One of my favorite parts of travel is experiencing the variety of cultures in the places I visit. When I have traveled internationally, I often sample the popular or common foods in the area, even if they are outside my normal dietary restrictions. I have been vegetarian (and occasionally vegan) for over twelve years, but sometimes I make exceptions in order to experience a particular culture’s delicacy. When I traveled to Madrid I ate ham (on a giant plate of tapas complete with a pint glass of red wine for like 5 Euro). When I was in Croatia I ate seafood (but not octopus because they are brilliant).
One of the other realities of travel is that, sometimes, I need to make food decisions I wouldn’t normally make. Some places are difficult to find vegetarian or just healthy options.
This is how I found myself standing in the Burger King drive thru.
Burger King offers a Whopper made with an Impossible burger - making it vegetarian friendly (albeit expensive and not super healthy). So, while we were on a long drive one day we ordered on the app for counter pick up at Burger King.
When traveling in a truck and camper, there are some restrictions on where you can go. Many parking lots are too small to safely drive and turn around while towing the camper. Also, we have to be sure that the clearance on bridges and other traffic situations are high enough to accommodate the height of the camper. This includes drive thrus for most restaurants.
So I arrive at Burger King to pick up our counter order, only the counter was closed - doors locked.
The only option was to pick up in the drive thru - but the camper wouldn’t fit.
So, there I was, standing in the line at the drive thru - a Subaru in front of me and a Jeep in back - and everyone staring.
This was a first for me. I felt oddly out of place. I found myself wanting to explain why I was doing what I was doing, so people wouldn’t think I was strange for standing in the drive thru.
What’s funny is that, since this happened, when I tell the story a bunch of people have said, “oh I used to do that all of the time!”
Like, they’ve chosen to walk through the drive thru before - on multiple occasions.
And, because I’m a minister and a storyteller and love making meaning out of things that others may just take at face value, I can’t help but feel like this is a huge metaphor and teachable moment.
What can we learn from standing in the drive thru?
What can it teach us about focusing on our own lives instead of being distracted by others’?
For me, this was a new experience. But, as it turns out, for some people it is a (at least somewhat) regular occurrence. And I was convinced that everyone was watching me and overly concerned with what the heck I was doing standing in the drive thru. The reality is that they probably thought, “hmmm that’s strange” and then went on to decide their order or scroll through social media on their phones.
Truth is, I was way more concerned with how I appeared to others than they were about me.
This is a trap I’ve fallen into before in my life - we all do at one time or another. Like when I would be concerned about what to wear to a meeting or a conference. Turns out no one actually cares except for you! The chances of anyone noticing or caring about what clothing you have on your body is so low. This is mostly true because they, too, are overly concerned about what they are wearing.
As human beings, we can be so overtaken by our self-consciousness that it can be overwhelming. It can stop us from doing the things we want to do, or the things we need to do.
Sometimes we need to remember that most of the people around us are so distracted and overwhelmed at the stimulation of living their life that they are unlikely to notice (let alone care) what we are doing.
This is both reassuring and deeply disturbing to me.
The reality that we as human beings are more distracted than we’ve ever been makes me really sad and a little scared.
Is anyone really paying attention? Am I really paying attention?
I want to be a person who pays attention.
I want to be a person who walks while everyone else drives if it is what I need to do for myself and my family.
I want to be a person who looks at the person standing in the drive thru with curiosity rather than judgment.
I want to be a person who is much more concerned with the content of a meeting or conference than what people are wearing.
I want to be a person who savors the moment and atmosphere of where I am.
These are the things I learned about myself while standing in the Burger King drive thru. So, hopefully I can now work on actually doing and becoming these things.
Oh, and I also learned that if you don’t ask for ketchup they don’t automatically put it in the bag and then you have to decide whether you have the energy to walk BACK THROUGH THE DRIVE THRU or just go ketchup-free.
I chose the latter.
This week’s Invitation to Deepening: When have you felt out of place or self-conscious? What did you learn in that place?
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