In search of food

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When I used to commute across Nottingham my mind would wander over all kinds of things from why am I doing this? to why are we doing this?

Not a particularly wide range of internal conversations you may think, but commuting isn’t a stimulating activity. Sometimes I’d expand my horizons and even think of work and the various bits and pieces I had to get done before doing the same journey in reverse.

What drives us on though? What is it deep down in the murky depths of our biochemistry which makes us do such crazy things as commuting across Nottingham for twenty years? It could be much the same biochemistry which sent my ancient ancestors into the wilds armed only with a flint-tipped spear – food.

Although we don’t starve if we don’t work, the food imperative evolved over millions of years and isn’t likely to have fallen into disuse merely because we no longer use a flint-tipped spear. A car is much the same as that spear – in a sense we take it out every day in search of food.

We already know we’ll find the food elsewhere of course, Sainsbury's or Tesco in our case, but that probably doesn’t alter the biochemical imperative. We still have to eat and our bodies know we have to eat and know we have to do whatever it takes to eat. 

Whatever it takes. Now there's a thought to commute over. In search of food we’ll even endure the dullest imaginable journey only to take part in the dullest imaginable meeting on arrival. Whatever it takes. Perhaps lunch makes it just about tolerable.