On Having a Nice Dining Experience

Sometimes the simplest thing can show how far you have come

If I go back to Atlanta, it will be for the food. Wow, what an amazing culinary experience. One of the very best restaurants I had the pleasure of eating at is the South City Kitchen in midtown Atlanta. It’s a real treat.

Sitting there last weekend having lunch with a good friend, I had a bit of a moment. My friend and I were having our big meal before we embarked on a long day/night of live music at the Sweetwater 420 Music Festival. I was savoring everything about it. The food, the ambiance, the people we chatted with as we came in, the friendly staff, and my buddy sitting across from me having the time of his life as well.

And then it occurred to me. I used to not be able to enjoy moments like this. Not because I was never able to eat in a restaurant, or because of some physical limitation. Not even because of a financial limitation. A nice lunch out hasn’t been a stretch on the wallet for a long time.

No, the problem was always a mental one. I would sit at a restaurant and think about everything except what was actually happening in front of me. My mind was always racing,

• Is the person across from me having a nice time? Do they like being here with me?

• Do I fit in here? Everyone seems so well put together. What’s wrong with me that I can’t be like them?

• Why don’t I have the money to eat here all the time? Why am I not rich like these people?

And on and on. It never stopped.

Have you ever been like this? Are you familiar with the neuroticism that dominated most of my life? Oh, man, what a relief it is to just be able to savor the moments of my life. How much better life is when I’m actually in it, rather than worrying about it.

It was the silence that I noticed. I noticed that I was not noticing.

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That constant, pleading, judging voice is gone now. “Gone” isn’t exactly the right way to describe it. It’s an understanding that the voice that always took the joy out of my experiences is not me. When that understanding blossomed, the voice got very quiet. Now it chirps every once and while, but its power is gone. When it does come, I know its game and I’m able to let it pass by my consciousness with no more impact on me than a bad commercial.

“Nice to hear from you again, voice. I’m going to go back to enjoying my day now.”

How did that happen? Well it’s a bit difficult to explain but one of the reasons I started this website was to help people that had problems experiencing the joy of life.

I’m a libertarian and have been since 2005. I’ve chatted with Ron Paul in his Congressional office. I’ve written for the Daily Paul during Ron’s campaign days. I’ve been to Mises events. I’ve understood the lack of human freedom for a long time.

None of that helped me enjoy the experience of living. And I have come to the conclusion that until humans learn to understand the voice and learn to enjoy the experience of living, they aren’t going to find the freedom they are missing. Libertarians can show you what and how your freedoms are being taken away. Only through mastering the self can you learn how to get them back.

It was just a nice lunch meal with a friend at a great restaurant. But it meant so much. It meant so much because I was present and able to fully experience it. Predominately now that is how I travel through life. Has it made me a hippie? Maybe, but I was always kind of one anyway. Has it made me a communist? Absolutely not. In fact, it has heightened my understanding of the path to human freedom as one where each individual embraces living in the way that provides them the most meaning. Communists, socialists, and even conservatives suffer from the same neurotic impulse to control rather than to live.

That’s it for today. I need to go experience some work now. Have a great day and I look forward to the rest of our journey together.