Thursday, February 28, 2008

Every couple of weeks, I share an evening meal in silence with a friend. We eat while listening to soothing music, an audio book, or like last evening, we simply eat in silence. It's a good way to experience a friendship in an alternative way.

It's also good for noticing things anew. Not just how food looks, feels, smells and tastes, but to notice the act of eating itself.

David Byrne said in his movie "True Stories" that he likes to forget things so that he can notice them again. Notice the whiteness of paper, how a doorknob feels in the hand. I like that. And last night I noticed again that I eat.

Then I went home, enjoyed another fire in the fireplace and some reading. I noticed those things, too.

1 comment:

Eric said...

I really like having music when I eat because once when I was eating with a few friends, one of them got up and went to the bathroom and everyone started talking about all the slurping and chewing and jaw-bone-popping noises, and so we turned on music. Well, after that, I've noticed just how noisy eating is, and so it's probably a bit like being pee-shy now. Whenever there's no background noise I get so absorbed in trying to eat quietly I probably make even more noise than usual.

:)

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