eat the ground

Today, after cooking this final project, the kitchen started to shut down, and there was this kind of flurry of face-stuffing. And so I'm sitting here right now asking myself what it's all about.

part of it is pleasure.
Food tastes and feels good. Good food does so even more. So, this was good food, and that's part of what the flurry was about.

But it's also a kind of grounding ritual. Sure, it was a bit celebratory, as in Whew, that's over, gimme a fry! But it also functioned as a calming activity. It brought people back together, and in some cases, back down from the stress of their position. Or so I think.

I didn't participate fully-- I tasted (as in tiny plastic spoon) a couple things, tried one fry, and called it a day. I drank a lot of water-- that's actually pretty grounding for me. I ate my lunch (one I brought from home) a bit earlier, and that functioned as grounding for me. I was also hungry-- I needed the fuel.

But now I'm wondering how much of my eating (in general, in my life) has been about grounding. When do I feel that urge? When do I partake? I know my tea drinking fits this description-- I often need it to settle down, to transition from one part of my day to the next.

I'm doing it right now. I continue to do it because I consider tea a less harmful vice. And I love the ritual.

My aforeblogged Mac & Cheese was also a ritual, but it was a bit more harmful, and far more checked-out. Peanut butter can be the same way sometimes. But there's no peanut butter here-- not now, not tomorrow, pro'lly not for a long long time...