At the store

I was awe-struck as soon as I walked in. Aisles, rows and rows of them, stretched into the distance, each filled to the brim with foods and goods. We spent almost an hour browsing through the store, and still that didn’t seem enough. All these brand names, all these choices and alternatives, all the combinations of recipes and meals you could make. All those calories and all that sugar.

Kosher, diet, Thai, low-sodium and low-fat. Ready-made, canned, to be microwaved or served cold. Chops, cookies, crab and cream. Bread, (I-can’t-believe-it’s-not) butter, biscotti and boiled egg in brine. Tylenol, tangerines, tulips and tomatoes— diced, cubed, sliced, whole, soaked or sun dried. For every taste, every need and every preference there seems to be something on offer. And all at almost unbelievable prices and in unmanageable quantities. There is an almost insidious lure to shopping and binge and bulk buying that I cannot understand.

I looked around at the people in the store— in fact I only have to look at my relatives—to see the result of uninhibited consumption under the constant spell of special offers, buy-one-get-one-frees and coupons. How much do you have to eat really to sustain your body? What are we putting into our mouths and bodies? What are all these “colourings” and “flavourings” that are mixed into enticing sweets and snacks? Why do the vegetables look so green, healthy and sparkling in the dense of winter? Do you really need to have six dozen brands and flavours of ice cream in buckets of a gallon each?

Food, glorious, food!

Consume, stupid, consume!