I was talking to a new colleague of mine Sherry Pelkey this week. We were struggling to find a commonplace experience that represents how we are really meant to be as humans. What is the modern Paleo experience?
She said what about a family BBQ?
The light bulb went on for me! So here is a test.
How do you feel at a BBQ? Especially when it is outside on a nice day where you had fun socially but also did your share of cooking and in bringing your share of the food to the party.
How does this feeling compare with other parts of your life?
For me such an event always feels great. So then why? Does it bring us back to our Paleo design? I think it does.
Here is how I unpack this picture in this context. First of all it is a social gathering all centred on sharing the gathering, preparation and eating of food. This is our Paleo hallmark. This process is what made us social.
There is fire. Our core technology. Fire made us human. The big jump to Homo Erectus meant nearly a 2 foot increase in height, the loss of the big chewing jaw and the loss of half our gut. Something happened to give is a cheap way of eating a lot of energy. Cooking is a good candidate. It would have enabled us to eat a lot more meat and many veggies and tubers that we could not eat raw.
There are all ages here - no age ghettos. All the ages are mixed up.
There are about 30+ people in the picture. This is the normal size of a tribe in Paleo times.
They are all outside. What is it about eating outside? It is special isn't it?
Now contrast this with this event that happened last weekend.
A woman went to work on Friday in her cubicle. She was found the next day dead in her cubicle. No one had missed her at the office at the end of the day. No one had missed her at home. She was isolated in every way.
We surely need more of the BBQ and less of the cubicle. One makes us more human the other kills us.