I've been making sandwiches. I've been working at a grocery store deli in town that gets a fair number of people looking for lunch. I'm not sure if it was the girl who always gets a wrap with just lettuce and mustard or the guy who wanted a buffalo tender sandwich with hot sauce and bleu cheese dressing or someone in between, but something today gave me a new theory.
It seems that medical news and updates lately say more and more that the importance of food outweighs medicine. Food can heal us. Eating things that aren't food can hurt us. (I think we learned this from Curious George and the Puzzle Piece many many years ago...)
It wasn't terribly long ago that a career in medicine was considered lowly. The same guy that cut your hair could chop your tonsils out for you. It makes me wonder if in a hundred years or so our current sandwich making could be the thing that makes the kids in history class guffaw.
What if the future of food service is therapeutic? What if the kind of cheese and amount of mayonnaise you want becomes secondary to the bedside (counterside?) manner that someone can offer? The consultation, the genuine care? The sandwich doctor takes a look at your complexion, assesses your mood and your general health and offers some suggestions. Let's prescribe you extra tomatoes for lycopene and Vitamin A, a little extra lettuce for digestion, roast beef for a little protein boost and horseradish for antioxidants, and a little mayonnaise because you need to have some enjoyment.
What is it that people are looking for when they stop to get a coffee and something to eat? Why didn't they make the economically wiser decision to buy groceries and a thermos?
Mostly, you need someone to recognize and validate you, seriously consider your needs and help you make decisions. You could probably make a good sandwich choice on your own. But then again, how many times has a doctor told you to drink a lot of fluids and get some rest?
What does the girl with the lettuce wrap or the guy with the fried sandwich really need? More than anything else, to be recognized and appreciated as beautiful exactly as they are, and told that they are worthy of something creamy and delicious and that people around will be happy that they enjoy it.
Just some thoughts for the sci-fi future, when we will look back in horror at the days of yore. I hope you had a wonderful lunch today.
