Sunday, December 11, 2011

Fear of the Inconvenient

This will be a sci-fi horror movie, with a Twilight Zone twist.
Imagine a world where there are no fast food chains. Driving home at the end of the day, there are small markets, advertising fresh fruit, vegetables, meats, grains are in big barrels to scoop yourself. Imagine this would be where your meals came from. No McDonald's. No Chili's. No drive-thru's. No conveniences at all. It's all up to you.
To the person that doesn't know how to cook, this is a horror story.
Turn on the stove. Boil a kettle of water and make some tea. Preheat the oven. Wash some potatoes. Set the meat out on the counter. Pull some plates down and set the table. It's dinner. So they say. So you've heard.
At first the streets look desolate without the familiar signs of food, ready-to-eat, there for you food, food, food. As you look closer, there are people that are happily shopping and looking at what they're buying; they're interested in what they're buying. And they seem alien to you because they look happy. Actually, happy to go home and cook what they've bought. Actually cook what they've bought.
Something so simple. Seemingly so outdated. But isn't that just entertainment? Cooking is just something to watch, without the use of our senses. Food is something you get fast, when you're hungry.
I can see the horror of the person's face in the old black and white t.v. show. Horror and questioning. But life is beautiful with fast food. Why would anyone want it any other way? Just drive up and there's food. You're hungry? Well, eat in your car, that's what its there for!
Why are these people so happy, when they have to go home and cook?
Cooking is such an inconvenient chore.
As they enter their home and into their kitchen, something beautiful happens. All of a sudden the viewer experiences what happens when you cook: you smell, you feel, you experience, you anticipate. And its beautiful. All the senses experiencing food, and then eating it. You see their faces - smiling, nostrils flaring and eyes closing at their first bites. Smiles. Suddenly, the viewers want some - they want to take part; They want to experience real food. Because they get why. Convenience is costing them true pleasures of being human beings. And the twist: they are the aliens as the viewer finds out.
Have no fear...It was just a trip.

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