The Gumbo Gamut Charter GAZETTE

"Every gumbo starts with a roux — equal parts heat and patience."

For those who don’t know, gumbo is a stew from Louisiana that combines Creole and Cajun traditions. It’s a dish with many ingredients, seasoned to taste. It’s also, when done right, damn good. We like ours with a real bite.

This Gamut of ours is a labor of honesty, integrity, and humanity. Carrying those three ingredients well takes care and hard work. It means turning a sharp and critical eye inward first — being honest with ourselves about both the things that make sense about our values and beliefs as well as those that don’t. Until we can face our flaws as readily as our strengths, we’re not really cooking with both honesty and integrity.

And what does humanity require of us? Turning that sharp and critical eye outward, applying honesty and integrity unflinchingly. We have to cut through the noise, the preconceptions, and the assumptions and dedicate ourselves to finding the bedrock beneath the sand. Until we find that footing below the froth, we can’t claim to have reached the crux of the matter. Humanity is a thread that stitches us together, whether we choose to be bound or not. We can preserve the seams through honest engagement with the world and all its dynamics, or we can pull them all apart.

The Gumbo Gamut exists to practice that standard of engagement. To see how we set the table, visit The House Menu.

Remember: it takes a lot of ingredients to make a good gumbo. If you’re not running the gamut, it’s probably not spicy enough.