So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.—Franz Kafka
Our relationship with food is too extensive to let it pass without a thought
There are times when reading my email can be a dangerous thing. Consider, for example, the promotional piece for a local restaurant offering all-you-can-eat fried catfish today for only $5.09. Yes, you’re reading that correctly. All-you-can-eat for under ten bucks. I am really tempted to go, and there’s still yet the chance that I may. The challenge is I have to walk. Both directions. Three miles each way.
In some aspects, that long of a walk is a good thing. I can use the exercise anyway and the temperatures today are supposed to be warmer so the weather isn’t the hindrance it has been. Walking there builds up a decent appetite and if I’m going to spend five bucks on food I want to get my money’s worth. Walking back helps, at least in part, make up for the fact that I would almost certainly eat more than I should because that’s what tends to happen when one is told the meal is all-you-can-eat.
The problem with that long of a walk is that once I leave the restaurant there are no restrooms available between here and there. Walking after a meal does a wonderful job of aiding in digestion, but when one has overeaten, and especially when what one overate was fried, the need for a restroom is likely to arrive rather quickly. Walking that distance takes me about an hour. There is almost no scenario in which the last 30 minutes of that walk isn’t painful. I’ve done things like this before. Disaster has been oh so narrowly averted on more than one such occasion. Do I really dare take that risk today?
We all know that the food we eat is important. There are plenty of people who want to know every little detail about their food: where it was sourced, how it was grown, what it was fed, whether it had a good life and was happy when it was harvested. There are millions of people who have medical reasons to watch what they consume. The young woman on the right in the pictures above is either allergic or sensitive a large number of the most common foods. Her food requirements are so narrow that she’s had to create her own set of recipes so she can still enjoy eating without getting ill. Her website, bubblechild.com, is a fantastic resource for anyone who deals with a myriad of sometimes conflicting food allergies. I read through her articles and often feel rather ashamed of myself for not eating better.
I’m not alone, though. Americans have been the fattest people on the planet for some time now, and our relationship with food extends beyond a mere matter of sustenance; it affects who we are, how we relate to other people, and how well we do our jobs. There is a recent article in the New York Times wherein Charles Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger talks about how he invites job applicants to breakfast and has the restaurant intentionally mess up their order. He tells reporter Adam Bryant:
“I do that because I want to see how the person responds.That will help me understand how they deal with adversity. Are they upset, are they frustrated or are they understanding? Life is like that, and business is like that. It’s just another way to get a look inside their heart rather than their head.”
Bettinger doesn’t say whether he counts the applicant’s cholesterol or sugar intake at that meal, but he has a point. What we want to eat can affect our temperament and getting an order wrong isn’t the worst thing that can happen in a restaurant.
I can remember occasionally going to restaurants with my parents when I was small. Back then, few, if any, items on the menu were prepared in advance. One reason we seldom ate out was because there would inevitably be a twenty- to thirty-minute wait between the time we placed our order and food actually arrived. Salads were encouraged not because they were healthy (they weren’t by the time we ladled several ounces of dressing on them), but because they gave us something to do while waiting on our entrees. If salads weren’t available, my parents were challenged with trying to keep two young boys occupied. We were forbidden from ordering anything that might extend our wait, such as fried chicken. The fact that the food was not going to be fast forced us to think carefully not only about what we wanted to eat, but where we sat, how we dressed, and whether we invited guests.
Food is serious. When I’m planning our menus here at home I have to take into consideration matters such as the amount of fruit the kids have had that day, are they getting enough vegetables, are the textures so challenging that they override the taste? If I get it wrong, we not only have cranky little people on our hands, but I’m also impacting their future relationship with that particular food. They’re both at an age where their opinions of food now affect their dietary choices for most their adolescence. For the moment, they love steamed veggies, but if I don’t prepare those carefully they’ll stop eating them and won’t try them again for several years. Remember, I have three that are grown. We’ve been through this before.
Taking time to think about our food before we eat brings us closer to making healthier choices. After all this, will I still have the catfish? Maybe, but if I do I am less likely to go full-tilt on the all-you-can-eat and will adjust my other meals to compensate for any errors in judgement I may make. Not giving in to the fast food convenience allows all of us to enjoy our food more, to make meals more of an experience rather than an automatic habit. We may not always make the most healthy choices, but we are less likely to make really horrible ones.
You know, I could use the exercise. Maybe I’ll just have the veggie tray instead.
Modern Convenience
The technologies of convenience are making our sphere of exploration and experience smaller. —Robert Englund
Modern convenience saves time, money, and wear and tear, but are we missing something greater?
This is one of those Monday mornings where I am having considerable difficulty finding any motivation. I hit the snooze on my alarm for a full hour this morning before pulling my feet out from under the covers. After a trying week with long hours and too little sleep and too much anxiety, I would just as soon spend the entire day in bed. What’s a little disturbing is that I almost could. Modern convenience gives me the ability to write from anywhere I can manage either a WiFI or cell phone signal. The software and settings on my desktop computer can be easily duplicated on my laptop. My image files are shared on the home network so I can access them from any room in the house. The only reason I would have to get out of bed is for food and coffee.
I am happy to be living in a period where such convenience is possible, and there is even more. I have the world’s information at my fingertips, no matter where I am, no matter what time of day it may be. My middle son, the Marine stationed in Japan, would have been difficult to contact a mere ten years ago, but now we can Skype and chat in real time without inconveniencing either of us. I can watch fashion shows around the world live without ever having to board a plane and sit next to someone wreaking of perfume for 17 hours. I can take a picture and not have to drop film off at the lab. The convenience of living right here, right now, is nice.
With such convenience, however, comes some responsibility, I think. If the universe is going to give us all these advantages, do we not have an obligation to use them for the greater good? If our lives are somehow made easier by the things around us and the abilities we have been given, does that not obligate us to not only improve our lives but that of those around us? Being the beneficiaries of convenience means that we are compelled to learn more, to understand at a deeper level, to be involved to a greater degree, and to speak more when the time is appropriate. Convenience is wonderful but we are indentured to the universe for using that convenience in ways that make a difference.
When I first sat down at my desk this morning, there were a number of news stories that caught my eye. These were among them:
That such a diverse amount of current information and opinions from around the world is available at my fingertips this morning is amazing. While they do come from several different sources, they were delivered as curated links so that I wouldn’t lose time sorting through all the different publications. Everything is right there waiting for me. The convenience is astonishing.
Yet, for that convenience, there is a necessary response. I cannot, morally, just read those articles and not respond. Each demands some form of response that alters my life and my schedule in some form. Consider:
Those may seem minor, perhaps, but they ultimately matter in how I shape my day and what decisions I make. Convenience generates awareness to things that we might have totally missed as little as five years ago. Convenience also makes it easier to respond in an appro
Convenience also makes it easier to respond in an appropriate way. When we know that portions of Asia and India are more likely to face devastating floods later this year, we can begin giving to relief agencies in advance rather than waiting until an emergency strikes. The plethora of financial options available to us now allows us to manage our finances in such a way that we are better able to save more and thereby help more than did previous generations. These conveniences give us an edge in helping to make the world a better place. We direct our creativity and innovation more precisely because it is convenient to do so.
Let’s face it, we would all be lazy and lethargic if it were an option. For 99% of us, though, we have to work to make any progress and anything that makes that work and our living easier is to be appreciated.
A trailer for the new Harry Potter movie was released over the weekend. Being able to see trailers without needing to go to the theater allows us to decide in advance which movies we might want to see. In this case, though, it also raises another question. We have a seven-year-old who is reading rather voraciously. He’s going to find the new trailer interesting, so the convenience of seeing the trailer now, at home, gives us the opportunity to not only discuss whether it is appropriate viewing fare, but also whether his reading level might be at a point where we could introduce him to the first of the Harry Potter books on conjunction with the release of the film.
It also allows us to do this:
Enjoy the convenience you have this Monday.
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