Like most humans, I like to assume that everyone I see and interact with is vastly older or younger than me, so that my own age remains a fixed, untouchable thing, so that I might eat gummy bears forever. And so last night, while re-watching A Chef’s Life for the 900th time (Vivian Howard’s beautiful docuseries about food and farming in Eastern North Carolina) I hunkered down to learn about cabbage, and met this fine fellow, Sam Jones, who runs Skylight BBQ in Ayden, NC:

He taught Vivian how to make their famed coleslaw (hint, it’s buckets of sugar.) After, the two of them chatted about their parents, their work ethic. In my head I’m thinking, what a wise, humble, hardworking man in his mid to late 40s. And then he says, I always told myself I’d never be a person who let my work run my life, and here I am, 34 years old, and I can’t even turn it off. THIS MAN IS, IN FACT, YOUNGER THAN MYSELF.

As for Queen Vivian, I do think I know how old she is, but I won’t discuss it, as she is flawless /  ageless / glorious / inspiring / WILL LIVE FOREVER, but I will say she is slightly older than me, so I can say I want to be her when I grow up, which inevitably will happen someday.