Summer Series #5

Block 15’s Science on deck today, coming from Lents Bottle and Tap.

I’ve been a patron of Lents since just before the pandemic started, and during the Front Porch series often bought beers from their fridge to take home and write about. They’re a local, and one I’m glad to have in the neighborhood.

It’s the sort of place where I can arrive at the right time and have it be very, very calm, and know when the lively hours are so I can indulge in those as I please.

Last week I mentioned doing the work-work that I have taken from someone else, work that will be taken from me. I mention this frequently here and since today’s outside space is just me, standing on the street, Foster’s evening traffic as background noise, I thought I’d give a little time talking about what that means.

The way I look at it, there are chores and there is work. Chores are the tasks you have to do to maintain. This might be taking a shower, cleaning the kitchen, getting a good night’s sleep-routine, would be part of what chores are. Something that if you don’t do, life gets a lot more difficult but if you do spend 20 minutes here or there, you find life gets a bit easier.

But it mostly keeps the status quo. Stasis.

Work is when you are trying to do something more. This might include reading books by people who aren’t like you, going to therapy, having conversations with people that aren’t easy, organizing folks to accomplish a task.

Not all work is good-there were people who organized to create statues to white supremacists. The metaphor isn’t a perfect one.

But I think real work means risk of some kind. A challenge to oneself to be something other than what they are. Plus, there any number of philosophies that offer ideas on what makes a better life; you’ve got options offered by people who’ve done the work before you.

Work isn’t necessarily the same for everyone, either! Which is, unfortunately, why I can’t tell you what your work is. I just believe that when you’re doing it, there will be a response to it-one that suggests you’re on the right path.

And since you won’t always know, or always stay on the right path, some of that work will involve change.

The Science! Has a bit of a haze to it, but the flavor profile leans piney. I can’t say that it’s a hazy. It’s got a pleasantly hoppy finish, and at the very, very end of the beer it starts to dry out. Really interesting stuff!