Why do vegetables look so appealing when they are in the shop, and so dull once they are in my fridge? I get so excited by the sight and smells, and buy everything I see - basil, and baby spinach leaves, roquette and radishes, and dill and parsley and lettuce, and... stop me, somebody. Because I know only too well how it ends. It ends when I remove the lower drawer of the fridge, and tip the entire contents of it into the bin, and carry the bag out quickly, because if not, it'll leak. Why?
I guess it's because I grew up with vegetables being an afterthought. If at all. Proteins were a rare treat. We ate bread, and potatoes, and fish cans. You ate to feel full, not to be healthy. Health was an afterthought, too. Salads didn't exist for me when I was little. One of my aunts never sat down to diner without a plate of veg, and we looked at it as if it was some curiosity. She ate celery sticks, could you imagine? I remember staring at her open-mouthed. My mom lived her whole life (and still does!) on bread with jam. That's basically it. So the habit, written on the level of genes, of hundreds of generations of starved shtetl Jews, says, carbs first. Bread. And some more bread. Leaves are not filling. How many years will it take for me to re-program this? Because leaves are actually the most filling thing there is, nourishing body and soul, and giving me strength. When I manage to remember them.
It's a daily "doing teshuva". Daily reminder. Daily effort. We live in a different place and time. We don't get stuffed on potatoes, washing them down with tea, to keep warm. We are in the blessed Land, flowing with olive oil, date honey and pomegranate juice. I'm off... to invent another salad dressing, made of those ingredients. No more tipping the drawer in the bin. Celebrating the gifts of health that God gave us in every supermarket. Remind me I said this. ;)
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