Remembering What It's All About
I wouldn't name either of these films in my top five, but I love watching Julie and Julia and Ratatouille so much. Problem is, I've often watched them -- or more appropriately, started to watch them -- and then paused the DVD so I could get up and make something to eat. Chips and salsa won't do, no; I have to make it. To create something, even if it's oil and popcorn kernels in a pot on the stove and shaking the heck out of it.
(Maybe the impulse is really a deep-seated desire to dirty some dishes. I feel out of place in an entirely clean environment, because I'm afraid of messing it up. Might as well mess it up deliberately and be comfortable again. The minute I put the last clean and rinsed item in the dish drainer, I pour myself a bowl of cereal or make chocolate milk. Yes, I'm weird.)
And there's the impulse to consume something, too. I have a complicated relationship with food, as I've been overweight for thirty years and obese for twenty-five. I can feel fulfilled with my life without consuming alcohol or tobacco or even caffeine. I don't have sex, which a lot of people see as a need, but it's not like breathing. No orgasms? Guess what? I'm still alive. It's a want. But if you don't consume food, you die. You can't go cold turkey on food the way you can just quit smoking, no matter how difficult quitting smoking is. You have to modify what you eat and/or change how you eat it.
Food has become an incredibly complicated thing, especially in the last sixty years. Fast food, sodas, mixes, and frozen items (and entire entrees) are just some of the things that have become the new norm. For years, I lived on fries, various versions of cheeseburgers, sweets, and fried seafood. Easy to get, not too expensive, and easy to clean up. Obviously, my body eventually rebelled against this treatment, and I frequently feel sick as a result. So taking care of my body, both in exercising it and in how I feed it, has become an act of loving myself. I don't always love myself, so I have weeks of relative inactivity and the occasional serving of fried food. That probably won't change, but I consider my habits to be healthier than they were ten years ago because of what I do now, even though my body has deteriorated because of almost forty years of treating it badly has caught up with me.
I saw this video last week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX7kwfE3cJQ
TL;DR: We allow corporations to cook a lot of our food instead of making it ourselves, and while some processing is okay -- canning vegetables and milling flour, for example -- some processing is less healthful. So cooking my own food is more time consuming than letting someone else prepare it, but I have more control over what goes into my body as a result.
In an interview for Julie and Julia, Meryl Streep said, "[Julia Child] gave us the idea that delivering this beautiful food to your family, to your guests, was an act of love."
Thomas Keller, who owns the French Laundry and is one of America's finest chefs (as well as a contributor to Ratatouille) said, "Anybody can cook, it's just that you have to have the desire, the determination, to make something that you're going to feel proud to give to somebody. Have that emotional connection with somebody. I think you have to be emotionally attached to what you're doing, and certainly with food. It's very easy, because it's something that nurtures."
In a way, cooking for myself is an act of self love. And when I make one of my mother's favorite recipes for her, I take care of her, too.
(Maybe the impulse is really a deep-seated desire to dirty some dishes. I feel out of place in an entirely clean environment, because I'm afraid of messing it up. Might as well mess it up deliberately and be comfortable again. The minute I put the last clean and rinsed item in the dish drainer, I pour myself a bowl of cereal or make chocolate milk. Yes, I'm weird.)
And there's the impulse to consume something, too. I have a complicated relationship with food, as I've been overweight for thirty years and obese for twenty-five. I can feel fulfilled with my life without consuming alcohol or tobacco or even caffeine. I don't have sex, which a lot of people see as a need, but it's not like breathing. No orgasms? Guess what? I'm still alive. It's a want. But if you don't consume food, you die. You can't go cold turkey on food the way you can just quit smoking, no matter how difficult quitting smoking is. You have to modify what you eat and/or change how you eat it.
Food has become an incredibly complicated thing, especially in the last sixty years. Fast food, sodas, mixes, and frozen items (and entire entrees) are just some of the things that have become the new norm. For years, I lived on fries, various versions of cheeseburgers, sweets, and fried seafood. Easy to get, not too expensive, and easy to clean up. Obviously, my body eventually rebelled against this treatment, and I frequently feel sick as a result. So taking care of my body, both in exercising it and in how I feed it, has become an act of loving myself. I don't always love myself, so I have weeks of relative inactivity and the occasional serving of fried food. That probably won't change, but I consider my habits to be healthier than they were ten years ago because of what I do now, even though my body has deteriorated because of almost forty years of treating it badly has caught up with me.
I saw this video last week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX7kwfE3cJQ
TL;DR: We allow corporations to cook a lot of our food instead of making it ourselves, and while some processing is okay -- canning vegetables and milling flour, for example -- some processing is less healthful. So cooking my own food is more time consuming than letting someone else prepare it, but I have more control over what goes into my body as a result.
In an interview for Julie and Julia, Meryl Streep said, "[Julia Child] gave us the idea that delivering this beautiful food to your family, to your guests, was an act of love."
Thomas Keller, who owns the French Laundry and is one of America's finest chefs (as well as a contributor to Ratatouille) said, "Anybody can cook, it's just that you have to have the desire, the determination, to make something that you're going to feel proud to give to somebody. Have that emotional connection with somebody. I think you have to be emotionally attached to what you're doing, and certainly with food. It's very easy, because it's something that nurtures."
In a way, cooking for myself is an act of self love. And when I make one of my mother's favorite recipes for her, I take care of her, too.
This sounds very familiar to me too.
ReplyDeleteMy preference for eating at leisure and emotional turmoil is Ice Cream.
I'm not picky... while I like the fancy brand name ice cream, I am VERY satisfied with your run of the mill "cheap" ice cream, which actually comes in TRUE one or half gallon tubs.
My actual preference are those squarish tubs of ice cream I get at a super Wal-Mart. :)