Mormon Mentality - Thoughts and Asides by Peculiar People » Life’s Recurring Themes

By Devyn S.

Apr. 27th, 2009 at 8:41 am

Do you have those odd themes that just seem to be recurrent in your life? I have two recurrent themes in my life. First is NYC – I served a mission here and have traveled here at least once a month in my job over the last 8 years. I enjoy the city and all of its energy and diversity. I have also been here during interesting times – lived in Brooklyn during the race riots in the early 1990s, visited the WTC two weeks before 9/11, traveled to NYC for work just after 9/11 when the airports reopened, spent a long hot night in a hotel room after climbing 44 flights of stairs in the dark during the great blackout here a few years ago. However, if there were a list of places I would not want to live, sadly, NYC would be near the top, but it is a great place to visit.

The second theme has been chickens. Ever since I was young I have loved chickens. My siblings and I raised chickens. We circled chicken breeds from the chicken hatchery catalogues as many kids used to circle toys in the Sears catalogue in preparation for Christmas. We loved to get the chicks, raise them, do some funky genetic crosses and incubate the eggs to see what weird chicken would emerge. Little did I know that in my 7 years of graduate school studying embryology, I would use the Chicken embryo as my model system. I spent countless hours looking at and manipulating chicken embryos. I would bring extra eggs home from the lab to eat (virus and pathogen free eggs that cost $15 a dozen). Those were good times. Now I look forward to the day when I will have a patch of ground large enough for my own chickens….

I find it fascinating how these themes occur in our lives. Perhaps it is serendipity, perhaps fate, but perhaps I had some pre-mortal chickens that I raised in a large pre-mortal city that resembled NYC….

1. Sam B.

Mon, Apr 27, 2009 @ 10:04am

Other than expense, why would New York City be near the top of your list of places you wouldn’t want to live? (I ask sincerely.) It would have been up there on my list until 8 years ago or so when I moved here, but my reasons would have been unfamiliarity with the city–until I moved here, pretty much everything I knew about it came from Dave Barry and Seinfield.

2. Jota G

Mon, Apr 27, 2009 @ 11:29am

I like the idea of raising chickens. Don’t they get really stinky though?

3. S.P. Bailey

Mon, Apr 27, 2009 @ 12:30pm

I thought this was going to be about Chickens in NYC, like this NPR story I recently heard (apologies for the inelegant link): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15926797

4. Devyn S.

Mon, Apr 27, 2009 @ 3:25pm

Sam – We have lived in Boston for 14 years and are tired of the city life. We want to live in a more rural environment. I know all NYC has to offer and would have enjoyed it 10 years ago, but not so much now…

Jota – not if you clean the pens often – makes great garden fertilizer…

SP Bailey – sorry to disappoint – I thought the story you referred to was interesting though

5. Sam B.

Mon, Apr 27, 2009 @ 3:38pm

Devyn,
Fair enough. I had the impression from your post (wrongly, it appears) that NYC was atop your list for something about it, specifically, not about big-city life in general. Although, FWIW, you don’t know all NYC has to offer. At least I doubt you do—I certainly don’t, even after my 8 years here. But that’s ancillary to your point; good luck making that rural thing happen.

6. Kent Larsen

Tue, Apr 28, 2009 @ 7:26am

I thought it was going to be about Chickens in NYC also.

I don’t know the NPR story you are talking about, by chance was it about someone who visted a Vivero?

I would think that visiting a Vivero would bring nostalgia to all the farmers from the west who end up in our wards here, but somehow none of them ever go!!

7. Bookslinger

Tue, Apr 28, 2009 @ 1:03pm

Devyn: Just FYI: In the biotech area, Indianapolis has Dow Agro and Lilly. Lilly’s campus is downtown, but Dow’s is right on the edge of the county, and you could find rural living within 15 to 20 minutes drive of there, and still be not too far from the city.

8. danithew

Tue, Apr 28, 2009 @ 7:30pm

My wife and I love living in NYC. About the only thing I don’t like is the cost of the rent.

There are so many simple pleasures here. Pizza, for one thing. Doesn’t get better than what is here, in my opinion.

Devyn, if you come to NYC that often, we should try to meet up sometime.

9. Devyn S.

Thu, Apr 30, 2009 @ 11:27am

7. Bookslinger – thanks for the FYI – I have certainly thought about it as it would be a nice place to live, just not many jobs open right now.

8. danithew I love the pizza and the bagels – best anywhere! We should get together one of my visits down there.

10. annegb

Fri, May 1, 2009 @ 11:59am

My eccentric friend Julie raises banty hens and gives us eggs. They sure taste good. They’re small and my grandchildren are entranced by that. I don’t have much of a sense of smell, but I don’t smell anything at Julie’s house. Of course, she has twenty acres and a barn.

Devyn, I’d love it if you’d come here, but I don’t recommend it. Great country, but a lot people with extremely strong “churchamonies.”

11. Clark

Fri, Jul 17, 2009 @ 1:09pm

We went from ‘downtown’ to country life. Devyn you don’t really need ‘that’ much space to raise a few chickens, in fact lots of city-folk are doing it in their back yards. After reading books like Food, Inc I don’t think I’ll ever want to give up raising my own food again.

12. queuno

Fri, Aug 21, 2009 @ 6:34pm

I grew up in a suburb of a major American city (3 professional sports teams). I live in a suburb today of a major American metroplex (5 sports teams, if we’re counting MLS, and a speedway, and several minor-league sports teams). I can’t imagine living anywhere other than in the suburbs. You have better schools, nearby access to the big city … and there’s always a bunch of New Yorkers living here (b/c they wanted to escape New York) opening up a pizza and pasta place… ;)

Plus, if I drive down to the corner and turn right, I pass a ranch with longhorn cattle before I get to my first stop sign.

13. queuno

Fri, Aug 21, 2009 @ 6:49pm

(5 sports teams, if weâ€™re counting MLS, and a speedway, and several minor-league sports teams)

Plus two orchestras, the opera, dozens of museums, arts centers, etc.

One great thing about Dallas/Ft. Worth is that the two cities hate each other so much, they have to outdo each other. Which is great if you’re agnostic or only mildly biased and are willing to partake of both.

14. ESO

Mon, Sep 7, 2009 @ 4:10pm

Hi!

Chickens are cool…Me and my family have raised chickens in our backyard coop for several years now and so have our neighbours. You really don’t need a lot of space and it can be done in almost any backyard…it’s nice to wake up to fresh eggs :)