Therapy

American grocery stores soothe and inspire me.

Through the years, walking up and down grocery store aisles has been a somewhat useful coping mechanism for dealing with my scattered brain. I love the organization in them. Speaking slowly and filtering out useless (and sometimes useFUL) information helps, but when life seems illogical and disconnected, nothing beats a nice walk at the Fresh Grocer.

Grocery shopping to me feels like the only time in my life when I have control. Therefore I must visit one whenever I have lost it. There are probably a million products in there, it has the potential to be a total wreck…. yet you always know where to find that very particular thing you are looking for, whether its Gummy LifeSavers or imported gorgonzola cheese.

The grocery store is a microcosm of life. You have many choices…. I love how the canned foods section is shelved. Canned soups, canned meats and fish, canned beans, vegetarian-canned beans. Amongst that you have everything from the expensive gourmet crabmeat to the generic chicken soup, low-sodium to high-protein. I’m not saying I’m an advocate of mass production and monotony ….. I totally feel Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans but I think that sometimes it is nice to have the extreme organization of a grocery to depend on.

And just like in life, you can go in with a list (that can help you stick to a practical budget) or you can walk around aimlessly (overspend maybe? and find something that you really like but never heard of) but in the end you have to pay for your choices.