“Your characters are always eating,” a reader once remarked.
It’s true. And ever since this comment I’ve wondered if I subconsciously feed my characters whatever I’m craving at the moment.
My characters do engage in a lot of chopping, tasting, and mug cradling: Bright tart lemonade and homemade cakes in Mother of My Son. Bacon right off the bat in chapter one in The Ground Beneath Us as well as continuous cups of coffee (I was a caffeine addict at the time). Fragrant spoonfuls of Ghormeh Sabzi and velvety dollops of clotted cream – but not at the same time – in The Girl on the Tube. Surprisingly complex Chicago style hotdogs in The Girl and the Green Hat.
Good stories are shown, rather than told. Emotions, senses, and memories are sparked when we’re in the story. What connects our senses more than food? Taste and smell are especially potent at triggering emotional response. A whiff of chlorine and I’m right back at swimming lessons, dreading my turn at the diving board. A crinkly, buttery oatmeal cookie links me instantly to Mom’s kitchen. A forest floor of soft, earthy scented pine needles ushers me to a campsite in northern Wisconsin.
Recently I read Disentangled by Jo Johnson. In it she explains how our bodies are either in sensory mode or thinking mode. Switching into the sensing gear, where we pause to take in the sights, sounds, smells, feels, tastes, of right now means that our minds can’t worry. At least not in the moment. My blessedly limited mind can’t focus on the trill of a bird and mentally draft that email at the same time. ‘Come to your senses.’ Excellent advice.
There’s a reason we were created with receptors and memory, minds that can zoom ahead and rifle backward. We are not computers, we are divine, created to enjoy anticipating a British Sunday roast dinner or an American Thanksgiving, almost as much as we enjoy feasting. We create a memory for future enjoyment, without even trying. Sure we require food to stay alive but intake is meant to be so much more than survival.
Engaging our senses with food can be relational and thankful and enjoyable. Experiencing life through our senses isn’t a new thing. The Bible is full of sensory moments and connections:
Offer a burnt offering as a soothing aroma to the Lord, God’s people were told in the Old Testament.
Taste and see that the Lord is good says the Psalmist.
He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes,is how Jesus healed a blind man.
And before he died, before he gave himself as the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, evidenced by his rising again, Jesus said,
This is my body, take it and eat.
One more. From Paul to the Corinthians: whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
On that note, a second cup of Earl Grey (with milk and honey) is beckoning. Yep, after nearly eight years in UK, I’ve made the switch. Nope, can’t hardly believe it. But that’s what can happen when you try something new, when you taste and see. You might end up reordering your whole life.
Rachel x
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