Three days ago, I came down with strep throat (cultures pending). Today, I turned the corner and am finally beginning to improve. I can swallow my own saliva again (yay!) and even though my nose is running like a faucet and I still have a spiky temperature, I feel better than I have all week.
Having been unable to eat anything but chicken broth and popsicles for 3 days, I was delighted to awaken this morning with the knowledge that I'd finally be able to eat real food again (ie. I could swallow and it didn't feel like razor blades were going down my oropharynx). I also had just enough energy to get to the grocery store and back in order to restock my empty pantry.
Well, even though I made a list and checked it twice, I ended up engaging in some rather bizarre impulse buys. That's the trouble when you go shopping and still have a fever. The first craving had to do with potatoes. I bought regular red potatoes for roasting, baking potatoes for baking, mashed and scalloped potatoes in boxes, french fries, and potato chips. Can you say, "Holy carb craving, Batman"? You'd think I was pregnant. I'm not. Just sick.
But the crowning impulse buy was a cooked BBQ chicken. It cost $7.99 and even though I couldn't smell it's tantalizing aroma, I was sure it was exactly the perfect compliment to my main course of potatoes.
It wasn't until I got home and was halfway through eating one of the chicken legs that my illness-fogged brain started doing the math. Apparently, a chicken's life is worth only $7.99. Could I look a chicken in the eye and tell it that for 1 penny less than 8 bucks, I could kill and eat it? No, I don't think I could. $7.99 is too cheap - I can't even buy a paperback book for that price! Life, even chicken life, is more valuable than that for me.
But wait. It's worse. $7.99 also covers all the costs of raising a chicken from egg to adult. This includes food, shelter, and vet care. It also covers transportation from the chicken farm to the butcher. Plus the actual butchering and cleaning process and then, lastly, the seasoning and cooking of the chicken before me. And nowhere in there is any calculation for overhead at the grocery store or profit for the farmer.
It turns out that a chicken is really not worth very much at all. And that makes me pretty sad. Because I like chickens. Because I think that all lives are valuable and I don't like the idea that I'm willing to pay only $3 more for a chicken than I do for my potatoes. That doesn't say very much for the chicken.
So yes, I'm glad that I'm finally able to eat solid food again... but I'm pretty disappointed in my choices. It's time to get back on the wagon.
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