Theme: EXPERIENTIAL FOOD

26.04.2021

I am being fed.

Nourished.

Constantly.

Not only visually and experientially but also physically.

Nourishment is in abundance here in Ghana.

There is a ancient mango tree just about 50 yards from our house.

Loaded with fruit.

It looks healthy.

Nourished.

Providing nourishment.

Young boys frequently throw their flip flops up into the branches to release the mangoes.

Because when they ripen to much and fall voluntarily, the fruit gets splattered.

Into the red earth.

Nourishing the earth.

Every person I meet wants to feed me food.

I love it.

I love being fed.

I don’t enjoy cooking that much.

I find it a chore.

I only cook for glory.

For special occasions.

With a lavish table setting.

Decorative food.

If someone offers me food, I appreciate it.

Here in Ghana, I have to be careful though.

The food is so heavy and people eat huge portions late that I am struggling to keep my small waste in check.

But it’s so delicious.

It’s a constant battle with my Ghanaian mom.

I am having to lovingly push against her abundant food stream.

Educating her on portion intake.

For myself.

And the smaller the portions get, the more I feel I can reduce them even more.

It’s a slow process.

Both my parents are overweight, the weight sitting on their tummies.

Potbellies.

Because the portions are huge.

Soup bowls the size of small sinks.

And a ball of fufu the size of a child’s brain.

And after that you can’t do anything other than rest.

I mean they are active.

Within household chores but not physically active outside of that.

An mom has high blood pressure.

Apparently my dad used to walk up and down a steep part of a road close to the house.

Twice a week.

But then they started road works there.

The routine out of the window.

Why is it so hard to keep up a physical exercise routine?

Why is it not as easy as brushing your teeth?

Or sleeping?

It’s easy only in terms of giving it up.

Maybe we’re not supposed to do it.

Why is going to the gym not like falling asleep and dreaming?

Why do we have to make ourselves do it?

Why is it work (out)?

And the minute we stop, our bodies go back to their ‘natural state’

Is it because of the motivation?

Guilt?

To battle the perceived negative impact of food?

Don’t we know instinctively what is good for the body?

Have we not the inbuilt ability to eat when and what we’re supposed to eat?

What would then be the reason for eating too much?

Too often?

Unbalanced?

Are we eating because we’re thinking too much?

About food?

Are we giving food too much attention?

Sourcing, preparing and eating food probably takes the most time besides working and sleeping.

And if there is any time left, it’s spent thinking about it.

Crazy.

Since when has food become so important that our life evolves around it?

Sure, food is important.

It sustains us.

Food can be a matter of life and death.

But in our day and age that is rarely the case anymore.

Food is in abundance and accessible.

Everywhere.

And even if not in abundance, there is always access to some.

You just have to be like a goat.

They roam around all day.

They are not fed by the owner.

They forage and find.

Nourishment in the little vegetation between stones and rocks and red earth.

And apparently, goats are picky.

And then the females still mange to have offspring and nourish them.

On the little nourishment they received themselves.

How do they do that?

Where do they find the sustenances to give them enough energy?

Do they think about food all day?

What do goats think about.

Maybe they have an empty mind.

That’s meditation.

Maybe they actually meditate all day while foraging?

Finding on inspiration rather then planning?

With humans, if you don’t have food, you have time.

Because your day is not occupied with a job to get money to buy food.

You have time but no money.

So you can forage.

It’s possible here in Ghana.

In Babylon (my friend Kebra uses this expression as a synonym for the ‘Western World’and I think it’s funny), it’s not.

Obviously it’s not.

Oh, there is blaringly obvious overproduction of food and ridiculous amounts of food waste in Babylon, but it disappears, gets channelled away.

Wasted.

Not provided.

Nourishing nobody.

Not sustaining.

Why?

In order to keep people in jobs to make money to purchase.

And pretend abundance doesn’t exist.

The idea of scarcity creates demand and dependence on supply.

For a price.

No time to meditate and forage.

In a loop.

Creating waste.

Waste of time (people being struggling in jobs)

Waste of money (people paying money for food abundance)

Waste of energy (struggle in creating abundance as well as consuming plus battling the environmental impact and waste management)

A whole big bloody ecosystem of struggle.

Why?

What is it for?

For us to burn energy in order to eat food?

Maybe.

Lol.

Maybe it is necessary otherwise we would all be obese.

And bored.

Maybe what I call struggle and hard work is just a different way of exercise?

Work being a workout?

If that’s the case, we should make it fun.

If this is our workout routine, make it sustainable.

Eat and work(out) consistently pleasurable.

In life.

I wonder if we need to eat at all?

What if food was not important to sustain the body?

What if food was the root of our struggle?

If we made food less important, wouldn’t we have

1. More time to spend on other stuff?
2. More headspace to think about other things?
3. More energy to focus to explore other activities?
4. More money to spend on things which are more important?

What would we do with such abundance?

That’s the question.

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Maybe we are so obsessed with food because we don’t know.

What to do.

With abundance.

So we restrict it.

Box it.

Market it.

Find another restricted commodity (money) in exchange for it.

To create struggle.

As exercise.

Ha.

Abundance means to have exactly what you need in the right place at the right time.

Whatever that is.

It doesn’t have to mean gluttony.

Because that comes from a place of the belief in scarcity.

You don’t have to stuff your face when you know that nourishment is always available to you in the exact amount.

What happens if we look away from food as the only source of nourishment?

Most of us seem to experience some form of mental or emotional malnourishment.

That’s when we compensate with food.

Causing malnourishment.