Hook, line, BREAD AND MILK…

If the title sounds like nonsense, then you don’t live in central North Carolina. S-N-O-W is a four letter word, usually spat out with a howl of, “Oh, no, oh no, oh no!” Don’t know how to drive in it!! There’s no salting or plowing!! And, FOREMOST, the fear that we’ll STARVE because of the above conditions. (STARVE, I say!)

This collective cultural fear leads folks to absolutely vacuum store shelves clean of milk, bread, and piles of food, usually the day prior to a predicted snowfall. Stampede behavior, born of, well, terror. Stampede behavior with no regard for the food needs of other humans, nothing beyond our own personal capacity to not STARVE due to possible snow conditions (usually minimal.)

So this is, Jan, fessing up. I wasn’t paying attention to the weather forecast. Much too late on a Thursday evening, I realized the severe weather watch for a snowstorm would begin the next day at 6 PM. (I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!) I could feel the small thread of panic that I hadn’t stocked up on food. Eek! Would there be food left on Friday morning?  To appease my enculturated anxiety (I’ve lived here for 26 years), I woke up early, decided to pass on my daily meditation (not a healthy choice) and was waiting, with bated breath, at my co-op’s door by 7:55 AM for their 8 AM opening. (Would food still be available?)

Scooted into the newly opened store, got a cart, and like a bloodhound on the trail, began my rapacious hunt for all I would need. It was only when I found myself tossing 5 cans of tuna into the cart (from an already sorely diminished shelf) that I took a breath. Oh, and grabbing the last bottle of my favorite non-dairy milk from the freezer shelf. (Wait, don’t I have a completely full bottle at home?)

And, then, whomp, it hit me!

I’d transformed into a culturally primed, grimacing, lunatic loading up on food, irrespective of the needs of others.  Culturally primed to survive SNOW, at all costs (even the 1” we received) and NOT give a damn about anyone else’s food needs.

Eek. What’s a self respecting Quaker, who cares about humanity, to do when her mirror reflects an image of a snow-fearing lunatic, culturally driven to disregard anyone else’s food needs? Well, damn, I don’t know.

Guess I’ll start with gratitude for having discerned the cultural fugue of which I’ve become a part (I’ll starve, I’ll starve!) Maybe make humorous comments to other store customers during the next storm watch, allowing me to see them as humans, not as opponents with whom I’m competing for food. Judging by the absolutely unpredictable weather in North Carolina, I’ll have plenty of opportunities to experiment…😉