last week when I began reading the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It’s a book about resistance and how resistance stands in the way of getting anything done and how to beat down resistance into a bloody pulp. It’s a great book and I highly recommend it.
Anyway, I started reading it and it’s like my body was just waiting for me to pick up this book because after reading the first several chapters my body went into overdrive getting things done that I have been putting off for years!
One of the things that I have been wanting to do for years is volunteer. I have done various charity events and have donated to this and that cause but I have never taken on the commitment of showing up somewhere every week and being accountable to someone. It always scared the shit out of me because I am a perfectionist and if I can’t do something perfectly I better not even try. Also, being committed to something day in and day out always filled me with fear and dread that I would be bored, I’d have to deal with uncomfortable feelings, etc. But I have finally taken the plunge. I have finally beat resistance down to a bloody pulp.
Last week I called the Mary Magdalene Project which is a home for women trying to get off the streets and out of prostitution. I asked if I could volunteer my services as a chef and teach these women cooking classes once a week. They immediately set up a meeting for me and the Program Director. We had a great meeting. She is a lovely woman and she loved my idea. We had our meeting on Monday of this week, Nov 16th, and I taught my first class last night.
I have a class of five women so far; Blondie, Tough Chick, John Wayne, Mama and Little Bird. I have given them nicknames for this blog in order to protect their identities. They each have very dynamic personalities and are at different stages of sobriety and staying clean from prostitution.
I was really nervous about my first class. I didn’t know if they’d like it, if they would beat me up or what. At first only Little Bird was really excited about the class. She was really helpful and said how grateful she was that I was there and was really looking forward to the class. Blondie started rounding people up and then disappeared for a while. Tough Chick sat on the couch and said she wasn’t that interested in the class and Mama and John Wayne finally rolled in. Touch Chick eventually showed up because everyone else was in the kitchen. Tough Chick didn’t really want to participate so I didn’t push her. But everyone else got pretty enthusiastic. I started off by telling them about my experiences as a chef and how I started cooking and told them what we were going to make that evening: personal pizzas, grilled zucchini and a big green salad. They liked the idea of pizza and were not at all into the zucchini. I pushed on, undaunted.
I taught them the proper technique for cutting and made them chop a whole bunch of onions. We made our pizzas and grilled up the zucchini and they loved it! Even Mama who was not going to eat it at all had some, decided she liked it and had some more! I was so proud of that. We all sat down and ate and laughed. Well, we laughed because I was trying to be conversational and stumbled into delicate territory. I looked over at Tough Chick and asked what one of her tattoos meant. She said it represented what gang she had been in and I said, unwittingly, “Oh cool.” People sort of snickered and mocked me, “oh cool!” Like they were saying: that’s so cool to be in a gang? I don’t think so, naive white chick. And I sheepishly started to laugh at myself, getting that I was being an idiot and then they laughed at me. And then I laughed a little more and said, “So, great dinner.” And then they laughed harder and we all cracked up. And that’s when Tough Chick softened. It was a great moment and it really broke the ice.
After dinner some of the girls went outside to smoke and John Wayne and Little Bird and I sat in the kitchen and talked. It was the moment I had been waiting for, to feel like a family.
My proudest moment: getting them all to eat zucchini and they loved it! They smothered everything, including the pizza, in ranch dressing but they ate zucchini! Next week I’m teaching to make Balsamic Vinaigrette.
Check out my recipe for personal pizzas…
