After taking on the assignment I thought I should make some rules so that halfway through I don’t cheat myself out of the experience. At first I was just going to eat nothing and drink nothing but when my mom heard about this she thought that if I was to get sick it would be "cumbersome" if she had to go to a doctor, so she "suggested" that I at least have liquids. So I had to change the rules, I would have liquids (water only because in a third world country I don’t think they have soda). Also I intended on "stocking up" before the fast because I didn’t know how I would do during it, but after serious debate I ate before the fast but not enough for three people. Lastly I would decide if it was going to remain 2 or go to 3 days on the second day, now I was ready to fast.
When I awoke the morning of the fast I knew I could not eat that day, and I love to eat, but surprisingly that still did not bother me (proberablly cause in the morning I’m not that hungry). So while my siblings ate cereal I got 2 cups of water and went to school. At lunch although I was kind of hungry so I got a bottle of water and went about as usual. On the way home I spoke with one of my old teachers and told him I was fasting after telling me of a time he fasted for 10 days I felt encouraged and missed my dinner without being bothered. (What also helped was the fact that I hid in my room) I thought to myself this isn’t so hard and went to bed. The next morning it hit me like a bag of bricks, ....I’m hungry. I was able to miss breakfast by leaving for school earlier, and man I never knew I would miss a bowl of Frosted Flakes like I did. At school I knew lunch was around the corner and I didn’t trust myself, so to keep me from buying something I left my money at home even though during lunch I wish I hadn’t because I wanted to drink something. When I got home throughout the day I drunk water, but I was miserable I wanted food, I was tired of watching my friends and family eat all this food. After dinner and another 3 cups of water I decided that 2 days was going to be my limit for now, and at 12:01 I had rice and happily went to bed. My fast was over.
A famous English novelist and critic by the name Aldous Huxley once stated that “Most human beings have an absolute and infinite capacity for taking things for granted”. Here in America food is very accessible more than we think. Here in America we don’t think about not having food because food is cheap, and food is everywhere. A thought came to mind after my fast, I couldn’t make it to 3 days but there are people who don’t eat for weeks at a time. Also during my fast water was in abundance, while in other places there is a scarcity in water. Even though America at the moment is going through an economic decline, no one is dying of starvation and our currency is holding strong. When compared with the economy of a country like Zimbabwe, which is also going through major economic issues, America couldn’t even come close in a comparison. The economic situation there is so bad and their currency is so weak that in January of this year they introduced a 50,000,000,000 note. They are now even introducing plans to issue 10, 20, 50, and 100 trillion bank notes. What made my fast have any importance at all was the fact that it helped me to get an understanding of peoples (and my own) ignorance of abundance. This is important because like Micheal Pollan tried to say in his book, it is important that people can get an understanding of what they are doing and not be ignorant of their food ways.
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