Comfort Food – blog

I don’t know if we will fully understand the cost we paid for Covid for many years. Not the cost in lives, or the cost in the economy, or even the cost in our children’s welfare but in the general welfare of the society as a whole. 

We paid a price that there was no other option than to pay. 

There was no choice. 

But it was a high price. 

We are just now trying to come to terms with what we all went through and are trying to remember what life was like before. 

It’s clear we still don’t quite know how to interact with one another, and work together as a cohesive society again. Add in the political and social strife we went through and it’s going to take us all some time to get back to any semblance of what we believe normal to be. 

In getting back to that normal we have retreated to the familiar, the known, and the comfortable. 

As a nation we are all in our emotional sweat pants and are just doing the best we can. 

And that’s understandable. 

It will take time to process things and get back to our routines but it’s about time to put some pants on and to put down the pizza because it’s about time we got back to living. 

We have been dining on comfort food long enough. 

It’s time to get back to it. 

The ‘it’ here isn’t some People Need To Work nonsense like we have heard. I am not going to tell someone to take a job they don’t want. I admit that I am surprised at how much of the workforce sorta disappeared but in saying that, I think we’re seeing that people want to be paid better. The cost of living isn’t going down so people need to make more money. It’s just a fact. The people that get in their feelings about it are either inconvenienced or frustrated that they can’t fill their staff. 

The world changed. 

It’s time to change with it. 

This means that some places won’t survive, and that’s awful, but it means too that some executives need to take on the burden and lessen their pay. 

This isn’t about work though. 

It’s about US. 

It’s about society and how we return to the world. 

It’s about letting our lives be sequelized and  remade and about living too much in the past. 

I love sequels and remakes. 

A lot of both, if I am honest. 

And I like those tribute acts since we can’t see the originals. 

The thing is though that we’re subsisting WHOLLY on this stuff. 

We aren’t challenging ourselves. 

We aren’t stretching ourselves. 

We aren’t eating anything but that comfort food that makes us feel safe and warm. 

There’s a place for comfort food but to have it for every meal isn’t healthy. 

Take a look at the television and it’s littered with nostalgic reboots of popular old shows. 

Look at the theaters and it’s sequels, entries from franchises, or reboots/remakes of beloved movies of old. 

Or you can look at the music venues and sure, there are some current acts touring, a LOT of them after the long layoff to be honest, but with them are twice as many tribute acts that are playing old favorites from musicians or bands that are either no longer with us or who are not touring any longer. 

All of this stuff is great but…we can’t live on it. 

We are dumbing down the arts so that anything new is pushed back because it’s unfamiliar or expensive and we just don’t want the expense. 

And again, there’s nothing wrong with the past. 

We all revisit it and much of art is timeless, but the thing is that there is nothing living in the past. 

We can’t nourish ourselves only from that stream. 

We need to live in the present and keep an eye on the future as learn about this new world of ours. 

We mock the idea of how many people picked up new skills and trades and hobbies (and habits) but for many of us this was an opportunity for a new beginning. 

We need to embrace that. 

Even if we don’t think we learned anything new, we did. 

We learned we can survive. 

We learned we can cope. 

Now we need to learn that we don’t need to rely on the past alone to bring us joy but can look at what there is no and what there is to come. 

Listen to those oldies (I know I do) but be open to new music. 

See those sequels and remakes but give new things a try so you can find your new favorite. 

And challenge yourself to step outside of your comfort level, just a little, so you can feel that electrical jolt of surprise when you find something new that you love. 

Covid is here to stay. 

It’s just a fact. 

Saying that though, we have already shown that it doesn’t get to decide on our happiness or on what makes us happy. Even living a mindful and careful life we can still have adventures and excitement and can still discover things about ourselves we never realized before. 

There will always be a time for comfort food, and for the things that make us feel safe, but it has to be measured against the need for the new, and for the nourishment we get from stretching ourselves out beyond our comfort level. 

The world didn’t go away, we did, and now it’s time to let the world know, to let ourselves know that we’re back, and we’re ready. 

Even if we’re not. 

…c…