Basking

Its finally here. Spring break. Ok, its wednesday of spring break but it arrived so I am technically correct. I should be out cavorting with my fellow collegiate interrupters but alas I am at work, and indeed I am working hard for the money. If by hard you mean a mere 5 hours shift on which I have participated in two scintillating conversations with co-workers, surfed the internet, facebooked, myspaced, got coffee, drank coffee, got my new bus pass, and wrote a seemingly uninteresting blog about my uneventful work day. So what may you ask am I pondering today? Life? The existence of God? The purpose and unequivocal efficacy of the death penalty? Close...but no cigar. My source of ponderation is something that makes, breaks, stabilizes, and conflicts every society on earth. Food. Besides the fact that it is tasty and it causes that obnoxious rumble in your tummy, food literally sustains and creates life, a fact which has largely been overlooked by modern society. America has an obsession with food which I cannot seem to understand. Everyday you see an new ad or promotion for a product, plan, or pill centered around weight loss or appetite suppression and yet, on the very heels of these you will undoubtedly see a fast food commercial, or a grocery store pitch. We see food as a commodity, a good to be bought or sold, but is this its true purpose? Of course not. 

We are known as the fattest country in the world, and yet we have the highest incidence of eating disorders.  The majority of us could drive less than 2o miles to the nearest farm or orchard and yet we have the highest grossing convenience food industry on the planet. How did this happen? What is the cause? I think that Americans have lost their ability to eat. 

Now obviously everyone eats (or everyone should eat) but we, as a society, have lost sight of the beauty and enjoyment that can be found in food. Instead of eating, we consume, so much so that I'm sure if you stood on the deck of a ship in the middle of the pacific ocean and faced towards the state you would hear the gentle sucking sound of the American food consuming vortex. But I digress. We have come to the point of revolution where we as a society need to make the decision to take back the food industry and once again be able to appreciate the things that find their way onto our plates. 

The next time you bite into your fast-food salad or your applebee's hamburger, think. Think about where it came from, savor the low quality beef and hot house tomatoes and ponder how much better it would have tasted if you had spent a little extra to eat local or grow your own. Examine what you buy the next time your cruising down the aisles at the grocery store, look at the labels, not just to see the fat, calories, or sugar content, but to look at the ingredients and really think about what your putting into your body and how it effect they way you live and feel. No. You don't have to become a snob who judges yourself and others for every mis-step or bad choice, and you don't have to participate in the self-deprecation that is touted by the diet industry or the corporate green "movement". No. We aren't perfect and we can't and won't choose the right thing all the time, but maybe if we all choose to savor local or homegrown every once in a while over the easier choice of convenience and guilt, we could start our revolution. And maybe we won't start a revolution but you might at least get a little health and happiness out of the deal, right?  

I'm now going to dismount from my high horse fashioned from used soap boxes, compost, and discarded dreadlocks to make myself some lunch...

How ironic...