Starving

Why are we always "starving"? I mean honestly, we aren't REALLY starving. And trust me, if you're reading this, you aren't. Oh, unless you have an eating disorder. My apologies! But take my kids for example. First thing in the door, "MOMMMMMMMM!!!!!! I'm starving!!!!!!" My dad always says to them, "ya ate yesterday didn't ya?" Blank stares are the response to that. It's like they feel they reserve the right to eat me out of house and home. I may actually go bankrupt trying to feed these animals!

I bring all this up because I'm hungry and can't find anything to eat in the house. Mind you there is a ton of food. I just don't feel like cooking it and I really can't figure out what I have a taste for. Rather than just eating a bunch of junk, I'm going to sit here and ponder a bunch of crazy irrational thoughts.

There are starving people in the world. And it's truly heart breaking knowing that a lot of them are children. Knowing daily that some poor child is starving to death really makes me sick. We take sooooo much for granted when we have a roof over our heads and food on the table. I try to explain this to my kids whenever they complain that they don't like something I cooked. Which promptly falls on deaf ears and entices more complaining.

Last weekend I was at a Canadian Costco. It was their Thanksgiving weekend. There was an enormous table FULL of HUGE pumpkin pies. People were buying these things like it was their last meal. And at $5.99 a pie, who wouldn't? I wouldn't, because I don't like pumpkin pie. But the point is, there was an entire warehouse FULL of food and I did my best, as usual, to buy ALL of it. At least it seems that way EVERY TIME I go in there.

You can actually have lunch at Costco just from all the sampling. Why not put a Costco in Ethiopia and let those folks "sample" the food??? Genius right? Or how about all the fields and orchards where food can't be sold because it's considered damaged when it falls on the ground? All the food I throw out because I don't cook it before it goes out of code. The list of wastefulness goes on and on and on. Maddening actually. Down right disturbing really.

I love food. There isn't much I don't like. However, I don't understand people with eating disorders, I don't understand why there are starving people in the world, and I definitely don't understand obesity. And why is it that almost every disorder in the world involves food??? People eat when they are depressed, don't eat when they are depressed, eat when they party, eat A LOT when they partied too much, eat until they feel sick, don't eat at all, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat... It's almost as if food defines us as human beings. Some days it defines me as a giant chocolate bar, other days it defines me as a short order cook. I am constantly at a grocery store and constantly planning the next meal.

Some day when I go on strike, my kids may actually learn what it's like to starve. But for now, I've got to get off the computer and find something appealing for them to inhale so we can quickly race out the door to yet another after school activity involving rigorous exercise. And we all know that activity starts the eating cycle ALL over and ensues the infamous, "MOMMMMMMMMM!!!!! I'm starving!!!!!!"....vicious, vicious cycle.