Hunger

I’ve never known hunger. Not real hunger anyway. The kind of hunger that doesn’t know where the next meal is coming from. The hunger that feeds on itself until the bones show. I’m lucky that way. I’ve never had to worry where my next meal is coming from.

This type of hunger seems rare in America. We have government assistance for people who don’t have the money to buy food. No one should rightfully go hungry and yet they do. I like to complain about the things that go wrong in my life. One of the big issues I deal with being my proclivity to overeat. Lately I seem to let myself get very hungry before I eat. This has left me to wonder, how would I feel if I didn’t have food or the means to buy food? The hunger is often so strong I think it will consume me. But 30 minutes later I’m eating and then I’m full and the hunger is sated.

Tonight the man at the deli at Shop N Save asked me if I’m “the girl that writes that healthy article” after I ordered my muenster cheese. I don’t know his name, though I’ve read his nametag before and promised to remember. He is the one who always smiles when he sees me and says, “It’s good to see you” and “Have a blessed day”. He has every reason to be miserable(by my estimation). Customers are rude, impatient and crabby. But I’ve never heard him complain. I think about Angela, the beautiful African American woman who has worked behind the deli counter for years, her hair parted down the middle and wrapped into braids. I think of all the times she has smiled, told me about her grandbabies and brightened my life with her kindness. I frequently see her waiting on the bench in front of the store waiting for a ride home. She doesn’t have a car. She never complains. There are countless others who wait on me, people I love that work at that store. I go there practically every day to pick up something or other. Not all of them smile. I believe some if not most have their share of suffering. And while they may not be hungry for food, I know they hunger for more…more money, more security, more hope. I suppose it is the human condition to hunger in some fashion or another.

We all want more. What we have is never enough. And certainly my life has taken its share of twists and turns and I am currently not where I want to be. But today I realized I really don’t have any problems at all. I have a house, heat, healthy children and a good job. And, I have food to eat. All the food I could ever want. I don’t know what it is to be in want, much less need. Certainly my life isn’t perfect but compared to some, I am extremely wealthy. God forgive me for complaining.