Full but running on empty

“There’s hundreds of movie channels and hundreds of movies but not a decent one I’d want to watch,” my husband grumbles as he gets ready to use the treadmill. (Of course, if he was OCD like his wife, there would be a queue of shows waiting on the DVR, but that’s a story for another day...)


His remark this morning echoed a conversation I had with a friend yesterday about the “empty diet” most people are trying to sustain themselves with in our modern world. In so many venues, we seem to have an endless amount of choices that leave us wanting...wanting more or wanting more substance?

The sight of so many people consuming food or drink constantly in public often takes me back. I am the oldest of eight children, and in our family, you didn’t snack unless it was a special occasion, and we just didn’t have soda around at all. I’m sure that it was mainly an economic practicality, can you imagine how many bottles of Coke eight kids would guzzle if they could? We had “treats” for very big entertainment events, like the yearly viewing of “Wizard of Oz” or “Sound of Music”...yes, that’s right, you just couldn’t rewind the VCR tape because they didn’t exist yet, so we had to wait until one of the three networks showed the film annually. You waited to talk until during the commercials, because, again, YOU JUST COULDN’T REWIND THE TAPE.

You had to pay attention. You had to be in the moment. You wouldn’t want to be, say, texting, because then you’d have to wait another year to see the Cowardly Lion chewing on his tail.

And our treat during this special event? One of those snack size bags of Fritos or Lays. My mother would hand them out (during a commercial) and then you’d try to make the salty snack last as long as possible...quietly, of course!

My children think the stories of LaManna rituals are very quaint, but they also look forward to many annual rituals, and at the holidays their favorite time is our Christmas Eve gathering at Uncle David’s and Aunt Jan’s home for the DiCaro food extravaganza. Our get-together is nourishing to me, too, and not just because my brother-in-law makes a lobster bisque to die for. The brightly wrapped packages we give and receive fade and blend together from year to year...what stays with me are the laughs and remembrances of Christmas past. There are loved ones we miss who we keep with us with repeated stories. My heart warms as a deep laughs come up from my belly as someone recounts the Christmas Eve our Basset Hound got into John’s glass of bourbon and we tried to hear the vet over the phone as the nieces cranked up their new karaoke machine.

Bruce Springsteen sings “Everybody has a hungry heart”...to me, our hungry hearts are our authentic selves, our souls yearning for real nourishment, real relationships, real experiences. Filling ourselves with the plethora of entertainment options—whether they are mindless electronic pastimes or the endless shopping opportunities—is about as satisfying as a super-size serving of fries chased down with a vat of Cocoa-Cola. I feel like making some New Year’s resolutions a little bit early...this season I’d like to hug my love ones a little bit longer, be more present in my conversations and listen to others more closely, read a good book that makes me think about new ideas, and look for every opportunity to laugh out loud. And well, yes, I am going to have a big bowl of that lobster bisque!