Taking of Food. What Food?

There I was sitting in a classroom. I was no longer the teacher, I was the student. The speaker was a fellow Artist, Researcher, and Teacher. There was a brief instant I thought to escape (I was done learning), but I was hungry to learn more about being an A/R/Tographer.

In this moment, I reflect back to my entrance into the meeting house. The place where I overheard one man saying to another, “. . . But have you been fed?” Where his wife replied, “Yes, I fed him.” Why was this a memorable moment?

I look to Florence Nightingale’s (1969) words on “Taking Food” (pp. 63-69). At first I thought to summarize saying, “The taking of food really depends on the person’s beliefs.” Then, I thought back on two client’s I once cared for who were severely anemic, declined blood transfusions, refused food and treatments; ergo, they chose death.

Then, my eyes were drawn to the following passage . . . “Upon the observance of these rules . . . often depends on the patient’s capability of taking food at all, or if he is amiable and forces himself to take food, or deriving any nourishment from it” (Nightingale, 1969/1860, p. 67).

So, was this whole lecture on food? As a nurse, I’m thinking to myself, “Just give them whatever they want . . . to each their own . . . broiled fish, boiled fish, or no fish at all.”

But was I wrong? I’m not sure what moment my mind detoured. Correction, I know the exact moment. It’s the moment I realized “I Was Wrong!” This lecture, this self-study, wasn’t really about food at all.

I had referred to myself as the A/R/Tographer, but was He not the original A/R/Tographer? Had I unknowingly plagiarized His work? On the white board in the room, I visualized the following:

Researcher/Teacher/Artist

אבא, בן, רוח

How long had I been in this classroom? How long had I focused solely on the food pyramid as the only source of nourishment. Was it three hours, three years, or a lifetime?

Then I realized my Teacher of Nursing, was most brilliant. He provided me all I needed. As I walked out the door, I willingly accepted my next assignment. [That’s a bold face lie! I was mad! I didn’t want to nurse anymore, but I did it anyway. Little did I know, I would conquer many personal challenges.]

Reflecting on the evidence

1. Identify and explain what food you believe heals the sick best?

References

Beck, M. (2017, September 28). One Fish in Soy Sauce [Photograph].

Beck, M. (2021, January 23). The A/R/Tograhper’s teaching philosophy. The storied version. Time Traveling Nurse. https://timetravelingnurse.blog/2021/01/23/the-a-r-tographers-teaching-philosophy-the-storied-version/

Ergo. (n.d). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved February 23, 2024 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ergo#:~:text=%3A%20for%20that%20reason%20%3A%20because%20of%20that%20%3A%20therefore%2C%20hence

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2023, May 11). Anemia. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved February 23, 2024 from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20351360#:~:text=Anemia%20is%20a%20problem%20of,weakness%20and%20shortness%20of%20breath

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2022, April 27). Blood transfusion. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved February 23, 2024 from https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/blood-transfusion/about/pac-20385168

Nightingale, F. (1969). Notes on Nursing What it is, and What it is Not. Dover Publishing. (Original work published 1860).

Plagiarize. (n.d.). Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/plagiarize

Self-study. (n.d). Dictionary.com. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/self-study

Wikipedia. (2024, February 19). Food pyramid (nutrition). Wikipedia. Retrieved February 23, 2004 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_pyramid_(nutrition).

Special Thanks

Delores Bunting, friend, editor and reviewer for Taking food. What food?

Annah Schwartz Howell, my daughter, editor and reviewer for Taking food. What food?

Tracey Stones, fellow blogger and friend, editor and reviewer for Taking food. What food?