This week, I did a jaunt to Miller's Amish organic grocery to the tune of $64, which paid for 20 lbs of oats and 10lbs of soy flour, plus 4 lbs of cheese, plus . . . well, then plus some pickles and nuts. I didn't know beforehand that I wanted pickles or nuts, but once I walked into the store I was hungry, so I bought them. My husband contributed his cereal and our coffee for an additional $41, bringing our weekly total to $105, and our 29-week grocery average to $137/week.
What is in a number? Shakespeare's sonnet #137 seems to capture the whole idea of our eyes being bigger than our stomachs. There are things we think we want (oh, those pickles!), and then later we regret spending $6 on a single jar of them. Here is how Wm. himself said it, in his Sonnet 137. He says our eyes make us want things that better judgements should know we don't really want.
Thou blind fool Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
That they behold and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.
If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks,
Be anchored in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forgèd hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?
Why should my heart think that a several plot
Which my heart knows the wide world's common place?
Or mine eyes seeing this, say this is not,
To put fair truth upon so foul a face?
In things right true my heart and eyes have erred,
And to this false plague are they now transferred.
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–William Shakespeare
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If we don't want our eyes to lead us into the plague of purchasing pricey pickles (a predicament Peter Piper could have appreciated), maybe we should eat lunch before we go shopping. Note to self: eat lunch first; then shop for the pantry. Or else, I might go nuts.
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