I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday and she said something that really made me think. She said her family doesn't talk about anything they just eat or drink instead and stuff all the problems down. I can completely relate to that. I have been thinking about the comment a lot in relation to my interest in nutrition. Specifically I am curious why we all do what we do. Myself included.
Why do we drink and eat things that are bad for us even when we know they are bad for us? Maybe some of us are in relatively good health so the bad things in moderation can be easily rationalized as okay. I probably lean toward that. The whole picture has to be what we look at. But then why are there folks who are in serious medical danger who also still do these things? Some of it has to come back to how we learned to deal with the non physical aspects of being human. Namely our emotions.
It was brought to the forefront today when my mom stopped by to pick up her Market Day order. We have bonded through our mutual respect for the convenience of this grade school fundraising device. In other words, food has bonded us together. Even if only vaguely this food pick up was the reason I saw her today on a day I otherwise would not have seen her. I've noticed we barely really talk about anything real or serious. If it verges close to something with depth or feelings involved the conversation is quickly steered in a different direction. For example, she talks about seeing my ex sister-in-law and the awkwardness but then mentioned she was at least more pleasant than when they were married. Disdain is written all over these comments. I bite my tongue because I don't want to mention the thought in my head which is, "Well, at least you aren't going to Myrtle Beach to golf with her, mom..."
What did I do when she left? I sat down to sort out my feelings with some good friends. You might have heard of them, especially this time of year. Tag-a-longs and samoas. After the boxes were finished(yep, finished) I didn't feel much better but at least I felt full.
