by Rhonee Lyn Garcia
I love to eat at McDonald’s. Why? Because it’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s cheap. I can go in, eat, meditate and go home. The health conscious people have horrified looks on their faces. Yes, I know about the horrors of transfat and the bad effects of sugar. I’ve seen the documentary Super Size Me. But I sometimes have A-ha moments while I’m craving for the genetically modified potato without any nutritional value we lovingly call French fries.
My first A-ha is: the menu in the morning is different from the menu in the afternoon.
When I was very young, I couldn’t wrap my small head why Big Mac is not available at 7am. Why do I have to wait until 11am before I can order a Big Mac? I actually experimented on this once. I bought a Big Mac the night before and ate the whole thing for breakfast. Needless to say, I felt nauseous the whole morning. Then imagine yourself eating only pancakes for lunch. You would probably faint from hunger about mid-afternoon. Hopefully, this is not during an important business meeting. This made me realize that the food preferences of people change throughout the day. What you want to eat for dinner is usually not what you want to eat in the morning. And vice versa.
When we were young, we’re not able to handle big responsibilities yet. We need to slowly acquire the skills and the experience first before we are ready. Just imagine asking a 2 year old boy to do your taxes. This will probably get you into trouble with IRAS. On the other hand, if you are the president of a company and you do something easy that doesn’t match with your capabilities like play with Barbie dolls the whole week, you will be bored to death.
My second A-ha is: you can always upsize your order but you have to pay an additional cost.
Upsize? That’s what you usually hear when you place an order at the counter. And this one dollar coin is all you need to have an upsized meal.
In life, we can always upsize our dreams if we just put on a little extra effort. To have that fabulous figure, it can be just a few minutes of exercise like running up the steps from the first floor to the 30th floor your HDB flat while wearing high heels. Or if you fancy being the next Singapore Idol, you can do a few minutes of vocalization while doing your shopping at the mall. Or sometimes, it just takes a minute to show off your hula hoop skills to your boss for you to get that huge project you’ve been aspiring for. You don’t have to trade your whole life to upsize your dream. It’s just a little more effort. It's just a few more cents.
The third A-ha is: happy meals are not only for children.
If you order a happy meal, the cashier will not refuse to sell it to you just because you have grey hair, sagging skin and a wrinkly face. If you order and you have the money, they will give it to you.
I often hear people say, "Oh I can’t have fun. That's not for me. I’m too old for this." But it is the adult's busy life that needs a happy meal all the more. It's when you’re stressed out that you need to have fun and relax. We all need to have our versions of a happy meal. It can be reading an intellectual and serious book like Harry Potter. Or taking a 2 hour bath with your favorite yellow squishy rubber ducky. Or go belly dancing. Maybe sky diving. Or belly dancing while sky diving. Just a few minutes of fun to relax and unwind and get the edge out of your system.
My fourth and last A-ha is: McDonald’s is not the only restaurant in town.
If you don’t like the food at McDonald’s, you can always go to another restaurant to eat. No one is forcing you to eat food that you don’t like. There’s Subway. KFC. Equinox. Lawry’s. Economic Bee Hoon. Yong Tau Fu. And you can even cook your own food. You can always choose the food you want to eat as long as you have the money and you are willing to pay for it.
If you don’t like your job, find a new one. If you can’t find a new one because of the economic crisis, then do something fun so you won’t hate your job. It can be as simple as listening to music when you’re at work. Or practicing your dance moves while at the rest room. Or testing your memory and memorize the shoes your coworkers wear and remember how many days they’ve worn the same pair. Or testing your psychic abilities and predict who is going to call you on the phone before it rings. You can also pretend to be Spiderman and use your spider sense to figure out who is approaching based on the sound of the footsteps. The point is, you must do something to either change your circumstances or change how you view your circumstances. We can always choose what we want as long as we are willing to pay the price.
These are my four A-has I realized while I’m drinking that diabetes inducing liquid we know as Coke: the menu changes throughout the day; you can always upsize your order; happy meals are not only for children; and there are other restaurants in town.
It's funny how we sometimes find the most profound inspiration from the most mundane of things. When I go to McDonald’s for dinner later tonight I would ask them to update their menu and insert 'life lessons' in between french fries and Coke. Why? Because all I need to know, I learned at McDonald's.
