In order to obtain food from a Chipotle you are forced to stand behind the people who arrived at the Chipotle before you. All these people are in your way and are impeding your progress in obtaining food, but you are expected to act as though they are not there, even though they are visibly obtaining and consuming food right in front of you. Additionally, you yourself are an obstacle to everybody who arrived after you, and cannot help but be aware that each and every one of them hates you and resents your presence.
If you are able to withstand that ordeal, you will reach the Glass Barrier. Behind a Glass Barrier you see various plant and animal byproducts in bins. These byproducts have been heated in order to sterilize them and in some cases induce chemical change. You may, if you wish, issue instructions which will cause a food product to be assembled for you out of the contents of the bins.
After obtaining your food product in its edible sheathe or more expedient bowl configuration, you may optionally sit inside the Chipotle and consume the food product.
You may notice that some of the animal tissue has too much adipose tissue for your liking. You may be distracted by this fact, and start thinking about the living conditions of the animal from which the tissue was derived – the endless rows of squalid metal cages barely large enough to contain the body, swollen as it is by genetic tampering and pharmaceutical substances. You may think thoughts like, “Sorry, chicken, I was enjoying eating your muscles, but then I bit into some of your fat, and I was no longer enjoying eating you. Is that ungrateful of me? Let me know.”
Some of the plant byproduct may have been left on the combustion apparatus for too long and undergone undesirable chemical changes, appearing black and withered, crunchy in texture.
You will then think about the nature of the world that gave rise to and contained this experience. You will think about the multitudes toiling in order to bring forth the food product. The whole edifice of industry. Grinding away at the Earth itself, grinding down the humanity of each and all, ultimately grinding it all into bowls for your consumption.
You exit the Chipotle aware that you are still standing in its maw, that all roads lead to Rome and all the materials and energies in the world outside are feeding by invisible threads of commerce into those metal bins of food product, the sidewalk under your feet is a slope and that slope is gently turning your steps down into that endless mindless appetite.
Next time maybe you’ll try the carnitas.
