DINING IN

I enjoy eating out when I have the chance. Although since I am a diabetic and try to watch what I eat that means I’m normally limit in my options to things like salads. Still I do enjoy the times we can go somewhere and sit down and savor the atmosphere and other joys associated with such experiences.

However eating at home has its advantages too. For me the first one is that I don’t have to worry about how I am dressed. The second is that I don’t have to be at the mercy of the waitress or spend a long time waiting to be served my meal.

Those perhaps are trivial issues, but they represent a contrast in many ways in terms of eating choices. Which might seem like a strange top for a blog devoted to spiritual reflections, but that is mainly intended as a lead in to the more soul associated application.

One thing though while on the subject of eating out that gets me is the obvious prejudice my wife and I experience. First is in terms of things like seating. Being more mature and not particularly noteworthy in terms of our appearance so often we ended up being seated way off in some out of the way location even if better seating is available. I guess the waitress assumes that not being among the beautiful set presumes we aren’t smart enough to notice the overt act of bias they practice!

In any event the second annoyance is in the area of when we order things like our drinks. Being a diabetic I stick to diet coke or ice tea as my choice of refreshment. My wife, although being full figured, doesn’t have to use diet products except by choice. Yet if I order a diet coke and she orders a regular drink the server will most of the time try to force the diet coke on her since only being of average weight I don’t appear to need the diet coke. It gets taxing on the senses to constantly cope with such prejudices, but it certainly has taught me a lot about the depth of prejudice there is in that regard.

As to any spiritual application, well for me the thing is God’s word is the bread of life. And we can feast upon it in some house of worship, which might be like eating out. There too we can be forced to deal with temperamental servers who want to decide what to serve us (their biblical interpretations) and even poor service (the I love you to death, but in reality couldn’t care if you live or die types of individuals) when we go to have a spiritual meal.

There are times though when it is good to dine in at home upon God’s word and reflections upon the faith. Without the trappings of distraction sometimes the meal really does taste great and can be so filling.

Of course it means we don’t get a chance to get served. Or in terms of biblical elements that can mean not letting someone else do our thinking for us. Sometimes that is more refreshing than others. And that isn’t meant as a criticism of attending a house of worship. But just as with regular meals we have to allow ourselves the spiritual nutrition to take place regularly and not just on Sundays. Hopefully that becomes a habit we all enjoy.