I just updated my twitter one line bio. It used to say “I like food more than I like you.”  I assume it was at least occasionally true, since I don’t actually like everyone on the planet. But I like quite a lot of the human population.
But I like food, or rather, I care deeply about food. Food is more than a tasty treat, it’s a critical building block of who we are. What we eat makes us thin or fat, energized or lethargic, clever or slow. We build obese children or lively ones simply each time we put a plate in front of them. Each bite is an act toward a future self.
Even more, the food we eat is deeply tied into our politics and our ecology. Read Food, Inc or Omnivore’s Dilemma to better understand how much the food industry shapes our lives. I like food, because I like you, and I want you to be happy and and live forever.
So I realized I couldn’t really leave my silly little one line bio up, because it belittles my realtionship with the act of eating. I’m not a foodie, I’m not a gourmet; I am a human animal who eats to celebrate and shape life.
I also couldn’t leave it up because the last couple years have been hard, and I’ve been a bit misanthropic. I needed to back away a bit from people, and not let them too close.  But now I think I am ready to like you as much as I like food, and certainly I can care about you as much as I care about the food you and I eat.
I still like food quite a lot.
The new line is still a bit silly, it says “Taking over writing duties of the soap opera of my life.” All life is a soap opera, it goes on and on and on. It doesn’t have three acts; it has any number of acts until it gets cancelled, and until then the surprises never stop. But rather than letting life be something that happens to me, I’m ready to shape it. All things are possible, and I’m going make sure I take advantage of it.