Reflecting on Gluttony

This weekend was to be spent celebrating the woman who brought you into the world.  We do special things for our mothers, take them to meals, buy them flowers and in general, dote on them as they did for us at one time.  I had such an enjoyable weekend celebrating with both my mom and my fiance's mom.

Saturday, my fiance and I drove into Greensboro, North Carolina area to spend time with my family.  My mom, dad, baby sister and my fiance and me went to lunch and enjoyed a filling meal.  Afterwards, the silliness commenced with my baby sister and I carrying on through the grocery store.  This silliness was reinforced with the arrival of our middle sister.  After dinner, a dance around the house commenced, the rest of my family doubled over in laughter.  From what I am told, there is a video of this activity as well.

Today, we drove into Roanoke, Virginia in order to visit with my fiance's family.  The day began with his youngest niece's dedication at Villa Heights Baptist Church.  We all chuckled as how his other niece was eager to be held in the arms of the pastor performing the dedication.  From there, we went with my fiance's sister and her family and both of his parents to lunch, enjoying the laughter and company of family.  A surprise was waiting for me at my fiance's parents house after a card had so generously been given to me in honor of my impending stepmom status in just a few short months (more to come on the wedding plans)!  A bouquet of garden roses was given to me, their perfume so sweet I felt as though I was walking through gardens.  Our final stop for the day was to enjoy the company of my fiance's paternal grandfather, Pawpaw, and step-grandmother.

Now Pawpaw, out of all the family I met, is one that can always make me nervous.  He is a very nice gentleman and couldn't be more welcoming a spirit.  He is also a longtime pastor who commonly travels to speak at other churches.  I think due to his profession in both the community and in the family causes me to realize that he is one that needs to approve.  We were all talking about how life had been treating us and how our day had gone and Pawpaw and his wife discussed how they were stuffed from an ornate and elaborate Mother's Day brunch at +Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center DoubleTree Hotel .  At this point, Pawpaw paused and jumped into a moment of reflection about how my fiance's Uncle D and himself had gone to East Congo and South Sudan and other Third World countries and witnessed the depth of poverty first hand.  How to have seen such poverty and starvation can really put into perspective the wealth that we have at hand, Pawpaw referenced a questions he raised to Uncle D about how can he cope with sitting to a steak dinner.  His answer rivaled that of Spiderman in that with great privilege comes great responsibility.

I continued to reflect on this while riding home with my fiance.  We stopped at +McDonald's for dinner and order plenty of food.  I quickly realized I had ordered way too much and the thought of those less fortunate came into mind.  Not even exclusive of those outside of our country but those that live in our own neighborhoods as well.  We are a nation of great lust of all kind.  One we particularly indulge in is that of Gluttony.  One of the seven deadly sins I learned about while growing up, Gluttony can easily be related to several of the other deadly sins, including that of sloth, lust and jealousy, each in their unique ways.  This falls into the sermon at the dedication about Sodom and Gomorrah and the lusts that took place at that time in that city.  We are quickly becoming a society based on hedonistic tendencies, moving simply to please our flesh and not feed any of our other needs, such as our emotions or intellect.

Juxtaposition between 1st world and 3rd world

We have an ever abundance of food it seems.  And yet, there are nutrition poor countries.  A big example that many potentially don't consider is Afghanistan.  Considering the soil in the country makes it difficult to support a great number of agriculture, wheat does well in the nation.  However, it takes an immense amount of wheat in order to make the money to support a family.  Poppy, though, grows just as easily and yields more revenue per acre for a family.  Poppy creates heroine, in turn creating the environment for drug lords to come in and dominant a society already run on the warlord system.  The country readily knows its people are starving while the government is concerned with its cash flow from the drugs flowing out of the country.  And yet, in overabundance, we do feast.

It seems a tall order to ask on Mother's Day and it may detract from what the day represents, but what better time to be concerned about other people in the world?  Including those who don't even have mothers to take them into their arms, to ease their pain, to feed their distended bellies or provide shelter so they might simply be children.  We take so much in our lives for granted and continuously forget those who have so much less than us.  While our country and waistlines grow, the populous of other countries may continue to shrink.  But does it not take all of us to create the world as we know it?  And if each life possess something of value, why is it that we do not do more to even help in our own backyard?  I am a strong supporter that you cannot begin to solve the world's problems if your own problems have not been resolved.  Reflect on this and consider what you may be able to do.