tuna--who could? Maybe because my bank is Washington Mutual, but I feel rich beyond that, too. More in a bit about that.
The real good news for me is that I have been able to teach this quarter, and it is wonderful. I love it, and realized the minute I was in front of the class just how much I missed it. I am teaching the first part of US history at a local college, and twice a week, I show up in front of 37 students to teach. It is worth every extra hour that I spend preparing for class or driving there. How fun!
So, you may be wondering, how in the world am I ever going to be able to tie these things together? I have thought a great deal about this, and I can do it with one word or concept, and that is family. The theater guild is a family--at that celebration, you could see and feel every emotion of a family, from affection and love to jealousy to anger to the sheer joy of the companionship of people who accept you because, well, you are family. As for the tuna, I am challenged to think of any food that is more family oriented and focused than tuna casserole. It is comfort food, a memory food that every one can tie back to family, even if they hate it or love it. And lastly, I love the idea of a class becoming and being a family. I loved it when I saw part of a row sharing a bag of cheetos or people making sure that no one walked out to their car alone in the dark, or that they laughed together, even if they were laughing at me. Family means different things to people and different things at different times of your life, but for me, family in part means guilds and classes, and of course, tuna. Yes, I am rich beyond those 12 tins...
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