Ounce by ounce

I grew up thinking that socializing was eating.  Daddy came home for lunch and we all gathered around the dining room table to eat cheese sandwiches, vegetable soup and talk.  The same thing happened at dinner with a more elegant setting.

In between my mother was busy cleaning and washing and ironing for a large family that grew up before the days of permanent press and disposable dust mops.  If she took a break, it was to have coffee with our neighbor, Aunt Jo, on the patio next door.

Breaks meant eating.  Trips to Champagne on weekends to have my brother’s casts changed meant donuts and chocolate milk in the car to pass the time.  Holidays were celebrated mostly by feasting and not the scurry to buy things that today has brought along.

And while I am not particularly in favor of the current need to celebrate all of life with retail consumerism, I am learning that it doesn’t have to be accompanied by food all the time either.

Not an easy lesson for someone who is used to picking up something to eat in the car, and while watching television and even reading a book, but the good life is killing me, ounce by ounce and something’s gotta change.