have your fill

When I was young, I was encouraged to eat everything on my plate. The accepted idea was that someone, somewhere had little, and we should appreciate and make use of that with which we were privileged: "There are starving people in Somalia!"

(In college, I was fond of the joke, "Finish your drink: there are sober people in Somalia!")

A couple years ago, a different perspective was suggested to me: that to eat what's left after I should be finished is to use my body as a garbage can; probably not the purpose to which it's best suited. I tried to listen better -- to hear my body say he's full -- and to forget about getting my money's worth, another reason for scooping up scraps.

This summer past, Katja taught me a better, simpler argument for cleaning my plate: to remind myself to only take what I need in the first place.

when eyes are hungrier than stomach - Merry Christmas to all garbage cans and Somalia reminders

-- katja (January 5, 2006 2:21 PM)