Rose Schaap starts off her podcast by making the listeners laugh through her comment of being “self-absorbed” since she enjoys therapy sessions. This comment also sets the listeners up to better understand where she is going with her overall theme by being focused on herself. She describes the Metro North bar car. Grimy, smoky, and somewhat depressing. She explains how she would go into the car and tell jokes, people would listen to her and laugh. She used it as a form of attention. She then moves onto using tarot cards to get more attention. She explains the different types of people that come to her vulnerable, using Rosie as a way to figure out their life.  This scene reveals the control she has over other people, which makes her feel powerful. Again- she is focused on herself not the person’s card she is reading. By the end of the podcast she finally moves away from any sort of comedy to an entirely serious topic-death.  

Chang-Rae Lee writes in his essay “Immovable Feast,” about his experience of eating in a boarding school dining hall. He talks about his hatred, but love for the food that was served. Through his use of anecdotes he is able to prove that although he did not love the dining hall it created special bonds with his friends. “My dorm mates and I would find ourselves wandering across the quad arm and arm just after the doors opened at 5:30pm.” The dining hall was a way that brought him and his friends together. Everyone was served the same meal, so there was an inclusiveness to his experience. The dining hall food made him more appreciative of his mothers meals. Chang Rae Lee writes, “The food was not good, it was not meant to be good at least by the standard of my mothers cooking.” At the end of his essay the readers are fully convinced that Chang Rae Lee’s overall experience in the dining hall was more meaningful than a place that just served “bad food.” This “bad food” created him to be able to “dream,” which is part of being a child.

When asked to define a “meal” I thought it would be simple. However, I was wrong. I began to think back when I was trying to lose weight and an apple would be my meal for lunch and for dinner it would be a bowl of rice and some celery. I initially wrote down, that a meal can be any type of food eaten at any time of day. Yet, after hearing Cleo’s definition of a meal, I began to reflect on my definition. Asking myself is an apple really a meal or did I convince myself it was? I realized I was eating to survive, so I could workout and function, not for enjoyment. When talking to Cleo, her definition was that a meal was something purposeful, the opposite of what I thought a meal was. She explained how a meal was just not an apple or a smoothie you drink really fast. A meal took thought and effort whether it was made by yourself or not. So I would now say I agree with her definition.  I would say a meal is eaten three times throughout the day–breakfast, lunch and dinner. However many of us only have time for one meal a day if that. Today, I only had time for dinner. I ate breakfast and lunch, some oatmeal and a banana, but I would not consider them a meal. I had salmon, brown rice, and stir fried vegetables for dinner that I made myself. It was purposeful, took time and effort, and something I looked forward to eating all day. With each bite I could feel the dopamine being released in my brain– I was no longer “hangry.” I now realize that a meal is something that creates happiness and brings friends and family closer together

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