American Dream

I can’t identify the American Dream any longer. I grew up understanding that the American dream was fulfilled through hard work and perseverance. If we followed those precepts we would be able to gain home ownership, security and satisfaction. This may have been an archaic idea even as I reached adulthood in the 1970s. Already we were accepting appearance of substance and possession as ownership. We were beginning to believe ease of lifestyle was the American Dream. By 1984 the popular water cooler-conversation program was “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”. The Idol lifestyle may have remained out of the reach of 99% of the population but we vicariously indulged weekly, and began dreaming of ways to emulate it. We found ourselves able to purchase houses at flexible interest rates, considering them investments not homes. We began sacrificing ownership for mere possession. Our fathers often worked for one company or in one profession all their lives, but with the explosion of the Silicon Valley industries employment changed throughout the economy. We now could change jobs every six months without seeming to be a risk to lenders, or future employers.

We began focusing on our recreation, not as vacations and weekends but the constant activity of our lives. We filled mornings with trips to the club, and our evenings with games. We sacrificed family activities for the enthusiasm of action. We pressed our children into a life of constant activity; Little League, Soccer, Swimming, Music lessons, and if they were lucky they still had time for an ever increasing load of homework. We had made a choice; life would be fast and exciting, like the rich and famous.

I agree with Zachery Cohen: all social movements are driven from the bottom up. The changes we accepted in our lives were driven from the bottom up; we demanded them. For most of us to appear affluent we needed to buy cheap. We bought cheap products, cheap food, all purchased with cheap money and cheap credit. The consumer desire had changed from quality and value to low price at any cost. Food industries were more than happy to deliver; they began seeking out new labor markets, new manufacturing methods and new ingredients to use in our food, anything to reduce cost, price and the time we invested in food preparation. We allowed the bulk of our food dollars to be transferred from those who produced our food to those who provided us with a greater value time. Food processors now received the bulk of food dollars we spent, because we were happy to eat by only applying the heat.

For the last thirty to forty years we’ve had an exciting time of excess consumption. We’ve been able to live the life of the rich and famous, to the detriment of our manufacturing sector and the quality of our food. Now in a time of recession more people than ever are reevaluating the lifestyle and food system we have invested in. Do we care about homeownership, security, and satisfaction, are we satisfied with cheap materials and goods, or do we want back a bit of our heritage in the American Dream as our ancestors understood it? Are we willing to live once again a less lavish lifestyle at a slower more sustainable pace so that we can rebuild our dreams? Will we begin to rebuild our dreams with a social movement from the bottom up?

Preparing food is a uniquely human action; it demands one thing of us that we have avoided our time and attention. We have carelessly delegated our food preparation to others until we began to believe the ads of Stouffer’s and think we were making a home cooked meal when we opened a box and heated it in the oven or microwave. Food preparation was the first thing we sacrificed as we sought the appearance of wealth, and it’s the first thing we must restore. It’s time we sit down and begin to explore the kitchen again. We need to regain the connection to our Grandparents and Great Grandparents. Taking products from raw materials to meal isn’t the realm of chefs and trained cooks; it’s the magic that was performed by our ancestors, cooking on wood-fired stoves. Food preparation is within reach of every adult and child. It’s time we look back to the tradition of experimentation and teaching, passing skills and explorations on to others. The American Dream can once again be an attainable goal, through our persevering work and taking ownership of our food. It must be the base of a social movement; moving toward a sustainable society focused on the attainability of the American Dream for all people.

To make this dream a reality, let’s all plan our meals: prepare a few days’ menus based on what is in season, what is in our area, what is the outside temperature (do I really want to turn on that oven?). If we start with a whole chicken, even if you didn’t raise it yourself, roast it on the BBQ, maybe grill some zucchini and onions that you just harvested today or are in season at the grocery store, slice tomatoes from the garden and sprinkle with basil (also today’s harvest), add some feta and a baguette of sourdough and voila! A family of four will probably only eat half of that chicken so tomorrow we can pack chicken salad sandwiches in our lunches or use the chicken for tostadas for dinner. The chicken carcass can be boiled with herbs, reduced a bit and the broth can be saved in the freezer for winter-time soups like minestrone. Do our children or younger co-workers know how to do this? Or will they spend as much for a bucket of the colonel’s best and call it a meal? As the elder-wiser ones, we are duty bound to share what we know. We should be encouraging and mentoring; we’ll all be the better for it.