i should be reading for history or studying hebrew vocab, but instead i'm blogging. bad raquel. so we had dinner as a group tonight. our friend cooked and invited lots of people to come over and eat and take a break from midterm studying. dinner was fantastic, dessert was amazing, and we had a blast, just all sitting around and eating and talking and laughing. and since it was dinner the talk turned to food. but not any food, our campus dining hall food. now, i want to start by saying that our dining hall does a lot that is wonderful. if we have events we can use the silverware, glasses and plates- they even get them ready for us and wash them after the event; the produce is always amazing, our salad bar is always stocked with fresh fruits and veggies year round; they have coke products for which i (a diet coke addict) am forever grateful; they have fruit we can take with us; they do so many things well. but sometimes, it goes horribly wrong. and we have bad food, or just ok food, or hot pockets. yes. sometimes they put out hot pockets. and it's fine, you just make a salad or a sandwich that day, but still. so anyway tonight we were talking about our dining hall. most of the people at dinner eat there on a daily basis and so there were some complaints. and one person was apparently not happy with our complaining and started saying very loudly 'well at least you have food', and 'at least you can pay for the food', and 'there are starving people out there'. sigh. now, all of these things are correct, so what's my problem? well, some days the food is terrible. some days we all eat sandwiches because the other option is just gross. i am a firm believer that just because someone else has it worse than you, doesn't mean you have to accept something that's bad. when i was a counselor i would hear it time after time, because the client had a friend who had been beat up much worse, she felt like she shouldn't complain. this is not true! it is ok to have standards, it is possible to have standards as well as empathy for those people who don't have as much as you do. their lives are challenging in different ways than our lives, doesn't mean we need to take an oath of poverty and go live off the land. it might mean that for some people, but it probably doesn't for everyone. it's also possible to help those who are less fortunate than yourself and enjoy the things you are gifted with.
ok. rant over. back to studying! also, if you haven't you should watch the jim gaffigan (sp?) piece on 'hot pockets'. if you go to youtube and search for 'hot pockets' its usually one of the first results :O)
