Don’t we all love to eat?
I’ve often been teased for my eating habits, and by “habits” I mean the quantity of food that I eat and the quirks with which I eat it. Sometimes I eat a sandwich self-consciously with a napkin squashed in my palm, fingers clutching bread. Sometimes I hold my water glass with two hands and don’t think that’s weird. The width of my shoulders and circumference of my thighs doesn’t necessarily reflect my appetite, and there are many people in this world who love the opportunity to call someone fat without having to feel guilty about the potential insult. But I have to wonder, don’t we all love to eat? Don’t we all overeat with relish and abandon? I’m not the odd (wo)man out here, am I?
Certainly not.
For me, eating is about contentment– the satisfaction and physical fulfillment that follows a good meal. A happiness without accomplishment or self-congratulation or pride, good or bad. Happiness found in the shushing of a grumbling stomach and the ever more severe curve of your back as you slide further and further down into your chair at the table.
And even more than that, it’s about sharing that feeling. Satisfaction at mealtimes isn’t just the singular goal of one’s own stomach; it’s the purpose of serving a meal and lighting candles on the table. Folding cloth napkins into triangles and trying to remember if the spoon goes to the left or the right of the knife. There are a million formalities available to restrict you at dinner, so you pick and choose the ones conducive to your aesthetic, putting on a show to satisfy that most basic human need: hunger.
You let the spilled candle wax harden on the table because it’s easier to clean up that way, and the crumbs blur as the shadows on the table lengthen under failing light. You fill up your guests’ bellies and watch their eyes droop as they stare out the dining room window. As the cat under the table brushes your leg, begging for a scrap and a scratch, you stare at dinner’s remains on plates and in serving dishes and wonder why you don’t make every meal feel like this.
So, why not?
