Hunger

"There's nothing good to eat in this house!"
"How about ham? A nice ham sandwich? Doesn't that sound good?"
"Ick! It's got all that fat on it."
"One small streak down the side is `all that fat'?"
"Anyway, I had a ham sandwich yesterday."
"Well, how about soup? There's a cabinet full of soups."
"I can't eat a whole can of soup."
"I'll finish what you don't eat."
"There's nothing good."
"Aha! I bought all your favorites: vegetarian vegetable, split pea
with ham, bean with bacon, chicken with dumplings."
"Yuk! I hate those."
"You said you loved them."
"That was last week."
"Well, how about cheese and crackers?"
"We don't have any good crackers."
"Oh, ritz, nacho, wheat thins, goldfish, triscuits, cheese flavored,
pizza puffys...none of them are any good?"
"I like the ones that crumble all up when you touch 'em."
"Oh really! You mean like while you're eating them in the front room!"
"Yeah."
"Well, how about if I crumble one of these up for you?"
"Mom, don't be silly."
"O.K. then, how about cheese on bread?"
"That's a cheese sandwich! I hate cheese sandwiches. Besides, you don't have any good bread."
"French, whole wheat, white, rye, pumpern..."
"I like the square kind."
"I'll cut the curves off of every slice."
"Mom, that's not the same."
"Well, then, how about some nice leftover spaghetti from last
night...or a nice fresh hot dog...or a bowl of cereal...or
I'll fry an egg...boil an egg...make pancakes, stacks of
golden fluffy pancakes floating in maple syrup, or any kind of
syrup...heat up a TV dinner...frozen tamales...the
butter-injected 25 lb. turkey we won in the raffle..."
"You call that stuff food? Man, a guy's starving and all you've got is that junk."
"Eureka! I know exactly what you need—a good old peanut butter and
jelly sandwich. How about that, sport? Have I hit it?"
"Nah. I just had three of those."

Hunger...
a yearning for something that cannot be filled with assorted bits and pieces of food...or hobbies...or events. A craving that finds satisfaction temporarily in a favorite snack, in a cool drink, in a good book, a friend — but forms again into this longing for something that cannot be identified, that cannot be found.

Hunger...
feed me, fill me, give me something, for I am dying of...of what?
Of emptiness and I need, I need......

"Something to take your mind off it. This season we have a hundred new shows" volunteers the media.
"Psst! what you need is a better...a bigger...a higher, fancier, more expensive..." tempt the sharks on Madison Avenue.
"We're worried about you. You know what you need is a nice long vacation...a job...something to occupy your time... time off...a check-up. That's it! A check-up."
" As your doctor I recommend a tranquilizer...some pep pills...a diet...psychotherapy...quit smoking, worrying, drinking, eating food that is so..."
"No, no, no! What this calls for is spiritual renewal — a ceremony should do it. Let's see, how about reconciliation...forty hours devotion...a Novena...the last rites...a retreat... Bingo!"
"What should do it is fewer taxes, better roads, lower prices... voting for ME!"

What does it take? What will remove that void, relieve the agony of the soul, fill the emptiness, satisfy the longing, soothe the ache, feed the hunger?

What ever could?