Last weekend, I went home to visit my family. It was a very good and much-needed visit, and I love them very much.
On Sunday, we went to my family ward, and I sat on the pew with my parents listening to the announcements in Sacrament Meeting. A banquet for the scouts was announced for Tuesday night, and I looked at my parents who had a conversation that went something like this:
D: Oh yeah. I need to go to that.
M: When is it? Tuesday?
D: Yeah. Tuesday evening.
M: Oh. I can't go. I have (insert whatever it was she had to do here).
D: Oh. Okay, I can go by myself.
M: >cuddles in< Sorry I can't go with you. Bring some food home for me.
Except she didn't say "bring some food home for me." She said "have fun" or something like that. And I looked at her incredulously wondering why she hadn't asked Dad to bring her some food.
And then I remembered that while it is expected—and sometimes encouraged—to take food home for your roommates in college, that kind of behavior is not normal in the rest of the world. My parents pay for their own dang food.
And it took me by surprise.
Because I'm poor, and I live in a world where free food is an incentive to do almost anything.
And it works pretty dang well.
Someday I'll grow up and not be bribed with sustenance to do things.
