But the question does keep coming up: Why travel? I look at a bustling airport and wonder what’s so important that gets all these people out of their routines and sends them hither and yon, standing in lines and running for gates.
I thought, when given this amazing chance to have a first-person column, I would be offering my opinion on a variety of subjects. I’ve got opinions. But that’s harder than it seems.
On the other hand, while I was writing a book about Cincinnati food history, I realized that the stubbornness pays off: We have our unique regional menu because the Graeters kept doing things the old way until the rest of the world caught up with them. Grandmothers and neighborhood butchers never stopped making goetta, though no one made it anywhere else. That’s to be treasured.
When my husband and I go to concerts or any performance, of course we look around for anyone we know. With amazing regularity, we spot a woman with a familiar head of long gray-red hair, wearing colorful glasses and a flowy dress, using a cane or maybe a rolling walker. Yep, there’s Amy, we’ve said for years, always with amused pleasure at her sheer omnipresence at the cultural events of the city.
For my father, it was everything. It can take my breath away to think how close he was to never going to college.
We are an evolved United Way, changed from 18 months ago, three years ago, and even a very different United Way from a decade ago. We value and understand equity and how to apply it; and we are driven by community input that focuses on the economic well-being of all.
I’m too old and married for dating apps, but I’ve just dived into something that feels similar. I’ve been wanting to find a meaningful volunteer job, and I’ve been spending some quality time on www.cincinnaticares.org, the local website that helps match up volunteers with nonprofits.
Just about 10 years ago, I founded an organization called A Voice For The Innocent, a community of support for people who have been impacted by sexual violence. This year I have decided to step away, and AVFTI will be closing at the end of 2021.
Snarky political memes on Facebook, squirrel obstacle races and the guy on TikTok skating to Fleetwood Mac have all helped me in little ways to get through the pandemic. Other social media content, has of course, infuriated me. And there was one meme that popped up on my feed during the first few months that struck terror in my heart.
My writing life in Cincinnati until now has been writing about food and restaurants, so this may seem like a swerve. But the people I covered, the restaurant owners and chefs, the farmers and food producers, are movers. They are also makers. They followed vision and passion into the difficult business of selling people something to eat.
