Hunger sucks

The thread title "Hunger is a good thing" is stupid. Hunger sucks. Ask
starving people in third world countries if hunger is a good thing. I've
been holding back on a lot of things I've wanted to post lately, because
I've been going through nicotine withdrawals and it's hard to tell
sometimes if my feelings are valid and appropriate, or just the withdrawals
making me crazy, and I didn't want to say anything I'd regret later.

But I have to say that lately I have been really depressed about just the
fact that obesity exists. It's such a ****ing stupid thing that we have so
much food we actually get fat, when for the vast, VAST majority of human
history the primary struggle was to get enough food to survive. And it's
still that way in many parts of the world. I swear, if God came down from
heaven today and solved all of humaniy's current problems, we'd invent a
whole batch of new ones the minute his back was turned, and probably be
worse off than when we started.

I had an epiphany today at the grocery store, while visually drowning in
the obscene variety and abundance of food available. Our culture is
screwed up. A lot. When there's so much food available it loses its
value. We forget how important it is. We view it as the enemy, the thing
that keeps us fat, when it isn't the fault of the food, it's the fault of
our perceptions and values.

Even though I am not a religious person, I am going to start a ritual of
giving a silent thanks before each meal. Since I don't believe in god,
I'll thank the animal I'm eating or the agricultural workers who grow my
produce, I'll thank the truck drivers, and the stock boys, etc. I'll just
remind myself in general to be grateful to live in an age and country of
abundance, remind myself that it wasn't always this way and it still isn't
this way everywhere in the world, and remind myself not to take even one
bite of food for granted. Having to struggle to lose weight is a luxury in
the eyes of those who are truly hungry.

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.