AISC WELLNESS MATTERS: Seema, Our Confessor April 3

Recently, I was in a car ride home from school with 3 other AISC friends. I don’t know how or why, but we got on the topic of food from the iHUB and our consequent relationships with Seema. It was amazing how similar our stories were! Seema sees it all. One mostly-veg friend did say that she notices if my friend buys meat, but what with the categories of ‘everyday choice’ and ‘lifestyle choice’, etc. it’s easy to assign a lot more meaning to Seema’s looks than what is really there. The thing is, Seema doesn’t judge...at least not negatively. A couple of weeks ago I had a ‘bad day’ and went down there to buy a bag of Kettle Chips, which I am sure are fried twice. I boldly told her that I was having a bad day and that I might come back later for ice cream. This false bravado, was, of course, a cover for feeling guilty, and so I spilled my guts. She just nodded and looked wise. But let’s be clear: my neurotic guilt is not Seema’s fault. I have heard her say, “once in a while is OK,” several times - when it obviously was more than once-in-a-while. In fact, if anything, she might enable us a teensy tiny bit on very rare occasions, when she can tell we’re having a particularly tough day: "Are you sure you don’t want a cookie with that?" What was funny to us was the level of projection that we put on Seema just because of our complicated relationships with food. So Seema, I want you to know that if we act strangely or seem guilty around you, it most likely has nothing to do with you - it’s just us being us. Thanks for understanding and for just being there.

And speaking of feeding ourselves, a friend of mine share this YouTube channel with me, dedicated to "Peaceful Cuisine." Take a look at some of Takashima's videos if you relate to the comforts of (as in my friend's case) the ambient sound of coffee pouring, the thunk of the knife chopping vegetables, lids banging, or the simmering sound of things cooking on the stove.