EATING THE MENU

Many US Americans' lifestyles illustrate what i call 'Eating

the Menu'. Imagine going into a restaurant, sitting down

at a table, and reading a menu of all sorts of mouthwatering

pictures of food. But when you've made your pick, instead

of ordering the food you start EATING THE MENU ITSELF,

especially the pictures of the dishes you are most hungry

for. Mmmm, colorful pictures depicting delectable enticing

meals---and when you're done your stomach feels full, but

somehow you don't feel well-fed.



Why is that? You've done what you're supposed to---gone

to the appropriate place to engage in a normal and funda-

mental activity.....and somehow it doesn't work. But only

you are aware of that. Everyone else is eating the menu

happily; they seem to be enjoying themselves. But deep

within, you are aware of a vague feeling of dissatisfaction.



That feeling of dissatisfaction must indicate that something

is wrong with you, however, because the people around

you don't seem to be having a problem. Everything appears

normal with them and they are going about the business of

going about their business. Only you seem to be disturbed.

So what do you do? If you're like many people you quash

that vague, half-conscious feeling and proceed to go about

your own business. But the feeling doesn't go away, it just

lies in the back of your mind and makes you feel ever

so slightly......hungry.



Many people will insist that nothing is wrong with their

eating habits. Unpleasant realities can be kept at bay in-

definitely by means of the thousands of distractions that

our consumer society provides us, but for some life's

distractions are like eating fast food: the more you eat the

cheesier it gets and the cheesier you feel. But if all you

ever eat is fast food, you probably don't know the differ-

ence.



At the risk of sounding trite, let me compare life to a

banquet. [Qualifier : Only if you have enough to eat and

are not being shot at.] As small as this planet has turned

out to be, it is not just plain fare. To the contrary there

are more wonderful things about it than we could pos-

sibly know or experience in one lifetime. But many of

us are not privy to all the many facets of life simple be-

cause we are not aware of them.



Before we can know, we have to be able to see. Looking

is not seeing; seeing in the sense i'm speaking of in-

volves the ability to focus and concentrate on an object

or idea without judgment or undue mental static. Thus

in order to really see things, one must be able to exper-

ience them directly, beyond the filter of social program-

ming. When we see, we are no longer eating the menu,

we are enjoying our food. (Or not. When we actually

experience what we eat, we might decide that we don't

like it after all, in spite of the fact that everyone else

seems to be enjoying it.)