The Restaurant -- An Allegory

Once upon a time there was a world where food was very important -- so important that it was frowned upon for ordinary people to choose and cook their own food. Instead, people went to restaurants where the food was cooked by trained chefs and served by dedicated waiters. There were lots of restaurants and each one would try to get people to come eat there by advertising that their food tasted better or was healthier than their competitors' offerings. Some restaurants even claimed that, if you ate their food, you would live forever!

There was one particularly nice restaurant that made this claim. The interior appointments were elegant and tasteful. Soft, pleasant music was played in the spacious dining rooms. The Restaurant staff were polite and attentive, and the quality of the food was very consistent. The Restaurant advertised that all its food came from only the best farms and was handled and prepared with the utmost care to preserve the nutrients and guarantee its wholesomeness. Many people liked coming to the Restaurant and eating the food that was chosen and prepared by expert chefs. If the food lacked a little variety, or perhaps seemed a bit bland, you knew that it was because this was how food had to be, if you wanted to live forever.

Of course, there is no free lunch, as the saying goes. And to reap the benefit of living forever, you had to agree to certain conditions. First, you had to promise to eat ONLY at that Restaurant and you had to eat everything that was served whether you liked it or not. Second, you had to pay the Restaurant's high prices without complaining. Third, you had to try to get other people to come to that Restaurant and promise to eat all their meals there. If you did all those things well, it was rumored that you could be invited to eat in another, more exclusive dining room upstairs where the decor was more luxurious and the food richer and more varied. In that dining room were served the choicest meats and vegetables, exquisitely seasoned with exotic and expensive spices. Of course the only patrons allowed to eat in that dining room were the best customers, the ones who followed all the rules perfectly.

Some people who came to the Restaurant did not like a few of the dishes that were served to them. They said it gave them indigestion or made them feel unwell to eat those foods. This started to become a common occurrence and so finally, one day, one of the head waiters had to make an announcement. "This is not a cafeteria," he said. "You cannot just pick and choose what foods you want to eat. The menu is carefully planned and prepared, and if you do not eat the whole meal, you will not get all the nutrients that your body needs to live forever." And so, many of the picky eaters started again eating all of the dishes served to them, even if the food didn't agree with them, because they wanted to live forever.

On several occasions, rumors were circulated that some of the ingredients used by the Restaurant did not come from reputable local farms as advertised by the management. When it became clear that the Restaurant had indeed misrepresented the facts about the origins of some of the foods they served, the management instructed the Restaurant staff not to talk to the patrons about these things. The management said that the patrons relied on the Restaurant for their nutritional information, and these were not nutrition-promoting stories. If the patrons persisted in asking pointed or difficult questions about any of these topics, the wait staff were instructed to answer the questions the patrons should have asked instead.

When they saw these things occurring regularly, some customers grew dissatisfied with the Restaurant. Some started sneaking out between courses and going to another place across the street. Others started skipping meals regularly. Still others decided to start going to a different restaurant altogether. Of course, that meant that they were no longer welcome at the first Restaurant and that they would not live forever. There were even some customers who decided that they didn't like the whole concept of restaurants at all. They preferred to choose their own meats, produce and seasonings and cook them at home in their own kitchen.

It was difficult for many of the people who decided to stop going to the Restaurant. They had been going to that Restaurant their whole lives, they were used to the food, and they knew the staff and the other patrons well. For some, it was even more difficult because their family members would be sad or even angry about not seeing them at the Restaurant. But the customers who had stopped believing that they would live forever by eating at the Restaurant every day were tired of being told what to eat. They had also begun to suspect that some of the foods served there were not wholesome at all, but harmful. And so, even though it was difficult, they stopped going to the Restaurant.

Some customers stopped eating altogether (not eating was something that was not fatal in this world). Over time, though, many realized that some part of their being needed the kind of nourishment that eating food provided. Those who had started shopping and cooking all by themselves found that they missed eating with other diners. So these people sought out different ways of getting nourishment. Some went to open restaurants where you eat when you want with no pressure to come back and eat there all the time. Some people decided to just get together and bring whatever dishes they wanted and the whole group would share each others' dishes. One group of people who had once all been patrons of the Restaurant even decided to have a joyous gathering every year -- a sort of reunion. They met in the dungeon of a beautiful castle near a river to share their cooking with each other.

In the end, the happiest people were found to be those who regularly ate a variety of good foods that they chose for themselves, and shared meals often with a community of interesting, unique, independent people who brought lots of other different kinds of dishes to the table. And the Restaurant, where they had all once been regular patrons? Most of them had fond memories of when they used to go there, but did not regret the decision to step into the larger world and take charge of their own nourishment.