I have always tried to keep up a good appearance, I have tried to keep up with trends and styles, updating my clothes so that I don't end up wearing my pants up to my armpits to cover up my mustard stained shirt. Food has always been my nemesis, my shirt and pants threatened by spilled coffee or a squirt of mayo from a sort of sandwich.
Knowing that food will stain and destroy my clothes I have often ordered a hamburger with no condiments, to avoid the inevitable drip onto my clothes. Coffee still presents a problem as I usually have one while driving, and any bump or swerve can leak some of it over the edge.
I have become a messy eater, and the spot around my plate makes me wonder why I bother to use a plate at all, I eat like I am a half starved animal, quickly and without worry about having potato smeared across my cheek.
I used to watch my parents eat, and now any senior citizen that eats a meal with me looks like they have the same problem, food that has built up on the side of their mouths or has leaked on their chin and they continue eating like pigs at a trough. It has always disgusted me watching them, yet I have noticed that I am starting to eat like this as well.
I hold a napkin or paper towel in one hand, constantly wiping at any foreign object that I can feel on my face during a meal. This is what it has come down to, I do not want to become oblivious to the fact that I am turning into a neanderthal human with only a primal instinct of eating to sustain life.
I don't want other younger generations to watch me as I descend further into my slob like status and be disgusted by the way I spray food everywhere when we sit down for a meal. I don't want to become what I have feared becoming and yet, it is upon me. I need to slow down and take controlled bites, it seems so easy, yet I don't even realize that I am doing it until the food is gone from my plate and I look like a zombie that ate it's first human.
The first step, is recognizing the problem, the second step, is doing something about it.
Scott Goerz
