Eating Lettuce Dinner Date

 I’ve lost my appetite.

Cook ginger, onion, tomato in olive oil for 5m. Add pumpkin and cook 

in low heat. Pumpkin has its own water, but you can add one spoon if you like.

It might be for medical reasons or frustration after receiving bad news, such as there’s no Wi-Fi. It’s a serious matter which stops life in its tracks. It happened on 8 July ‘22 when data thieves hacked Rogers the giant Canadian wireless service provider, resulting in the collapse of the banking system and left us with no access to e-mail.

I’ve lost my appetite.

It is a sign of plenty, abundance, affluence. It is a lost and found situation. There is confidence that food will be available when the appetite returns. That is why we walk away from the table at home or restaurants, leaving food half eaten.

I’ve lost my appetite.

That statement is a declaration of independence. It says I can overcome the present circumstances that made me lose my appetite. I will eat again. It is a forward looking declaration, past the bad news.

It has no yesterday, when the person making it had little or no food at all.  It’s a painful thing to see in kids. They always have an appetite. It’s a kids’ thing. Some mothers have been caught shop lifting to provide food for their kids. Therefore, the statement, I’ve lost my appetite is self indulgence, the luxury of throwing away food because you have a stockpile in the pantry and freezer.

Maybe I’m not being realistic. Maybe it’s just a line in the movies.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.