If Not This, Than What...

I get the sentiment behind this idiom, but I don't entirely agree with it.  I get the idea of looking for other things to be your goal items when you reach achievements like weight loss, good grades, birthdays or  promotions.  However, my roomie & me have talked about this & what happens when all you have to give for rewards is food?

For a lot of people, due to $ matters or traditions, food is a serious reward.  Special dinners & desserts for birthdays & accomplishments.   As a kid, one of the things I looked forward to most at Christmas was my Grandma's fudge.  She was an excellent cook & on special occasions she'd fix lemon pies, chocolate eclairs,  Boston cream pies or the above mentioned fudge.    These things meant good times at her house.  It meant all was well & that no one had screwed up lately.

Some families had Sunday dinners.  My grandparents would always take us out for that meal every week to whatever sit-down restaurant suited their mood.  This one meal set the beginning & the ending of the week.  It was the time we got to set & be civil with each other.  

My roomie & I used to have lots of things we'd use for rewards.  We'd pack up & go to Tulsa for the weekend on a whim.  We'd just drive for hours.  There tons of movies we went to & book stores perused.  Unfortunately, none of that is possible anymore.  I don't have the health just to up & go places like I used to. We have cats & no one we trust to come feed them.  But most of all, with both of us on disability, we just don't have the $ anymore.  With the price of gas being outrageous driving aimlessly is out of the question.  Even a matinee is a serious expense these days.

So, while I get the sentiment of not rewarding one's self with food, when everything else is out of reach, then what the hell else is left?  A self congratulatory pat on the back?  Wasn't that just satisfying?  Not! Accomplishments & milestones should be recognized & celebrated/remembered.    If the only thing you have for a reward is food, then by all means have it.  Maybe it should just be a slice of the chocolate cake & not the whole cake though.  

It's very easy for people in good places, who don't have need of much, to be judgmental of those less fortunate.  

Cya...