Ambient awareness

When an idea or concept has newly captured one’s attention, a seemingly uncanny phenomenon sometimes occurs in which that idea or concept suddenly “shows up” with increased frequency in the environment. I’ve experienced it with vocabulary, objects, and places; you probably have, too.

Such is the case with Kenya. Attending the Northwest Folklife Festival recently, Laurel Seid unexpectedly came upon a Kenyan Kitchen concession. In my daily review of independent school posts on Twitter in the past week, I noticed that a member of the communications team at an independent school in Minnesota (@lifeatblake) has been commenting about her students’ service trip in Kenya and their blog documenting the experience. In following The White House on Facebook, I happened to see a video of Jill Biden touring Kiberia, a Nairobi slum (June 9 post).

Then, the clincher: After reading a pile of books on Africa, I decided to take a respite by returning to my other current favorite genre: foodie books. I picked up Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession by Julie Powell of Julie & Julia fame. Like the earlier title, this is a book of personal narrative -- narcissistic, edgy, and sometimes funny. This time, Powell tells the tale of her butcher apprenticeship. Imagine my surprise when, after nearly 200 pages, she veers off into a global food journey including a “cultural safari” to a Maasai settlement in Tanzania along the Kenyan border!

Mere coincidence? Serendipity? Increased awareness? Or, perhaps, evidence that Fate has a sense of humor.

Claudia Daggett