Eat Papa, Eat!
Eat good foods in moderation.
Maxim #7
One of the best books to cross my path last year is Michael Pollan’s, In Defense of Food. In it, he proposes that the most healthy way of relating to food consists of three basic principles:
Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
When coming upon Fr. Hopko’s 7th Maxim for Christian Living, I couldn’t help but think of Pollan’s basic premise for eating. Pollan also strongly recommends a return to a time when we more frequently ate our meals with others, suggesting that meals are best when connected to a community.
On the surface, this maxim seems like it would be a pretty easy one to follow, but in my current life I find myself wrestling with this one quite a bit. First of all, it can be difficult to find things to eat that are actually food. To do so means mostly staying out of the middle isles of the grocery store and away from many restaurants. My life is often at a pace that it is difficult to find the time to shop for good food, let alone spend the time necessary to cook it. When I take the time to evaluate my life as a Christian based upon this, I find much to be lacking. For example, why am I too busy to get to the grocery store, to cook and to invite others to eat with me? Perhaps even more alarming is the realization that if I can’t even find the discipline to eat right, how am I going to do with other areas of my life that need that same discipline?
We Christians have too often downplayed the role of things as simple as what and how we choose to eat. As people who are centered on the Eucharist, we might ought to take it a bit more seriously. Perhaps one of the best things we could do as modern Christians is to choose to use more of our time preparing good food and inviting others to join us around a table. To do so will most certainly mean choosing to slow down, to reset our priorities and maybe even drop some of the things we currently think important in our day. I’m pretty sure if each of us were to make it a habit, we would be not only more physically healthy, but spiritually as well.
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