To Market, To Market...

I guess because it's the place I go with the most predictable frequency, I have very interesting interactions at the grocery store nowadays. With baby in tow, I meet and converse with more moms than I did before, and have discovered how, for many of us, the trip to the grocery store is a significant social event in our weekly routines. There we are peeking down the aisles looking for each other, for solace and camaraderie as much as we are yogurt and granola bars. How did we get to be so isolated from our surroundings, from our neighbors and friends, that food shopping is where we find each other, bleary-eyed and starved for grown-up conversation? I have stood in store aisles laughing and crying with other new mothers. Yeah, crying. It happens.

On the other hand, maybe this habit is a continuation of historical practices, the modern-day version of hunting parties or foraging expeditions. The search for, or cultivation of, food has- out of necessity- always been a group activity; you can grow and catch and gather a lot more food as a group than you can on your own. That is, until grocery stores (and suburbs and all the conveniences of modern life) made us into self-sufficient animals... or so we thought. We still need each other, especially new mothers. We need support and comfort for and from each other. We don't live in groups anymore, for the most part; we don't have many group rituals left. I can't help but view my weekly trips to the grocery store as being as much about food-procurement as connecting with that social networking need, reminding each other that we are not alone.