Whoever came up with the all-you-can-eat buffet is a genius. They managed to tap into a deep part of the human psyche where we allow ourselves to live a myth that we’re getting over, even though it’s very much the opposite. We go knowing that the business model must be the case such that most people eat less than the value of the entry cost, but one of those people won’t be us. We each think that we have some sort of strategy – only eating the crab, leaving out the carbs, sitting around long enough to digest for seconds. I used to love going to Hometown Buffet. It was a day-long event of fasting throughout the morning, showing up famished, and then proceeding to gorge like never before. What suckers me into buffets is the sheer variety. I stack my plates like a Noah’s arc of delicacies. Suddenly, in my mind I can totally eat two slices of pizza, six California rolls, a pork chop, two biscuits, and a salad. No mind that in any other sane circumstance, each of those would be a proper centerpiece for a meal of its own. At buffets, eating becomes less of a form of sustenance, and more like a grab-all.
I’m writing this right now in my room, between waking and slumber states. I woke up at 4am, severely jetlagged from landing back from Australia not long ago. I enjoyed every moment of my trip, and at the same time am now running on fumes. The idea of traveling again in two weeks exhausts me even when thinking of it, yet at the same time I’m so excited for the trips ahead. Such are the moments when people feel compelled to say “so little time,” but really I think I do have the time, just perhaps less energy than I’d hope. Maybe I’m sprinting when I should be power-walking. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been treating life like an all-you-can-eat buffet, filling myself to the brim with so many experiences that I hardly have a chance to digest. To masticate every moment rather than piling it all in. How to slow it all down without giving things up? Maybe it’s a practice in relinquishing urgency. Perhaps that’s the real lesson to be learned from a buffet – it’s okay to sit out on a few courses…they’ll always keep refilling it.