Philosophy/ Food

Back in North Carolina, my roommate and best friend Elizabeth used to love reading books about Zodiac Signs. I never took those horoscopes very seriously, not because of skepticism, but rather because of a biographical fact that conditioned me to disbelieve in the Zodiac. My mother used to be a journalist back in Argentina, and one of her first jobs was to make up the fictional predictions in the horoscope section of the newspaper. After learning what happened behind the scenes of horoscope writing, I was unable to take the zodiac predictions seriously.
But Liz did owe a funny book about signs which she read to me one evening. The title of the chapter was “How to deal with a Taurus Roommate.” I was her Taurus roommate. One of the things she read to me was that: “The Taurus roommate likes to keep to herself, and usually stays in her room unless bribed with food.” This detail did seem to match my personality because, as far as I can remember, I have usually kept to myself when I live with other people, but I do come out of my room when I know that people are making food, or sharing food, or having a pot luck in my house, etc.

This is all to say that I joined the Society for Women in Philosophy here in NYC. We meet once a month at NYU to discuss papers and hold each other accountable for our writing goals. But if you really want to know the real reason why I joined, and the reason that motivates me to leave my house on Thursday evenings, is the food. Yes, we can sign up to bring food and drinks, and before presenting papers there is a pot luck with lots of really good food. I am making a couscous salad for the next get together, and I’m already excited about trying different plates of food…It must be a Taurus thing.