SippitySup

Happy Fourth of July. No matter where you live. I mean, what’s not to like about a day that says “this is who I am and this is how I got here”. Especially if that day falls in summer. Welcome to my Season Finale.

I’m all grown up and then some. But I still wonder sometimes just who I am and how I got here. I mean a food blog. Really? A food blog? A blog that’s sometimes silly and oftentimes not much more than a light read on your way to someplace else. So why a food bog? And how a food blog? Well I don’t really know… exactly.

But I will say I’m a serious person with serious responsibilities. 

I own a house. An old house, in constant need of artful repairs. My family is stretched coast to coast. I live in the big city and try to live a big city life. I am balancing this blog with all my other financial, domestic and artistic concerns. I am in a 20 plus year relationship. It’s the center of my life, and the thing of which I am most proud. But that doesn’t mean it’s not work. In fact, keeping my life on track is nothing but work.

Which sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m not.

The Season Finale

Because a life well led is layered. Look in the mirror and you’ll see the outer layer of the life you lead now. Buried under this layer are all the previous generations of yourself. An archeological excavation of my life (were such a thing possible) would reveal a lot about me and how I got to where I am. Childhood. Adolescence. Those crazy 20s (I call them the lost years)…

Then there’s my 30s. I worked my ass off in my 30s. So determined to make it in show business. So convinced that what I did for a living would define me. Success, both monetary and artistic would finally put a period at the end of that run-on sentence I was living. Yep I’d show them.

Then I got a little older. I discovered that with age you start to think less about what you want, and rather more about what you have. If you’re lucky (like I was), then what you have satisfies you. Who you are makes you happy.

Today I am ending my summer series, happy. Of course I want to thank all the guest writers and cooks who stopped by and shared a little of their childhood summers with us. There are links at the end.

These posts got me thinking: how did these people come into my life? Sure I met every single one of them online, but I think it’s more complicated than that. I read a lot of great blogs. I could have and would have loved to have even more guests. Why did I choose these bloggers? Was I trying to say something? 

Because, in the end, a theme ran through these posts. I did not plan it. I did not direct it. I assigned a simple topic and got more than simple recipe, or a remembrance of a summer long past. I didn’t know it when I started this summer series, but it seems I chose guests who traveled many roads to arrive at a place in their lives where they can thrive. They show it in their writing, in their cooking, and they show it in their lives. They taught me a lesson too. I think I am in the summer of my life. I’m at a place where I get to slow down and enjoy what the day may bring. The days are warm and sunny. There’s time to do things I want to do. It stays light very late and my parents don’t seem to care where I run off to.

That doesn’t mean I can’t look back a bit nostalgically. I think that’s what this summer series was all about. Reading stories from people I admire, learning a bit about how they came to this place in their lives. The place where our lives intersected. It’s easy to yearn for the simplicity of childhood. Maybe it’s the lack of responsibility for some or the ease of decision making. When you’re a child making decisions is as simple as “eenie meenie miney moe.” What interests me is where those decisions lead. How they shape us. 

It’s the Fourth of July Holiday, and I am flipping burgers. Not for a living, that would be the spring of my life. I am flipping burgers for fun, with my friends in the real true (non-metaphorical) summer of my life.

I’m happy you are here reading these words. 

SERIOUS FUN FOOD

Greg Henry

Sippity Sup

The Season Finale

• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from Pain Perdu Blog
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from Bibberche
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from Bunky Cooks
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from Nibble Me This
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from Satisfied
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from Z Tasty Life
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from Lentil Breakdown
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from Lemons and Anchovies
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from Oui Chef
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from eat. live. travel. write.
• Savoring Summer- Guest Post from My Man’s Belly

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