Who cares if you’re still stuffed from Thanksgiving - time to stuff the pie hole again! Just remember to do so carelessly. Otherwise, it might not be good for your health.
After being trained to always “watch what we eat,” and when most all of us could stand to lose a few pounds, this may sound like careless advice. Well, it is. But it’s just what most of us need.
Being too care-ful about food is what’s made us all obese in the first place. It’s time to care-less. And then eat to our hearts content.
Chesterton had some great insights in regard to drinking that I think apply here perfectly. I took the liberty of modifying his quote to apply to stuffing our faces (read original quote here):
“In so far as [stuffing our faces] is really a sin it is not because [stuffing our faces] is wild, but because [stuffing our faces] is tame; not in so far as it is anarchy, but in so far as it is slavery.
Probably the worst way to [stuff your face] is to [stuff your face] medicinally. Certainly the safest way to [stuff your face] is to [stuff your face] carelessly; that is, without caring much for anything, and especially not caring for the [food]. In such things to be careless is to be sane: for neither [food addicts] nor [health nuts] can be careless about [food].” G. K. Chesterton
It’s not that we eat like anarchists. It’s that we eat like slaves. Most of us are enslaved (addicted) to unhealthy food. Health nuts are enslaved to the measured cup of food.
Both situations care too much for the food.
Here are some more rules from Chesterton for stuffing your face:
“The sound rule in the matter would appear to be like many other sound rules – a paradox. [Stuff your face] because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never [stuff your face] when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced [big-mac-eater] in the slum; but [stuff your face] when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never [stuff your face] because you need it, for this is rational [stuffing of the face], and the way to death and hell. But [stuff your face] because you do not need it, for this is irrational [stuffing of the face], and the ancient health of the world.” – G. K. Chesterton
The virtue of temperance surely is needed. But such temperance is not practiced in the excess of license, nor is it promoted in the restriction of a measured cup. It lives in the fulfillment of the legitimate desires of a healthy, disciplined soul set free to live as it should. Set free to live [and stuff our faces] carelessly.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Celebrate with lots of food…but do so carelessly.
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I couldn’t agree more Matt. This time of year (and all major feast days) I tell people to go home and eat “something that you shouldn’t.” Go celebrate and rejoice not because you must but because you can! After all, feasting and fasting are what add flavor to life!
Thank you! For a beautiful aternative to the now ubiquitous “healthy holiday” advice. Everytime I see an article or news segment prognosticating a butt which will be 6lbs fatter by New Year’s Day unless we take drastic action by way of sugar free cocktails, fat free ranch dip, and bread-free everything, I can feel my little balloon of happiness go pffsffsff…just a little. Is it so wrong to let go and let God a couple times a year? (Come to think of it, the people advising scroogery don’t strike me as the “Jesus take the wheel” types). Surely if it had been available, Jesus himself would have been proud to sit down to a buttery slice of pecan pie and an irish cream coctail.
some joyspiel here
Yes! Catholics are a people of both fasting and feasting. Embrace both! And to spread the news about it! I confess, I sway between the extremes at times . . . but it’s high time for a more Chestertonian approach. Thank you for the reminder!
The other key is the discipline of fasting, which Christians have always followed to a greater or lesser extent, till within living memory it has been almost completely abandoned. Christian fasting is not a health practice and shouldn’t be undertaken as if it were a “diet”, it is a spiritual practice, an act of mortification or penance and a devotional act. But the extensive traditional fasting regime (all of Lent except Sundays, etc) also has a secondary effect of keeping weight under control and preventing any self-inflicted need to pay over-much attention to health or weight. Fasting (eating one meal per day—which, especially if the fast is over an extended period, must be substantial enough to meet all one’s needs) has basically no health risks for most adults. Fasting and the happy carelessness of feasting go together in a balanced Christian life in which we’re not meant to have any excessive self concern.
As I always say: Loosing weight is not about eating less, it’s about exercising more.
I stuffed my face and then felt terrible the whole night! thanks for nothing!
Help! Are there any temperance-containing foods?
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