....here is an essay by Frederica Matthewes-Green on gluttony: To Hell on a Cream Puff
Worth a read, and it brings up some points I'll write about later.
Unfortunately, I must pay bills for our family and for Fran (the older lady I help watch over), grocery shop (ironic, huh?), and get some important stuff in the mail.
After I posted the musing, I almost deleted it. But I'm glad I didn't. I think it's something I have to think all the way through. Thank you for your comments on the last post. I'll talk about some of those points also.
Go over and see Peony's post on the subject at Two Sleepy Mommies (link to the right) as well.
I take it that FM-G is Eastern Heterodox. I really don't think any serious Catholic requires moral instruction from someone who can accept the tenets of a church which permits schism, contraception, and divorce.
Elinor, you are like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when God smites the Nazis, making the skin melt right off their faces!
Just swallow the wheat and spit out the chaff. FMG's true points speak for themselves.
Anyway, I'm more wounded by TS's disapproval than by hers!
And I've had just about enough of the word "fat." From now on, it's zaftig.
Zaftig is a diva who's a little bit dangerous--a little bit naughty. Zaftig is Lainie Kazan in a tiger print caftan as opposed to Phyllis Diller!
I personally don't own a caftan, but I can really "work" that sweater and jeans! LOL!
but KTC, what about us garden-variety folks who have the circumference but not the 'tude to be zaftig?
I've met you, Peony. You are warm, welcoming, "abbondanza!" (sp?)
Besides, all my "tood" is an online thing. At home I'm just sort of cushy and jolly.
Like an American Eskimo Dog--lots of bark, no bite!
I thought practically the whole thing was chaff! For one thing, that Russian monk of hers sounds like a loony.
What gets me about this subject - aside from the fact that it comes up in the Serious Catholic Worry Calendar with fair regularity - is that I don't even think about food. Being a diabetic and on Atkins, it just doesn't come up. Giving things up for Lent of a food nature is always a complete failure for me, because within two days I forget that the foresworn food ever existed. (What I prefer to do is to give up a fault. I gave up complaining - by which I mean grousing about the weather and my family's flaws and my hard lot, not blogging about what's wrong with the world - and it changed my life, I tell you.) The second thing that bugs me is the preening way thin people sigh gustily about how they just can't drop that last four pounds; with the obvious implication that you, you great revolting blob, have clearly no self-discipline at all. Thinness is the occasion of more groundless self-satisfaction than any other quality I know.
By the way, I've been meaning to ask you, Terry - where does Michael Moore come into this? Has he made a documentary about American eating habits?
I don't think Moore has ever made a documentary. He's not even a good fiction director. I don't understand why people watch his films.
Yay, Erik!
Elinor--fasting food is tough for diabetics, because they NEED to have something at certain intervals throughout the day.
We did Atkins at our house about 5 years ago: guess what? We all fell off the wagon, but we still love to gorge on dry sausages and cheese!
Those plus the carbs!
At my husband's insistence in 2001, I had my stomach stapled. My snoring had driven him out of our bedroom!
I really balked at the idea of the surgery: I resented the implication that I wasn't loved unconditionally, and that he might expect me to have a boob job or nose job next!
But I went through with it, and was astonished to discover that it was the best move I ever made!
I literally CANNOT eat too many carbs anymore! I get deathly ill: an insulin surge makes me want to lie down and die! After almost 3 years, I'm just not that tempted by many desserts anymore.
When somebody struggles for YEARS with condemnation--shame, the idea of ever-besetting sin, failure--it is such a blessing to have a great boost!
(My insurance paid the $25,000 cost.)
My highest was 267 after 2 horrid post-partum depressions and the requisite medications; my current weight is 185. No more snoring, and I am relaxed and can fit into any armchair!
I can still wear all my old 3X stuff. It looks different, but fine! And I can actually buy Misses' size 18 most of the time! WHAT A FEELING!
(L.L. Bean, of course, usually goes up to size 16--but I digress).
Hope you all aren't freaked out to hear that news! People have a myriad of reactions.