I’ve been listening to Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle on audiobook from audible.com. At one point she contrasted the way we teach our children to eat with the way we teach them about sex. We tell teenagers that they have to wait to have sex until they’re married. Only then will they experience the true value of sex in a committed relationship. The real worth of sexual intimacy is only experienced in its proper season.
Yet when it comes to what we eat, we are the most promiscuous people. We are food whores. We eat what we want, when we want it and we want it CHEAP. We don’t ask questions about where our food came from, who touched it, what kind of drugs it has taken or who its friends are. When it comes to food all we want is a one night stand. Satisfied by a full gut we simply move on to our next mark when we get the “urge.” With food, more is always better and bigger is always better. Supersize it! I’ve got a bucket full of double entendres just chomping at the bit… maybe another time.
It’s really interesting to think about food in this way, comparing and contrasting how we treat food and sex.
You’ll probably be hearing a lot more about food around hear. I’ve hinted that it may be the direction our family moves after seminary, dealing with food issues, like sustainable agriculture, because it touches on poverty, hunger, globalization, healthy, justice and so many areas.
I like it – thanks Lucas.
i’m glad ot know there are other whores like me. we should start a support group.
Definitely.
Matthew 15:11 “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
I see a bit more contrast bwteen food and sex but I see the point. Yes, Americans are not careful what we eat.
Naomi took a class for her teacher certification that compared different economic strata with their food preferences. The poor wanted a lot of food for a little price. The rich wanted exotic food (not in great quantities) at whatever price and the middle class people wanted good food at a reasonable price.
I don’t know if you got to hear it, but Barbara Kingsolver gave a great interview (one of the best in recent memory) on Speaking of Faith last July. I highly recommend it:
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/ethicsofeating/index.shtml
brett, i did hear that interview. good stuff.
richie, yeah it’s interesting how the roles have reversed over the years. it used to be that the rich were fat and the poor thin, because the rich could afford more and ate fattier foods. Now the poor are fat because the foods they can afford are so bad for them and the rich can afford both expensive health foods and plastic surgeries.
Yeah this is extremely interesting. Never thought of it like that.
I’ll clarify: price wasn’t the issue, really. It went like this: the poor value quantity, the middle class value taste, and the rich value the appearance of the dish (a pretty layout).
BTW, the alleged time traveler John Titor refused to eat anything he hadn’t seen grown himself. Interesting, huh? Not that he was real… but whatever he had seen in the future scared him out of eating food of unknown origins. (Hey, you know I had to get that in somehow.)