The workers
in their hard hats, paint-stained jeans and plaid shirts queue. The sun,
blazing with optimism and best intentions, makes some guys squint. I haven't
taken off my shades. The breast pocket of the plaid shirt I'm wearing is laden
with keys and wallet. I dig in, looking for some change, but Dan says he'll get
it.
The
McDonalds army weave and bob, working in symmetry. The assembly line is occasionally
disrupted by human error. Someone has forgotten a coffee order. Someone has
placed an Egg McMuffin in the wrong bag. Someone is gazing out the window. They
quickly snap back to attention, these McDonalds workers. Woe to the wandering
mind -- one false misstep and someone might get trampled. Traffic is
everywhere. It's 8 a.m.
Up until a
year ago, I hadn't stepped into a McDonalds for over 35 years. When I was a
teenager, I had a t-shirt made up that said McDonalds
Rules All. I have disdain and mistrust for the processed food
industrial/agricultural complex. I delight in things like rutabagas and celeriac
root; ugly vegetables in their natural state. While I appreciate fine dining
and support anything organic and local, I am also keenly aware of our
two-tiered food system. As one writer wrote in (I think) an Atlantic Monthly
article, people starving in poor nations don't care if food is locally sourced,
gluten-free and dolphin-friendly -- they want sustenance to stay alive.
Dan, my
wood-working, all-around guy who deals in physical reality, need sustenance. He
needs his $1.49 muffin and coffee. He has lived off the stuff for over a
decade. He just loaded nearly one thousand pounds of plywood into the van. Dan
weighs 146lbs. Is he addicted? Hell yeah. Will he give up his $1.49 coffee and
muffin? No.
Young
mothers with strollers, blue collar workers, people over 70 -- they are all
milling, McD bags in tow, looking for a seat. The 8 a.m. sun is brilliant, slanting and
expansive at the same time.
No one is
bothered by the two-tier food system here. I brood. Dan
notices, splits his cranberry muffin in two and hands me some.
Hungry, I
take it.
********
Bennett News:
My screenplay The Mac And Watson Springtime Reeferendum Show won the 2013 TIFF Screenwriting Intensive Jury Prize.
Thank you.
