don't wanna be needing your love
I just wanna be deep in your love
And it's killing me when you're away, ooh, baby,
'Cause I really don't care where you are
I just wanna be there where you are
And I gotta get one little taste
-Marroon 5
“Creativity's too big a pill; the truth's too hard to swallow. Sprinkle sugar in a straight line and we'll all inhale and follow.”
― Kelby Losack, Toxic Garbage
― Kelby Losack, Toxic Garbage
Funny how Friday the 13th landed before Valentines day this year; is the universe sending a message? Or just coincidence? In my world very few things are coincidental. Fate? Maybe. I think its more like Karma. The universe has things it wants us to see and learn we need only pay attention. So once again I beg your patience while I weave my tale.
Friday the 13th I went grocery shopping for the up and coming week. It was a Friday like any other. I drove up the road, stereo blasting, perhaps going a little faster than the designated 35 MPH, to our local store, parked the car, walked across the parking lot, still humming the song I was listening to, and was greeted by Girl scouts selling Girl Scout cookies. sigh... I smiled at the two cute little Girl scouts doing there best to relive me of my money and sugar free lifestyle. "No thank you I've already bought some." Which wasn't true but it sounds better then, "Sorry I'm not partaking of sugar right now you miniature drug dealers."
A brief flash of a plot went through my head, a rationalization of just one box will be ok, I could eat it before I got home, hubby wouldn't even know. Until hubby kissed me and then he would notice the taste of thin mints, or lemon zingers.
"What's that on your lips? Did you get some Girl Scout cookies?" I picture him standing back with a slightly amused but accusatory look on his face.
"No" I would fire back guiltily but with amused bravado. "If you have Girl Scout cookies on your mind so much that you are tasting them on my lips maybe you should just drive up to the grocery store, buy yourself a box or two and give into your base urges like I did."
He would laugh, kiss me again, lick his lips, share a sigh of thin mint contentment and walk away. I would depart from him feeling unfulfilled by the forbidden cookies and disappointed in myself. So instead I pass.
I walked into the store and roll my eyes. Right in front of me in all its Valentines day glory was a display of everything Valentines. Little stuffed animals, cards, flowers, and... sugar. Sugar of every kind, shape, color, and size. Sigh...I take a deep cleansing breath, for the second time in less then two minutes, divert my eyes, and move quickly pass the display of love that really is more a display addiction.
I walked around the corner to check out the sales that the grocery store always displays up front, decide that there is nothing we need, then move leisurely up and down the first two aisles. still humming contentedly, proud of myself for resisting temptation twice that day in so short a period. Enjoying the stroll through the land of food I am glad I am by myself.
My sons hate grocery shopping with me because I go up and down every aisle whether we need something on that aisle or not. But I have learned over the years that if I don't take my time to think about what is on that aisle I end up forgetting something. Or I come home with something I really don't want, or need. So with the mindset of making wise eating choices, and taking my time, I also stand in front of something for what feels like an eternity, to my sons, looking at a product, usually containing sugar, or something of equal unhealthiness, until I internally talk myself out of it.
I have a friend who has been a nutritional coach of sorts for a couple of years now and she explained to me once that if a food talks to you don't get it. When she first told me this I thought, confused, wtf is she talking about? But now I get it. Its almost like I have conversation's in my head with some products.
"Hey there" Captain Crunch says in a Scottish seductive voice, "slow down lassy, c'mon take me off the shelf and take me home."
I stand there thinking, "Why not? How could one box of glorious sugar filled Captain Crunch, indulged upon in one glorious passion filled night, hurt?" But it will, I argue with myself, I no longer want to deal with the emotional abuse I inflict upon my self after wards so I begin to walk away.
"Wait there lass, what about crunch berries?" Captain Crunch purrs in his smooth Scottish accent.
"Oooooo crunch berries." I stand there looking at the box, rationalizing, "What if I only have one bowl? What if I can make it last? But then that's sugar dragged out over time. Well then I could just eat it all in one sitting. Good Buddha no! What am I thinking...move on."
I hear Captain Crunch sigh defeat and start working on the next person, a nineteen year old girl. "Lassy lassy slow down there! Pick me up! You wont have regrets for years and years."
I smile and move on knowing that such passionate encounters are brief, and fleeting, but the long term effects are not worth one night of passion.
I congratulate myself again and continue walking to the end of the aisle oblivious to what awaits me. I get to the end of the aisle and I hear a choir of angels go off, a bright light comes down from heaven illuminateing...wait for it...an aisle of half off Entemans. WTF!!! Am I being tested? Then I remember that 1)-Im not Christian so the light fades and the angels stop singing; (I would never hear monks chanting because well, they supposedly don't eat that crap) and
2)- I don't like Entemans really. But wait there is a bakery aisle just around the corner, I didn't even go into it, may be I should take a stroll back and take a look, don't the guys need bread anyways and I could look at the brownies, the cherry turnovers, pecan pies, donuts, cupcakes, sugar cookies it doesn't hurt to look and smell, maybe they are giving away free samples...wait...STOP! I take another deep breath, gain control, and decide against the bakery.
Well this back and forth, unfulfilled, passion takes it toll and all at once I get pissed and look to blame. Blame falls upon a holiday invented strictly to encourage consumerism and the eating of sugar. Why does there have to be so many holidays that encourage things like love, and giving only once or twice a year? Why do they all need to be celebrated with eating. Eating lots and lots and ending with huge, wide variety's of ooey gooey sugary goodness?
I don't think holidays like Valentines day really do spread love. I think this causes many arguments among what would normally be happy couples. I have known, and still know, some people, men and women alike, who feel more than a little slighted if their significant other forgets flowers, or candy, or a romantic dinner. Why do we need one specific day to show vast amounts of love?
AND it makes single people feel like there is something wrong with them that they are unable to participate in mass consumption, with some one else, of..well...things that really don't matter in the grand scheme of things. I know a couple of people, well more than a couple really, once again men and women alike, who have made conscious, well thought out, intelligent choices to not be in a relationship. There are other things in life that hold more satisfaction for some people. ;) They are happy contented people. Which once again makes me wonder again about the intelligence of a holiday that celebrates love focused on relationships with someone else! Shouldn't there be more focus put on the fact that the loving relationship you have with yourself is more desirable and long lasting?
Something else occurred to me. Valentines day is just one perfect example of advertising at its very best. Consumerism at its best. There is a certain admiration for the person, or persons, who thought this so called holiday up. Who have such a great understanding of the mind to know that Americans will just consume with out thinking and use this knowledge to make money.
I realized that its all connected, this idea of mass consumption, and consumerism, in the United States. This is why other countries consider us spoiled, and or decadent. Technically we are. We have so much at our finger tips that the majority of the rest of the world does not. I mean there are places in the world that do not have McDonalds for crying out loud! Can you even imagine, what Nirvana that must be! Not that I really like them, we haven't eaten at one in years now, but they still smell good driving down the street after the grocery store...sigh. What do they do to make it smell good? You know it tastes like crap and personally makes me sick, truly, but the smell sure is tempting.
All this exposure to food that we really don't need, or want. When you give some real thought, to sugar, to junk food, it is part of democracy. Strange...but true. Having holidays where we don't understand that we are giving thanks to things instead of what the true intention of the holiday is suppose to be is democracy. We forget a couple things about this idea however.
One- We can say no. Democracy is all about saying no really, not yes. It is saying no to some one who uses religion to further their paranoid, twisted ideas of love, morality and values. It is saying no to guns even though we have a right to keep them in our homes. It is saying no to filling our lives with stuff, bigger TV's, newer versions of a phone that works just fine, faster computers, prettier cars, bigger houses, the list is endless.
AND it means saying no to filling our bodies and minds with foods that encourage a life style that really is not healthy. But hey, the stuff has to be sold right? I mean someone makes it, someone has to sell it, and we silly Americans think we need to buy it, because...well...we can. So BAM Valentines day! The day of love followed by the day of half off sugar. Preceded I remind you by Friday the 13th. All these days have to be good for some one...hmmmm...but who I wonder?
The Pith of the Matter is.. me. Yeah sometimes I over analyze things like sugar which technically wasn't a issue for me until recently. But there comes a day when we all say, "NO" and for me it came this Friday the 13th. Almost every day I struggle with not eating some kind of sugary delight. Then I remember how good it feels to say no.
I walked out of the grocery store with my cart full of healthy happy choices and was once again confronted with two different Girl Scouts. "How long was I in the grocery store?" I thought as they once again asked if I would buy some cookies. I looked at them, smiled and said, "No thank you, but you guys did an awesome job asking."
Namaste
Peace out
“You can believe in whatsoever you like, but the truth remains the truth, no matter how sweet the lie may taste.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson
― Michael Bassey Johnson
tags: bad-influence, belief, bible, christianity, exaggeration, fabrication, false-prophets, falsification, gospel, half-truth, liar, lie, mendacity, philosophy, religion, sugar-coated, sweet, taste, truth, untruth
“It takes valor to identify your breaking points and refuse to allow people/circumstances use them to force you say/do things you don’t believe
.”
― Assegid Habtewold, The 9 Cardinal Building Blocks: For Continued Success in Leadership
― Assegid Habtewold, The 9 Cardinal Building Blocks: For Continued Success in Leadership
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