A Bit of Obit and a Lot of Lady

I've been reading obituaries and have found their structure unduly formulaic. Life and language is mostly formless so why is it that we force our posthumous celebration of it into tiny plotted out packages stacked together in the columns of the New York Times. Is the most important thing about a life it's obvious plot lines, she had three children, she received a Ph.D. and published a book? In reading about Karen Hess, a food historian who died on May 15th of this year I am compelled by her spirit and peculiar projects.

First and foremost, I have to acknowledge that Hess herself might see this blog post as a disservice considering I never met her myself. Hess was an adamant believer in primary sources. She believed or rather knew that history was made in the moments in between books, in between victories and defeats, in between meals. She also spent a good part of her career updating or interpreting old cookbooks such as "Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery." I admire the intention to not lose antiquated texts but instead to adapt them to us as we adapt to the world around us. So here I wish to celebrate Hess with some of her words in some less stagnant structure. I may have never met Karen Hess but her words provide me a little insight into the beacon that she was. How immediate her message still is. Can most Americans be wrong? Need we say more?

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