Leaving it all in the ring

and a recipe for a lemony bean, greens and turkey soup to warm your insides

I’ve never been a fan of nine to five.

Maybe that’s because the early part of my career was spent in retail, and before that working part time as a restaurant server. Doing the 1 pm to 9 pm shift, working on Sundays and holidays, piecing my time at and away from work together like a giant jigsaw puzzle, was the norm.

Once you take work out of the service sector, it becomes murkier. The construct of a set schedule when work happens best, when we’re most productive and where, has gotten outsized attention lately. And no wonder. The world was turned on its head, and for the first time in perhaps ever, we’ve begun to question the why of things.

I’ll leave the debate about “quiet quitting” to others. You can find opinions about its merits or flaws just about everywhere (including the rebrand of it to the reverse hustle, acting your wage, corporate coasting and working to thrive). As we think about it, this is not a new concept or entirely new behaviour. Like so much else, the pandemic rolled away the rock and revealed what was underneath all along.

Leaving it all in the ring

What I’m more interested in is how we now approach everything and how much effort, energy and heart we give to whatever it is we do, whether at work or play.

When I’m doing a boxing workout with my wise friend and trainer Yvette, and she sees I’m flagging, she’ll urge me to “leave it all in the ring.” Boxers, she reminds me, come to the fight to win, countless hours of training and preparation behind them. Giving it their all is why they showed up. And every match, every defeat, an opportunity to learn, grow, be better.

As in boxing, so in life.

We spend more time learning how to make a living than we do learning how to make a life.

– Muhammad Ali

Making a life seems to be the central argument for hybrid work, quiet quitting and the like. But I sometimes worry that what we are rushing away from in our day to day jobs to spend time doing is not creating a truly enriching life. Are we finding more time to scroll, more time to stream, more time to stew about things that are irrelevant or simply out of our control?

I’m not saying that every waking moment needs to be turned up to eleven. Our brains simply can’t sustain that. There are times when our attention shifts, our enthusiasm flags, our productivity wanes. It’s really hard work to sustain focus and energy, no matter whether we’re working or playing. And sometimes sitting and vegging is just what the doctor ordered, and much needed.

As we forge ahead and create whole, rewarding lives out of the chaos of the past two years, giving it our all is a worthy goal. As Malcolm Gladwell said in Outliers, “Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.” I think that’s true no matter what the “work” is.

Let’s dance, indeed.

Lemony bean soup with turkey and greens

From Melissa Clark, in the New York Times

serves 4

It’s soup season, and with the colder weather comes the chance to create one pot wonders that can be eaten right away or put in the freezer for a future feast.

Cooking this delicious and hearty bean soup from Melissa Clark is the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. It can easily be doubled up, or made vegan by eliminating the turkey and subbing in a vegetable stock.

Note: I cook fresh borlotti (cranberry) beans that I’ve frozen for soups and stews. The bean “liquor” (cooking liquid) is super flavourful and can be used in the soup or frozen for future use. If you have time and inclination, you can get the same results by soaking and cooking 1 cup dried cranberry beans to yield 3 cups.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 bunch sturdy greens, such as kale, rapini or collard greens, tough stems trimmed, and chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 generous pinch red pepper flakes

½ pound (227 gr) ground turkey

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon finely grated ginger

1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste

1 quart chicken stock (4 cups, 1 litre), or a combination of chicken stock and bean liquor (see headnote)

2 15-ounce (397 ml) cans white beans, drained and rinsed, or 3 cups (500 gr) cooked beans (see headnote)

1 cup chopped fresh, soft herbs, such as parsley, mint, dill, basil, tarragon, chives

Fresh lemon juice to taste

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and carrot, and sauté until very soft but not browned, about 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Add tomato paste, cumin and red pepper flakes to the pot, and sauté until paste darkens, about 1 minute. Add turkey, garlic, ginger, and salt, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon thoroughly. Sauté until the turkey has lost its pink colour.

3. Add stock and beans, and bring to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer. Let simmer until the soup is thick and flavourful, adding more salt if needed, about 25 minutes. If you like a thicker broth, you can smash some of the beans with the back of a wooden spoon to release their starch, or leave the beans whole for a brothier soup.

4. Add the greens to the pot and simmer until they are soft, about 5-7 minutes more.

5. Stir herbs and a generous squeeze of lemon juice into the pot, taste and add more salt, cumin and lemon until the broth is lively and bright-tasting. Serve topped with a drizzle of olive oil.