a final word, and a goodbye

Hello everybody. I think this is the last post of The Next Twelve Weeks. I finished up with American food on Wednesday and sat down to a perfect Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with my family. The following is a summary of things I have learned and things that weight heavy on my heart.


                        Wrap up of Mister Donald

Just so people know a little more about the last week or so, here is a wrap up. The last two weeks have maybe been the hardest for me. First off, as I said earlier, it hits close to home. People are living like this less than a mile away from me in downtown. This week, I got to see that first hand. It hits my heart with precision and breaks me down quite effectively.

As far as food goes this week, I ate the least amount out of any other weeks. There was no snacking, and I did most days with a three dollar trip to McD's and two or three rolls with a little peanut butter for the whole day. After about a week, I noticed fatigue and started really not felling well. My face broke out in acne and I had a constant feeling of unhealthiness. It was like a dizzy, somewhat nauseous fuzz. No fresh veggies makes a person fatigued, fuzzy and irritable. Not fun.



                                            Thanksgiving Dinner:

      What it means to me after The Last Twelve Weeks


It is hard to analyze everything that I have felt the last few months, and even harder to put it all into one small online post. I have changed and learned a lot, but have also confirmed and solidified what I believe about food.

When I sat down for dinner Thursday night, I tried very hard to think the whole dinner about what I am thankful for. It is cliche maybe, but i could only think of people. Family and friends who support me, teachers who are knowledgeable and teach me, leaders who are smart and lead me. To me, Thanksgiving is a reminder of the most important thing, the people I love and the grace I receive from Christ. There isn't mush more to say about it.



         a prime example of Thanksgiving done right

Carts of Darkness, Click Here!

Go to minute forty for the meal, however the whole documentary is amazing. Please, if you don't read anything else, watch this.

                                  3 lessons

1. Take a moment, even if it is small, and really think about what you are doing when you eat. Think about who you are with, what you are eating, what it tastes like, how it got to your plate, and how blessed you are to have that food. Even if it is beans and rice, the fact that you can curb your appetite and taste the tastes, and be with your friends or family is massive.

2. People are everything. Noting would be worth it in this world wthout people. A great meal is nothing if you can't share it. A beautiful painting is worthless without people to appreciate it.

3. Food is so so so much more than we give it credit for.



                     a final word: food is like sex


Food is like sex. Yes, you read that right, sex. Lets talk about sex for a while. Sex has a physical as well as emotional side to it. Ask anyone even half way grounded in some form of morality or another and they will tell you that there is a physical as well as a relational, emotional, spiritual side to sex. It is carnal and pleasurable, as well as passionate, emotional and bonding. Sometimes, though, we forget that and focus just on the physical side. Sex turns into an ugly, selfish entity: a perversion of what it was intended to be. We become entangled, lost, needy, selfish, obsessed. We constantly look for the next fix, perpetually enslaved by the physical desire, longing, lusting of sex, all the while ignoring and overlooking a vital, crucial aspect of sexuality; that is, the relationship, the love, the devotion, the commitment, the selflessness, the need, the nurture of a relationship. This is what we are truly searching for. It is masked and hidden by the ugly face of secular, 'get whatever you can' sexuality, but the desire is there, none the less, and we try and fail daily to get what we truly desire.

Lets bring food back into our minds then. Like sex, food has a very physical nature. But, even moreso with food, we forget that it has an emotional side as well. There is more to food than the taste.

Food is a gift from God, meant to be enjoyed, but also appreciated and respected. Food is a catalyst for relationships, with the uncanny ability to bind people together in relationships with otherworldly force. Food is a reminder of Christ, each bite a symbol of his broken body, each drink metaphor for his spilled blood, together an acceptance and reverence of his unwavering and overbearing grace. 

But we forget this. I forget this. And food goes from something so magical and special, something so ingrained with meaning to something we take for granted, something that we are obligated to do, something that takes the place of relationships, something that hides our true feelings and is a quick fix for a dieing soul. Fast food and TV dinners, fancy meals alone and entire pizzas taking the place where friends should be. Ignorance of the effect chocolate has on workers, reliance on that cup of coffee or that bite of cake, idolization of a meal or a cuisine, reluctance to share a bite, sip, or penny for the sake of another's stomach, strict rules of organic or vegetarian eating, or wight loss dieting where we forget to pay attention to the beauty of food, but rather are slaves to the rules. We are all guilty not of one of these, but many. Food no longer represents a gift from God, a means of community, or an expression of grace, but is lost to the physical pleasure of the food. It is a gift abused, a gift misunderstood.  By all of us. Food is to us all as sex is to the strip club regular. We see its power and goodness, yet overlook the deeper meanings for the immediate, physical pleasures it offers. A glutton has a lust for food, and we are all gluttons, just like we all have a lust for sex. It is less focused on, but equally as dangerous and as uncontrollable as sexual lust.

However, in this something must be said about the opposite side. Depriving oneself of enjoyable food is perhaps just as dangerous. A sexless marriage for example, even with an incredible emotional and spiritual side, is not a complete marriage. The two cannot occur apart from one another. In a marriage, sex without relationship is broken, while relationship without sex is broken as well. Likewise, a life void of good food is not life as it was intended to be, and a life full of food without the reverence and respect for it is also not how life was intended to be. They are mutually inclusive.

The last twelve weeks has opened my eyes as to how pivotal a role food plays in the emotional and spiritual aspects of humanity, as well as how often I forget to realize that. Food is meant to be enjoyed with people, with respect, and with the grace of God in mind. Apart from that, it can and will become less romantic and revelatory, and more enslaving and dangerous.


                          a prayer...

Lord, I pray that I continue to try and see food as a gift from You, meant to be enjoyed and respected; as a means to establish and nurture community in hopes that Your love may be seen in me; and as a reminder of Christ's death and the ever present grace from You that I so undeservedly and receive. I thank You that I had the opportunity and the blessings to be able to have such a journey. I am blessed with the money for food, the means to share it, and the support of an incredible network of friends and family who would really do anything to make sure I won't so much as get a scratch on my arm.

I pray that you reading now are open to the idea that food is more that just a thing, but that it opens the door to God and others in such a beautiful way. I pray that food becomes a reminder to you of God's unfailing, unwavering grace offered to you. I thank you for today, God, for the rain and the music from my speakers.

Amen.