Living to Eat, Eating to Live

"SOCRATES: Do you think that when people do something, they want the thing they're doing at the time, or the thing for the sake of which they do what they're doing? Do you think that people who take medicines prescribed by their doctors, for instance, want what they're doing, the act of taking the medicine, with all its discomfort, or do they want to be healthy, the thing for the sake of which they're taking it?" (Plato, Gorgias, 467c)

I'd like to take this post to talk about some of my own ideas about slow-food and the fast-life.

Socrates famously said that he did not live to eat, but ate to live, and it's worth thinking about what he meant. The ancient philosopher divided the world into two main categories of entities with a wide continuum between: things that are means (becoming), and things that are ends (being). In some sense this is also a discussion about necessities and luxuries. Necessities are things we do because we have to, luxuries are things we do because we want to. Ideally, of course, we would always live in luxury; practically speaking, this just isn't possible.

"...A man who lives like that won't be able to escape the fate he deserves; and the fate of an idle fattened beast that takes life easy is usually to be torn to pieces by some other animal--one of the skinny kind, who've been emaciated by a life of daring and endurance... So we must insist that there is something left to do in a life of leisure, and it's only fair that the task imposed, far from being a light or trivial one, should be the most demanding of all." (Plato, Laws 7.807a+)

How does this all relate to "slow food?" Well, according to Socrates, and I would agree, food is not an end in-itself but merely a means to happiness. Food does provide its own pleasure, but if we only eat it for the immediate satisfaction it provides, we're really missing the point of what the slow-food lifestyle (and perhaps life in general) is all about. Eating the best tasting foods is one of the reasons people in the West are in such bad health, and there are more important things in life that we can get from food than just a happy belly.

So are we wasting our energy spending so much time creating well-loved meals? Hardly! I think this is exactly what Socrates would want us to do, to transform eating from an excuse for simple pleasure into an activity that gives meaning and purpose to the rest of our lives. The food itself is not the goal, but is a way to bring family and friends closer together, a way to appreciate life in general.

The fast life is a necessity, it is the condition of our existence and not something that we desire for itself. It's something that we do because of what it brings us, but where we get the real meaning in our lives is through the interactions with those around us. We struggle through the day so that we can come home and relax, so that we can stop working for a little while and just enjoy our lives. Unfortunately the realities of everyday life, the fact that we must live in an imperfect world, will always force us back into the fray, into the fast-life. And while we're there we must commit ourselves to it and treat it with our full attention, because that is the nature of responsibility. But we can't lose sight of what it's all really for: a quality life with friends and family, going slowly to enjoy every moment.

If we transform eating from just a necessary experience, the simple shoving of calories down our throats, into a worthwhile kind of lifestyle, then I think we can satisfy both Socrates and the gourmand in all of us. Cooking and food preparation becomes not about the food, but about family, friends and meaningful relationships. Slow food is a kind of purgative for the fast life; a cure that helps to remind us of what's really important. We work quickly because we must, but we prepare food slowly because we can.