what makes life delicious

Food is beautiful. We need it to stay alive, but the wrong kind will eventually send us to an early grave. Though it seems the food that's the fastest, "most tasty" (at least in the opinion of the food-ignorant, food can actually be healthy AND good!), and most "filling" is also the nastiest--well, when you get down to basics. Junk food is like the cover of a mindless, trashy woman's magazine, it might look good on the outside, but there isn't much substance behind what's being presented. Basically, whether it's a figure that only looks flawless because it was altered by a computer, or a burger that only looks juicy because it's oozing with chemicals and flavor enhancers--the truth is, you're not getting the real deal, even if they love to see you smile or promise to let you have it your way.

Here's an interesting parallel:
It seems that modern day "love", or lust, is a lot like a drive-thru. People want instant satisfaction, whether or not it's good for them, and if they don't get what they want, they send it back without thinking twice, it's not like you had to wait that long anyway--no emotional attachments were made. Instant gratification is nice, no doubt, but what about the consequences? It seems our thoughts have become like a quick-stop, we dismiss them right after they've entered our minds because that's the only way we know how to keep the customer satisfied, Simon and Garfunkel style--in the sense that You're in trouble boy/and you're heading into more.

But you are your own customer getting yourself into trouble:
Your taste buds might be watering over some fabulous french fries drenched in oil, so why neglect the craving? And if you're also in need of a sugar fix, why not order up a side of eye candy to go along with it--something that just looks good, who cares about substance? Whatever looks and feels good, at least right now, seems to be the motto that eventually leaves us starved in every sense of the word. We poison our physical bodies with crap, no wonder it's so easy to feed our souls the same toxic chemicals. The sad thing is, what inspires that kind of behavior is the desire for happiness and satisfaction. If we could purchase the sense of happiness at a drive-thru we would, and we wouldn't care that it was only a "sense" and not the genuine article...or maybe we wouldn't know the difference, at least not until later.

At age 5, happiness was a brand new doll at Christmas from Santa, at least to me. Obviously my definition of happiness then was completely ignorant. The poor doll would eventually get buried in a box somewhere in my dusty garage after I found a new toy to replace it. Now, all the things I associate with happiness can't be disposed of. I can't even imagine growing tired of them because they are spiritual and emotional necessities. With time, I've not only come to appreciate meaningful relationships because they are rare and irreplaceable, but I've also come to value myself more as an individual. I don't like poisoning my mind or body with things that will distort my perception of happiness or life. Because I value life itself, I want to make it last, even if I have to make decisions that won't bring me instant gratification. This doesn't just go for serious issues, but also the lighter ones. Being able to give my all is so important to my happiness because it makes my life meaningful, and if I am in a destructive relationship, or I'm putting destructive food in my body, I'm not able to do that. I guess this is part of the reason why they say you have to love yourself before you can love anyone else.

One of my favorite movies is Como Agua Para Chocolate. There are a few reasons why I like it, but one of the more obvious ones is this: the way it entwines emotion and food. How the people experienced the food was directly related to the emotion felt by the person preparing the meal. Even though it was a fantasy-based movie, I do think some of its core elements can be applied to real life, at least in an indirect and symbolic way. For instance, we all know love really does make food taste better...and we are also too familiar with the saying: You are what you eat. So I guess if that's true, then most of us are greasy, fake, frozen at one point or another, and probably fried.