A Steak Dinner

I loved the movie The Matrix growing up. I haven’t watched it in probably decades, but there’s this scene in the movie where the agents take Cypher out to dinner. He starts waxing poetic on reality and how his senses perceive a steak he is eating. Do you remember the scene? 

I feel like I often have a similar but different experience when I go to an upscale restaurant. I often perceive the meal I’m eating as extremely pleasurable. Not just the food but the whole experience of where I am. The atmosphere of the restaurant, the person or people I’m with, the rarity of that kind of thing for me. I think of how unreal or unlikely it is that I am there in that moment, enjoying myself so much. ‘

I’ll appreciate all of it for what it is.

Then, I’ll acknowledge that it’s all a little absurd. This is because the best food, relative to how I experience it, that I’ve ever eaten in my entire life has been food that I’ve eaten when I’ve needed it the most. It’s been the food that I’ve eaten when I’ve been the hungriest when I’ve been in the worst situations in life. 

In such situations, I’ll briefly wonder which food is better- the johnny sack with an extra PB and J that gets slid through the bean shoot on the sixth week of lockdown or the steak dinner. 

The answer is neither. Experiencing both in the same lifetime tops it all.