What's Real?

“Gabrielle, you need to eat some real food.” This was what Linda said to our youngest last night as she lay on the floor crying, “I don’t want chili and I don’t want yogurt either.” Yogurt is our go to offer should one of our children decide they’re hungry before bedtime.

To a visitor this scene might have prompted the question, “Real food? I didn’t notice the child gnawing on a piece of plastic fruit. What do you mean, ‘Real Food?’ I’m not a visitor though, and have long since begun compiling clues into the mystery of Linda’s claim for real food.

The very first clue came early on in our relationship while on a road trip from Utah to California to visit my family. It’s a thirteen-hour drive meaning we would eat along the way. Several times. The logical answer to food while road tripping is fast food - it’s cheap and, well, fast. And while I can comfortably eat fast food every day of my life, Linda prefers it only occasionally. In fact, I can eat the same identical fast food meal from the same fast food chain for weeks on end without skipping a beat, while for Linda, occasionally actually means not really very often at all. It was on this, our first road trip that I heard Linda’s plea for the first time, “I need some real food.” This was ground zero, the beginning, clue numero uno - “Real Food” is not fast food and cannot be found on the road. Especially from the comfort and convenience of the driver’s seat.

Years later it was my brother-in-law Dave who asked the question, “What is it with the ‘Real Food’ thing? What do you call this?” It was a legitimate question, posed between bites of a Krispy Kreme donut. Our two families were vacationing together in Florida which, frankly, begged the plea, “I need ‘Real’ anything.” We were on a whirlwind trip with a single week to cover Disneyland, The Epcot Center, Cape Canaveral, Sea World and Krispy Kreme Donuts for the third breakfast in a row. At this point even one of my daughters chimed in, whining, “Dad we need real food.” Clue #67 - Real Food is not donuts for breakfast, at least not more than once a week.

So last night, while Gabrielle lay on her back on the kitchen floor spinning circles and crying, “I want a granola bar, I want chips, but I don’t want yogurt,” clue #394 fell into place. Real Food is not chips and a granola bar for dinner.