You Should Eat More

Whenever my grandpa sees me he picks on me about not eating. He's been doing this for the longest time and I honestly don't know where he gets the idea from, because though I might not eat as much or as often as my relatives, I do eat. You don't get fat without food having something to do with it. But that makes no difference to Grandpa. We always end up having the same old conversation, and today after church was no different. He looked over my shoulder as I put food on my plate for our early Sunday dinner:

"Girl, you don't eat enough to keep a fly alive."
"Grandpa..."
"What?"
"I do eat."
"No you don't."

"I know what you were doing over there in that Japan."
"What was I doing, Grandpa?"
"Not eating, that's for sure."

This is what I deal with every 3-4 months.

 

Since returning to the States, today was my first time eating at my Grandpa's house. Before digging in I stared down at my plate for a few seconds and realized: Wow, I missed this. This is what coming home feels like. 

 

In black culture, and especially in my family, feeding someone is an expression of love. I'm glad that in a world where I'm surrounded by messages and images saying "Don't eat this. Don't eat that. Don't eat at all", I have people like Grandpa who don't make me feel guilty about food, but just want me to eat! He might not say so in the warmest way, but it's good to know that he cares.