The Common Denominator by Steff Deschenes
The Common Denominator
By Steff Deschenes
A 365 Project is something photographers do to hone their craft. They pick a theme and every day for an entire year take a photo related to that topic. I’m no photographer, but the idea both intrigued and inspired me. I also thought it would make for an interesting social experiment, while both documenting and allowing me to reflect on my life as a twenty-something captured in a year. And what a better year to do it then one in which I’ll spend the majority being a quarter-century old? It would be fun to find out who my year involved, where I may have travelled, new things I might’ve tried, and life changes that may have occurred.
I knew exactly what I wanted my theme to be: me at dinner. Because not only did I love food and was excited to have become a vegetarian only a few months prior; but, in my opinion, there’s nothing as personal and intimate as eating. It’s one of the few things as humans we’ve always done and will always do, and that connects every single person regardless of race, gender, geography, or culture.
My only parameters were that the picture had to show me, what I was eating, and if applicable, who I was eating with. I started taking pictures of myself on January 1st of this year. By January 2nd I felt stupid taking and posting these pictures online. But today, entering the last third of the calendar year, I have never been more proud or have felt more rewarded from something I’ve created than my 365 Project.
Personally, it’s been an amazing testament to my lifestyle choice of becoming a vegetarian. Not only have I been strengthened in my faith as an herbivore and have had my own boundaries and reservations in the kitchen stretched and expanded (I only started cooking a few months before this project started!); but, the positive ripple-effect in other people’s lives was something I could have never predicted.
Family, friends, and people I don’t even know have been inspired by my persistence to the Project and to my gastronomical choices with the dishes I’ve made. They’ve realized that healthy, sustainable, and compassionate eating isn’t bland, boring, stereotypical or scary at all. I’ve actually converted people to vegetarianism; have helped people dramatically reduce not only their intake of animal products but also of other mass-manufactured items; and, most importantly, have simply gotten people to think about how what they eat can harm themselves and the environment.
It’s also brought me closer to some friends who I had drifted away from – after hearing about the project, and despite not seeing me for months or even years, these people went out of their way to meet-up with me so that they could have their picture taken with me at dinner.
And all I set out to do was take some (probably very silly) pictures of myself eating!
Despite having a universe of the internet between us, the Project has reaffirmed my belief that food is something that helps us be an interconnected people; it strengthens relationships and tears down differences and brings us all to a common ground.
Such is the power of sustenance!
About Steff Deschenes
Despite a failed attempt at majoring in ice cream in college, Steff Deschenes is a self-taught ice-cream guru. After publishing the now twelve-time award-winning The Ice Cream Theory, she began exploring food on a more universal level. As a result, she now photo blogs daily herself at dinner and the challenges of being a vegetarian in a predominantly seafood-oriented state. Steff also writes two articles a week entitled “Maybe It’s Me” (personal essays and reflection on life and the living of it) and “Fact Is Better” (real life conversations she couldn’t make up if she tried); all of which can be found at www.steffdeschenes.com. You can also visit her at www.theicecreamtheory.com.
About The Ice Cream Theory
The Ice Cream Theory is ice-cream guru Steff Deschenes’s charming exploration of the parallels between human personalities and ice-cream flavors, a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the variety inherent in a well-lived life.
The Theory was hatched when Deschenes was trying to make sense of her first heartbreak. In the midst of that grief, she realized that, in the same way humans have ice-cream preferences, humans have people preferences. Like ice cream flavors, social preferences shift based on age, experience, even mood. There are exotic flavors that one craves when feeling daring, comforting flavors to fall back on, flavors long-enjoyed that eventually wear out their welcome, and those unique flavors that require an acquired taste. Like people, no ice cream flavor is perfect every single time . . . and it is in this realization that the crux of Deschenes’s theory lies.
Deschenes neatly brings together anecdotes from her own adventures with broader-reaching social commentary to help others recognize the wisdom and joy inherent in a beloved dessert.
With its cheeky self-help slant, The Ice Cream Theory is an endearing and light-hearted addition to any bookshelf. It’s a must read for anyone bruised by life’s tough lessons and in need of a cheerful pick me up!
